PDF editor is an essential tool that individuals and businesses rely on to create, edit, annotate, and organize PDF documents. However, many PDF editors available in the market either come with limited features or costly plans.
Out of all the mainstream PDF editors, UPDF dominates as the best one in 2025 by offering a modernized and feature-packed solution. It incorporates many advanced features that are missed by other PDF editors, and that too at the cheapest pricing plan.
In this guide, we will deeply look at why UPDF is the best PDF editor in 2025. We will highlight what pain points it addresses and how it compares to other PDF editors.
Part 1. What's Wrong with Most PDF Editors: Common Pain Points
Adobe Acrobat, Foxit, PDF Expert, and similar others are popular PDF editors used by millions of users worldwide. However, if you look into the reviews of users about these tools, you will find many pain points.
We did some digging and have shortlisted the most common pain points of popular PDF editors:
1. High Price
The most talked-about issue with PDF editors is their high pricing plans. Most PDF editors charge hefty subscription charges that become a financial issue in the long run. Check out the pricing plans of popular PDF editors:
- Adobe Acrobat Pro: $239.88/year
- Foxit PDF Editor+: $159.99/year
- PDF Expert: $79.99/year | $139.99/lifetime
These pricing plans are only justifiable if these PDF editors offer all the basic to advanced features users need. But that's not the case.
If you compare their pricing with UPDF, you will be shocked. UPDF just requires you to pay $39.99/yearly or $69.99/lifetime to access all the features. This is multiple times cheaper than other popular editors. Check out the UPDF pricing page to see the difference yourself.
2. Poor Cross-Platform Compatibility
Many PDF editors are platform-specific. For example, PDF Expert is only compatible with Apple devices and does not support Windows and Android devices. Similarly, web-based PDF editors aren't intuitive to use on mobile devices.
There are PDF editors like Adobe Acrobat and Foxit that provide compatibility across all four major platforms, including Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. However, they offer inconsistent experiences when used on desktop and mobile. Some PDF editors even don't offer all the features in their iOS/Android apps that they offer in their desktop app.
3. Limited AI Capabilities
The AI assistant is part of most of the mainstream PDF editors. It helps users to summarize, translate, and chat with PDFs. However, most of them offer limited AI capabilities. They provide a chatbot from where you can perform basic tasks like extracting key points or translating text.
Other than basic AI assistance, users want more functionalities, like generating mind maps, performing in-depth analysis of documents, chatting with images, chatting beyond PDFs, and more.
Bonus
However, UPDF goes beyond basic AI—generate mind maps, chat with images, and more. Download now and experience the future of PDFs!
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Besides that, there are still PDF editors that don't even have built-in AI assistants. For example, PDFescape and Sejda are two popular PDF editors that don't still offer AI assistants.
4. Interface Complexity
Today, every PDF editor tends to offer a user-friendly interface. However, many users still complain about interface complexity. For example, Adobe Acrobat and Nitro Pro overwhelm users with excessive features and nested menus. This leaves users with no choice other than checking out tutorials to perform simple tasks like merging PDFs or redacting text.
Part 2. UPDF: The Best PDF Editor – Featured-Packed & Cost-Friendly
UPDF is an emerging alternative to all the well-known PDF editors. It is an AI-powered PDF editor that incorporates all the basic to advanced features you expect from a 2025 PDF editor.
1. UPDF: Smarter, Cheaper, and Effortlessly Powerful
How it competes with other PDF editors is evident from the way it handles the above pain points:
- Cheapest Plans: UPDF offers the most cost-friendly subscription plans. Its yearly plan only costs $39.99, which is 6x cheaper than Adobe Acrobat Pro. In addition, you can access UPDF for a lifetime for just $69.99.
- Smooth Cross-Platform Compatibility: UPDF is compatible with Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. It provides the same features and user experience no matter what device you use. Its AI assistant is also accessible on the web.
- Advanced AI Assistant: UPDF offers a more capable AI assistant that can also generate mind maps, chat using DeepSeek R1, perform deep document analysis, chat with images, and more.
- Interface with No Learning Curve: UPDF offers an intuitive user interface that provides click-based access to all features without the need to watch tutorials.

Simply put, UPDF is your answer to all the issues you might face with other mainstream PDF editors. Download UPDF and try its features for a free trial right away.
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Notice
UPDF is constantly evolving to enhance your experience. We're gearing up to launch UPDF 2.0, making it the most modern, user-friendly, and practical PDF editor at an unbeatable price. With a lifetime plan, you get free lifetime updates, ensuring you always have the latest features without extra cost. Don't miss out—upgrade once and enjoy UPDF forever!
Besides addressing common pain points, UPDF is also exceptional in its features. Let's have a deeper look at UPDF's general and unique features:
2. General Features of UPDF
UPDF offers almost all the general features that a PDF editor must offer, as follows:
PDF Editing
UPDF allows users to edit PDFs in various ways:
- Add or edit text, change font, text size, text color, and more.
- Add new images or edit existing ones such as crop, rotate, replace, extract, or delete.
- Add clickable web or internal links, images, videos, documents, and audio.
- Modify PDF background, create/add watermarks, add headers/footers
- Add rich text by dragging and dropping
Many of the above features are missing in other PDF editors. For example, PDF Expert does not support adding watermarks and backgrounds, while Adobe Acrobat and Foxit PDF editor cannot add rich text by dragging and dropping.

PDF Annotating
UPDF offers up to 13 types of PDF annotation tools, including highlight, underline, strikethrough, squiggly, text comments, sticky notes, stickers, stamps, and more. Some of its unique annotation tools are not available in other PDF editors. For example, Adobe Acrobat does not support adding stickers.
Also Read: UPDF vs Adobe Acrobat >>
PDF Converting
UPDF can convert PDF to many other formats with one click. You can convert PDF to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, image, text, RTF, CSV, XML, and HTML formats. It can also perform reverse conversion and create PDF from these formats. Most of the other PDF editors don't support these many types of conversions. For example, PDF Expert can only convert PDF to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, image, and text formats.
PDF AI Assistance
UPDF incorporates a powerful AI assistant that serves as an ideal companion while reading and analyzing PDFs. With UPDF AI, you can:
- Summarize PDF by page or specific content.
- Translate the entire PDF and generate a new document with translated text in original formatting.
- Translate PDF content by page or copy-paste approach.
- Explain PDF complex phrases.
- Convert PDF to mind map.
- Chat with images.
- Chat beyond PDF.
The level of AI features you get with UPDF is unmatched compared to other tools. None of the mainstream PDF editors lets you convert PDF to mind map or translate entire PDF with original formatting.
Try out UPDF AI and see its AI features in action yourself.
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PDF Fill and Sign
UPDF makes it easy to create and handle fillable PDF forms. You can create a PDF form from scratch using different form fields, like text, checkboxes, image fields, dropdown lists, etc. In addition, it also supports inserting calculated fields, such as Sum, Average, etc.
Besides that, you can easily fill out forms and sign PDFs electronically or digitally. If we compare UPDF vs PDF Expert, the latter can help create/fill forms but does not support adding calculated fields or digital signatures.
PDF Encrypting
UPDF can protect PDFs by applying an open password. It can also add permission password to avoid copying, printing, and editing PDFs. Many PDF editors like PDF Expert do not support the permission password option. Besides that, UPDF also lets you redact sensitive information with simple clicks.
PDF Organizing
UPDF offers all the options to organize PDFs, such as add, replace, delete, rotate, crop, rearrange, extract, and split PDF pages. This extensive range of PDF organization functions is missing from other extensive PDF editors.
Other Features
UPDF incorporates many more general features, including:
- OCR PDF
- Compress PDF
- Cloud Storage
- Create PDF
- Print PDF
In short, UPDF has all the general features a PDF editor must offer to users. Try out UPDF yourself and see these features in action for free.
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3. Unique Features of UPDF
Other than the above general features, UPDF offers many more unique features that you won't find in other PDF editors:
Convert PDF to Mind Map
One of the most impactful unique features of UPDF is the conversion of PDF to mind map. Imagine reading a lengthy research paper and wanting to quickly grasp the key concepts. You can use UPDF AI to generate the mind map of the entire PDF or specific pages and easily understand the content. The steps are as follows:
Step 1. Open the PDF with UPDF. Click the UPDF AI icon from the bottom left corner and tap "Get Started".
Step 2. Click the "Mind Map" button from the chat box, select the page range, and click "Generate".

Once done, UPDF will instantly generate a mind map. Now, you can zoom in, copy, or download the mind map.
Use DeepSeek R1 Model
DeepSeek R1 is a new open-source large language model that has taken the internet world by storm. This model is exceptional in its reasoning capabilities and performs thorough reasoning before responding. This leads to more accurate answers, especially for complex and technical queries.
UPDF AI provides full access to DeepSeek R1 to enhance document comprehension and assist users with complex PDF-related queries. To use the DeepSeek R1 model in UPDF AI:
Step 1. Launch UPDF AI and click the "DeepSeek" button under the "Chat" tab.
Step 2. Now, enter the prompt in the chat box and hit Enter.

UPDF AI will use DeepSeek R1 to first do thorough reasoning and then provide an accurate answer to your query.
1-Click Translation of Entire PDF
Another unique feature of UPDF is a 1-click translation of the entire PDF. It lets you translate the entire content of the PDF into a different language and generate a new translated PDF with original formatting. The steps are as follows:
Step 1. Launch UPDF and open the PDF to translate.
Step 2. Click the "PDF Translation" icon from the top.
Step 3. Select the translation language and page range to translate. Lastly, click the "Translate" button and provide the location where to save the file.

UPDF will instantly translate the PDF and generate a new document while preserving the original formatting.

Compare PDF
UPDF also lets you compare two PDFs for differences. It will pull both files side-by-side and highlight the differences. The steps to use this feature are as follows:
Step 1. Launch UPDF and click PDF Tools > Compare Files.
Step 2. Select the PDF files to compare. Specify the page range and other details and click "Compare".
UPDF will compare the two PDFs and display the differences in the right panel.

Part 3. UPDF vs Other PDF Editors: A Detailed Comparison
Now that we know what makes UPDF the best PDF editor, let's compare UPDF features with other PDF editors. Below is a comparison table that compares UPDF, Adobe Acrobat, Foxit, and PDF Expert.
Comparison | Features | UPDF | Adobe Acrobat | Foxit | PDF Expert |
Edit PDF | Add/edit text | ||||
Add/delete/extract/rotate/crop images | |||||
Add clickable links | |||||
Add watermarks and backgrounds | |||||
Add rich text by dragging and dropping | |||||
Annotate PDF | Highlight/strikethrough/underline | ||||
Text comment/sticky note | |||||
Shapes/pencils/stamps/signatures | |||||
Squiggly line | |||||
Text callout/text box | |||||
Attach file | |||||
Stickers | |||||
AI Assistant | Summarize PDF | ||||
Generate a new file for the translated version | |||||
Explain PDF | |||||
Convert PDF to mind map | |||||
Chat with images | |||||
Chat beyond PDF | |||||
OCR | Turn Scanned PDFs into Editable PDFs | ||||
Protect | Open password | ||||
Permission password | |||||
Redact PDF | |||||
Compress | Shrink PDF size | ||||
PDF Forms | Create/Fill/Edit PDF forms | ||||
Sign PDF | Electronic signature | ||||
Digital Signature | |||||
Convert | Word | ||||
PPT | |||||
Excel | |||||
Image | |||||
HTML | |||||
PDF/A | |||||
RFT | |||||
XML | |||||
CSV | |||||
TXT | |||||
Organize Pages | Insert, replace, rotate, delete pages | ||||
Rotate | |||||
Extract | |||||
Delete | |||||
Crop | |||||
Split | |||||
Replace | |||||
Compare | Compare PDFs to detect changes | ||||
Other Features | Create PDF | ||||
Print PDF | |||||
Merge PDF | |||||
Pricing | Pricing Plans | - UPDF Pro: $39.99/year or 69.99/perpetual; - UPDF AI Assistant: $79/year or $29/quarter | - Acrobat Standard: $155.88/year; - Acrobat Pro: $239.88/year | - PDF Editor: $129.99/month; - PDF Editor+: $159.99/month | - Yearly: $79.99/year; - Lifetime: $139.99/perpetual |
Compatibility | Compatible OS | Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and web (UPDF AI only) | Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and web | Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android | Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and web |
Conclusion
Users expect mainstream PDF editors to offer all the core features they need to handle PDFs. However, the reality is a bit different. These tools either have limits in their features or they offer expensive plans. With UPDF, we get solutions for both issues. Not only are we getting top-tier features, but the pricing plans are the cheapest in the market. That's why we can confidently say that UPDF is the best PDF editor in 2025. So, don't waste any more time. Download UPDF and integrate it into your workflow for efficient PDF handling.
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