# PDFgear: PDF Editor for Adobe — user reviews > 68 indexed App Store user reviews of PDFgear by PDF Gear Tech LTD., rated 4.90/5 from 216 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pdfgear-pdf-editor-for-adobe/id1615523079/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pdfgear-pdf-editor-for-adobe/id1615523079.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 202 · 4★ 9 · 3★ 2 · 2★ 1 · 1★ 2 ## What do users think of PDFgear? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 👍 Extremely user-friendly and intuitive interface - 💰 Completely free with no hidden costs or ads - 🚀 Fast performance compared to Adobe - ✏️ Comprehensive PDF editing capabilities - 🔄 Excellent file conversion (PDF to Word, Excel, etc.) - 📄 Effective PDF compression without quality loss - 🎯 Simple and streamlined design - 📝 Great for annotation and note-taking - 🆓 No subscription fees or paywalls - ⭐ Excellent alternative to expensive Adobe products **Cons** - 🐛 Frequent crashes on macOS - 💾 Save functionality unreliable (requires alternate names) - ⚙️ Automatically sets itself as default PDF viewer - 🌙 Night mode not true dark mode - 🔍 Search interface could be improved - 📱 Crashes when opening files from Google Drive - ⚠️ Occasional glitches and stability issues - 🖼️ Limited signature customization options **Commonly reported bugs** - Crashes when adding or extracting pages - Save function fails without alternate filename - Crashes when opening Google Drive files - Compress tool network error after recent update - Page deletion doesn't work properly - Page extraction returns blank sheets - Crashes during rapid form filling and signature editing - Crashes when changing note field sizes **Most requested features** - True dark mode instead of gray theme - Keyboard arrow navigation for search results - Direct image copy-paste functionality - Add blank pages at current location instead of menu - Better highlight colors in search results - Automatic line readers for text alignment - Additional stamp options - Text deletion and addition in PDFs - Improved signature color and font options - Better control over default PDF viewer settings ## Newest reviews (13 of 68) ### 5/5 — Love it *2023-03-20* Very esasy to use, for me reading scientific papers is hard sop l constantly have to write notes and translate everything down a bit using this app has helped me to high light and be able to follow along with researcg papers for a PhD student this is amazing **Developer response:** Thank you for leaving us a positive review! We're thrilled to hear that our app has been helpful in enabling you to follow and annotate research papers more easily. ### 5/5 — Nice *2023-03-03, version 1.9* Better than paying for PDF program ### 5/5 — Breath of fresh air *2023-03-02, version 1.9* Compared to Adobe, faster, easier to use and free!! ### 5/5 — Great app..if you need a easy editor this is it. *2023-02-26, version 1.9* Try it you'll like it..simple and easy ### 5/5 — Signing *2023-02-23, version 1.9* super. When I finally found this pdfgear, it was easy. But it was very difficult to foind it. ### 5/5 — Excellent Adobe *2023-02-22, version 1.9* Thank you ### 5/5 — Finally *2023-02-22, version 1.9* Finally got something easy to use, and it's free! ### 5/5 — Huge Timesave *2023-02-22, version 1.9* I had to convert hundreds of pages of PDFs into Excel spreadsheets. This program did it quickly and in the desired format with minimal reformatting. Very happy. ### 5/5 — Great Product!! *2023-02-21, version 1.9* Great Product....Does everything you want. ### 5/5 — Extremely Useful *2023-02-21, version 1.9* Worked like a charm when I first used it. Tried it out on a couple pages of a screenplay I'd written that I had in PDF format but had lost the Word files. Tried a couple of pages and amazingly it yielded a perfectly formatted Word file that I could feed back to Final Draft. Thanks for this amazing app. ### 5/5 — Great 1st edit *2023-02-20, version 1.9* Worked on a large document, converted no issues and saved in several different format types. Thank you for making it easy to complete. ### 5/5 — File compression capability *2023-02-18, version 1.9* Does a great job of reducing file size 90% with comparable to original quality! ### 5/5 — Easy to use *2023-02-16, version 1.9* Easy to use and free. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Doesn't perform as indicated. *2022-09-26, version 1.4* Tried to use this to edit a pdf file. Simple page deletion, then when that didn't work, extraction. Neither of these worked. The page did not delete, and when extraction was attempted the page was merely a blank sheet. Uninstalling. ### 2/5 — Presumptuous Software *2023-05-24* PDFgear automatically makes itself the default program to open PDF files, rather than leaving the choice of default PDF viewer to users, or throwing a requester to give the user a choice. This state cannot be reversed as long as the program remains installed. The only preference is to choose a language for the program's commands. I bought this software hoping for a sane alternative to Adobe Acrobat. No such luck. ### 2/5 — Compress does not work after last update *2023-02-02, version 1.9* This is a very usefull app, unfortunatley the compress tool gives a "network error" while trying to compress any PDF now. It worked fine untill the last update. Otherwise I think it's great. ### 2/5 — Signature *2023-01-13, version 1.8* Yes I understand this is a free app and it appears to do a lot for free- but there are still likely to be some "wants". However, I don't think it's too much to want a signature in any other color besides WHITE on a WHITE document; And preferably a different font other than a very elementary school block lettering. Not professional at all and will not be able to use for business documents while traveling. I will have to delay contracts until I get home to my old Mac desktop with an older Adobe which still lets me do this without a subscription... **Developer response:** Thank you for these suggestions! PDFgear will support more color in signature except the default one of black in later versions. ### 3/5 — Good but could be better *2023-08-09* The control f search layout could use an overhaul. Using keyboard arrows to move to next search result would be great. I would also get rid of the sub window under each page number. I think having the page number and search result right under would be better IMO. It seems faster than preview which is a plus. I would also change the highlight color in the search window, kind of difficult to tell which search result I am looking at on the list of results ### 3/5 — Crashes immediately when trying to open file from drive *2023-08-04* No further details and replicates by opening any file from my connected google drive account. Immediately crashes, resetting doesn’t help. ### 3/5 — Automatically changes your default PDF viewer *2023-05-14* I'm not a fan of any software that makes choices for you and displays minimal to no warning that it is going to change system wide settings upon install. ### 4/5 — Lots and LOTS of bugs *2023-09-20* I really want to buy this software but the number of bugs is just outragious. It is constantly quitting on the current vesion of MacOS while trying to add pages, extract pages, change the size of a notes field, and many other situations. You can open a PDF, make a modification, and hit Save, but it won't save. You have to save with an alternate name more than 50% of the time. (I lost a lot of work before realizing this.) I gave it 4 stars because it has potential. On the plus side, besides free, it allows easy access to features, that Acrobat has made difficult to find and execute. I am currently bouncing between Acrobat Pro which is hard to use, Preview which does a poor job with PDF files, and PDFgear. I probably need to go look for another solution. ### 4/5 — Your final destination for PDF App *2023-06-01* This App gives the features that most Apps would force you to pay big amount, amazingly this App has given everything for free. There is No Ads, no hidden purchases or Pro Lite Premium bull***t It is hard that this kind of Apps stays free all the time, I am almost sure this App might be implementing in-app purchases later after it gets too popular. If you use Windows, check out their website. ### 4/5 — excellent! *2023-04-06* for a free app, helluva deal. I took one star off because their "night mode" is not true dark mode, its just a grayer, dimmer theme - which works for me, but I'd prefer to have a true dark mode. It did crash on me when I was trying to push it super fast with filling out a form and editing signatures and whatnot, but I'm also on an older mac. **Developer response:** Thank you for taking the time to review our app! We're glad to hear that you have found it to be a great value. We understand your desire for a "true dark mode" and are working on implementing this feature in a future update. Regarding the crash you experienced, we apologize for the inconvenience and will investigate the issue to ensure that it does not happen again. If you have any further feedback or suggestions, please don't hesitate to reach out to our support team through the Feedback option in the program. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — THANK YOU PDFGEAR *2023-09-20* Was struggling with my hydrology class due to needing to clip photos of excel graphs into scanned pages of my handwritten work. Scoured the internet looking for a cheap online PDF editor to do this and couldn't find anything for weeks and finally someone recommended this app and it saved my life. It's so user friendly I'm honestly so relieved to have found it. Thanks to everyone that made it available and free! ### 5/5 — Cannot be Simpler *2023-09-01* Works seemlessly for me. Will be interesting to see how easy it will be to uninstall when it puts up a paywall?? If it's priced right for non industrial strength users I might consider it. For free it's a terrific option. ### 5/5 — Easy to Use *2023-08-27* Amazing PDF reader, etc. I was whizzing around and working on PDF documents within minutes of downloading. Highly recommend!! ### 5/5 — I really enjoy using this application *2023-07-04* I really enjoy using this application; being able to use AI to summarize Articles is really huge. ### 5/5 — THE GO TO - why would you use anything else? *2023-05-27* PDFgear is a rare find in the sea of PDF applications. Where most free options only offer "read-only" access, this amazing app enables you to do nearly everything the paid versions can—and it won't cost you a dime. The developer deserves high praise for this achievement. I learned that when they couldn't find an app that met their own needs, they resolved to build it themselves. Now we all reap the benefits of their ingenuity and generosity. Beyond its price tag (or lack thereof!), PDFgear is a phenomenal app. Streamlined, intuitive, and efficient, it handles any task with ease. It can convert to and from PDF in virtually any format. For individuals and businesses alike, this is a solution you simply can't pass up... Stop reading and start downloading - PDFgear delivers in every way! ### 5/5 — Outstanding App *2023-05-10* I've been looking for a way to annotate PDFs with a light program that works on my Mac Mini & My iPad. I chose to download PDFgear because: 1. I wanted something intuitive and fun to use 2. PDFgear kept popping up with positive reviews during my research 3. PDFgear is FREE! I can say, with profound confidence, that I can afford free. The developer has surpassed my expectations and done an outstanding job creating a functional ”does what it says it’s going to do” app. At the very least, the creator deserves free coffee and cupcakes with sprinkles for the rest of their life. ### 5/5 — wow amazing *2023-04-28* UI could be slightly better, some icons aren't clear but the program itself is probably one of the best free alternatives to acrobat and no ads either, thanks so much for this amazing app ### 5/5 — Overall great *2023-04-26* Few suggestions - Add a feature to copy-paste images in rather than having to add them as a file - It would be nice if the "add blank page" feature added the page where you are rather than opening up the whole page menu ### 5/5 — So refreshing, just works well *2023-04-19* I am not a fan of Adobe and know they do not get along with Apple and guessing that is why their stuff doesn't work well and now costs too much. This seems to be a GREAT alternative, super fast and just works well. Big fan so far of PDFGear! **Developer response:** Thank you for sharing your positive experience with PDFGear! We're thrilled to hear that it's been a great alternative for you and that it's been working well. We designed PDFGear to be fast and reliable for all users, and we appreciate your recognition of our efforts. If there's anything else you'd like to see added or improved in the future, please feel free to reach out. We'll continue doing our best to create a superior PDF experience for our users. ### 5/5 — PDF wonder *2023-04-01* It’s fast and easy and has all the tools I need to edit and work with PDF files. Good choice for people looking for a quality bargain. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-10.*