8 Best Free PDFpen Alternatives

Audrey Goodwin

2021-11-24 21:39:29 • Filed to: Compare of Mac Software • Proven solutions

PDF documents are almost useful in every setting you can think of, especially in business. For that reason, there are very many PDF editors available to help with the creation and modification of PDF documents. One of those is PDFpen for Mac. It is widely accessible and easy to use and can be used to create and edit PDF documents. It comes with numerous great features, but we all know how hard it can be to find the right fit. That's why we've decided to share the following top 8 PDFpen alternatives to help you find the best for you.

# 1: PDFelement
# 2: Adobe Acrobat for Mac
# 3: PDF Expert
# 4: Skim for Mac
# 5: Mac OS Preview
# 6: Foxit Reader for Mac
# 7: PDF Buddy
# 8: Scribus for Mac

8 Best PDFpenPro Alternatives for Mac

1. PDFelement

PDFelement is the best PDFpenPro alternative for Mac that is designed to allow users to do more with their PDF documents.

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It is especially useful in the creation of PDFs, making the process that much easier- all you have to do is open the document in PDFelement and it is instantly converted to a PDF. Editing and annotation are the program's basic features but that doesn't mean they lack functionality. You have various options to edit both text and images and annotation can be done in numerous ways. You can also take advantage of the program's security features by adding a signature to the document or a password.

Pros:

It is quite easy to use and comes with a simple to understand user interface
It can also be useful when you want to convert PDFs to other formats
Comes with a feature that allows users to easily fill forms
It is compatible with macOS 11 Big Sur
Powerful editing tools that enable users to modify text, images, links easily
Annotate PDF with markups, comments, stamps, etc.

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2. Adobe Acrobat for Mac

You can hardly mention PDF software without Acrobat finding its way into the conversation. This PDFpen alternative is made by the same company that introduced PDF documents over 20 years ago. So, you can expect that they know a thing or two about PDF editing. It comes with all features you would expect for a prime PDF software including the ability to edit text, convert PDF documents to numerous different formats. At $15 a month, it is quite expensive.

Pros:

You can convert PDFs to HTML, Word, Excel and even PowerPoint
You can use it to merge multiple documents into one PDF
Cloud based storage through acrobat.com is also available

Cons:

Some advanced features are unavailable in the free-trial version

Free Download Adobe Acrobat DC >>

3. PDF Expert

PDF Expert is a great PDFpen Mac alternative that you can use for more than just viewing or reading PDF documents. It is also quite useful when you need to edit the content of any PDF document. You can edit the text and images within the PDF document and also comes with advanced document protection features like the ability to add a signature and password to the document.

Pros:

This PDFpen alternative is fast to load and easy to use with a great user-interface
It allows users to edit both texts and images within the document
Can convert PDF files to other formats like Word

Cons:

Lacks advanced features like the ability to save and edit scanned PDFs

Free Download PDF Expert >>

4. Skim for Mac

This free PDFpen alternative for Mac is widely available and quite easy to sue. While it does come with a whole host of great features, allowing users to add and edit notes as well annotate PDFs, it is quite basic in its functionality as a PDF editor. It is only useful when it comes to annotation and lacks other more advanced features.

Pros:

It is free to use
Can be great to cropping PDFs

Cons:

It can't be used to edit text or images within the PDF
Lacks more advanced functionality like conversion

Free Download Skim for Mac >>

5. Mac OS Preview

This PDFpenpro Mac alternative comes built into the Mac OS and although most people don't know it, it is also quite a good PDF software in its own right. It may not have a lot of the advanced features you would find on PDFelement or Acrobat, but it can come in handy when you want to do some basic editing like add text, add images or even insert pages into an existing PDF document.

Pros:

Can be used to add a signature to the PDF document via a webcam scan
It is also useful for filling PDF forms

Cons:

All its features are very basic
It can't be used to convert PDFs to any other formats

6. Foxit Reader for Mac

Foxit Reader for Mac provides a great and lightweight solution for PDF documents in PDFpen review. This PDFpenPro alternative is useful when you want to convert PDF documents to other formats and can also be used to annotate PDFs. It is by all accounts a PDF viewer although you can essentially edit PDFs by adding bookmarks, highlights and comments. It may lack some of the more advanced features for editing PDFs, but it's great for the basics.

Pros:

It can be used to annotate PDFs by adding comments and highlights
It is free to use
Can convert PDFs to other formats

Cons:

You can't use it to edit the text or images on the PDF document

Free Download Foxit Reader for Mac >>

7. PDF Buddy

It is free PDFpen alternative that can be useful when you want to edit sections of your PDF document. Unlike most online tools, PDF Buddy comes with a whole host of features like the ability to add text and images, annotate PDFs and even split and merger PDFs.

Pros:

It can be used to split and merge PDFs
It is easy to use with a simple user interface
It can be used to password-protect PDFs

Cons:

It can only be used online
Can't be used to convert PDFs to other formats

Free Download PDF Buddy >>

8. Scribus for Mac

Scribus is a great PDFpen alternative for editing PDF documents. One of the big reasons why is its ease of use. It comes with an easy to navigate interface, perfect even for the beginner. But it can only be useful for light PDF editing such as adding highlights and comments.