12 Best Free Pdf Editors In 2025 For Easy Pdf Editing

Leo Migdal

-Dec 7, 2025, 9:03 AM

12 best free pdf editors in 2025 for easy pdf editing

PDFs are the standard format for sharing digital documents, but editing PDF files hasn’t always been easy or accessible. Historically, PDF editors were expensive, complex desktop software aimed at professional users. Fortunately, modern PDF editors are far more user-friendly. With the rise of online free pdf editor apps, capable PDF editing is now within anyone’s reach. While full Acrobat-style functionality still requires paid software, free PDF editors provide ample tools for most users’ basic needs. From annotations and text edits to page manipulation, free editors make it simple to customize and update PDFs, some even let you view and annotate two PDF documents side by side on your iPad...

In this article, we highlight the top free PDF editors available in 2023 based on features, ease of use, and value. We hand-tested the most popular options to help you find the best pdf editor free for your needs and experience level. Whether you only occasionally need to tweak PDFs or regularly handle documents in PDF format, a free editor can get the job done. Read on for our picks of the leading free PDF editors. We also discuss key factors in choosing an editor and the methodology behind our recommendations. Features: Edit text and images, merge and split PDFs, add headers/footers, fill out forms, add signatures, redact sensitive info

If you work with PDF files regularly then a PDF editor is an indispensable tool. Whether it’s part of your job, you manage PDF files for your own personal use, or you just need to complete a one-off editing task, a top editor program is an essential piece of... Full-featured editors such as Adobe’s Acrobat Pro DC might provide all of the bells and whistles, but a free PDF editor can still offer most of the important tools of a paid service for... Plus, many free PDF editors are browser based, which means you don’t need to worry about about platform- or device-compatibility issues. Of course, free products won’t come with every feature of their premium counterparts. So, if you find that you need more advanced tools such as password protection, Bates numbering, or e-signatures, then you’re probably better served by a premium PDF editor.

Why you should trust PCWorld for PDF editor reviews and buying advice: At PCWorld, we’ve been testing PC hardware and software for decades. Our evaluation process is thorough, always hands-on and focused on real-world usage needs. We won’t ever recommend something we wouldn’t be comfortable using ourselves. EaseUS Black Friday Offer: EaseUS PDF Editor – Edit, Convert, Compress & Protect PDFs Many users whose work is related to working with digital documents have had to deal with finding reliable software or a website for PDF editing. Of course, the vast majority would want a capable free PDF editor to be able to work with files in this format without the high cost associated with it.

Unlike a simple text document, it is not so easy to make changes to a PDF. Editing PDFs requires a program that accurately recognizes text and graphic objects. This article provides the top 12 of the most popular free PDF editing apps and services that you can count on. Read our editorial review below. To determine the best free PDF editors, we tested multiple desktop programs and online tools. For this article, we selected the top 10 based on the following criteria:

See the below table for a quick overview and read the full article to learn in detail about each one of the PDF editors mentioned. PDFs have become the universal format for sharing documents, whether it’s assignments, invoices, contracts, or eBooks. But editing a PDF isn’t always simple—most tools lock essential features behind a paywall. This is why many users search for the best free PDF editor that lets them make changes without restrictions. A good editor should allow you to edit text and images in PDFs, annotate files, and fill forms. It should let you sign documents and even merge, split, or compress PDFs.

While plenty of tools claim to be free, many leave watermarks or limit usage unless you pay for a subscription. That’s where this guide comes in. Here, we’ve reviewed the top completely free PDF editors across Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and online platforms. PDFs are used all the time for sharing documents because their ubiquity makes them easy, but editing can be expensive and clunky. Adobe Acrobat comes with many features but will not suit everyone. Luckily, free tools give you great PDF editing powers for free.

Below, we have created a list of the best free PDF editors to meet your document editing needs. Over 30 PDF editing tools are available on Smallpdf – all for free. Limited daily processing for free users. Platforms: Web, Windows, Android, and iOS.Pricing: Free; premium plans start at $12/month. PDFgear is the one true Adobe Acrobat alternative with advanced features without any hidden charges. These are our top free picks for editing documents

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. We tested out the best free PDF editors for designing and modifying documents completely free of charge. These apps and software have no subscriptions, no licenses, no one-off fees, but come with all the tools you need to create, edit, sign, and share documents. After exploring the offerings for each tool, PDF24 Creator is easily the best free option around right now. Having tested out all the best PDF editors, this Windows app comes with all the same tools and serves as one of the best Adobe Acrobat alternatives you can get without paying anything.

Alternatives here also include the browser-based PDF Candy, SmallPDF, which is ideal for use on mobile devices, and the business-focused DocHub. Discover the pros and cons of top PDF editors that let you tweak text, images, and more The best PDF editors allow you to modify and add text, edit images, incorporate graphics, sign documents, fill out forms, and more. I've taken the time to check out several of these apps and websites to collect a list of exactly what you're looking for. Here's my take after using these free PDF editing apps: If you own a modern version of Microsoft Word, skip all the suggested programs below—you have a great PDF editor at your disposal.

To turn a PDF into a Word document, open the file as you would any other and then edit away. This also works in WPS Office and Google Docs. Lets you load the file from other websites. While PDF (Portable Document Format) is a great document format for file sharing across various platforms, it is equally frustrating and expensive to edit PDF files. Adobe’s Acrobat PDF editor and many third-party services offer advanced features but at a steep cost. Thus, to help you find entirely free tools that bring a variety of PDF editing features, I tried a bunch of software and curated a list of the best free PDF editors.

I have also included some popular free online PDF editors here. First and foremost, you should look for a free PDF editor that allows you to edit texts, not just annotation. There are many PDF editors that offer basic annotation, but don’t support text editing. Next, you should pick a PDF editor that runs offline on your computer. While there are many online PDF editors with strong privacy protections, it’s your discretion to decide whether you want to upload your private documents to the cloud. Apart from that, pick a PDF editor that lets you organize pages, split them, merge multiple PDFs, convert PDFs to DOCX, PPT, JPG/PNG, and more.

On top of that, if the PDF editor supports OCR extraction, it would be icing on the cake. Finally, choose a PDF editor that offers unlimited processing without any restrictions. In my search for a true Adobe Acrobat alternative that’s entirely free and offers advanced features, I have spent countless hours on the internet to find the best free PDF editor. I finally found PDFgear, which checks all the boxes. It runs offline, has tons of PDF editing features, and is completely free to use. There are over 100 PDF editors in the world.

The question is: How do you know which PDF editors are worth checking out? I tested more than 30 PDF tools and spent +200 hours to find the best PDF editors in 2025. And I will not lie; it was overwhelming sometimes to go through all the features, pricing, and information available on the internet one by one. But my list of the best PDF editors is finally completed. In this article, I guide you through the best PDF editors you can find currently on the market. By sharing this list of the best PDF editors, I hope I can help you save time and money as well.

When putting together my best PDF editors list, I considered features, versatility, my experience, and user interface. While I can not summarize all my findings in this table, this will help you get an overview of the key information for each PDF editor. Here are the top 9 PDF editors that stood out the most to me in 2025:

12 Best Free Pdf Editors In 2025 For Easy Pdf Editing

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