What Is PDFgear? & Its Highlight Features
PDFgear is a multi-platform PDF solution with desktop apps for Windows and Mac, a mobile app for iOS, and online services. The Android version is under development. Its high compatibility enables you to handle PDFs on any device.
The PDFgear website tells the company PDF GEAR TECH PTE. LTD. produced the software. It is a free PDF management tool that doesn’t require account creation or watermarking your output. The software is not open source as it doesn’t provide a link to the source code.
There are over 40 features in total in the program, including:
- PDFgear Copilot (Windows, Mac, and iPhone - Not available online currently): AI assistant and chatbot powered by ChatGPT used to summarize, explain, translate, rewrite, and chat with PDF files and handle PDF tasks;
- Redact PDF to remove sensitive information (only for Mac);
- Edit existing text in PDFs like changing font and altering images, watermarks, and other objects or elements;
- Add text, pictures, watermarks, page numbers, stamps, and electronic signatures (cannot add digital signatures) to a PDF;
- Fill out fillable forms by adding check marks to the PDFs, inserting cross marks and other symbols;
- Light, eye protection, and dark modes for viewing PDFs;
- OCR a PDF to extract the text from scans;
- Compress, convert, merge, split and protect PDFs;
PDFgear is suitable for personal and commercial use for students or business professionals. However, you should be aware of the differences between the desktop, mobile, and web versions.
Desktop app (free download for Windows PCs & Macs): a complete set of PDF tools.
iOS portable app: lacks some features, such as modifying the original text.
Online PDF editor: It has annotation but no text editing function or AI feature.
Is PDFgear Safe?
So far, PDFgear has been reviewed by users and is safe to download and use. In case of any danger, you’d better download the software app from official sources like the office website or app stores. The owner doesn't guarantee security if you download it from third-party sources. The software has gained a positive rating on Trustpilot, which indicates its safety.
As one of the best PDF editors, PDFgear apps have gone through virus tests and checks with antivirus engines. The scan test reports show the app doesn't include potential malware, or malicious programs, viruses, worms, or other risks. The software is issued with an eligible publisher certificate.
Regarding privacy and security issues for the web version, the developers adopt end-to-end encryption technology for file transmission to prevent data leakage. They design the website to delete files from the servers in a certain period automatically. The online software’s user interface is clean and has no disturbing ads.
Is PDFgear Legit and Free?
PDFgear is legit and issued by the SSL.com EV Code Signing Intermediate CA RSA R3 authority used by SSL.com. According to the posts on pdfgear.com, the software is free to use but will not always be free. According to a person from the software team, it is a newcomer in the PDF editor market and is offered for free to earn its user base and improve the brand. It can also receive feedback from users for making future subscription plans.
So, the PDFgear PDF editor is planned to charge for some advanced features. Those paid features might include AI-powered tools and powerful PDF conversion and editing features. The time to charge has not been scheduled yet. At present, you can enjoy all its capabilities without cost.
PDFgear Review: Is It Good?
PDFgear has been reviewed on several major review sites, such as Trustpilot, Product Hunt, and G2. It has been rated a nice score. Here are its pros and cons to see the outstanding parts, performance, and key points.
Pros
- Integration with AI bot for reading and analyzing PDFs;
- A collection of the most used tools to edit and convert PDF documents;
- Free, no ads, no sign-up;
- There is no learning curve to use with a simple workflow and clear layout.
Cons
- No cloud service for file sync between devices;
- Multiple PDFs in separate windows, difficult to switch;
- Spot bugs like page scrolling isn't smooth.
How to Use PDFgear
This part gives an example of how to install and use the PDFgear app, a great alternative to Adobe Acrobat, to edit a PDF on a computer.
Step 1: Navigate to the pdfgear.com website and click the Free Download button;
Step 2: Open the Downloads option of the browser to click the .exe file, and allow the prompted actions to proceed;
Step 3: Select the interface language to continue, and choose to launch the software after setting up;
Step 4: Open your PDF from the initial interface of the PDF editing software;
Step 5: Go to the Edit tab > Edit Text tool, and start changing the text present in the file;
Step 5: Use other editing tools like Add Image, Link, Header & Footer, or Signature to make further edits;
Step 6: When done, click the Save as button to save the updates.
Best PDFgear Alternative - Deal with PDF Documents Effortlessly
Perhaps you are trying PDFgear out or in the market for its top alternative, then SwifDoo PDF, Adobe Acrobat Pro, and some other PDF editors and converter software are the options. They share similar rich features. SwifDoo PDF is a leading cost-effective and user-friendly choice.
SwifDoo PDF empowers you to:
- Edit and manage large PDF documents such as ebooks, legal contracts, research papers, etc, without lags;
- Latest GPT-4 powered AI PDF reader for PDF chatting, summarizing, translating, rewriting, and proofreading;
- View PDFs in many day and night modes and read them aloud by TTS, which PDFgear can’t do;
- Annotate PDFs with highlights, notes, lines, shapes, and other markups;
- Convert PDFs, including scanned PDFs, to various formats with OCR;
- Organize pages like adding, inserting, merging, and rotating;
- PDF redaction, digital signature creation, password protection;
- Perform PDF tasks quickly in an intuitive UI without navigating through many menus;
- Affordable and one-stop solution for all your PDF editing needs.
This PDFgear PDF editor alternative is full of pro-level tools but only half the cost of Acrobat.
PDFgear VS Adobe Acrobat VS SwifDoo PDF
The table below compares PDFgear and its alternatives in main aspects, including ability and performance.
|
Software/Feature |
Edit PDF |
Convert PDF |
Annotate PDF |
Arrange Pages |
Sign PDF |
Ease of Use |
Smoothness |
Subscription |
|
SwifDoo PDF |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
E-sign and digitally sign PDFs |
Yes |
Yes |
Free trial without watermark or limitation |
|
PDFgear |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Only e-sign |
Yes |
No |
Free but premium later |
|
Adobe Acrobat |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
E-sign and digitally sign PDFs |
A bit complicated |
A bit slow due to the heavy program |
US$239.88/yr |
Conclusion
The headache of processing PDFs is now history. Say goodbye to expensive and hard-to-learn PDF editors and meet the energy saver – PDFgear. This all-around PDFgear review guides you through the important factors of the software for you to pick it or not. If you are also looking for a best-valued subscription PDF application, try SwifDoo PDF.