Compare
Compare before you choose.
We include the areas where other tools are better too. A comparison you can't trust is useless, so this one shows popular PDF editors side by side, limitations included.
Where DyadForge is different
Local processing
Files are processed on your device. Nothing to upload means nothing to leak, and no waiting for uploads and downloads.
No account
No sign-up, no login and no trial. Open the page and start working.
Offline operation
After your first visit it keeps working with no internet, on a plane or in a secure network.
No tracking
No analytics, cookies or profiling. You can verify it.
Full feature access
No subscription, watermark or per-day task limit. Every feature, for everyone.
Redaction that really redacts
Marked content is removed from the file, not just covered by a box that can be copied from. The rest of the page stays editable text.
Text edits leave no trace
When you edit a line, the original words are removed from the file, not just painted over.
One tool instead of four
Edit, annotate, sign, fill and create forms, OCR, redact, organize, merge, split, compress, encrypt and convert.
Standard, portable output
Saved files open correctly in Acrobat, Preview, Chrome, Edge and any other viewer. Comments are real PDF comments.
Easy to self-host
It's a folder of static files. Companies can host it on an intranet in minutes, with no database and no backend.
Nothing to install
Open a web page on Windows, macOS, Linux or ChromeOS. No admin rights, no Docker, no updates to manage. Dark mode, keyboard shortcuts, pen pressure and searchable guides included.
Feature comparison
Best-effort summary from vendor websites and public reviews, September 2026. Hover or focus a symbol for details.
- Included
- Partial, limited or varies by plan
- Paid plan or add-on
- Not available
- ¹ See the limitation note
| Feature | DyadForgeThis editor | Acrobat | Foxit | PDF-XChange | PDF Expert | UPDF | PDFgear | Smallpdf | Stirling | Preview |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost & access | ||||||||||
| Price for all features | Free | ~$20/mo | ~$130/yr | ~$62 once | ~$80/yr | ~$50/yr | Free | ~$10/mo | Free* | Free |
| No account needed | ||||||||||
| No upsell prompts or watermark | ||||||||||
| Privacy & platform | ||||||||||
| Files never leave your device | ||||||||||
| No install (runs in a browser) | ||||||||||
| Windows, Mac and Linux | Windows | Apple | Mac | |||||||
| Works offline | ||||||||||
| Editing & review | ||||||||||
| Edit existing text | ¹ | |||||||||
| Annotate, comment, draw | ||||||||||
| Fill forms | ||||||||||
| Create form fields | ² | |||||||||
| Visual signatures | ||||||||||
| Certificate digital signatures | ⁴ | |||||||||
| Pages & security | ||||||||||
| True redaction | ³ | |||||||||
| OCR (scanned documents) | ||||||||||
| Merge, split, reorder, rotate | ||||||||||
| Compress | ||||||||||
| Password protection (AES-256) | ||||||||||
| Watermark, page numbers, Bates | ||||||||||
| Advanced | ||||||||||
| PDF ↔ Word, Excel, PowerPoint | ⁵ | |||||||||
| AI assistant / chat with PDF | ⁶ | |||||||||
| Cloud sync & real-time collaboration | ⁷ | |||||||||
| Batch processing / automation | ⁸ | |||||||||
Plans, prices and features change often and may differ by platform or region, so check the vendor's site before deciding. *Stirling-PDF is free to self-host; some features are in a paid enterprise tier. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we'll correct it. See the research notes.
Where we fall short
These are the current limitations of this editor. Each one comes from a real technical constraint or a deliberate privacy decision, not a paywall, and some will be improved.
1The original font is reused only when it has every character
When you edit a line, the editor reuses the PDF's own embedded font if it contains every character you type, so the text looks identical. PDFs usually embed only the letters they use, so typing a new letter switches that line to the closest included font (Noto Sans, Noto Serif or Noto Sans Mono, covering Latin, Greek and Cyrillic), or to a font you choose. In Chrome and Edge you can also use fonts installed on your device. Characters the chosen font lacks (for example Hindi, Chinese or Arabic with the included fonts) show as “?”, and complex scripts may not be shaped correctly. Existing text in any language displays, searches and prints normally.
2No custom form scriptsBy design
You can create text fields, checkboxes, dropdowns, list boxes, radio groups and buttons (reset, print or open a link), and calculated fields that add up, average, multiply or find the smallest or largest of other fields. What's deliberately not supported is writing your own form JavaScript: scripts run inside other people's PDF readers and are a common way to spread malware. Calculations recalculate live in Acrobat, Foxit and similar readers; simpler viewers such as Preview and browsers show the value stored when you saved.
3Images under a redaction mark flatten that page
Text and small shapes under a mark are removed from the page itself, and the rest of the page stays real, editable text. Images, embedded graphics and form fields can't yet be cut in place, so if one sits under a mark, that page is rebuilt as an image to guarantee nothing survives: its text is then no longer selectable (run OCR to make it searchable again) and the file gets a little larger. You're told which pages this happened to. Large shapes that extend beyond a mark, such as backgrounds and table lines, are kept and covered.
4Certificate signatures: smart cards need the enterprise helper
You can sign with a .p12/.pfx certificate file right in the browser, as a PAdES baseline B-B signature. Smart cards, USB tokens, ID cards, keychain or Windows-store certificates and trusted timestamps (B-T) need a helper app on each computer, because browsers can’t reach them. Not yet supported: long-term validation data (B-LT/B-LTA), adding a second signature to an already-signed PDF without breaking the first, and signing a password-protected copy.
Need this for your organisation? DyadForge builds customised enterprise solutions, including smart card and system certificate signing with trusted timestamps, that run on infrastructure you control. One fixed price and a perpetual licence you own, with no per-user monthly subscription. Talk to us.
5No conversion to or from Word, Excel or PowerPointBy design
Good Office conversion needs a full office suite (like LibreOffice) running on a server, and that would mean uploading your file. We won't do that. You can export text, Markdown, HTML or images instead.
Need this for your organisation? DyadForge builds customised enterprise solutions, including private Word, Excel and PowerPoint conversion, that run on infrastructure you control. One fixed price and a perpetual licence you own, with no per-user monthly subscription. Talk to us.
6No AI assistant, on purposeBy design
“Chat with your PDF” features send your document to an AI service in the cloud. That breaks the core promise, so we don't offer it. If on-device AI becomes practical in browsers, we may add it as a strictly local, opt-in feature.
Need this for your organisation? DyadForge builds customised enterprise solutions, including private AI assistants, that run on infrastructure you control. One fixed price and a perpetual licence you own, with no per-user monthly subscription. Talk to us.
7No cloud storage, sync or live collaboration, on purposeBy design
Those require storing your files on a server. Instead, save the PDF and share it however you already do (email, your own cloud drive). Sticky notes are standard PDF comments, so colleagues can read and reply to them in any PDF app.
Need this for your organisation? DyadForge builds customised enterprise solutions, including secure storage, sync and collaboration, that run on infrastructure you control. One fixed price and a perpetual licence you own, with no per-user monthly subscription. Talk to us.
8No batch processing or automation pipelinesBy design
You work on one document at a time (you can merge many files into it). Scripted bulk jobs across hundreds of files are better served by tools like Stirling-PDF or qpdf on your own machine.
Need this for your organisation? DyadForge builds customised enterprise solutions, including batch processing and automation pipelines, that run on infrastructure you control. One fixed price and a perpetual licence you own, with no per-user monthly subscription. Talk to us.
Other things to know
- Very large files (hundreds of MB, thousands of pages) are limited by your browser's memory and may be slow on older computers.
- Markup is flattened into the page when saving, so it looks identical everywhere, but other apps can't move or edit your highlights and drawings afterwards. Sticky notes and form fields stay editable.
- Text inside some embedded graphics (form XObjects, common in InDesign exports) is covered rather than removed when you edit it.
- OCR languages other than English need a one-time download from a public CDN, and you're asked first.
- Designed for desktop and tablet screens. It works on phones, but a small screen is cramped for editing.
- No accessibility tagging. We can't add or repair the hidden structure tags that screen readers use to read a PDF in the right order. Tags already in a file are kept when you save it without adding, removing or reordering pages, but text you edit or add isn't tagged, and merging, splitting or reordering pages drops the tags. For documents that must meet PDF/UA or WCAG, check them in a dedicated accessibility tool.
- Not yet supported: custom form scripts (by design) and PDF/A archiving.
Try it with your own document
No account, nothing to install, and your file never leaves your computer.