What Is the Best App for Creating PDFs in 2026: 10 Apps Compared

Adobe Acrobat is our pick for most people who create PDFs every week, because it covers almost every job in one app. You can create PDFs from Word, Excel, images, and scans, edit text and images inside a PDF, convert PDFs back to Office formats, and collect signatures without a separate tool. OCR turns scanned pages into searchable, editable text, which matters for contracts and reports.

The cost is the main drawback. Acrobat Pro is listed at $19.99 per month on an annual plan billed monthly, and the interface can feel crowded with upsells for extra features. A 7-day free trial lets you test it, but there is no permanent free plan for full editing. If you create PDFs daily for work, Acrobat is worth it. If you create one a month, a free tool below will do the same basic job.

PDF Expert is the best PDF app for people who live in Apple's ecosystem. It is fast on Mac, iPad, and iPhone, it supports Apple Pencil markup on iPad, and it lets you create PDFs from Word files, images, and other documents, then merge, split, or compress them. Reading, annotating, filling, and signing all happen in one clean app.

The limit is platform. PDF Expert does not offer a Windows or Android version, so it is not a fit for mixed-device households or offices. Advanced editing and OCR features also sit behind Premium, with pricing shown on its site and a lifetime option listed in some offers. For Mac and iOS users who create PDFs often, PDF Expert feels lighter and faster than Acrobat.

Foxit PDF Editor is the closest desktop alternative to Acrobat for many office users. It creates PDFs from Office files, images, and scans, edits text and images, converts PDFs to other formats, and supports signing and form filling. Pricing starts at $10.99 per user per month on an annual plan, with a perpetual license also listed, which appeals to buyers who dislike subscriptions.

Foxit is not quite as polished as Acrobat in every corner, and its interface can feel busy when you open advanced tools. A 14-day free trial gives you time to test it on your real documents. If you need a full desktop PDF editor for daily work but want to pay less than Acrobat, Foxit is the first alternative to try.

Nitro PDF Pro suits office teams that want a familiar, Office-like PDF editor. It creates PDFs from many file types, edits text and pages, converts PDFs to Word and Excel, and handles signing and forms. Pricing is listed at $15 per user per month on an annual plan, with a one-time Pro license also advertised, which gives teams a choice between subscription and purchase.

Nitro is desktop-first, so it is less handy for quick phone or browser jobs than Smallpdf or iLovePDF. There is no meaningful free online tier, and a free trial is the way to test it. If your team works on Windows desktops and creates PDFs from Office documents all day, Nitro's familiar layout makes training easier than a more complex tool.

PDFelement from Wondershare is a full desktop PDF editor with creation, editing, OCR, conversion, and form tools, plus AI features for summarizing and working with documents. Annual pricing starts at $79.99 per year, with a perpetual license listed at $129.99 one-time in some comparisons, which makes it attractive for buyers who want to pay once and keep the software.

The free trial is watermarked, so it is useful for testing but not for finished work. The interface packs in many tools, which can feel crowded at first. For users who want Acrobat-style features with a one-time purchase path, PDFelement is a strong middle option between free tools and a full Acrobat subscription.

Smallpdf is the easiest browser option for occasional PDF creation. You open the site, choose a tool, drop in a file, and download a PDF, with no software to install. It covers creation from Word and images, merging, splitting, compressing, and converting, and the interface is clear enough for first-time users. Pro is listed at $10 per month when billed annually.

The free tier limits how many tasks you can do per day, so it suits occasional use rather than bulk work. Large files can also be slow, since they must upload to Smallpdf's servers. For a quick PDF from a laptop or a shared computer, Smallpdf is the bookmark to keep. For daily bulk work, a desktop app will be faster and more private.

iLovePDF is a friendly browser toolkit for creating and working with PDFs, with a clear layout that groups tools by job: merge, split, compress, convert, and more. Its free tier is more generous than Smallpdf for one-off conversions, with file size limits around 100 MB in published comparisons, and Premium starts from $4 per month when billed annually.

iLovePDF also offers desktop and mobile apps, which helps when you want the same tools offline or on a phone. The free tier still has limits, and browser tools upload files to a server, so avoid it for highly sensitive documents. For students, freelancers, and small offices that create PDFs a few times a week, iLovePDF is one of the best free starting points.

Sejda stands out because it lets you edit existing PDF text directly in a browser, which many browser tools cannot do well. You can also create PDFs, merge, split, and convert, without creating an account for free tasks. Paid plans start at $7.50 per month, with a week pass also available for short projects.

The free tier is limited to a few tasks per hour, with files capped at 50 MB or 200 pages in published comparisons. That makes Sejda best for occasional edits and creation, not for bulk processing. If you need to fix text in a PDF quickly without installing software, Sejda is the browser tool to try first.

PDFgear is the best free desktop PDF editor in this list, because it offers full editing, conversion, and OCR at no cost, with no watermark and no signup for core desktop use. It works on Windows, Mac, iOS, and web, and it includes an AI copilot for summarizing documents. For users who want to create and edit PDFs without a subscription, PDFgear is hard to beat.

The trade-offs are sync and certainty. PDFgear has no cloud sync across devices, so it works best as a single-machine tool, and its maker has noted that some AI or cloud features may become paid in the future, even if core desktop editing stays free today. For occasional and regular personal use, PDFgear gives you more free capability than any other tool here.

PDF24 Tools offers a wide set of free PDF tools online, plus a Windows app for offline use, with no task counter in published comparisons. You can create PDFs, merge, split, compress, convert, and more without an account, which makes it a practical fallback when another free tool hits its daily limit.

PDF24 is not a full Acrobat replacement for advanced editing, OCR, or form building, and online use uploads files to its servers. For everyday creation and conversion, though, it is one of the most generous free options available. Keep it as a second bookmark alongside PDFgear for desktop work and iLovePDF for browser work.