PDF Expert - Editor & Reader Reviews

I was made aware of PDF Expert recently before the update to version 7, and took a while to decide to make use of it, especially the pro tools, since my needs are those of a college student.

I'm very glad I made the choice to acquire PDFExpert and its pro features however. Its the only app that actually lets to modify and work with or create pdf documents with all their features (like hyperlinks - which was my key interest for note taking). PDFExpert has a simple and hands on interface and works very well for me. My key uses for it are for organizing information ive collected from other sources and class notes, hyperlinking between my notes to improve my studies and learning, as well as, when possible with the pdfs I use, edit the pdf file itself to select elements to keep. While screenshots are wonderful and useful, and incorporating them into note apps are easy and useful, when working with pdfs, being able to use the image quality and format of the pdf books i own allows me to work with the content as is, rather than an image of it, which really appeals to me.

I had a few issues with my acquisition with regards to its update to version 7, and through this learned how attentive and thoughtful Readdle is to their user base, including new users. They made me feel like they really wanted me to make the best use of their software and feel like it should have a place in my workflow. I'm grateful to the quick responses and attention to my needs and uses.

For over 6 years I’ve been using PDFExpert & it has been a fantastic experience. There was a learning curve in the beginning but after that I’ve had nothing but positive experiences. Originally I bought PDF Expert to study & archive periodicals but it has become an integral part of my iPad life: keeping all of my scanned bits of paper & recipes organized, filling out online forms, even doing creative projects. And talk about customer service! If only all companies had their finesse! I’ve had to contact them 3 or 4 times with questions & not only do they write back promptly but the tone of the response is thoughtful & friendly. And I don’t know if it was just a coincidence but early on there was only a deep purple highlighter so dark to be almost unusable so I submitted a request for lilac. On the next update lilac was there! Now, of course, there are plenty of color options. Another time I wrote them because I couldn’t figure out how to do something & they wrote me back as if they had nothing better to do than help me. So impressed. With every update PDF Expert only gets better. Bravo to the Readdle team! Congratulations on many excellent products backed by a superior customer experience! Keep up the good work!

I use the pro version of this application on my iPad with an apple pencil. Perfect software and device combination for my court case brief annotations, and digital textbooks for school. Currently providing a rating of 4 stars because I want more custom interface personalizations. for an example a custom color palette that consisted of more colors, like 10-12, palette to be locked and saved on my toolbar instead of changing back to default. Instead of having it layer under more that two clicks (or touches of my pen). Yes I have a half a dozen options now two clicks away. Personally I would prefer a dozen. I do see the favorite tab and that is okay.

The annotation feature is my favorite, I enjoy how easy it is to make a paired down outlines for studying. Love the option to have a couple documents up at once. Love the bookmark feature! This is a great tool. Looking forward to more collections of stickers, specifically stickers that I can insert text into. Please take me back to 90s Word graphics. Another factor, wish this application had the ability to create or edit fillable forms. I was disappointed when I found fillable form creation was not a feature. Very essential during these pandemic times.

This application is the primary reason I purchased an iPad. Thank You!

For years I’ve had nothing but issues with Adobe, Apple Pages, Word Doc. Nothing would ever work under one umbrella. In two simple words absolutely dysfunctional. PDFExpert by PDF Expert allows you every kind of access to exit, create and multitask all PDF & word documents easily and add components you cloud not in other software. There is nothing it cannot do. FORGET ADOBE & stop paying monthly fees & get this all in one APP that will change the way you work. Thank you for creating an App that never fails & performs in a way that leading expectations are met by the standards you’ve given in an APP. Most recently there was a corrupted important document - sent it to support. FIXED within a day & returned. In today’s world it is extremely difficult to have a company give such satisfying customer support. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Adobe- ALL FAIL miserably where READDLE succeed. We are very grateful & wish READDLE as a company much continued success. This is why I left Adobe years ago & switched to READDLE. Product & customer support. It’s the backbone of any customer relationship & READLE recognise this at every turn.

I would gladly pay whatever you feel your software to be worth to own it. However, this “subscription” model where you are essentially only renting out PDFExpert , is exceedingly unfair with the customer. I’ve been using Goodreader, for example, for years and years. By 5 years, your app has cost 250USD, and by 10 years, 500 dollars. Please add an option to purchase the full version of PDFExpert outright, rather than a subscription-only model, to which I, and many like me, would never agree, no matter how good PDFExpert itself. Don’t give in to this unfair concept of software as a service, instead of a product, which it is. It’s being pushed currently as it’s more profitable, but exploitative to customers, don’t encourage it.

UPDATE-REPLY TO DEVELOPER COMMENT: Thank you for your reply; what I’m requesting is the ability to purchase PDFExpert outright and permanently, for whatever it’s price is, and NOT to purchase a subscription in order to be able to use it, no matter how flexible. My request is for a purchase option, whereas you currently only allow subscription-based option, which I, and I imagine many like me, would never do, although I would be willing to pay a considerable amount to purchase PDFExpert , it’s currently not an option for any amount. A “more flexible” subscription plan doesn’t help, as I will not purchase a subscription.

Edit: so just to be clear… According to the developer PDFExpert for the Mac did not change to subscription? That was a one time purchase that remained? The iPad only version is a subscription? If so that explains it but honestly I find it ridiculous that I have to pay three times to get PDFExpert across all three of my platforms. I would even pay a one time fee but not doing the subscription. Adobe acrobat pro is a monthly fee and you get it across all the different devices. Why would I pay $80 for the Mac version and then monthly subscription for the iPad version and then he knows what you’re demanding for the iPhone version.

Just like the title says. I paid $80 for PDFExpert which is already quite a lot of money and how do use that maybe twice. Every now and then I need to merge or split PDF documents. Very light works. I was told this is the best app. I came back to it to do some PDF editing and it’s telling me I need to pay $50 a year. I already did a one time purchase of $80. Completely dishonest and unfair business practices. At least grandfather and the people that already purchased PDFExpert for a one time price or credit them the $80 they spent towards a subscription. Now you’re expecting you to pay 50 bucks a year? So I paid $80 to use PDFExpert twice?

EDIT: Thank you to Readdle for responding to my review with information. HIGHLY APPRECIATED. They are correct in that to access the password protect file feature, even in the non-Pro version, you would do so from within the individual file rather than from the file navigation view as I had assumed would be consistent. I missed this. To comment on the non-Pro version of PDFExpert overall, I think it’s fantastic, believe it will easily handle day to day PDF needs of most users, and I wholeheartedly recommend it.
Updated review from 1 stars >> 5 stars.

ORIGINAL:
PDFExpert was able to password protect files previously. After a recent update, it became a Pro feature, apparently. Taking a previously included feature and moving it behind an additional paywall is incredibly disappointing to say the least. The review is not for features included, but for practices of the company. Password protecting is not a “Pro” feature. It should remain a standard feature as our digital information is increasingly at risk. Pretty shameful stance.

Essential application for me. I get several faxes a week (via eFax) these are PDF files and I can send directly to PDF expert, mark them, physically sign them (on screen) and re fax. I get PDF reports that I need to fill out, and this application makes it easy. Type or draw on the PDF document, then email the edited copy. It allows me to move pages in a PDF document (sometimes page 1 needs to be page 3 - easy to move). I can rotate pages, delete or add pages. I have merged up to 4 PDF documents into one new document. Removed, edited and sorted pages. Delete pages you don’t need. I can fill out PDF forms. (Have not made a form that has to be filled out - never had the need, so I can’t comment on this capability). I can fill out any form by entering text on the appropriate line even if it was not originally meant to be filled out online.

[NOTE: I am a real user and have never been contacted by Readdle. I don’t rate many applications, but this one has been so useful to me, I wan’t others to use it so Readdle will continue to support this excellent program.]

PDFExpert is great with the Ipad Pro 2020. I downloaded it for school so that I could take notes in my online readings for class and research. I have the Apple Pencil 2 and smart keyboard, which work very well with PDFExpert. I love that PDFExpert also automatically syncs with my Google Drive account. I store all my class files and online articles I’ve researched in my Drive. I can easily access the PDFs stored in my Drive through PDFExpert to read and take notes. Then, the PDF I took notes on automatically updates in my Drive. It cuts out a few extra steps and keeps things organized. There’s no extra downloads or transferring files between apps needed!

The only thing I would complain about is that every once in awhile, PDFExpert freezes. I always have a few files open at once, so I don’t typically just click on a different file and it unfreezes. I am willing to take an occasional freeze from time to time in exchange for PDFExpert’s efficiency.

Almost every app from the worthwhile app to even the piss-poor one's require subscriptions in order to use them. It's enough to make you go bankrupt! This has gotten way out of hand, and is simply not fair to the consumer. Many apps even conceal costs and info regarding purchases required to get anything of value from an app. Then, there is of course, the text which lays out "the terms". Most average people cannot understand or even read the content which is written in profuse legalese. I've shown some of these "terms" documents to attorneys,and even some of them were scratching their heads. In reality, the way these things are constructed, it would probably be wise to retain an attorney just to review these terms before you agree to use any application. Some of the lawyers I spoke with said they'd never agree to having their clients sign on to any number of apps with these terms. That is especially true with regard to issues of privacy which always seem to appear in the very smallest of print.

While PDFExpert does look very capable and would be a welcome addition, you add up the costs of 10, 20 or 30 subscriptions, you suddenly realize why you're running a deficit at bill time. Offer a purchase option for people!

When I originally purchased PDFExpert before the newest updates (downgrades, for those of us who originally paid money for PDFExpert , which suddenly lost all capability, unless we were willing to fork over an additional $50!) I would have said it was a great app. I work as a paralegal, and PDFExpert used to be awesome for on-the-go creating/editing of all the court documents we work with which must be submitted as pdfs. I especially used to love the signature feature, as it meant I sometimes no longer even had to travel in order to get client signatures for continuance forms.

I was so disappointed to discover, as of a couple days ago, that my paid for, super awesome app no longer provided me access to any of the useful features I had come to love. Apparently if I wanted to continue using PDFExpert as I had for the past year, I was now expected to pay an additional $50. I’ve never had a company pull such a bait and switch, and I’m incredibly disappointed at how transparent a money grab this ploy is. Shame on you guys, PDFExpert used to be a great product and a fair price, but I’m not going to keep repaying for things that I, the consumer, was lead to believe would be a one time purchase to unlock price. Bummed!

I have used this program for years and own it for both my computer and my iPad. They came out with a professional version and now all the functions that I had in the ones that I bought are gone. I know that I had them because I used one of them every day to redact information on PDFs. I sent information into the company saying that after the professional version came out I lost the ability to do redactions. The function still works on the computer version that I bought but not on the iOS version to get that I must upgrade to the new professional version. If you buy this program be aware you may be required to upgrade to get features that you use every day. I sent him proof of purchase and they still don’t have an answer for me they keep telling me that there is a version for iOS and there’s a version for windows operating systems. I Purchased for both and I know that already my only question is why didn’t the way up teacher that I already owned.

Frustrating experience outlined below; my tone was not nice.

When I reached out direct to Readdle, it turned out even though i only actively installed PDFExpert on the iPad, PDFExpert was on both iphone and ipad, thus I couldn’t delete the PDF Expert folder until app was deleted on both devices.

Readdle support was professional, and responded in a reasonable time. They were so good and pleasant the review goes from 1* to an easy 5*. Maybe PDFExpert wasn’t for me for now, but customer support that listens is worth a great rating.

I. Was. Wrong. Thank you Readdle.

==== Old review ====

When I tried out PDFExpert , everything worked okay, but it just wasn’t what I was looking for.

It created a folder for PDF Expert files in my iCloud folder, which created one in my iCloud for Windows.

I uninstalled PDFExpert from the iPad, and removed the file and folder from the iPad just fine...BUT THE PDF EXPERT FOLDER CANNOT BE REMOVED FROM WINDOWS.

I have tried a number of ways to change the folder’s Read-Only permissions on Windows in order to remove it (it’s empty). I CANNOT change permissions (access denied) via command prompt, Windows powershell, the GUI, or anything.

Don’t point at Windows as the problem—nothing else installs a read-only directory other than PDF Expert. Not LiquidText, not the Downloads folder, just this one.

Wretched programming on the iCloud synchronization.

Are you kidding me? I’m going to sink hundreds of dollars into this? No way. One time would be bad enough but that adds up quick to hundreds of dollars, and when you inevitably cancel what are you left with... nothing. This subscription model trash has gotten completely out of hand and is completely unacceptable in my opinion. Either charge a big one time fee up front or just admit you’re a bunch of con artists on the tin. Because that’s all this subscription crap is, an extortionist con job if you ask me. I don’t like it. It just gets under my skin and reeks and stinks of the worst kind of greedy nonsense, it’s my pet peeve and it’s why I left Photoshop. If it was a good deal that would be one thing but dude it’s a PDF editor. I paid 40 bucks for 3 top notch Affinity apps in one go. I would be using much more colorful language about this “subscription pricing model” newspeak (imagine an expletive or several of your choosing) but I guess I can’t do that. Just fill in the blanks. Don’t listen to their customer service crap, absolutely nobody likes this behavior. It’s not an issue, it’s greedy corporate money grubbing, keep your money out of their hands.

While this has always been the best pdf app for school textbooks, the new update has ruined what set it apart from competitors in terms of workflow. It used to have all the tools in one toolbar with four customizable pens/highlighters so you could quickly switch between different colors and pens. Now the most useful tools are scattered between different toolbars and there is only one pen and one highlighter in the toolbar. And instead of using a long-press to customize your tools like in the previous versions, you must now tap extra times to open an expandable toolbar, thereby adding a step to the process. This is a serious step back as it negates the strengths of a tablet and diminishes efficiency. It seems like a confused philosophy that prioritizes aesthetics over functionality. And now if you want the same toolbar that was in the previous version, you will have to pay for the “pro features” in order to access the customizable “favorites” toolbar. So while the update description states that it only adds to functionality of the previous version and doesn’t take away anything, this is simply untrue (in my case, at any rate).

For the past couple of months, I have been solely relying on PDF readers for school work since the Pandemic has really taken over. It is very difficult for me to visit my local library for physical books, forcing me to turn towards electronic books instead. I’ve used various PDF readers in the past but have always been very uncomfortable with the limited features they offered until I discovered PDF Expert. PDFExpert has every feature I can ever ask for. One BASIC feature that most PDF readers did not have (from my experience) was the ability to change the PDF file into dark mode. The background of each page change into the color black and the fonts to the color white, making it easier to view at night. This feature has greatly improved my health. I no longer suffer from migraines and eye strains. Thank you Readdle! You guys are truly a blessing.

I’m frugal when it comes to buying apps. Ok, I’m a cheapskate. Why should I pay for a pdf editor with so many free ones out there? Well, if all you do is open and email pdfs’s then you don’t need PDFExpert. If you do more than that, anything more, then this is well worth it. This apps features are already listed so I won’t repeat them. I didn’t see the page combining and removal feature listed which is exactly what I needed. PDFExpert has that. So for that alone I bought it. I do historical research and use a lot of PDFs. This apps organizational abilities for not just combining pages but copying, pasting, removing or adding photos and text is outstanding. Of course it has the features like the other editors have but none of the others have all the features PDFExpert has. It’s intuitiveness is excellent. It makes what I do so much better and easier that I’m honestly happy I paid for it. And that’s coming from a Scrooge😳

1. Now iPads are powerful and we can open many files at the same time, but scrolling over long thin file tabs is a bad way to switch between them... Xodo/ Notability has the option of see these tabs as a pop up window and navigation over there is easier.
2. Gives an option to fix the tools area, to disable the auto-hiding mode. Goodnotes has a fixed tool area and it can be good when auto-hiding is annoying to some people since it can be often triggered accidentally.
3.Double tab to jump from different modes, fit to page, zoomed in, fit to width. I like this part of Goodnotes.
4. A great app but needs improvement and definitely does not justify the yearly subscription price tag so far from my trial period experience. Hyperlink would be a very great tool for me sometimes but I don't like to pay 50 dollars every year when I could find other methods to replace this function to some extent.

For the past year, I've been using the free version of PDF Expert to annotate PDF documents at work, and I must say that it has proven itself to be reliable and trustworthy in terms of its build quality. Writing digitally is the same as writing on a piece of paper, which is good by me.

Although I have not tried out the premium features (as I have no need for them), the free version is great, which shows me that their premium feature should just as good, if not better. Lastly, I definitely like the fact that PDF Expert syncs seamlessly with iCloud, Dropbox and OneDrive, without me having to create a copy of the file on the iPad separately, make edits, then save the edited copy back to the respective cloud source.

Again, it's proven itself to be quite reliable, and should be something to consider if you regularly annotate PDFs either personally or professionally.

If you are looking for a PDF editor / file manager and more, you will not find one that equals or surpasses the excellence of PDFExpert. I have been using iOS pdf apps for years and I tried PDF Expert when it first hit PDFExpert Store. At that time, it was good, but not the best. But I continued to follow the progress of the development team over the years, and about 18 months ago they reached the top of the performance and functionality charts in my estimation. I have a PDF library of around 4,000 volumes, and I use PDFExpert exclusively to manage and view those files. (I also recently used it to proofread and mark up a PhD dissertation for a colleague, and the annotation tools couldn’t have been better designed.) And there is more to come as the development team continues to listen to users (and respond to their emails!) and add more functionality. Buy it now before the price goes up to what it is worth!

These negative reviews are extremely dishonest. Readdle is an amazing company—always super responsive to its customers. If you upgraded to PRO in a previous version, then you still have the same functionality. Tap restore purchases and stop badmouthing one of the best developers in PDFExpert Store.

The new subscription is geared toward professionals (read: businesses) and is a bargain compared to an Adobe subscription. Honestly, I prefer Readdle’s UI to Adobe’s hands down. If you’re not a business, then just be grateful for the free updates and keep on freeloading for as long as you can.

Software is a service, not a tool. It takes a lot of time and energy to build and maintain. To those users who deleted PDFExpert because they can’t have 15 colors of highlighters or whatever— good luck finding an app that can even nips at the heels of PDF Expert in terms of functionality.

For many years I used the Good Reader app, but since PDFExpert has been abandoned with no update in sight, I made the switch to PDF Expert. I do not regret this switch in the least. While PDF Expert does crash sometimes, the development team has put out numerous updates in an effort to increase overall stability. The ability to truly edit PDFs is an awesome feature as well, something that GoodReader never implemented.

The customer service and communication with this company has been great as well. This is a great change from the lies and empty promises from the GoodReader development team in the rare event they actually will respond to any emails.

From now on, I will be recommending PDF Expert to everyone I know instead of GoodReader. For those of you still on the fence about which app to purchase you will not regret getting PDF Expert.

This is undoubtedly the best pdf app out there, too bad that recent update made it go backwards instead of forwards.
First of all, The option of three pencils was very efficient and quick, as well as the “zoom in pencil” function, which is now buried deep inside the color selector of the only available pencil, which is nothing but a slowdown. As i used to have multiple colored and sized pencils ready to go, now i have to change it every single time.
Secondly, ive had PDFExpert for about 2 years, ive had about 1000 books inside of it, but it’s all gone after the update, I can’t seem to be able to find it anywhere after the lastest update, even though they’re still taking space in my ipad “3.3gb is the storage taken by PDFExpert” which means they’re still there somewhere, i just can’t seem to find them anywhere.
Luckily I could re-download those books, but i just can’t get over the fact that all my highlights are gone now.

I use PDFExpert every day on an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil to mark up, grade, and return online homework submissions that students submit either as PDF or phone camera photos of handwritten work. Exceedingly helpful for adding comments to first drafts of papers (including in type of students can’t read my handwriting) and theses. I also use it in committee meetings almost daily to refer to and add comments to documents as they are being discussed. It is also a great app for adding doodles during the boring parts :)

In my opinion, the only things missing are (1) the ability to add an extra blank page when you need to create a summary page of notes and (2) the ability to take a snapshot of a section that includes drawings / images/ equations for pasting into another app (such as an email).

I am giving the three-star rating based on past experience as well as present. If I were only rating this on the last few months, it would be a 1-star review. This has been one of the most indispensable apps for me, as a teacher who uses an iPad pro to teach from. The efficiency with which I was able to store, organize, and edit documents was beyond comparison. Lately, however, there have been major slow-down issues and often I find myself staring at all of my documents stored on the cloud, unable to download them. I have wasted 30-plus minutes trying in futility to pull up a file I needed on the cloud without success. Incredibly frustrating. More recently, even trying to transfer a file from an app like notability to this one has caused PDF expert to just close without actually receiving the file. I hope they fix these issues because it would be a pain to find a new app to use.

If you have version 6 beware, the version 7 upgrades are minimal but what you lose in simplicity for your daily annotations and edits is significant:

Annotations: In version 7, you lose most of your color presets for highlights/underlines/drawing (you only get to keep 5 color presets in version 7, while in version 6 you had about 15 color presets). In version 7 you’ll have to open a color wheel button to manually select a color every time you want to use something other than those 5 colors (this takes 3-4 clicks every time you want a new color, which quickly becomes frustrating if you use PDFExpert for what it was designed for: significant PDF annotating). Or, you can pay $45 per year if you want to “favorite” certain tools for quicker access in version 7.

Edits: In version 6, you could buy PDF editing for a one-time $10 fee, but in version 7 you will have to shell out $45 recurring per year to get PDF editing (unless you were smart enough to buy it in version 6, in which case it comes with you to version 7).

It’s not all bad, version 7 makes it a bit easier to use the search and bookmark/outline features. However, I have found the “outline” feature to be a bit buggy in version 7 when adding new chapters to the overall outline. It seems to insert them in strange spots, rather than keeping the outline automatically organized by page number as version 6 did.

The product is wonderful. It is very easy to manage files, all nice selections of turning pages(vertical/horizontal), writing notes; it is a great app to read papers and books for students.
If there is any bit of part that is lacking, then i would like to say the split view. Of course with PDFExpert, you can multi-task. However if i want to read two books at the same time, especially when one is for reference, I have to export one of the books to another pdf reading app and multi-task these two apps to have two books in my sight simultaneously. This is a bit of a hassle. As a owner of a 12.9” ipad - with a large screen, in-app split view would be a great option.
Anyways, other than this small issue, everything is perfect.

Pretty good pdf editor overall, but some issues. Big one for me - for date fields it only allows their custom date-picker keyboard UI, but the output doesn’t seem to be compatible with that space in the pdf I’m trying to fill, and it doesn’t let you over-ride the date-picker keyboard for a standard keyboard....incredibly frustrating, please fix!

Furthermore, it seems there’s an issue in both PDFExpert and documents app while editing a pdf field that if it says ‘only enter spaces, letters, etc’, and the modal dialog for this pops up, you can’t then dismiss it without force quitting PDFExpert . Incredibly annoying and frustrating.

Also, the file structure of the various readdle apps with relation to your device and iCloud is frustrating, not very convenient to use them together even bough I’ve paid for every single in app purchase and every one of their apps.