PDFs are everywhere, from business contracts to academic papers to construction drawings. Most professionals rely on them as their primary format for sharing and storing documents, particularly in industries like AEC, where document markup is part of everyday work.
As more teams transition to digital, having the right PDF editor can save hours of manual work, reduce costs, and simplify even the most complex workflows.
For many, tools like Foxit Reader provide a flexible starting point. But they’re not always the best fit—especially if you’re after simpler markup, better collaboration, or a more affordable long-term solution.
In this guide, we’ll break down five top alternatives to Foxit Reader in 2025, each offering its own strengths depending on what matters most to your work.
Drawboard PDF is a fast and intuitive PDF editor designed for anyone who needs to mark up documents with precision, whether you're reviewing architectural plans, teaching from annotated notes, or simply highlighting a personal document. While it’s especially popular among professionals in architecture, engineering, and education, it’s equally useful for students, researchers, and everyday users who want a smarter way to work with PDFs.
What makes Drawboard stand out is its natural pen-and-paper feel, clean interface, and real-time sync across Windows, iPad, Android, and web. You can highlight, sketch, insert shapes, or measure with pressure-sensitive precision—on any device, from anywhere. And with seamless syncing, your markups are always where you need them.
Essential features like inking, shapes, highlighting, and syncing are included in the free version. And when your needs grow, Drawboard PDF Pro adds powerful tools like measurement, OCR, multi-window view, and redaction—without the high cost or complexity of traditional PDF editors.
It’s simple, flexible, and ready to use from day one. Just open a document, pick up your stylus or mouse, and start working.
Drawboard PDF offers a free version that lets you edit and markup PDFs, plus a Pro version that adds more powerful tools starting at $4.19 per month.
G2: ★★★★☆ (4.3/5) – Based on 38 reviews
Capterra: ★★★★☆ (4.8/5) – Based on 8 reviews
“Drawboard PDF has allowed me to transition from working with pen and paper to going all digital, and that’s been a total life changer for me.”
— Alan Pierson, Conductor & Longtime User
“Drawboard PDF is an amazing app... I can measure all the elements in my architect's blueprint, add super neat annotations… it’s the most reliably fast and responsive PDF app on my device.”
— Microsoft Store Review
“Super useful for uni work and research… It has become one of my most used applications.”
— Drawboard PDF user testimonial
Adobe Acrobat DC is a staple of the PDF space, designed for professionals who need full control over document creation, editing, form filling, and secure distribution. It is commonly used in legal firms, enterprise operations, academic institutions, and other industries where regulatory compliance and formal workflows are crucial.
Acrobat’s biggest strengths lie in handling complex documents: turning scans into searchable files, protecting sensitive information, and streamlining signature workflows. It’s also one of the few tools with built-in AI summarization to help make sense of long contracts or reports.
However, Adobe Acrobat (and Acrobat Pro) may be too much for some users—both in terms of cost and complexity. Its interface, while full of features, feels dated and clunky compared to more modern tools, especially if you just need it for quick markup or editing tasks. For new users or anyone outside the Adobe ecosystem, the experience can be overwhelming, with a steep learning curve and features buried behind menus or paywalls.
Essential features like OCR, redaction, comparison, and revision history are locked behind a high monthly price, and the free version does not allow for edits. It also isn’t optimized for touch or stylus workflows, making it less suited for hands-on use out in the field, especially for markup.
G2: ★★★★☆ (4.7/5) – Based on 4,015 reviews
Capterra: ★★★★☆ (4.7/5) – Based on 3,997 reviews
Gartner: ★★★★☆ (4.5/5) – Based on 2,505 reviews
“Adobe Acrobat has been the standard for a long time, at least for me. I have never had any issues with its functionality, or its compatibility with other environments accessing the data needed to document.” - Gartner user
“Adobe helps users to maintain their documents in all the formats, Make it easy for everyone to increase their productivity by use Adobe documents cloud. Provide versatile tools. [But] It is bit expensive for individual to use.” - Krishna T. from G2
“For such a powerful tool, it’s surprisingly not intuitive. Tasks like merging or extracting pages feel way more complicated than they should, and I’ve had to watch tutorials just to figure things out.” - G2 Learning Hub Review
Nitro PDF is a business-focused PDF editor with a clean, Microsoft Office-style interface that helps teams quickly get up to speed. It’s widely used across industries for document editing, file conversion, and form handling, as well as secure PDF management—especially by organizations looking to integrate a PDF editor into their Office workflows.
Nitro offers three tiers: Pro, Standard, and Plus. Nitro PDF Pro is the base plan, offering core features like text and image editing, file conversion, basic markup and annotation, merging, and form creation. The Standard plan adds OCR for scanned documents, file comparison, batch processing, and more advanced document tools suited to higher-volume workflows. The Plus tier is built for enterprise organizations, providing additional security features like SSO, iManage integration, and AI-powered document automation tools.
All Nitro PDF plans offer self-signing within your docs, but sending documents for others to sign or setting up signature workflows requires a separate Nitro Sign plan that can easily double your subscription cost. Their pricing is also significantly higher than most non-Adobe options on the market—especially if you need eSigning functionality. This includes the one-time, per-license fee for Pro and the monthly Standard and Plus subscriptions that apply per user.
Nitro PDF offers a 14-day trial for each plan, but does not offer a free plan.
G2: ★★★★☆ (4.3/5) – Based on 332 reviews
Capterra: ★★★★☆ (4.3/5) – Based on 561 reviews
Gartner: ★★★★☆ (4.6/5) – Based on 7 reviews
“It does everything a PDF App can possibly do plus the Nitro eSign is amazing. [But] it’s still quite expensive to renew subscription every year” - Sean B, Small Business CEO (G2)
“Overall this is a great tool for a great cost compared to other more expensive platforms. It has all the features, but occasionally can be a bit buggy like slow performance or needing to be restarted at times." - IT Manager, Mid-Size Company (Gartner)
“I found that the response time from the support team was quite slow. It often took 4-5 days to receive a reply to my inquiries, which was frustrating. While the representatives were polite, I encountered issues where the same responses were repeated without addressing my specific concerns. This made it challenging to resolve my issues effectively.” - Sant Bharat R, Mid-Market (G2)
PDF-XChange Editor is a fast and lightweight desktop-based PDF editor known for its packed feature set, freemium pricing model, and Microsoft Paint-like interface. It’s a solid option for individual users or small teams who want deep editing tools without the commitment of a subscription or breaking the bank.
The app is primarily available in two versions: Editor and Editor Plus. The standard Editor version includes everything most users expect from a PDF tool—editing text and images, commenting, highlighting, organizing pages, and even running basic OCR. Editor Plus builds on these tools with more advanced features like fillable form creation, document comparison, and dynamic stamps, which can help larger-scale PDF users and businesses optimize their PDF workflows.
There’s also a free version that gives you access to around 70% of the Editor toolset at no cost. Some features will add a watermark unless you upgrade, but for users who only need lightweight markup, text tweaks, or file exports, it’s an excellent starting point.
That said, there are a few trade-offs. PDF-XChange Editor is a Windows-only application, with no support for mobile devices, stylus input, or in-field review. And with so many tools available, the interface can feel overwhelming at first—especially for casual users looking for quick access to markup tools.
PDF-XChange offers a free version of Editor (with watermarks for certain features), as well as two paid plans. Each plan includes a year of updates and support, which you can extend to three years for an additional fee.
Editor: $62 per lifetime license
Editor Plus: $79 per lifetime license
G2: ★★★★☆ (4.6/5) – Based on 142 reviews
Capterra: ★★★★☆ (4.5/5) – Based on 256 reviews
“It is very easy to use and covers more than the minimum functionality of most PDF editors. Good value for money as well.” - Managing Director, Capterra
“Whether it's adding text, images, or annotations, this software provides a user-friendly interface that makes editing PDFs a breeze…[but] the absence of seamless synchronization across devices can sometimes be inconvenient for users who work across multiple platforms.” - Timothy G, G2
“Working on a digitizer originally, this was far superior by allowing measurement information to be stored on the plans digitally but it's missing the mark when it comes to compiling total takeoff data. I still use it to measure 1 pagers but there are better software programs out there for larger, more complex jobs for sure.” - Anon, Capterra
“I really like PDF X-Change for everything except making annotations.” - Michael B, Capterra
Wondershare PDFelement is a modern, all-in-one PDF editor built for users who want advanced tools without a steep learning curve. Its Word-style interface makes editing, converting, annotating, and organizing PDFs feel familiar and efficient.
The platform puts AI front and center with its built-in AI Sidebar, allowing you to summarize, rewrite, translate, or interact with your PDFs using natural language. It’s especially useful for speeding up tasks like contract review, localization, or extracting insights from dense documents. However, usage is credit-based—each plan includes a limited number of AI interactions, with additional use requiring a separate add-on that can add up, depending on your usage.
Beyond AI, PDFelement includes OCR, form creation, page organization, annotation tools, limited eSignature sending, and syncing through Wondershare Document Cloud. It works across desktop and mobile platforms, though the mobile experience is more limited in scope. Some users have also reported occasional lag when working with large or complex files.
Wondershare PDFelement offers a watermarked free trial with limited features and credits. You can choose between single-platform or cross-platform plans, and between yearly updated plans or perpetual plans that only apply to the current version of the app (currently version 11).
Single Platform:
Cross Platform:
You can also purchase additional AI credits starting at $3.99 per month.
G2: ★★★★☆ (4.5/5) – Based on 823 reviews
Capterra: ★★★★☆ (4.4/5) – Based on 438 reviews
Gartner: ★★★★☆ (4.6/5) – Based on 7 reviews
“I love how the PDFelement platform is clean and super easy to use. I'm so grateful that it's simple to edit my PDFs and also transfer to various formats. I highly recommend!” - Stephanie L, Capterra
“Unlike Adobe, it offers multiple features under one umbrella program. You can do more than just PDF opening, reading and editing with PDFelement. Last year they also integrated AI into the program which is good. All in all it is easy to use and implement. It also offers cross-platform support. But it’s bit bulky in terms of size and interface, It is not cost effective and some of the features like OCR and e-sign still needs improvement.” - Ankit D, G2
“It was ok, for the money spent it was a decent piece of software but complicated to get used to and ultimately I had to move on.” - Anthony Z, Capterra
“It was just okay but became worse when they released updates. I feel their marketing deceptive, and I don't respect and trust the company.” - Cynthia S, Capterra
Drawboard PDF delivers a clean, pen-like markup experience that feels intuitive from the start. With pressure-sensitive inking and a simple, clutter-free interface, it makes highlighting, sketching, commenting, and signing effortless across devices. Whether you're a student, creative, or everyday PDF user, it brings the feel of pen and paper to your digital workflow.
But Drawboard goes beyond markup. With tools for form filling, page organization, exporting, and even redaction, it covers a wide range of everyday PDF needs—without the clutter or high cost of tools like Foxit.
Tired of bloated interfaces and buried tools? Drawboard gets out of your way so you can get to work.
Schedule a demo today to learn more.
PDFs are everywhere, from business contracts to academic papers to construction drawings. Most professionals rely on them as their primary format for sharing and storing documents, particularly in industries like AEC, where document markup is part of everyday work.
As more teams transition to digital, having the right PDF editor can save hours of manual work, reduce costs, and simplify even the most complex workflows.
For many, tools like Foxit Reader provide a flexible starting point. But they’re not always the best fit—especially if you’re after simpler markup, better collaboration, or a more affordable long-term solution.
In this guide, we’ll break down five top alternatives to Foxit Reader in 2025, each offering its own strengths depending on what matters most to your work.
Drawboard PDF is a fast and intuitive PDF editor designed for anyone who needs to mark up documents with precision, whether you're reviewing architectural plans, teaching from annotated notes, or simply highlighting a personal document. While it’s especially popular among professionals in architecture, engineering, and education, it’s equally useful for students, researchers, and everyday users who want a smarter way to work with PDFs.
What makes Drawboard stand out is its natural pen-and-paper feel, clean interface, and real-time sync across Windows, iPad, Android, and web. You can highlight, sketch, insert shapes, or measure with pressure-sensitive precision—on any device, from anywhere. And with seamless syncing, your markups are always where you need them.
Essential features like inking, shapes, highlighting, and syncing are included in the free version. And when your needs grow, Drawboard PDF Pro adds powerful tools like measurement, OCR, multi-window view, and redaction—without the high cost or complexity of traditional PDF editors.
It’s simple, flexible, and ready to use from day one. Just open a document, pick up your stylus or mouse, and start working.
Drawboard PDF offers a free version that lets you edit and markup PDFs, plus a Pro version that adds more powerful tools starting at $4.19 per month.
G2: ★★★★☆ (4.3/5) – Based on 38 reviews
Capterra: ★★★★☆ (4.8/5) – Based on 8 reviews
“Drawboard PDF has allowed me to transition from working with pen and paper to going all digital, and that’s been a total life changer for me.”
— Alan Pierson, Conductor & Longtime User
“Drawboard PDF is an amazing app... I can measure all the elements in my architect's blueprint, add super neat annotations… it’s the most reliably fast and responsive PDF app on my device.”
— Microsoft Store Review
“Super useful for uni work and research… It has become one of my most used applications.”
— Drawboard PDF user testimonial
Adobe Acrobat DC is a staple of the PDF space, designed for professionals who need full control over document creation, editing, form filling, and secure distribution. It is commonly used in legal firms, enterprise operations, academic institutions, and other industries where regulatory compliance and formal workflows are crucial.
Acrobat’s biggest strengths lie in handling complex documents: turning scans into searchable files, protecting sensitive information, and streamlining signature workflows. It’s also one of the few tools with built-in AI summarization to help make sense of long contracts or reports.
However, Adobe Acrobat (and Acrobat Pro) may be too much for some users—both in terms of cost and complexity. Its interface, while full of features, feels dated and clunky compared to more modern tools, especially if you just need it for quick markup or editing tasks. For new users or anyone outside the Adobe ecosystem, the experience can be overwhelming, with a steep learning curve and features buried behind menus or paywalls.
Essential features like OCR, redaction, comparison, and revision history are locked behind a high monthly price, and the free version does not allow for edits. It also isn’t optimized for touch or stylus workflows, making it less suited for hands-on use out in the field, especially for markup.
G2: ★★★★☆ (4.7/5) – Based on 4,015 reviews
Capterra: ★★★★☆ (4.7/5) – Based on 3,997 reviews
Gartner: ★★★★☆ (4.5/5) – Based on 2,505 reviews
“Adobe Acrobat has been the standard for a long time, at least for me. I have never had any issues with its functionality, or its compatibility with other environments accessing the data needed to document.” - Gartner user
“Adobe helps users to maintain their documents in all the formats, Make it easy for everyone to increase their productivity by use Adobe documents cloud. Provide versatile tools. [But] It is bit expensive for individual to use.” - Krishna T. from G2
“For such a powerful tool, it’s surprisingly not intuitive. Tasks like merging or extracting pages feel way more complicated than they should, and I’ve had to watch tutorials just to figure things out.” - G2 Learning Hub Review
Nitro PDF is a business-focused PDF editor with a clean, Microsoft Office-style interface that helps teams quickly get up to speed. It’s widely used across industries for document editing, file conversion, and form handling, as well as secure PDF management—especially by organizations looking to integrate a PDF editor into their Office workflows.
Nitro offers three tiers: Pro, Standard, and Plus. Nitro PDF Pro is the base plan, offering core features like text and image editing, file conversion, basic markup and annotation, merging, and form creation. The Standard plan adds OCR for scanned documents, file comparison, batch processing, and more advanced document tools suited to higher-volume workflows. The Plus tier is built for enterprise organizations, providing additional security features like SSO, iManage integration, and AI-powered document automation tools.
All Nitro PDF plans offer self-signing within your docs, but sending documents for others to sign or setting up signature workflows requires a separate Nitro Sign plan that can easily double your subscription cost. Their pricing is also significantly higher than most non-Adobe options on the market—especially if you need eSigning functionality. This includes the one-time, per-license fee for Pro and the monthly Standard and Plus subscriptions that apply per user.
Nitro PDF offers a 14-day trial for each plan, but does not offer a free plan.
G2: ★★★★☆ (4.3/5) – Based on 332 reviews
Capterra: ★★★★☆ (4.3/5) – Based on 561 reviews
Gartner: ★★★★☆ (4.6/5) – Based on 7 reviews
“It does everything a PDF App can possibly do plus the Nitro eSign is amazing. [But] it’s still quite expensive to renew subscription every year” - Sean B, Small Business CEO (G2)
“Overall this is a great tool for a great cost compared to other more expensive platforms. It has all the features, but occasionally can be a bit buggy like slow performance or needing to be restarted at times." - IT Manager, Mid-Size Company (Gartner)
“I found that the response time from the support team was quite slow. It often took 4-5 days to receive a reply to my inquiries, which was frustrating. While the representatives were polite, I encountered issues where the same responses were repeated without addressing my specific concerns. This made it challenging to resolve my issues effectively.” - Sant Bharat R, Mid-Market (G2)
PDF-XChange Editor is a fast and lightweight desktop-based PDF editor known for its packed feature set, freemium pricing model, and Microsoft Paint-like interface. It’s a solid option for individual users or small teams who want deep editing tools without the commitment of a subscription or breaking the bank.
The app is primarily available in two versions: Editor and Editor Plus. The standard Editor version includes everything most users expect from a PDF tool—editing text and images, commenting, highlighting, organizing pages, and even running basic OCR. Editor Plus builds on these tools with more advanced features like fillable form creation, document comparison, and dynamic stamps, which can help larger-scale PDF users and businesses optimize their PDF workflows.
There’s also a free version that gives you access to around 70% of the Editor toolset at no cost. Some features will add a watermark unless you upgrade, but for users who only need lightweight markup, text tweaks, or file exports, it’s an excellent starting point.
That said, there are a few trade-offs. PDF-XChange Editor is a Windows-only application, with no support for mobile devices, stylus input, or in-field review. And with so many tools available, the interface can feel overwhelming at first—especially for casual users looking for quick access to markup tools.
PDF-XChange offers a free version of Editor (with watermarks for certain features), as well as two paid plans. Each plan includes a year of updates and support, which you can extend to three years for an additional fee.
Editor: $62 per lifetime license
Editor Plus: $79 per lifetime license
G2: ★★★★☆ (4.6/5) – Based on 142 reviews
Capterra: ★★★★☆ (4.5/5) – Based on 256 reviews
“It is very easy to use and covers more than the minimum functionality of most PDF editors. Good value for money as well.” - Managing Director, Capterra
“Whether it's adding text, images, or annotations, this software provides a user-friendly interface that makes editing PDFs a breeze…[but] the absence of seamless synchronization across devices can sometimes be inconvenient for users who work across multiple platforms.” - Timothy G, G2
“Working on a digitizer originally, this was far superior by allowing measurement information to be stored on the plans digitally but it's missing the mark when it comes to compiling total takeoff data. I still use it to measure 1 pagers but there are better software programs out there for larger, more complex jobs for sure.” - Anon, Capterra
“I really like PDF X-Change for everything except making annotations.” - Michael B, Capterra
Wondershare PDFelement is a modern, all-in-one PDF editor built for users who want advanced tools without a steep learning curve. Its Word-style interface makes editing, converting, annotating, and organizing PDFs feel familiar and efficient.
The platform puts AI front and center with its built-in AI Sidebar, allowing you to summarize, rewrite, translate, or interact with your PDFs using natural language. It’s especially useful for speeding up tasks like contract review, localization, or extracting insights from dense documents. However, usage is credit-based—each plan includes a limited number of AI interactions, with additional use requiring a separate add-on that can add up, depending on your usage.
Beyond AI, PDFelement includes OCR, form creation, page organization, annotation tools, limited eSignature sending, and syncing through Wondershare Document Cloud. It works across desktop and mobile platforms, though the mobile experience is more limited in scope. Some users have also reported occasional lag when working with large or complex files.
Wondershare PDFelement offers a watermarked free trial with limited features and credits. You can choose between single-platform or cross-platform plans, and between yearly updated plans or perpetual plans that only apply to the current version of the app (currently version 11).
Single Platform:
Cross Platform:
You can also purchase additional AI credits starting at $3.99 per month.
G2: ★★★★☆ (4.5/5) – Based on 823 reviews
Capterra: ★★★★☆ (4.4/5) – Based on 438 reviews
Gartner: ★★★★☆ (4.6/5) – Based on 7 reviews
“I love how the PDFelement platform is clean and super easy to use. I'm so grateful that it's simple to edit my PDFs and also transfer to various formats. I highly recommend!” - Stephanie L, Capterra
“Unlike Adobe, it offers multiple features under one umbrella program. You can do more than just PDF opening, reading and editing with PDFelement. Last year they also integrated AI into the program which is good. All in all it is easy to use and implement. It also offers cross-platform support. But it’s bit bulky in terms of size and interface, It is not cost effective and some of the features like OCR and e-sign still needs improvement.” - Ankit D, G2
“It was ok, for the money spent it was a decent piece of software but complicated to get used to and ultimately I had to move on.” - Anthony Z, Capterra
“It was just okay but became worse when they released updates. I feel their marketing deceptive, and I don't respect and trust the company.” - Cynthia S, Capterra
Drawboard PDF delivers a clean, pen-like markup experience that feels intuitive from the start. With pressure-sensitive inking and a simple, clutter-free interface, it makes highlighting, sketching, commenting, and signing effortless across devices. Whether you're a student, creative, or everyday PDF user, it brings the feel of pen and paper to your digital workflow.
But Drawboard goes beyond markup. With tools for form filling, page organization, exporting, and even redaction, it covers a wide range of everyday PDF needs—without the clutter or high cost of tools like Foxit.
Tired of bloated interfaces and buried tools? Drawboard gets out of your way so you can get to work.
Schedule a demo today to learn more.
We are a PDF and collaboration company. We believe that creating more effective connections between people reduces waste.
Our best work has been overtaken by busywork. That’s why we’ve created ways to help people get back to working wonders without any paper in sight.
Drawboard PDF lets you mark up and share with ease, and Drawboard Projects brings collaborative design review to architecture and engineering teams.
At Drawboard, we work our magic so our customers can get back to working theirs.
We are a PDF and collaboration company. We believe that creating more effective connections between people reduces waste.
Our best work has been overtaken by busywork. That’s why we’ve created ways to help people get back to working wonders without any paper in sight.
Drawboard PDF lets you mark up and share with ease, and Drawboard Projects brings collaborative design review to architecture and engineering teams.
At Drawboard, we work our magic so our customers can get back to working theirs.
