PDF Expert Review 2025 | Is it REALLY the best for Mac Users?

Is PDF Expert better than Adobe Acrobat Pro? Probably this is your first question, right?

Don’t worry, as in this PDF Expert review, I will share every important detail that you should know about this PDF editor, including whether it is better than Adobe Acrobat and if it is the tool you are looking for.

I will guide you through the key features, user interface, my experience, pricing, and pros and cons to give some insights into whether this PDF editing software is worth its price.

This year, I tested 30+ PDF editors on the market to find the best ones. So, besides revealing if PDF Expert is better than Adobe Acrobat Pro, I will give you more.

In this article, I will share an honest PDF Expert review to see if it is among the top PDF tools I have tested so far, and ultimately save you the time and money of testing it for yourself.

Let’s dive in!

What is PDF Expert?

Readdle’s PDF Expert is a PDF editor for Mac, iPhone, and iPad users. It offers all the tools you need to manage your PDF files, from annotation tools to signing PDFs.

PDF Expert allows synchronization of documents across all Apple devices, so you can work on the same file on Mac, iPhone, and iPad — as long as it’s stored in a supported cloud service and connected on each device.

It has more than 30 million users worldwide, and I read numerous positive user reports on Reddit. But are these positive comments justified?

Stay here, and we will find out soon!

Key Features

Let’s dive into PDF Expert’s key features!

PDF reading

PDF Expert offers advanced PDF reading features. That said, you can choose between single-page and two-page layout options, and utilize its split view to review or read two PDF files next to each other.

In addition, you can pick three themes for maximum eye comfort, such as day, night, or sepia modes, which makes reading on your iPad, iPhone, or Mac more convenient. If you read books or large PDFs on multiple devices, your bookmarks will follow you — provided the file is saved in and accessed via the same cloud-storage account on each device.

I noticed that when reading multiple PDF files at once, PDF Expert is a pretty fast PDF editor with minimal loading time. Compared to Adobe Acrobat Pro, it really impressed me, and I noticed a significant contrast between these two PDF editors.

Edit PDFs

Editing PDFs with PDF Expert was smooth and easy to learn. If you click on the edit tab above, you will access PDF Expert’s PDF editing features.

Using its tools, you can edit existing text, but you can also add new text boxes. Regardless of whether you are editing your existing text box or creating a new one, you can choose from many font types, sizes, colors, and more.

Furthermore, you can add new images to your PDF pages with PDF Expert. You only need to drag and drop the picture to insert it, and you can change its position and size easily.

Lastly, you can crop pages with PDF Expert, which is a helpful feature if you scan documents and want to remove unnecessary parts of the pages.

Overall, PDF Expert offers simple, yet extremely effective PDF editing features, and I was satisfied with its tools during my testing.

Annotate PDF documents

During my PDF Expert review, I wanted to take a closer look at its annotation tools to see what it can offer for users like me who deal with a lot of client files.

Spoiler: I was satisfied.

If you click on the annotate tab on the top toolbar, you will see PDF Expert’s powerful features to add notes, insert stamps, highlight text, and more. If you select one of the options, most of the time, you have further tools to customize it, such as selecting the color of your notes.

PDF Expert allows you to add links, shapes, strikethrough text, and more. I particularly loved how flexible and simple it is to make annotations with this PDF editor.

PDF Expert functions effectively with a pen for annotations and handwriting, so you can utilize your Apple Pencil here.

Ultimately, PDF Expert has all the tools you need to annotate your PDF files.

Organizing PDFs

Another useful feature of PDF Expert is its organization tools. You can insert, rotate, copy, and extract pages with a few clicks. Also, if you drag and drop the page image, you can quickly reorder the pages in your PDF.

In the course of my PDF Expert review, I found that this is an easy-to-use tool for organizing and structuring your pages in a PDF document.

PDF form filling and signatures

It offers some essential features to work with forms. That said, PDF Expert supports the automatic detection of form fields in PDF forms.

But honestly, it is primarily a tool for filling out and signing forms, rather than creating fillable forms from scratch, as you only have a few options. I loved that PDF Expert allows me to fill out PDF forms easily by clicking on the fields.

When it comes to signing documents, you can create your signature with a few clicks. You can generate it by typing your name on the keyboard, using your mouse, or inserting its image. If you have an Apple Pencil, it can be quite useful for this feature.

Once you have it, you can sign documents with a few clicks by simply dragging and dropping your signature into the section of the page you need to sign.

PDF protection and redaction

If you are dealing with sensitive documents, you will love PDF Expert’s protection and redaction tools. Let’s start with creating the password!

To add a password, you only need to go to File, select Set Password, enter and confirm the new password, and then click Set. For both Mac and iOS users, you can also find this option in the Tools tab under the Protect category.

Just a quick note: if you forget the password, you cannot recover it, so make sure you choose one you will remember.

PDF Expert has redaction tools as well, so you can erase or blackout specific areas of your content that you want to share with others.

Overall, it is a useful feature for Apple users who handle sensitive documents at work.

OCR feature

Using PDF Expert’s optical character recognition feature, you can edit scanned documents. To use this feature, click on the Scan & OCR tab in the toolbar and select Recognize Text.

Normally, PDF Expert detects the language automatically, but you can correct the language from the dropdown menu. Based on my experience, it offers quite accurate OCR, particularly if we compare it to Adobe Acrobat.

Related article:

• 6 Best OCR Software For 2025 | 30+ Personally Tested Tools

Converting PDFs

You can convert PDFs into Microsoft Office formats, plain text, or image files. For me, it took around 10-15 seconds to convert the PDF file, and the output was always accurate.

To wrap it up, I was satisfied with the conversion features when testing PDF Expert.

Compressing PDF files

With PDF Expert, you can compress files on your Mac, iPhone, and iPad as well. Just click on the File and select the Reduce File Size option, and PDF Expert will optimize the file so you can share it more easily via email.

Personally, I appreciated this feature during my PDF Expert review, as I send and receive numerous PDF documents via email, and if they include pictures and long text, I sometimes struggle to share them with others. 

But not with PDF Expert.

PDF Copilot

Readdle’s PDF Expert includes a built-in AI Assistant that helps you efficiently navigate, translate, summarize, and analyze large PDF files directly within the app, although it is still in beta phase.

The PDF Copilot feature is valuable for those who work frequently with long PDF documents and want to get key insights quickly. PDF Expert’s PDF Copilot analyzes documents in a few seconds and summarizes and extracts key points, so you don’t have to go through the whole document.

PDF Expert user interface

PDF Expert has an intuitive interface overall. You can easily navigate its pages, and you will quickly find the relevant features you need for your Apple devices.

With its home page, you can access all the tools you need to manipulate PDF files, and you only need to drag and drop the document you want to work with.

My experience with PDF Expert

PDF Expert is a straightforward, fast, and reliable PDF editor for Apple devices. I mostly used its Mac version, and I was 100% satisfied with what I saw. While it offers numerous tools for your PDF documents, I did not feel that it was overwhelming.

Compared to Adobe Acrobat Pro, it’s not only substantially cheaper, but also feels that it has more accessible PDF editing features, and offers a much better experience performance-wise. That said, I did not have to wait long when opening large PDF documents; there were no crashes, and so on.

Additionally, PDF Expert has an intuitive, user-friendly interface that is often simpler than Adobe Acrobat’s more complex design. For me, these are the most crucial aspects when ranking PDF editors.

So, if you are considering whether to choose PDF Expert or Adobe Acrobat Pro, my obvious answer is PDF Expert, especially if you work within the Apple ecosystem.

PDF Expert pricing

PDF Expert has two paid plans besides the free version.

That said, PDF Expert offers a yearly subscription plan for $79.99 (that is only $6.67 per month). PDF Expert also provides a lifetime license for a one-time payment of $139.99, but it only allows use on Mac and not on mobile devices. 

Another key difference between the yearly and lifetime licenses is how updates are handled. The lifetime license includes free bug fixes and continuous support, with the flexibility to add future major features as an optional paid upgrade if desired.

Readdle’s PDF Expert offers a fully functional 7-day free trial to test all presented features and decide whether they can be a great fit for your needs. Also, a 30-day money-back guarantee is available for users who purchase a subscription to PDF Expert but change their minds.

Compared to Adobe Acrobat Pro, PDF Expert’s yearly plan is almost three times cheaper.

Just a heads-up: PDF Expert offers a 30% evergreen discount for the annual plan for students and educators.

Pros and cons I discovered during my PDF Expert review

After my PDF Expert review, I found these pros and cons you should know about this PDF software.

PDF Expert’s pros

Cons of PDF Expert

PDF Expert alternatives

If you feel like PDF Expert is not the perfect one for you, here are the best alternatives:

• Xodo PDF Studio: Xodo PDF Studio is a straightforward offline desktop PDF editor for Windows, Linux, and iOS devices. I particularly loved its PDF reading and editing tools.
• UPDF: One of my favorite PDF editors with advanced AI features and budget-friendly pricing.
• Foxit: A fast PDF editor with an intuitive user interface at an affordable price for Mac and Windows users.
• Nitro: A feature-rich PDF editor with a strong focus on PDF editing.
• PDF Element: An easy-to-use PDF editor with valuable features for a reasonable price.
• Adobe Acrobat: The most popular PDF editor with solid features, but an extremely high price.

Wrap-up: PDF Expert review

To summarize my experience with PDF Expert, it is a worthwhile investment for Apple users, and I believe it is the top PDF editor designed for Mac.

Readdle’s PDF Expert found the right balance between simplicity and a toolset. While it has many advanced features, you will not be overwhelmed with them.

No wonder it made it to my list of best PDF editors as the number one pick for Apple users.

Related articles:

• The 8 Best Adobe Acrobat Alternatives: 30+ PDF Editors Tested
• The 6 Best PDF Readers For 2025 (Only FREE Options)

Hope I was able to help you find the best PDF editor for you. As always, I will update this PDF Expert review over time so you guys have up-to-date information about this PDF software.

Why you can trust our reviews

At thebusinessdive.com, our team tests, reviews, and compares hundreds of productivity apps every year — from project management tools to note-taking apps. We dive deep into real-world use cases to help you find the right tools that actually improve your workflow, not just add noise.

Our mission? No fluff, no shortcuts—just honest, hands-on insights from productivity pros.

Have a question or suggestion? I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to reach out anytime at aronkantor@thebusinessdive.com.

Frequently asked questions

Is PDF Expert better than Adobe?

PDF Expert is more budget-friendly, has a clearer interface, and feels lighter in day-to-day use than Adobe Acrobat Pro. However, you need to know that PDF Expert is exclusively available on Apple devices, while Adobe Acrobat can be accessed on a wider range of platforms.

If you want to learn more about these PDF editors, check out this article: Adobe Acrobat Vs PDF Expert: A Honest Comparison (2025)

Is PDF Expert free to use?

Although PDF Expert has a free plan, you need to buy its annual or lifetime plans to access the advanced features like PDF editing or document signing.

How much is a PDF Expert?

You can get PDF Expert’s yearly plan for $79.99/year. Alternatively, you can purchase the lifetime plan for a one-time payment of $139.99.

Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself, and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that, at no additional cost to you, may earn a small commission. Read the full privacy policy here.