# Drawboard PDF review (2026): is the free plan enough? > PDF markup app with pressure-sensitive ink and measurement tools Checked Nov 13, 2026 ยท graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA. Drawboard PDF is a markup and annotation app for PDFs, aimed at architects, engineers, builders and students who review drawings and documents. The essentials are free, and paid Pro plans add measurement, redaction, OCR and more cloud storage. A separate product, Drawboard Projects, handles team design reviews. - **Category:** PDF Editors - **Made by:** Drawboard Pty Ltd - **Website:** https://www.drawboard.com/ - **Runs on:** Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android - **Who should skip it:** Tight if you stay free, because it holds 10 cloud documents of 40 MB each. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 13, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 13, 2026, Drawboard PDF has a free plan, and paid plans start at $83.92 per year (Pro Plus). - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **Free plan:** Essential markup tools plus Store+Share with 10 cloud documents (40 MB limit per document) and unlimited contributors. - **Free trial:** 7-day free trial of any Pro plan; Windows and iOS ask for a credit card up front. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Free | $0 | Text review, digital ink, shapes, signatures, bookmarks, search and page insert, rotate and delete. | | Pro Plus | $83.92 per user / year, price shown as the usual rate | More tools and cloud space for regular reviewers. Students and educators pay $10 once for 3 years. | | Pro Unlimited | $159.99 per user / year, price shown as the usual rate | Unlimited cloud documents. Students and educators pay $20 once for 3 years. | Read from https://www.drawboard.com/pricing on Nov 13, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Drawboard PDF before buying. ## Ways to pay less - **3 years of Pro for a one-off $10 or $20** (Education): Students, teachers and school staff with a school email pay $10 for Pro Plus or $20 for Pro Unlimited, valid for 3 years, with no renewal. Source: https://www.drawboard.com/pricing ## Key features - **Pen-style ink and text markup:** Pressure-sensitive digital ink, highlight, underline and strikethrough, with touch and stylus support (Surface, Apple Pencil) or a mouse. - **Measurement:** Pro tools include calibrated length, rectangular area and polygon area measurements on drawings. - **Store+Share:** Upload annotated PDFs to the cloud and mark them up with others in real time. Reviewers do not need a paid plan. - **Redaction, OCR and signatures:** Pro adds redaction, OCR, unlimited signatures, custom templates and a text review export. - **Page tools:** Insert, rotate and delete pages, merge and split documents, and flatten annotations to export or shrink a file. - **Team licence admin:** An Admin Portal lets a team buy more licences, disable users and manage billing in one place. ## Good for - Architects, engineers and builders marking up drawings - Students and teachers taking handwritten notes on PDFs - Stylus users on Surface or iPad ## Worth knowing - Paid features are subscription-only; the pricing FAQ says there is no one-time purchase except the 3-year education offer. - The pricing page shows Pro Plus and Pro Unlimited individual rates only as the usual yearly rates in the education block. - Drawboard Projects is a separate team product, $29 per user a month (Team) or $39 (Growth), $22.50 and $30.83 billed yearly. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.6 out of 4**, graded Nov 13, 2026. Drawboard PDF is a markup app for PDFs, aimed at architects, engineers and students, with the essentials free and Pro plans from $83.92 a year. Measurement, redaction, OCR and more storage are on the paid plans, and there is no one-time purchase except a 3-year education offer. - **Value for money: C.** Pro Plus is $83.92 a year, about $7 a month, which is inside the middle of the PDF category at $7.99. Pro Unlimited is $159.99 a year. - **Free plan and trial: B.** Essential markup tools and 10 cloud documents of up to 40 MB are free for good, which one person can live on. The paid trial is 7 days. - **Features: C.** Ink and text markup, measurement, redaction, OCR, signatures and page tools. It is a markup app, so editing the text of a PDF is not what it is for. - **Ease of use: C.** No store rating is on record, and an app built around pen markup and drawing scales takes a little learning. - **Platforms and integrations: A.** Windows, Mac, iPhone, Android and web, with Revit, Procore and Autodesk Forma links, so it covers every device type. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Drawboard's own pages on 13 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among PDF editors - Drawboard PDF's GPA of 2.6 is higher than 20 of the 45 other PDF editors we grade, and level with 10. - It stands best on platforms and integrations (A, above 40 of 45) and worst on features (C, above 2). - Its paid plans start at $6.99 a month when paid by the year, against a middle price of $7.99 for the category: 12 of the 26 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.7 out of 4. 6 tools score higher and cost less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/pdf-editors ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** The plain part of Drawboard PDF you could make: documents. What surrounds it you could not. The 5 things listed below take a company, not a weekend. It costs $83.92 a year. - You could make: Documents: an app builder makes this well. - You could not: Editing the text inside a PDF without breaking its layout. - You could not: Storing and serving files for other people. - You could not: Apps for macOS, Windows, iOS and Android that stay in step with each other. - You could not: Several people working in it at the same moment. - You could not: Hooks into the device itself: Apple Pencil. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## What people say - **App Store rating of the iPhone and iPad app:** 4.8 out of 5 from 2,028 ratings in the United States, read Nov 13, 2026. This is the store's rating of the app, not a score from ToolGPA. Source: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1086503728 ## Works with Revit, Procore, Autodesk Forma **Tags:** PDF editing, Real-time collaboration, File sharing, Documents ## Alternatives - [PDF Expert](https://toolgpa.com/tools/pdf-expert): PDF reader and editor for Mac, iPhone and iPad from Readdle. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/drawboard-pdf-vs-pdf-expert) - [Xodo](https://toolgpa.com/tools/xodo): PDF tools on web, desktop and mobile, sold separately or as a suite. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/drawboard-pdf-vs-xodo) - [Bluebeam Revu](https://toolgpa.com/tools/bluebeam-revu): PDF markup, takeoff and drawing review software for construction. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bluebeam-revu-vs-drawboard-pdf) - [PDF Annotator](https://toolgpa.com/tools/pdf-annotator): Windows PDF markup and note-taking app sold as a perpetual license. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/drawboard-pdf-vs-pdf-annotator) - [Foxit PDF Editor](https://toolgpa.com/tools/foxit): PDF editor for Windows, Mac and web, yearly or as a one-time license. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/drawboard-pdf-vs-foxit) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026: - https://www.drawboard.com/ - https://www.drawboard.com/pricing - https://www.drawboard.com/pdf Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/drawboard-pdf Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).