Advice Request Decent PDF Editor Recommendation

[Divine_Barakah]

I am currently studying for a master’s degree in applied linguistics and I always work with PDF files.

I need a great PDF reader and editor, a reliable one. I do not mind paying, but I need sth that is not insanely expensive, preferably with lifetime upgrades if possible.

Thank you in advance.

 

[mlnevese]

Most products will offer lifetime upgrades within the version you bought, meaning you'll get all upgrades to the version you purchase. I recently stopped using Adobe Acrobat because their monthly fees were about to skyrocket in my country and after testing many products, I chose Wondershare's PDF Element. It's fast, reliable, quite powerful, and simple to use. A close second for me was Nitro PDF.

Some few products are subscription only.

Notice that if you need editing, no free software will do everything. All paid products have a trial period. I suggest you use them and choose whatever is better for your needs.

 

[CyberPanther]

I tried several PDF Editors for many years. I can recommend two PDF Editors for you, they are as follows:

1. Wondershare PDF Elements (at the moment they have new year offers)
2. PDF-Xchange Editor/Editor Plus (prices are decent)

Hope this will suffice.

 

[Divine_Barakah]

It seems I will go with Wondershare.

 

[Divine_Barakah]

It seems I will go with Wondershare.

Just purchased the academic version of Wondershare PDFelement Pro. Thanks @mlnevese for the recommendation.

 

[spiritedawaymadmax]

I've never thought of trying Wondershare PDF before but it must be decent with so many good reviews. My company subscribes to Canva and they have a free tool for doodling with PDFs, so I can only vouch for that one as of yet...

 

[Divine_Barakah]

I've never thought of trying Wondershare PDF before but it must be decent with so many good reviews. My company subscribes to Canva and they have a free tool for doodling with PDFs, so I can only vouch for that one as of yet...

I have been using it for a couple of weeks. While it is equipped with many features, it gets stuck a lot and uses a lot of CPU.

I will give the new FlexiPDF a try and see how it performs. It is very cheap.

 

[spiritedawaymadmax]

I have been using it for a couple of weeks. While it is equipped with many features, it gets stuck a lot and uses a lot of CPU.

I will give the new FlexiPDF a try and see how it performs. It is very cheap.

Yeah, most of them require a decent machine, especially if you're working on several files at once...

 

[Divine_Barakah]

Yeah, most of them require a decent machine, especially if you're working on several files at once...

Yea especially if you’re working with huge scanned PDF files.

Foxit was great but they tripled the price even for students.

 

[mlnevese]

I have been using it for a couple of weeks. While it is equipped with many features, it gets stuck a lot and uses a lot of CPU.

I will give the new FlexiPDF a try and see how it performs. It is very cheap.

That's why I always advocate for people to try the software before buying whenever possible. What is good and light for one may be sluggish and heavy for other. Always use the full extend of any trial period of any software before expending your money on it.
I'm glad you detected the problem before buying.

 

[n8chavez]

Try Ashampoo's PDF Pro 3. I like it. And you can always find it on sale for cheap.

 

[Divine_Barakah]

Try Ashampoo's PDF Pro 3. I like it. And you can always find it on sale for cheap.

It is a rebrand of Softmaker FlexiPDF.

 

[n8chavez]

It is a rebrand of Softmaker FlexiPDF.

It seems so. That doesn't suprise me because Ashampoo Office is a rebranded SoftMaker Office. I think PDF Pro 3 is a rebranded SoftMaker FlexiPDF Pro version. That being the case, the Ashampoo version is much cheaper.

 

[Divine_Barakah]

It seems so. That doesn't suprise me because Ashampoo Office is a rebranded SoftMaker Office. I think PDF Pro 3 is a rebranded SoftMaker FlexiPDF Pro version. That being the case, the Ashampoo version is much cheaper.

It is not cheaper. I just received an email from SoftMaker. FlexiPDF Pro is for sale for $15.

 

[n8chavez]

It is not cheaper. I just received an email from SoftMaker. FlexiPDF Pro is for sale for $15.

Really??!? Wow. I've never seen it on sale, not that I look that hard. I've only seen it for $80ish. That is a great deal!

 

[Divine_Barakah]

Really??!? Wow. I've never seen it on sale, not that I look that hard. I've only seen it for $80ish. That is a great deal!

Consider subscribing to their newsletter. If you need the discount just let me know and I will share the link.

 

[n8chavez]

Consider subscribing to their newsletter. If you need the discount just let me know and I will share the link.

No thanks. I already have PDF Pro 3.

 

[Yozzer]

I wish I had seen this thread earlier. I was using the free version of Adobe, but hen saw Ashampoo PDF Pro 3 on sale do bought it. I found it not as intuitive as Adobe, so I saw FlexiPDF 2022 on sale for 1 day for £16.99, (yesterday). I was just trying it out, and thought this looks so like PDF pro 3, checked online and saw this. Should not believe selling identical software under different names should be allowed. As is, FlexiPdf has an online help it seems, so a lesson learnt, a bit late at 82!

 

[IoSonoPiero]

My 2 cents:
I was looking for a decent replacement for Acrobat PDF.
I bought an academic version (with two years of support and upgrade) of PDF-XChange Pro.
I use it on Linux (yes, Linux) for OCR and PDF editing.
On Windows, it works well.
I know there are a lot of alternative solutions for Windows, but the actual choices are very few.