7 Best Foxit Alternatives 2026 (#1 Will Surprise You)

PDF reader: WPS offers one of my favorite PDF reading experiences. You can switch between single-page and two-page layouts, choose different scrolling options, and enable eye protection modes like Night Mode to make long reading sessions more comfortable.

PDF editing: Editing PDFs was straightforward throughout my testing. WPS automatically detected text boxes, making it easy to modify text, adjust fonts, spacing, and formatting, or insert images. Beyond the basics, I could also add headers, footers, hyperlinks, watermarks, videos, and even audio files, making it one of the more capable PDF editors I tested.

OCR: WPS includes two OCR modes. One converts scanned PDFs into editable and searchable documents, while the other extracts text from images into Word, Excel, or TXT files. Both worked reliably during testing and are particularly useful if you regularly work with scanned documents.

PDF conversion: Converting PDFs to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, images, or TXT files only took a few clicks. The process was quick and the formatting remained accurate in my tests.

Annotations: WPS includes a complete annotation toolkit with highlights, comments, notes, callouts, and file attachments. I especially liked that you can highlight both text and specific areas of a page instead of being limited to text selections.

PDF organization: Organizing documents was simple thanks to drag-and-drop page management. I could merge, split, rotate, replace, delete, and rearrange pages without any issues, and batch tools made working with larger documents much easier.

Forms and signatures: WPS covers the essentials for filling forms and signing documents. You can create signatures by typing, drawing, or uploading an image, then place them wherever needed.

Security: Password protection is more flexible than with many competing PDF editors. Besides restricting document access, WPS also lets you control editing and extraction permissions, which adds another layer of protection for sensitive files.

AI tools: WPS AI can summarize, translate, and answer questions about PDF documents directly inside the editor. I found the summarization tools especially useful when reviewing longer documents.

PDF reader: Nitro includes all the core viewing modes I expected, including single-page, facing pages, continuous view, and full-screen mode. The only feature I missed was a dark mode for reading PDFs.

PDF editing: This was one of Nitro’s strongest areas. Unlike many PDF editors, it lets you edit individual lines instead of selecting entire text blocks, making precise edits much easier. The image editor was equally impressive.

Annotations: Nitro includes everything I expect from a business PDF editor, including highlights, notes, callouts, stamps, drawings, shapes, and file attachments. These tools make reviewing and collaborating on PDF documents straightforward.

PDF forms and signatures: Nitro includes powerful form creation tools, automatic form detection, and Nitro Sign for complete e-signature workflows with audit trails and custom signing fields.

PDF organization: Nitro lets you reorder, rotate, delete, and manage pages without difficulty. That said, I would still prefer a drag-and-drop page view, which would make organizing large documents faster.

Security: Besides password protection and permission controls, Nitro PDF includes permanent redaction tools and AI-powered Smart Redaction that automatically detects sensitive information such as email addresses and financial data. This is one of the most capable document protection systems I’ve tested.

PDF conversion: Nitro quickly converts PDFs into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and image formats while preserving formatting. Its compression tools also reduced my test files by more than 50% without noticeably affecting quality.

Compress PDFs: Nitro also offers PDF compression features to strip unnecessary objects and compress images to the minimum size. Based on my testing, it worked well and reduced the files’ size by more than 50%.

OCR: OCR accuracy was excellent. Nitro converted scanned documents into editable PDFs in about 20–40 seconds while preserving the original layout surprisingly well.

AI tools: Nitro Assistant can summarize PDFs, answer questions, and extract information from tables and forms through the web version. Table Extract uses AI to automatically convert any PDF into a clean, organized Excel file. Form Extract automatically extracts names, dates, and key data points from PDF and turns into Excel-ready insights.

Admin Portal & Analytics:  One feature I didn’t find in many competing PDF editors is Nitro’s Admin Portal. It lets organizations manage licenses, control AI access, monitor adoption across teams, track ROI and sustainability savings. This is a must-have feature for IT Asset Managers and Digital Transformation buyers, and it is included in Nitro’s subscription while Foxit does not have such comprehensive capabilities.

PDF reader: PDNob covers all the essentials for reading PDF documents. Navigation was smooth, and I had no issues reviewing both short and lengthy files.

PDF editing: Editing PDFs was one of PDNob’s strongest areas. The drag-and-drop interface made it easy to move text and images, while adjusting fonts, formatting, backgrounds, watermarks, and other document elements only took a few clicks.

OCR: PDNob’s OCR performed very well during testing. It accurately recognized scanned documents and quickly converted them into editable files without requiring much manual correction.

PDF conversion: Converting PDFs to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, images, and other formats was consistently fast. Most conversions finished within seconds while preserving the original formatting surprisingly well.

Annotations: PDNob includes all the annotation tools I expected, including highlights, comments, and text markup. Similar to the editing tools, everything felt intuitive and required almost no learning curve.

PDF organization: Managing pages was straightforward. I could reorder, insert, rotate, split, and replace pages using simple drag-and-drop controls, making it easy to organize larger documents.

PDF compression: One feature I particularly appreciated was the PDF compression tool. Even when selecting higher-quality compression, it noticeably reduced file sizes without significantly affecting document quality.

Security: Password protection is flexible and easy to configure. Besides restricting document access, PDNob also lets you control what other users are allowed to do, such as printing or editing sensitive documents.

AI tools: PDNob offers an impressive collection of AI features. Besides summarizing documents, I could chat with PDFs, translate content, rewrite text, and ask the AI to explain complex sections directly inside the editor.

PDF reader: Smallpdf made reviewing PDF documents simple on both desktop and web. I could quickly zoom, navigate through pages, and organize files without running into any performance issues.

PDF editing: Editing PDFs felt intuitive thanks to the drag-and-drop interface. I could easily modify existing text, change fonts, resize text boxes, adjust formatting, and insert new text or images without much effort.

Annotations: Smallpdf includes all the annotation tools I expected, including highlights, comments, drawings, shapes, and text boxes. I also liked that it supports underline, strikethrough, and squiggly highlights for reviewing documents.

PDF organization: Organizing documents was one of Smallpdf’s stronger areas. I could merge, split, rotate, extract, and rearrange pages in just a few clicks, and it also supports working with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and image files alongside PDFs.

Forms and signatures: Creating electronic signatures was quick and straightforward. You can type, draw, or upload your signature, then resize and position it anywhere inside the document.

PDF conversion: Converting PDFs to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, images, and other formats worked reliably throughout my testing. Smallpdf also supports converting those file types back into PDFs.

OCR: The OCR tools accurately converted scanned PDFs and images into searchable and editable documents, making them useful for digitizing printed files.

Security: Besides password-protecting PDF files, Smallpdf also includes an Unlock tool for removing passwords from documents you already have permission to access, which can save time when managing protected files.

AI tools: Smallpdf offers several AI-powered features, including PDF summarization, translation, document chat, and question generation based on uploaded files. These tools made it easier to review longer documents without leaving the platform.

PDF reader: EaseUS PDF Editor offers a solid reading experience with multiple viewing layouts, including single-page and two-page modes. I also liked that it includes a dedicated reading mode for e-books, making longer documents more comfortable to review.

PDF editing: Editing PDFs was quick and intuitive. I could easily add, modify, or remove text with only a few clicks, and finding the editing tools never took more than a few seconds.

Annotations: EaseUS includes a complete set of annotation tools, including highlights, comments, callouts, shapes, stamps, and freehand drawing. I especially liked being able to customize highlight colors, which made reviewing documents much easier.

PDF organization: Managing pages was straightforward. I could reorder, extract, split, merge, and replace pages directly from the Page menu without running into any issues.

Forms and signatures: EaseUS makes it easy to create fillable PDF forms with text fields, checkboxes, and dropdown menus. Creating an electronic signature was equally simple, whether I chose to draw, type, or import it.

PDF conversion: The editor supports converting PDFs into more than ten file formats, including Word, Excel, and PNG. Most conversions finished in around 20–30 seconds during my testing and preserved the original formatting well.

OCR: OCR is one of EaseUS PDF Editor’s strongest features. It accurately recognized scanned documents and supports 29 languages, making it a reliable option if you frequently work with scanned PDFs.

Security: EaseUS offers more advanced document protection than many PDF editors I tested. Besides adding open and permission passwords, I could control whether others were allowed to view, copy, edit, or print documents. It also includes decryption tools and watermark management.

PDF compression: Compressing PDF files was fast and straightforward. I only needed to upload the file and choose the compression level, and the results were consistently good without a major loss in quality.

PDF reader: PDF Expert offers one of the most comfortable reading experiences I tested. Besides single-page and two-page layouts, it supports vertical and horizontal viewing modes, along with Day, Night, and Sepia themes that make reading long PDF documents much easier on the eyes.

PDF editing: Editing PDFs felt simple and intuitive. I could quickly add, replace, and resize both text and images, while inserting hyperlinks to external websites or other pages inside the document only took a few clicks.

Annotations: PDF Expert includes all the annotation tools I expected, including highlights, comments, drawings, shapes, and stickers. One feature I particularly liked was the ability to leave audio comments, which can save time when collaborating with teammates.

PDF organization: Managing pages was effortless. I could reorder, rotate, insert, delete, merge, and split PDF documents without any issues, making it easy to organize larger files.

Forms and signatures: PDF Expert supports both fillable forms and electronic signatures. I could create forms with text fields, checkboxes, and signature fields, while generating a signature by simply typing my name was surprisingly quick.

PDF conversion: Converting PDFs to and from Word, Excel, PowerPoint, JPG, PNG, and other formats worked reliably throughout my testing and preserved the formatting well.

OCR: The built-in OCR technology accurately recognized scanned text while preserving the original font style, which made editing scanned documents feel much more seamless.

Security: PDF Expert lets you password-protect sensitive documents in just a few clicks. While its security tools aren’t as extensive as some enterprise-focused PDF editors, they cover the needs of most individuals and small businesses.

AI tools: PDF Expert includes an AI assistant that can summarize PDF documents and extract the key points, making it useful when reviewing lengthy reports or research papers.

PDF reader: PDFgear offers a comfortable reading experience with single-page and two-page layouts, as well as an auto-scroll mode for reading longer documents. It felt very similar to using dedicated PDF readers like Foxit Reader or Adobe Reader.

PDF editing: While it doesn’t include as many editing tools as premium alternatives, PDFgear covers the features most people actually use. I could edit text, adjust fonts, change formatting, and modify existing content without any problems.

Annotations: PDFgear includes a well-rounded set of annotation tools, including highlights, underlines, strikethroughs, notes, text boxes, shapes, and freehand drawing. One feature I particularly liked was the ability to highlight specific areas of a page instead of only selected text.

PDF organization: Organizing PDF files was simple thanks to drag-and-drop page management. I could insert, extract, delete, rotate, and rearrange pages in just a few clicks.

Forms and signatures: PDFgear includes the essentials for filling forms and signing documents. Creating an electronic signature was quick, and I had no trouble adding it to PDF files during testing.

PDF conversion: The conversion tools support PDFs, Microsoft Office documents, and images in both directions. The process was straightforward and worked reliably throughout my testing.

OCR: The OCR feature is easy to access from the homepage and quickly converts scanned documents into editable text. It performed well on the documents I tested.

Security: PDFgear lets you password-protect PDF files, but its security features are fairly basic. Unlike some premium competitors, it doesn’t let you control editing or printing permissions in greater detail.

AI tools: One feature that surprised me was the AI Copilot. Besides chatting with PDF documents, it can also execute commands like converting files or password-protecting documents, making it more practical than a standard AI chatbot.