PDF Expert vs PDFgear
We give PDF Expert a 2.2 GPA and PDFgear a 3.4, out of 4.0. PDFgear grades higher on value for money, the free plan, features and platforms. They get the same grade on ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
PDF Expert
PDF reader and editor for Mac, iPhone and iPad from Readdle
How we grade them
| 2.2GPAPDF ExpertFair | 3.4GPAPDFgearVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CPremium is $79.99 a year and covers your Mac, iPhone and iPad in one go. That's right in the middle of what PDF editors charge: fair, nothing special. Business is $80 a seat a year. | ANothing to pay, and it edits existing text, converts, OCRs and has AI. The maker says investment pays for it, not ads or selling data. Hard to beat free for a full editor, though some advanced bits may become paid later. |
| Free plan and trial | CThe free app is genuinely useful: read, highlight, add notes, fill and sign forms. But editing text, converting, merging and the AI all need Premium. The 1-week trial runs through the App Store. | AEvery feature on every platform, with no signup, no ads and no caps on record. A free tool that edits text properly is rare in this category. |
| Features | CEdits text like a word processor, converts to Office, merges, compresses, redacts and measures drawings, with an AI assistant. The gaps: OCR is listed for the Mac only, and there's no form builder or sending for signature on record. | BEdits text, images and form fields like a word processor, batch-converts to Office, OCRs in 30-plus languages, annotates and has an AI copilot. It covers the whole job. Sending for signature is on eSignGear, its separate site. |
| Ease of use | B4.67 from 216,183 App Store ratings, a whisker off the top grade. It's an app you open and use, and it's made for marking up with an Apple Pencil on an iPad. | BNo store rating on record. No account to make and nothing to set up: install it and start editing. |
| Platforms and integrations | CMac, iPhone and iPad only. No Windows, no Android, no browser version, and no integrations on record. Lovely if you're all-in on Apple, no use if you're not. | BWindows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, the web and a browser extension. That's everywhere bar Linux, but integrations stop at ChatGPT and its own eSignGear, so no top grade. |
| Best for | PDF editing across a Mac, iPad and iPhone | a full PDF editor that costs nothing |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: PDF Expert and PDFgear. How we grade
Price against what you get
PDF Expert starts at $6.67 a month when paid by the year and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. PDFgear has no paid plan and scores 3.0.
PDFgear scores higher and starts $6.67 a month lower. Of the other PDF editors on the chart, 5 score higher than PDF Expert for less, and none scores higher than PDFgear for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- PDF Expert starts at $79.99 per year. PDFgear is free.
- Only PDFgear lists a web app.
- Only PDFgear lists Windows and Android apps.
- Only PDFgear lists a browser extension.
At a glance
| PDF Expert | PDFgear | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free |
| Starts at | $79.99 per year | Free |
| Free plan | The free app reads PDFs, highlights and marks them up, adds notes and stamps, and fills and signs forms; editing, converting and AI need Premium. | Every feature is free on every platform with no signup; the maker says it shows no ads, does not sell data and covers its costs with investment. |
| Free trial | 1-week free trial of Premium through the App Store | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Readdle | PDF Gear Tech Pte. Ltd. |
| Price read from | pdfexpert.com | pdfgear.com |
| Checked | Oct 18, 2026 | Oct 18, 2026 |
Who each one suits
PDF Expert
- Mac, iPad and iPhone users who want one subscription across all three
- iPad users who annotate PDFs with Apple Pencil
- Students and readers who mostly read, mark up and sign PDFs for free
PDFgear
- Anyone who wants a full PDF editor without paying or signing up
- Windows and Mac users replacing a paid editor for everyday edits
- People who want to ask questions of long PDFs with built-in AI
Worth knowing
PDF Expert
- Runs on Apple devices only: there is no Windows, Android or browser version.
- Editing, converting, merging, compressing, redaction and PDF Copilot all need Premium; the free app reads, annotates and signs.
- The education discount is stated as 30% off the annual plan in one place on the pricing page and as 50% in another.
- The Mac App Store also sells an in-app purchase named PDF Expert for $139.99 without saying what it covers; pdfexpert.com does not list it.
PDFgear
- PDFgear says most features will stay free but some advanced options, such as cloud AI tools and special conversions, may become paid.
- Some advanced conversions upload files to its Amazon cloud servers; the maker says they are deleted straight after processing.
- There is no Linux version; the apps cover Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android.
- It is a young product: the first version came out in 2022.
Key features
PDF Expert
- Text and image editing
- Premium edits text in a PDF much like a word processor, adds, replaces and resizes images, and adds links and outlines.
- Convert, merge and compress
- Creates PDFs from Word files and images, converts PDFs to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, images and text, and merges, splits and shrinks files.
- Annotate, fill and sign
- Highlight, draw, add notes, stamps and audio notes, and fill and sign forms, including AcroForms and static XFA forms, in the free app.
- PDF Copilot
- Premium's AI assistant lists main points, summarizes, answers questions with references and explains words or phrases in a document.
- OCR and scan clean-up
- Recognizes text in scanned documents on Mac, and an AI Enhance feature removes shadows and distortion from scans.
- Measuring and redaction
- Scale and measure drawings with polygon, polyline and redline tools, and permanently black out sensitive text.
PDFgear
- Text and image editing
- Edits existing text, images, shapes, links, signatures and fillable form fields in a PDF, much like a word processor.
- Batch conversion
- Converts between PDF and Word, Excel, PowerPoint, text and images, with a batch mode for many files at once.
- OCR
- Pulls text out of scanned pages and turns scans into editable Word or text files, in more than 30 languages.
- AI copilot
- Answers questions about a document and summarizes it; the maker says it pays for the ChatGPT API behind it from its own funding.
- Annotation
- Highlight, underline and strike through text, and add notes, comments, stamps, shapes and text boxes.
- Online tools and eSignGear
- Browser tools for editing, merging, splitting, compressing and signing, plus eSignGear, a separate site for sending documents for e-signature.
Plans
PDF Expert
Free$0
Read, annotate, fill and sign PDFs on Mac, iPhone and iPad.
Premium$79.99
per year
Edit text, images and links, convert, OCR, merge and compress, redact, translate and PDF Copilot, on iPhone, iPad and Mac, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Business$80
per seat / year, before tax
Premium for teams bought online, each seat covering up to 3 devices, with a Business Manager to add, remove and reassign seats.
PDFgear
PDFgear$0
Editing, conversion, OCR, signing and the AI copilot on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and the web, with no account needed.
Ways to pay less
PDF Expert
- Education
Discount for students and educators
Verifying a school email on the pricing page sends a discount on the annual plan, given there as 30% and also as 50%; the App Store lists an education purchase at $39.99.
PDFgear
No public discounts listed.
