Top 5 Online PDF Editors: Modify Your PDFs With Ease

downloads. So many users prefer using online PDF editors. Moreover, most of them are free.

However, there are so many online PDF editors, which one is better? To help you use the best one immediately, we list top 5 online PDF editors here. We will highlight their features, prices, rating, and reviews, so that you can make a correct decision.

However, if you are those who need to edit PDF frequently, we do not recommend you to use online PDF editors as there are many shortcomings. So, we will also introduce an offline PDF Editor, UPDF here. You can download UPDF via the button below to give it a test and see if it is what you need.

Let’s discover the top 5 PDF modifier online tools and see how they compare!

Part 1. Top 5 Online PDF Editors

Below are the top five online PDF editors, their features, pricing, and user reviews.

1.    Sejda

Sejda is an online PDF editor with many features. It can edit text, add images, add links, add bates numbering, create bookmarks, add footers and headers, add page numbers. You can also have the organize page features like splitting, deleting, rotating, and resizing. Also, you can convert PDF to popular formats like Word, Excel, PPT, JPG, and Text and create PDF from HTML, Word, and JPG.

Except these features that most of online PDF editors have, Sejda has some special tools like alternative and mix, deskew, repair, and workflow.

Pricing

Sejda offers both free and premium plans:

• Free Plan: Limited to three tasks per hour and files up to 50MB or 200 pages.
• Premium Plan: This plan costs $7.50/month or $63/year and offers unlimited access to all features.

Suitable For?

Who need to edit some PDF texts for free and no need to do that frequently.

G2 Rating

Rated 4.4 out of 5 stars.

Reviews About Sejda

Here’s what users shared about their experiences.

2.    PDFescape

PDFescape is the best online PDF editor and form filler. You are allowed to create PDF, add texts, images, and links to PDF, draw on PDF, create PDF forms, annotate PDF with highlight, sticky notes, rectangle, strikeout, and underline, and organize PDF pages by moving, deleting, appending, rotating, deskewing, and cropping.

Pricing

PDFescape offers three plans:

• Free Plan: Annoying ads. Cannot have advanced features like editing existing texts and images, convert PDF to other formats, compress PDF, etc. Files are limited to 10 MB.
• Premium Plan: $2.99/month (billed annually). Includes advanced editing tools and more extensive file storage (40 MB).
• Ultimate Plan: $5.99/month (billed annually). Adds advanced form creation, redaction, and unlimited time file storage.

Suitable For?

It is excellent for users who only want basic online tools and affordable online option.

G2 Rating

Scored 4.2 out of 5 stars.

Reviews About PDFescape

The reviews highlight both the strengths and limitations of PDFescape.

3.    iLovePDF

iLovePDF is a versatile online tool that has 26 tools. It allows you to convert PDF from or to popular formats, edit PDF, organize PDF pages, protect and sign PDF files. Moreover, it has several advanced features like OCR PDF, and compare PDF files which may not be found in many online PDF editors.

Pricing

It provides its users with both free and premium plans.

• Free Plan: In free version, you cannot use OCR when converting PDF to Word and Excel, e-signature, and PDF to PDF/A feature. And in the batch process, you can only upload 1 file in most features. The file size is limited to 15 MB or 100MB for most features.
• Premium Plan: This plan costs $5 monthly (billed annually) and includes unlimited access to tools, more file uploads in batch process and file size limitation is up to 4GB for most features.

Suitable For?

iLovePDF is ideal for students and professionals who do not need to deal with bulk and large files frequently.

G2 Rating

Achieved a rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars.

Reviews About iLovePDF

Here’s what users have shared about their experiences with iLovePDF on G2.

4.    Smallpdf

Smallpdf is an all-in-one online PDF tool designed to simplify your work with PDFs. It offers 33 tools to create, compress, convert, edit, annotate, sign, merge, protect, scan,  and organize your PDF files efficiently. Different from other online PDF editors, it has two special tools: AI PDF to help you chat with PDF, Summarize, and translate and request signatures.

Pricing

Smallpdf offers different plans to suit various needs and budgets.

• Free Plan: Ideal for basic tasks with limited downloads and tool access like extracting images from the PDF, stronger compression, etc.
• Pro Plan: This plan costs $15/month and includes advanced features like OCR, strong compression, unlimited access to tools, and mobile app usage.

Suitable For?

This tool is perfect for business who need to collect signatures and need AI to improve their working efficiency when working with PDF files.

G2 Rating

Received 4.6 out of 5 stars overall.

Reviews About Smallpdf

Users have shared positive and critical feedback about their experiences using Smallpdf.

5.    Adobe Acrobat Online

Adobe Acrobat Online is a powerful tool designed for editing, converting, and managing PDF files directly from your browser.

Like Smallpdf, t also has request e-signature and AI features.

With millions of users relying on it, Adobe Acrobat Online offers a secure and efficient way to handle documents.

Pricing

Adobe Acrobat Online also has free version and paid version:

• Free Version: One task and downloads per 30 days.
• Acrobat PDF Pack for Online Tools: Priced at $119.88/year.
• Acrobat Pro: At $19.99/month (annual plan), it includes advanced tools for PDF editing, e-signatures, protection, and more.

Suitable For

Adobe Acrobat Online is perfect for professionals, businesses, and students looking for a secure tool for advanced PDF management and those who have enough budget.

G2 Rating

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars by users.

Reviews About Adobe Acrobat

User reviews highlight the strengths and weaknesses of Adobe Acrobat Online.

From the above description, you can find that online PDF editors are perfect to use for some cases. However, it has many limitations, here are the major ones.

Part 2. Limitations of Online PDF Editors

Online PDF editors are convenient but come with several limitations. Let’s look at the typical drawbacks.

• Basic Features: Limited tools without advanced options. For example, many online PDF editors cannot edit existing texts and images on the PDF. Some tools may not have the OCR feature.
• Security Concerns: Risk of data breaches.
• File Size Limits: Large files are often unsupported. Each online PDF editor has file size limitations.
• Unstable Tools: Crashes or lags frequently.
• Internet Dependence: Requires stable internet.
• Price is not cheap: To unlock all the features of online PDF editor, it is not cheap.

With so many disadvantages to use online PDF editors, we recommend you to use an offline PDF editor, UPDF.

Part 3. Why UPDF is the Best Alternative to Online PDF Editors

UPDF is a powerful, intuitive, all-in-one PDF solution that simplifies document management tasks. It offers a wide range of functions, including

• Edit PDFs
• Convert PDFs
• Annotate PDFs
• Merge & Split PDFs
• OCR
• Form Creation & Filling
• PDF AI
• Batch processing.
• Etc.

It can meet all your PDF editing requirements.

The software has a simple interface and is easy to use. It provides fast response times for privacy and security. It has no file size or page limitations. Moreover, the price is very cheap with USD39.99/year (USD3.33/month) and USD69.99/Lifetime. You can download UPDF to test it using the button below. After testing, you can upgrade to pro version here if you like it.

To know more about UPDF, you can watch the video below or read this review article.

UPDF is available on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. And if you buy the license, you can use it on all platforms.

To know more reasons for why UPDF is the best alternative to online PDF editors, you can check the reasons below.

1. Retain Format

Unlike Sejda, which may disrupt formatting, UPDF ensures your text remains properly formatted even after editing.

2. Simple Setup to Operate

With UPDF, you can start editing immediately after selecting “Edit PDF. " iLovePDF and SmallPDF require extra steps, making UPDF quicker and easier.

3. Instant Response Time

Smallpdf sometimes lags when changing font size. UPDF quickly shows the result, making editing fast and efficient.

4. Unlimited Trial Use

Unlike Adobe Acrobat and Smallpdf, which restrict free access, UPDF allows you to try all features without time limits.

5. Advanced Search Tool

UPDF highlights all results when searching through PDFs, whereas online PDF editor tools like Sejda only show one result at a time, making UPDF more efficient.

6. OCR Feature

UPDF’s OCR lets you convert scanned documents and images into editable text, a feature not always available in other online PDF editor tools.

7. AI Assistant for Optimized Text

UPDF's AI assistant can rewrite or optimize text and directly paste it into your PDF, saving time and hassle.

Ready to explore UPDF's powerful features? Let's move on to see a detailed comparison.

Part 4. Comparison Table

Now, it's time to compare top online PDF editors with UPDF. This comparison will help you see why UPDF is the best alternative to these online tools.

Here’s a comparison of key features, pricing, and more.

Features	UPDF	Sejda	PDFescape	iLovePDF	Smallpdf	Adobe Acrobat Online
Pro Version Pricing	$39.99/year	$63/year	$5.99/month ($71.88 billed yearly)	$60/year	$120/year	$119.88/ year
Editing Features	Full editing: Text, Images, Links, OCR, AI Assistant.	Text editing, merge, split, compression	Basic editing, form filling, annotations	Text editing, merging, splitting, convert, annotating	Text editing, merging, splitting, convert, annotating	Text editing, comments, export to other formats
OCR	Yes, with AI-powered features	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
AI Assistant	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Free trial	No time and features limit for the free trial. Only add watermarks on the exported PDF.	Free (3 tasks/hour)	Limited features	Limited access	Limited tools	Free 7-day trial
Security	Offline use for privacy and security	Online tool, security concerns	Online tool, security concerns	Online tool, security concerns	Online tool, security concerns	Online tool, security concerns
Users Rating	4.5/5	4.4/5	4.2/5	4.6/5	4.6/5	4.5/5

Conclusion

Choosing the right online PDF editor depends on your needs. Each tool offers unique strengths. Sejda is great for regular tasks and has advanced features. PDFescape is a good option for basic editing and form filling. iLovePDF provides an all-in-one solution, while Smallpdf is perfect for content creators and professionals. Adobe Acrobat Online is ideal for those needing an advanced PDF tool.

However, online PDF editors have limitations, such as file size restrictions and security concerns. For a powerful and secure solution, UPDF is the best choice.

Press the “Download” button below to explore UPDF today for a seamless and private PDF editing experience.