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About PDFelement

#1 Adobe® Acrobat® alternative: PDFelement is your all-in-one PDF solution. Create, edit, convert, and esign PDF files in a better way.

Learn more about PDFelement

Pros:

This software is a great alternative for anyone that is looking to function with .pdf files. The Adobe suite keeps creaping up in price and this software works very well as a functional alternative.

Cons:

Conversion to MS Word does not work well. Even if you have run OCR on the document before converting, it sometimes inserts entire pages as images instead of editable text.

PDFelement ratings

Average score

Ease of Use
4.3
Customer Service
4.1
Features
4.3
Value for Money
4.3

Likelihood to recommend

8.1/ 10

PDFelement has an overall rating of 4.4 out 5 stars based on 433 user reviews on Capterra.

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Asebi
Asebi
Communications Coordinator in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Mining & Metals, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Worth the Value!

5.0 last year

Pros:

The product is easy to use with a clean and intuitive interface. The editing capabilities are a breeze to use compared to other more expensive PDF software on the market. I like the form creating and editing capabilities as well. The accompanying mobile apps make it versatile and easily accessible on multiple devices

Cons:

Sometimes, there are performance issues, especially when dealing with large files. Lacks some advance PDF functions seen in Adobe Acrobat Pro

Anthony
Anthony
Attorney in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Law Practice, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Decent value, but there are limits to functionality

4.0 last year

Comments: It was ok, for the money spent it was a decent piece of software but complicated to get used to and ultimately I had to move on.

Pros:

It was inexpensive, and you can find a deal readily available on the internet.

Cons:

Confusing to use and not very user friendly. But mainly the renewals and cost to continue using was super confusing to stay on top of. It felt like every month they were emailing me to upgrade at a higher cost.

Harry
Owner in US
Management Consulting, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

PDFelement 6 has issues

2.0 6 years ago

Comments: I work with PDF documents every day. I don't use a lot of the advanced features, but when I do need them, I want them to work flawlessly, intuitively and efficiently. PDF Element 6 does NOT meet those requirements.

Pros:

The cost was reasonable since I purchased it on sale. It allows up to 15 tabs to be open at one time and allows multiple instances of the program to run simultaneously.

Cons:

1. It doesn't retain pinned documents. After a while, they become unpinned. Tech support is of no help. They say they can't duplicate the issue and just STOPPED helping me. Now, they ignore my service tickets for help. 2. It doesn't show all the open "tabbed" documents. They tend to disappear and then reappear. 3. Conversion from PDF to a document if very poor, especially to Word. The documents are unusable. A client used their program (Nitro Pro) for me and it was perfect. It's embarrassing when my client has to do a task that they are paying me to do. 4. Creating and using a "stamp" for a signature if very difficult and doesn't work well. 5. Converting a PDF to a form doesn't work well. It takes a lot of work (an hour or longer) to get it usable. 6. Every time the program is upgraded/updated it wipes out the setting for the default PDF program in Windows 10 (latest build) 7. The vertical scroll bar is very small and difficult to "grab" with my cursor. It would be easier to use if it was wider, or at least expanded when the cursor was close to it. 8. The program can run multiple instances, but still limits the total number of documents to 15. 9. I have a lot of issues trying to edit a PDF. It creates blocks of information instead of allowing free-form data entry/manipulation. 10. In PAGE mode, the images of the pages are so small that it's difficult to find the page I'm looking for. There isn't a zoom function so I spend too much time switching back and forth.

Zaid
Accountant in Jordan
Construction, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

The smoothest PDF editor

4.0 last year

Pros:

I love PDFelement it is the best PDF editor software, and I like that it does not consume device resources. Also, PDFelement contains all PDF editing tools.

Cons:

The OCR tool of this software PDFelement is somehow bad and do not give accurate results and do not support a lot of languages.

Mitchell
Manager, Information Technology in Canada
Wholesale, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

PDFelement works well

5.0 last year

Comments: PDFelement is a great choice. The free version is very limited with features and the watermark is huge.

Pros:

The PDFelement merge and edit feature are very helpful. The fonts selection make this product a great choice.

Cons:

PDFelement is a little pricey compared to other pdf editors. At a quick glance you can use the software however to take advantage of all the features and use them correctly, you will need to read the manual.

Justin
Day Program Coordinator in US
Hospital & Health Care, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Great for quick PDF Scans, especially for students!

5.0 last year

Comments: Great app for students to quickly scan documents from their phone without the need for a physical scanner!

Pros:

I used PDFelement throughout my "Zoom Education", specifically during written exams which had to then be scanned and digitally submitted. Taking an exam on Zoom was already stressful enough, but worrying about then having to go to a scanner as well and transfer the file to the computer was too much work with potential for error. By using PDFelement on my phone, I was able to easily scan as many documents as I want with ease. The app allows me to format the scans as needed, even combining multiple scans into one single PDF. Then, I can immediately AirDrop or email the file to myself, allowing me to upload the PDF on my computer instantly!

Cons:

Perhaps not much of an issue anymore, but there were certainly times (especially when using the flash on my phone), that the app would freeze and I'd have to restart it. Didn't take too much time, but still an inconvenience.

Miguel Angel
Miguel Angel
Commercial Manager in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Food & Beverages, 201–500 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Nice program to manage and edit all your PDFs

5.0 last year

Comments: My personal experience has been great with this product because it's one of the best out there in the market since it has many features that allow you to manage all things in a PDF

Pros:

The most that I like about PDF Element is that the program is very easy to use and navigate and that it offers a lot of editing tools that allows me to modify text, images, and other elements in a PDF document.

Cons:

I don't like about it that sometimes the program could be slow or laggy especially when I'm handling large or complex PDF documents but other than that it works great.

Travis
Travis
Marketing Manager in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Machinery, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Overall, a great affordable alternative to Adobe Acrobat

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: Overall, Wondershare PDFelement is a powerful PDF editing software with a wide range of features for basic and intermediate PDF editing needs. However, users who require advanced features, have budget constraints, or need extensive customer support may need to consider alternative options.

Pros:

Comprehensive PDF Editing: Wondershare PDFelement offers a wide range of PDF editing features, allowing for easily modifying text, images, and other content in PDF documents. The software also supports advanced editing capabilities such as OCR (Optical Character Recognition) that allows you to edit scanned PDFs and convert them into editable formats.Intuitive User Interface: The user interface of PDFelement is clean, modern, and user-friendly, making it easy for both beginners and experienced users to navigate and use the software. The toolbar is well-organized with icons that are easy to understand, and the software provides clear instructions and prompts throughout the editing process.

Cons:

Limited Advanced Features: While PDFelement offers a wide range of basic and intermediate PDF editing features, it may lack some of the advanced features that are available in other premium PDF editing software. For users who require highly advanced functionalities, such as advanced data extraction, advanced OCR capabilities, or complex document automation, they may need to look for alternative solutions.OCR Accuracy: While PDFelement's OCR feature is useful for converting scanned documents into editable formats, the accuracy of the OCR may vary depending on the quality of the scanned document. In some cases, users may need to manually correct errors or make adjustments to ensure accurate text recognition.

Jonathan
Translator in US
Translation & Localisation, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source

Edit your PDF as a pro

5.0 5 months ago

Comments: It has been good. I am a translator and it makes my life easier.

Pros:

It is user friendly to edit your PDF files.

Cons:

Everything works fine for what i need it for

David
David
Director of Software Engineering in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Financial Services, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Pdf element- practical, useful and accessible

4.0 2 years ago

Comments: A function that I am very grateful for is the reading mode, which is a kind of night mode, it is very useful when reading large amounts of text since it doesn’t make your eyes bleed and you can read in a more comfortable way, since it is a software that is installed on your device makes editing and up and closing a document fast, something I like is that you can look up the meaning of a word or phrase in Wikipedia within the same application without leaving the document.

Pros:

Something that I like is its interface since it is simple and doesn’t have confusing menus which facilitates its navigation and makes it easy to edit documents, a tool that stands out is that you can translate parts of the document into multiple languages, something that I had not seen in other PDF programs. It has useful tools that are not available in other PDF editors like Excel table recognition, you can recognize Excel tables in a PDF document and copy them to an Excel file, this saves you a lot of time and effort when editing and extracting content from a PDF.

Cons:

Something that I don't like and that they should improve is the customer support since it is almost non-existent, the OCR is sometimes not accurate which can be very tedious, and when handling a file with many pages it usually gets slow.

Mohammad
Software developer in Jordan
Computer Software, 5,001–10,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

PDFelement is your best choice when we talk about document.

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: Truly one of the best applications used.

Pros:

Security as it is not easy to steel your work and convert it after it is a PDF by others, it helps you protect your work.

Cons:

The file size might be larger than it should be compared to other applications.

Oluwadamilola
Operations Manager in Benin
Financial Services, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

My Review of PDFelement: A Comprehensive PDF Editor

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: Overall, PDFelement is a great PDF editor with a lot of features and an easy-to-use interface. It's slightly expensive but worth it for users who need a comprehensive PDF editor.

Pros:

PDFelement is an excellent PDF editor with a wide range of features and an easy-to-use interface. It's intuitive and straightforward, allowing users to quickly and easily edit PDFs, add text, images, and signatures, and convert documents to different formats. The built-in OCR feature is also incredibly useful, allowing users to extract text and images from scanned documents.

Cons:

One major downside of PDFelement is the cost. It's quite expensive compared to other PDF editors, and the lack of a free version means that users must pay for the full version. Additionally, some of the features are not as robust as more expensive competitors.

Michael
Sales Director in Canada
Marketing & Advertising, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source

Pleased with Software

5.0 4 years ago

Comments: Almost immediately I started using advance features that I did not even know existed in my previous editor. On day two I was converting my old pdf forms which took no time at all with a very small learning curve. I really enjoy this software.

Pros:

The interface is a slick as it gets. Very intuitive and clean. I can hardly believe it is so pleasurable to use. Good software community forums will almost always find an answer to any questions you may have. Support was within usual norms. I did not try calling support - just email.

Cons:

Lacking in really good documentation. You will need to set up your own previewer for Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Explorer. While there is a solution to this, they refuse to acknowledge it, and removed it from their blog (marked as spam) because it mentions a competitors product. When the inquiry was sent to their email support, they did not recommend the solution either just saying it is not supported. I had to find it on my own. Initially, I had removed my Adobe and had to reinstall it and make a tweak to the settings so that I could view PDF's from within those programs. I'm not sure what to do with those html files. I guess you have to put them on a server and link to them but it doesn't really tell you.

Mike
Advisor in US
Higher Education, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Excellent alternative PDF editor

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: It served my needs exactly, when I didn't want to use that *other* PDF editor

Pros:

Love the ability to edit PDFs, adding text, images, or design features. Super simple interface, easy to learn and navigate.

Cons:

The free version adds a watermark, but that's to be expected. There's nothing about the full version that isn't good - it works great, and doesn't have any issues at all.

Auda
Auda
Translator in Latvia
Verified LinkedIn User
Translation & Localisation, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Advanced and easy-to-use tool

5.0 2 years ago

Pros:

I use PDFelement daily - to open, covert, edit, OCR, combine etc. files and love it. When you have the paid version, you can do almost everything you need to work with various document types. I like the insert/extract page feature. It helps me during my day-to-day job. When I need to translate a pdf document, first, I try to convert it to word, then start the translation process. In 7 out of 10 times, it really helps.

Cons:

I do not like that I cannot purchase the software license - I can purchase a subscription only. The software has a lot of updates and due to that, it sometimes crashes if the update is bad or needs improvements.

YURY
No in Russia
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Wondershare PDFelement 6 Pro meets all the needs for working with PDF documents.

5.0 7 years ago

Comments: PDFelement Pro is definitely a powerful program to work with PDF documents, has an intuitive interface and a beautiful modern design and, despite the large number of features, it looks very neat. If you're looking for a powerful pDF editor, this is what you need. PDFelement Pro is suitable for work, both for professionals and ordinary users, both for commercial organizations and for private users.

Pros:

Wondershare PDFelement 6 Pro program is mostly devoid of shortcomings and is highly appreciated in the work. The program is lightweight, has great functionality and high speed. Wondershare PDFelement 6 Pro is an editor that can do anything or almost anything with PDF. Wondershare PDFelement is a General PDF document editing program, an office tool from the all-in-one series. Editing features include support for text and font changes. The program supports OCR technology (optical character recognition), there is a mode of converting a document into various popular file formats from simple and secure PDF.(Supports the following formats: Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, HTML, RTF, EPUB, HWP, HWPX, Image and text documents), there is support for adding pictures in a document, you can number the pages to move quickly in the future. PDFelement is able to convert more than 300 different document and image formats including Word, Excel and PowerPoint to PDF. The resulting documents are fully compatible with Adobe Reader, Acrobat, and other current viewers. In addition to the above functions, PDFelement 6 Pro is implemented: - Convert PDF documents. - Edit the content. - Merge multiple files of different formats into a single PDF. - Removal of pages. - Protect PDF with a password. - Patterns and shapes. - Electronic digital signature. Plug - in OCR. With PDFelement PRO 6 convert PDF documents to formats has become easy and manageable.

Cons:

Would not be an objective review if you do not specify some of the shortcomings and mistakes. There are not many of them, but to mention them. Some symbols after OCR are displayed incorrectly and have to be corrected manually. However, this is not critical. There may be some errors in conversion with optical character recognition when converting tables. Sometimes there are some disadvantages of the style, where the fonts are replaced by non-similar signs. There are also conversion errors that contain more than one table. The navigation bar (scroll) on the pages of a PDF document can be made a little wider for convenience.

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Market Research, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source

PDF element review

4.0 2 years ago

Comments: My overall experience with PDFelement is very positive esp for a newbie like me

Pros:

What I really love about PDFelement is being user-friendly, affordable, and you can use some of the features for free using some standard features that you expect from most PDF editors while offering other awesome options for those who wanted to explore more possibilities.

Cons:

The least that I like about this app is that in order to enjoy the optimum features you can opt to use the premium and pay more and it's sometimes slow.

Sebastien
IT in Bolivia
Accounting, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Excellent product but beware of "perpetual licence"

4.0 2 years ago

Comments: Second Best PDF creator editor on the market. Unfortunately, Wondershare announced, after one year of having purchased of a "perpetual" license, that my version will no longer be supported, and I must pay to upgrade. I will not upgrade.

Pros:

Easy to use. Powerful editing feature with almost any fonts. Annotations such as underlining, highlighting, arrows are great. Converting to Excel or MS Word will often give excellent result, especially when the PDF originated from MS Office.

Cons:

It is not almighty: some PDF from scanned documents cannot be properly processed by OCR. Some documents from infographics software result in badly constructed PDF and cannot be edited. Some PDF tables are too complex to be converted properly to Excel. Perpetual license entitles you to keep your version, but does not entitle you to major upgrades.

Sergio Rafael
Sergio Rafael
Abogado in Venezuela
Verified LinkedIn User
Law Practice, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

PDF documents are easier to create and edit.

5.0 6 years ago

Pros:

In my job it is important to have a good handling of the legal documents we produce as these documents represent the legal and administrative structure of our company. We have always used for the final delivery of legal documentation files in PDF format as it is the format with the best presentation in the market. PDF Element 6 is the highest performance software I have found for creating and editing documents in PDF format. The use of this software in our office has greatly improved our presentation and delivery of legal documents, as we can create them and add elements that strengthen the document such as the digital signature of our managers, photographs of administrative events which have to be approved or left in record, and modify documents that were already made. In general it is a first hand software that must be in our labor management since it complements and allows that our goals are fulfilled.

Cons:

To incorporate this software in our office has been one of the best decisions we have made, and, complemented with other software we can fulfill in a positive way with each one of our goals, making our management very efficient. I have no negative elements to highlight from this software. I highly recommend it.

Wulliams
Wulliams
Coordinador de Promoción y Gestión Patrimonial in Venezuela
Verified LinkedIn User
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Working with PDF documents is very easy thanks to this software

5.0 7 years ago

Comments: Pdfelement 6 has marked important advances in my career as Community Manager, adding more complete features to the edition of PDF documents that I use, in most cases, to make presentations of profiles, images, public figures, companies and artifices that request of my profiles. Do not hesitate to acquire this software.

Pros:

We must start with the main benefit of this software, which is the edition of PDF files, but it is not only the edition, but its comfortable interface, and how effective it is, without leaving details or bad editions. But do not be left alone with this, other benefits of this software would be: - You can edit objects based on images within the same PDF file, a powerful tool for the construction of PDF documents. - You can create PDF files from scratch, making them fully modifiable and customizable. -The mosaic screen allows not only to choose any project, but also to add simultaneity for editing, a very attractive tool to edit. -You can convert PDF documents in any other format.

Cons:

This is another software which has no waste or weak points. Since I use this software, the benefits and benefits have been full, allowing me to make quality documents in a very easy way.

Ujjwal
Ujjwal
Webmaster and Owner in India
Verified LinkedIn User
Computer Software, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source

Probably the best PDF editor out there

5.0 6 years ago

Comments: PDFelement 6 is one of the best and also probably the best PDF editor I have ever used. The thing I loved about it the most is the UI, the functionality and the amazing extra functionality that it has. The OCR function for example is great to work with and it can easily recognize the accurate things from a scanned document using OCR easily.

Pros:

The whole PDF editing experience with PDFelement 6 is so seamless and easy that it feels like you're using Microsoft Word to edit your docx files. There are a lot of this that this PDF editor does right. 1. It has a very nice user interface and it is very easy to use. The program is designed and developed in such a way that there is very less of a learning curve before you learn the whole program. 2. Apart from being a PDF editor, this program also has other important functionalities like OCR, data redacting capability and more. 3. Converting the PDF files to other formats like docx, xlxs, and even pptx is very simple and the program does a decent job to convert these files. 4. Wondershare pushes out important updates for the program every once in a while and these updates make the program even better.

Cons:

There is not much of a downside to using this product but keep in mind that it is a PDF editor even though it has other functionalities like OCR etc. The conversion is good but it is not that great. The program does struggle a bit when it comes to converting complex documents like PDF to excel etc.

Christian
Medical Copy Editor in Rwanda
Publishing, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Affordable and best alternative to an expensive Adobe Acrobat

4.0 3 years ago

Pros:

Intuitive user interface and no learning curve if your familiar with Adobe Acrobat. PDF editing feature is easier that that of Adobe Acrobat. The mobile application is not as heavy as Abobe's, loading faster.

Cons:

The signature feature is not as sophisticated and advanced as the competition. PDFElement is still highly priced and their free applications that can provide most of the features even if they are not all features.

Wondershare Response

3 years ago

Hi Christian. Thanks for your comprehensive review regarding PDFelement. If it is possible, would you please provide us with some similar examples showing the signature feature you want to achieve or customize? You may drop an email with more details at [email protected], then our product team can improve it in a more targeted manner. Thanks a lot for your time and patience!

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Entertainment, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Better than other available PDF readers in the market; more free features and very user-friendly

5.0 6 years ago

Pros:

PDFelement has definitely surpassed other well-known PDF readers for me. It has more possibilities within its feature. Digital signatures, watermarking, conversion of text photos into PDF and other more features that is not available in other software. It looks cleaner as well, making reading PDFs easy for the eyes.

Cons:

There are a few glitches which are annoying, like how it would suddenly crash. And it is a little expensive for personal use, although pdf reading is free, other features can be used upon sign up.

Mathushan
Software Technician in Sri Lanka
Computer Software, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

My Real Review on PDFelement Sofware

5.0 5 years ago

Comments: I am a Software Technician from SriLanka. I have to make invoices and documents for my customers daily. One my first week I struggled to choose a software for my all type of Documentation Work. After my friend shared this software on Gmail. Then I Tested this Sofware in a Trial Version and now I like this Software as best. I bought the premium version of it and still using it for more than 2 years.

Pros:

I think it is the #01 Software to make and edit pdf Documents and Word Documents in a Laptop. I like most the Cloud Service on this Software and I have listed the Things I Like in this software. 1. Cloud Service 2. Can edit a Non Editable PDF 3. Add anything we want from the internet 4. Can add Signature

Cons:

Yes. I think bits of Updates have to be done in this software. I have listed the things I would like to add to this Software. 1. Compatibility Of Linux OS 2. Fast Loading Feature And there is nothing I have to tell about the things I would like to add to this software.

Min
Min
Web Developer & Content Writer in India
Verified LinkedIn User
Marketing & Advertising, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source

Super useful productivity tool

4.0 3 years ago

Comments: While the features such as "Convert to PDF and Digital Signature" are really useful, a couple of other tools are not as great as I expected. The OCR was not accurate and not reliable.

Pros:

I love the digital signature feature and the option to convert any documents to PDF with just a simple click.

Cons:

The OCR is not very reliable. Also, the EDIT option is very limited.

Wondershare Response

2 years ago

Thanks for sharing your experience. Firstly, we appreciate your recognition of its converting feature. Regarding the OCR performance, would you please describe in more detail how did it not live up to your expectations? Meanwhile, could you please provide us with some similar examples showing the signature feature you want to achieve or customize? You may also drop an email at [email protected]. Our programmer will further look into it and then improve it in a more targeted manner. Your patience is highly appreciated!