Compare
Online PDF editors compared: edit existing PDF text
Six editors on one job: changing the words already in a PDF. Free or paid, limits, scans, retention — including what EasyEditPDF cannot do.
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PDFs under 5 MiB (25 MiB on Pro), up to 100 pages. No sign-up needed to try.
| Feature | EasyEditPDF | Smallpdf | iLovePDF | Sejda | Adobe Acrobat | PDF24 Tools |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edit existing PDF text | Yes, free. Downloading the edited PDF needs a free account with a confirmed email address. | Yes, on the paid Pro plan (with a 7-day free trial). The free account can add text, images, highlights and drawings. | Yes, on the free plan: “Select text to edit, move, or delete the existing content.” | Yes, on the free plan: “Click any existing text to start editing.” Not in scanned documents. | Not in the free online editor (“does not let you edit existing body text”). Yes in the paid plans, on the desktop and in the browser. | Not offered: its editor adds text, images and drawings on top of the page, and to change the existing text it suggests converting the PDF to Word. |
| Free limits | Files under 5 MiB and up to 100 pages; 3 exports a month on a free account. | A daily task and download limit; the number is not stated on the pricing page. File size and page limits not stated. | Edit PDF takes up to 100 MB and one file per task. A daily task count and a page limit are not stated. | Up to 200 pages or 50 MB per document and 3 tasks per hour, with no sign-up required. | Without signing in, most online tools allow one free transaction; signed-in free users get one premium-tool transaction every 30 days. Files up to 100 MB. | Free, with no registration and “no artificial limits”; no file-size or page limit is stated. |
| Scanned PDFs (OCR) | No. Scanned pages cannot be edited. | Yes, on Pro. | Yes, including on the free plan (smaller files); OCR conversion to Word or Excel needs Premium. | Yes; free users up to 10 pages per OCR task, paid plans up to 100. | Yes: a free online OCR tool, and the desktop app runs OCR when you edit a scan. | Yes, free. |
| Platforms | In a desktop browser with nothing to install. Not on phones or touch-screen tablets. | In the browser with nothing to install, plus mobile apps for Android and iOS. | In the browser with nothing to install; desktop and mobile apps on Premium. | In the browser with nothing to install; a separate desktop app is part of the annual plan. | Desktop app, mobile apps and the browser. | In the browser with nothing to install, plus an offline Windows application (PDF24 Creator). |
| File retention | Files uploaded without an account are kept for one day from upload; on a free account, kept for 7 days from upload, or from when the file moved into your account. Backups are covered in the privacy policy. | Files used with the free tools are deleted after one hour; files in an account are kept until you delete them. | Processed files are deleted within two hours. | Files are deleted automatically after two hours. | Files uploaded without signing in are deleted “within a short time period” (no duration given); signed-in files are kept in Adobe cloud storage. | Files are deleted from its servers after one hour. |
Checked against each product’s own pages on . Plans and limits change; prices are left to their sites. Product names are trademarks of their owners; EasyEditPDF is not affiliated with them.
Not sure which to use? Best online PDF editors, by situation.
One on one
EasyEditPDF vs Smallpdfchanging text on a paid plan, alongside OCR and mobile appsEasyEditPDF vs iLovePDFchanging text for free in larger files, with an OCR tool for scansEasyEditPDF vs Sejdachanging text for free without an account, three tasks an hourEasyEditPDF vs Adobe Acrobatscanned PDFs, with OCR when you edit a scan, on a paid planEasyEditPDF vs PDF24 Toolswriting on top of pages and OCR, all free
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PDFs under 5 MiB (25 MiB on Pro), up to 100 pages. No sign-up needed to try.