9 Best PDF Editors on Mac to Enhance Productivity

Portable Document Format or PDF is the most common file format used to share documents while retaining the original formatting. PDFs allow you to preserve the fonts, images, graphics, and layout of any file after it is converted into this format.

Although PDF files are great for sharing, editing them is not always easy. Often you may need to make some quick edits like correcting typos, adding annotations, inserting images/links, etc. in a PDF file.

While there are many PDF editors available for Windows, finding good ones for macOS is a bit tricky. To help you out, I have curated this list of the 9 best PDF editors for your Mac after extensive research.

An Overview of the 9 Best PDF Editors for Mac

Here is a quick overview of the top PDF editors for Mac that I will be reviewing in detail in this article:

PDF Expert – My top pick for its great feature set and easy-to-use interface.
PDF Studio – A full-featured editor for power users with OCR support.
UPDF – Easy to use editor with annotation tools and cloud access.
Wondershare PDFelement – AI-powered PDF editor with a clean interface.
pdfFiller – Web-based editor for collaborating and filling forms.
Nitro PDF Editor – Robust editor with batch processing capabilities.
Foxit PDF Editor – Great for team collaboration with Google Drive integration.
Sejda PDF – Browser-based editor with a generous free plan.
Adobe Acrobat Reader DC – Freemium PDF viewer and annotator from Adobe.

Next, let‘s look at each of these top PDF editors for Mac in more detail:

PDF Expert

PDF Expert is my favorite PDF editor for Mac. It comes loaded with all the tools you‘ll ever need to view, edit, annotate, protect, sign, and convert PDFs.

Despite having so many features, PDF Expert maintains a clean and intuitive interface. Within minutes of first use, you‘ll be able to master all its core features.

Let‘s look at some of the great things you can do with PDF Expert:

Merge multiple PDFs into one or extract pages from a PDF to create a new file.
Replace, resize, or crop images and update links in PDFs.
Convert PDFs to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and image formats.
Annotate PDFs with sticky notes, highlights, shapes, and drawing tools.
Redact sensitive text by hiding or deleting it permanently.
Password-protect PDFs to stop unauthorized access.
Fill interactive PDF forms and add legally-binding e-signatures.

PDF Expert costs $79.99 for a perpetual license. If you work extensively with PDFs, this one-time fee is worth every penny.

PDF Studio

PDF Studio is a feature-rich PDF editor for professionals. It runs natively on Windows, Mac, and Linux with support for automating PDF workflows.

PDF Studio Professional comes packed with advanced capabilities like OCR, JavaScript execution, and Bates numbering.

Here are some of the key features of PDF Studio:

Edit, annotate, and e-sign PDF documents.
Split, merge, and optimize PDF files.
Perform OCR on scanned documents to make them searchable.
Create interactive PDF forms and analyze form data.
Develop PDF applications using JavaScript, Actions, and FDF.
Compare two PDF documents or versions of the same document.
Add Bates numbering, watermarks, and stationery to PDFs.
Secure documents with permissions and digital signatures.

PDF Studio costs $129 for a perpetual license. There is also a Standard edition aimed at casual users priced at $69. Both editions support two devices.

UPDF

UPDF is a fairly new PDF editor for Mac that aims to make working with PDFs easy and fun. It has all the standard editing tools along with some nice extras like stickers for annotations.

UPDF also features seamless cloud integration that allows accessing your documents from any device. The cloud platform offers 1GB of free storage upgradeable to 100GB.

Here are some key highlights of UPDF:

Edit text, insert images, links, and shapes in PDFs.
Annotate with highlights, text boxes, and lots of fun stickers.
OCR scans to make them selectable and searchable.
Create PDFs from JPG, Word, Excel, HTML files.
Password-protect sensitive PDFs.
Split, merge, and organize pages in PDF documents.
Compress PDFs to reduce file size for sharing.
Share files easily via links, email, and QR codes.

UPDF has a forever-free plan for basic editing. The Plus plan costs $6.66 per month billed annually and unlocks more advanced capabilities.

Wondershare PDFelement

Wondershare PDFelement is an easy-to-use PDF editor for Mac packed with productivity tools. It stands out for its AI capabilities that enhance the editing experience.

PDFelement makes working with PDFs efficient with features like batch processing, automations, and integrations with cloud storage services.

Here‘s an overview of PDFelement‘s key features:

Edit text, images, links, and pages in PDF documents.
AI-powered tools for summarizing, proofreading, and translating PDFs.
Create PDFs from 200+ file formats and scan documents.
Annotate PDFs with comments, shapes, stamps, and drawing tools.
Fill interactive forms and add legally-binding e-signatures.
OCR recognizes text in scanned documents.
Password-protect and redact sensitive PDF content.
Split, merge pages and optimize PDFs.
Integrates with cloud drives like Google Drive and Dropbox.

PDFelement is available for Mac and Windows. It costs $79 for perpetual license that covers two devices.

pdfFiller

pdfFiller is an online PDF editing and management platform with excellent collaboration features. As a cloud service, it facilitates working on PDFs from anywhere using a web browser.

pdfFiller makes it easy to access, modify, sign, and share documents online with team members and clients. It‘s great for teams that need to collaborate while working remotely.

Here are some notable features provided by pdfFiller:

Edit text, images and links directly within the PDF online.
Annotate with highlights, notes, shapes and drawing tools.
Fill interactive PDF forms and add legally-binding eSignatures.
Password-protect and restrict PDFs before sharing.
Merge multiple PDFs into one or split them.
Share and track documents online in real-time.
Integrates with Google Workspace, Office 365, and Slack.
Access 25+ million pre-made templates and forms.

pdfFiller has a free plan but it restricts many features. The paid plans start from $8 per month billed annually.

Nitro PDF Editor

Nitro PDF Editor is a reliable PDF editing software for Mac. It provides all the basic and advanced tools needed for effortless creation and manipulation of PDF documents.

This editor truly shines when you have a lot of PDFs to work with. It can batch process them to edit, secure, and convert PDFs in bulk.

Let‘s look at some salient features of Nitro:

Add and modify text, images, headers/footers in PDFs.
Review and add annotations like highlights, stamps etc.
Perform OCR on scanned docs to make them editable.
Password-protect sensitive PDFs.
Create PDFs from 300+ formats including Microsoft Office.
Compare different versions of a PDF document.
Batch process multiple PDFs for efficiency.
Integrates with Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox etc.

Nitro PDF Editor costs $129 for a perpetual license valid for two devices. A free trial is available to test it out.

Foxit PDF Editor

Foxit PDF Editor is an affordable and easy-to-use PDF solution for businesses. It provides all the essential tools needed for day-to-day PDF tasks.

Foxit Editor makes collaboration seamless with capabilities like shared document reviews, document protection, and integration with Google Drive.

Some key highlights of this PDF editor:

Edit text, images, links, headings, and fonts in PDF docs.
Annotate with highlights, notes, shapes, stamps etc.
OCR recognizes text in scanned documents.
Secure sensitive data by redacting and password-protecting PDFs.
Create PDFs from Microsoft Office docs, emails, photos etc.
Compare two versions of a PDF document.
Share and co-edit PDFs with built-in collaboration.
Integrates with Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, and Dropbox.

Foxit PDF Editor costs $109 for a 1-year subscription covering two devices. It offers a 30-day free trial period.

Sejda PDF

Sejda PDF is a handy online PDF editor that works right within your web browser. It provides solid basic features for casual PDF editing tasks.

As a web app, Sejda PDF enables accessing your documents from anywhere. The free plan is quite generous with 50 task credits per month.

Here are some key features of Sejda PDF:

Edit text and images in existing PDF files.
Fill interactive PDF forms.
Add annotations like highlights, shapes, stamps etc.
OCR makes scanned PDFs selectable and searchable.
Split large PDFs into smaller files or merge multiple PDFs.
Password-protect sensitive documents before sharing.
eSign PDFs with your electronic signature.
Convert PDFs to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, JPG formats.

The free plan provides 50 tasks per month while the paid plan costs $5 per month billed annually.

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC

No list of PDF editors is complete without mentioning Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. It’s the most basic PDF viewer and annotation tool from Adobe.

You can use Reader DC to view, search, annotate, fill forms, and sign PDF documents for free. But editing capabilities are limited unless you pay to upgrade to Acrobat Pro DC.

Here is an overview of Adobe Reader DC’s features:

View, search, print and interact with PDF documents.
Annotate PDFs with highlights, notes, shapes etc.
Fill interactive PDF forms.
Add e-signatures to sign documents digitally.
Limited editing like adding text boxes, redacting text.
Syncs viewed and edited PDFs across devices.

Adobe Reader DC is free to use while Acrobat Pro DC costs $14.99 per month billed annually.

Wrapping Up

PDF editors are a must-have productivity tool for anyone working extensively with documents. For Mac users, I highly recommend PDF Expert, Wondershare PDFelement, and Foxit PDF Editor for their great balance of features, usability and affordability.

PDF Studio is the best pick for power users who need advanced capabilities like OCR, form editing, and scripting. While Acrobat Reader DC is great for only viewing and annotating basic PDFs for free.

Most of the paid PDF editors provide free trials, so I suggest you evaluate a few options firsthand before deciding. Let me know if you have any other favorite PDF editors for Mac I should check out!