The Best Free PDF Editors Online in 2023

Sticking with online editors, PDF Escape might have a weird name, but it also boasts some decent features on the free tier. Like PDF Candy, you upload documents to the web and work from there. It’s a little less powerful, but this is due to there being paid tiers which naturally keep some of the more useful tools back. That being said, you can still get a lot done for free. 

The workspace is similar to that of PDF Candy, in that the tools are on the left and the page layout is in the central pane. You can select from three types of features – Insert, Annotate, and Page. As these suggest, each section has tools for certain types of jobs. Insert allows for text, images, hotlinks and other elements to be added to the document. Annotate is where you’ll find the highlighting, underlining, notes and similar things. While Page gives you the ability to reorder, reorientate, crop and append the pages within the PDF. 

There’s a 10MB file size limit on the free tier though, and you can’t digitally sign a document, unless you’re really good with the freehand pencil option or have an image of one that you can upload. There’s also no option to edit the existing text or images in a PDF, convert to Word formats or redact information without moving up to one of the paid tiers. That will cost you $5.99 per month or $35.88 per year for Premium (around £4.80 and £29), or $8.99 per month ($71.88 per year) for Ultimate. That’s around £7 and £58 if you’re in the UK, although you’ll pay in dollars. Ultimate allows for digitally signing and sealing of a document as well as the redaction tool. 

PDF Escape isn’t as good as PDF Candy (we saw a few glitches while testing it) and lacks some of features. Still, it’s does have some good tools and, since it’s free, is another option if PDF Candy doesn’t do what you want it to. 

Sticking with online editors, PDF Escape might have a weird name, but it also boasts some decent features on the free tier. Like PDF Candy, you upload documents to the web and work from there. It’s a little less powerful, but this is due to there being paid tiers which naturally keep some of the more useful tools back. That being said, you can still get a lot done for free. 

The workspace is similar to that of PDF Candy, in that the tools are on the left and the page layout is in the central pane. You can select from three types of features – Insert, Annotate, and Page. As these suggest, each section has tools for certain types of jobs. Insert allows for text, images, hotlinks and other elements to be added to the document. Annotate is where you’ll find the highlighting, underlining, notes and similar things. While Page gives you the ability to reorder, reorientate, crop and append the pages within the PDF. 

There’s a 10MB file size limit on the free tier though, and you can’t digitally sign a document, unless you’re really good with the freehand pencil option or have an image of one that you can upload. There’s also no option to edit the existing text or images in a PDF, convert to Word formats or redact information without moving up to one of the paid tiers. That will cost you $5.99 per month or $35.88 per year for Premium (around £4.80 and £29), or $8.99 per month ($71.88 per year) for Ultimate. That’s around £7 and £58 if you’re in the UK, although you’ll pay in dollars. Ultimate allows for digitally signing and sealing of a document as well as the redaction tool. 

PDF Escape isn’t as good as PDF Candy (we saw a few glitches while testing it) and lacks some of features. Still, it’s does have some good tools and, since it’s free, is another option if PDF Candy doesn’t do what you want it to.