Compare the Top Free PDF Annotators as of November 2025

What are Free PDF Annotators?

PDF annotation tools are pieces of software designed to allow users to add notes and highlight text on PDF documents. They can be used by students or professionals to mark up documents, make comments, and organize information in an intuitive way. Annotations may also include drawing shapes or adding images. The annotations can then be saved with the document for easy sharing and future reference. Compare and read user reviews of the best Free PDF Annotators currently available using the table below. This list is updated regularly.

  • 1
    MobiPDF (formerly PDF Extra)
    MobiPDF (formerly PDF Extra) is an intuitive and powerful PDF editor and reader designed for today’s modern user - the cost-efficient alternative to Adobe Acrobat Pro you’ve been looking for. FEATURES OVERVIEW: PDF Viewer and Reader: Switch between page views or use "Read Mode" for distraction-free reading. Create and Edit PDFs: Modify text and images or start with a blank PDF. Convert to Office Formats: Easily turn PDFs into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and image files. Leverage OCR: Transform scanned documents into searchable PDFs. Organize PDFs: Combine, split, reorder, and compress documents. Markup and Comment: Highlight, annotate, and add bookmarks or stamps. Fill PDFs: Seamlessly fill forms or create ones from scratch. Sign PDFs: Sign your documents anywhere—no ink required! Secure Your Work: Protect files with passwords, digital signatures, and 256-bit encryption. Offline Mode: Full functionality without internet access. Translate PDFs
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    Starting Price: $49.99
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  • 2
    SwifDoo PDF

    SwifDoo PDF

    SwifDoo Software

    SwifDoo PDF is a comprehensive, all-in-one PDF tool that offers features that most users often require. This free software comes with a user-friendly interface where most of its main features layout and can be easily recognized and accessed on the main screen of the program. SwifDoo PDF - the most functional PDF editor that can be successfully used by novice users and experienced professionals. Beginners will enjoy the simplicity and certain intuitiveness of the interface, as well as the ability to edit PDF files without much effort. SwifDoo PDF has a number of special features for scanning copy convert. Besides many convert features. PDF Reader PDF Annotation (Including Stamp) Picture/image Extraction (only need copy and paste from PDF) PDF Edit PDF Compress PDF Merge PDF Split PDF Signature System Requirements: Windows 10/7/8/vista/XP Edition: SwifDoo PDF 2.0.0.6
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    Starting Price: $0
  • 3
    Drawboard PDF

    Drawboard PDF

    Drawboard

    Drawboard PDF is the most intuitive PDF editing and markup app for Windows, iOS, macOS, android and web. Powerful PDF tools that feel good to use. Drawboard PDF – Get all the essential free. Mark up and edit any PDF with the ease of pen and paper. Drawboard Pro toolset - Upgrade to use advanced tools and Store+Share with your team. MARK UP AND DRAW All the drawing tools you need to mark and collaborate with the feel of pen and paper. INSERT Insert elements into your documents like, text, notes, callouts, signatures, images, audio notes, and more. MEASURE Take accurate measurements of elements on-page with technical measurement tools and calibration. MANAGE Local and Clouds PDFs in one place. Merge, split, reorder and compress COLLABORATE Real-time collaboration on-page in real time with instant syncing CROSS-PLATFORM Work from anywhere on any device, in real-time!
    Starting Price: $5.99 per month
  • 4
    Adobe Acrobat Reader
    View, sign, collaborate on, and annotate PDFs with our free Adobe Acrobat Reader. Only with Adobe Acrobat Reader you can view, sign, collect and track feedback, and share PDFs for free. And when you want to do more, subscribe to Acrobat Pro. Then you can edit, export, and send PDFs for signatures. Do more than just open and view PDF files. It’s easy annotate documents and share them to collect and consolidate comments from multiple reviewers in a single shared online PDF. Work on documents anywhere using the Acrobat Reader mobile app. It’s packed with all the tools you need to convert, edit, and sign PDFs. You can use your device camera to capture a document, whiteboard, or receipt and save it as a PDF. Acrobat Reader is connected to Adobe Document Cloud, so you can work with your PDFs anywhere. You can even access and store files in Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive.
    Starting Price: $1.95 per month
  • 5
    UPDF

    UPDF

    Superace Software Technology Co., Ltd.

    UPDF supports editing, annotating, and managing PDF seamlessly on for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. You can get every tool you need to edit, annotate, and organize your PDF files in one premiere all-rounder smart application. It is explicitly designed to meet the desire of most users for a stunning yet very comprehensible interface that is not just only for beginners. Key Features: 1. Edit PDF Document - You can add or delete texts as well as edit the text's properties and formats such as its font style, font color, and size. - You can also crop, rotate, replace, extract or delete images. 2. Annotate PDF - Easily highlight, underline, and strike out those parts. You can also add shapes, sticky notes and text boxes for a quicker and easier means of adding texts. 3. PDF Page Management - Rotate, delete, extract and rearrange PDF pages as you need. 4. View and Navigate PDF Files - Flexible reading mode such as single page mode or double-page mode.
    Starting Price: Free
  • 6
    Able2Extract Professional
    Convert, create, edit, OCR, compare, and sign PDFs. Customize the interface language and its appearance from light to dark themes for working with PDFs comfortably. Tailor your conversions by selecting a page, a paragraph, or even a single line for conversion. Custom PDF to Excel conversion to convert complex PDF table data to Microsoft Excel with pinpoint precision and a Smart Layout Detector for keeping table styles intact. Edit PDF text and pages. Annotate and redact PDF content. Sign PDF documents. Fill, edit and create PDF forms. Split documents into even parts. Convert scanned PDFs in English, French, Spanish, and German. Automate the batch PDF conversion process by queuing up a large volume of PDF files and even whole directories. Batch create PDF from a wide range of formats and merge all PDFs into one file. Create secure PDFs from blank pages or existing documents by adding passwords and file permissions. Able2Extract Professional: Your Swiss Army Knife for PDF files.
    Starting Price: $149.95/one-time/user
  • 7
    PDFgear

    PDFgear

    PDFgear

    PDFgear is an all-in-one PDF solution that helps users view, edit, protect, convert, sign, annotate, organize, OCR, Copilot, organize PDF files, and make more possibilities on Windows, MacOS, iOS, and iPadOS. PDFgear offers all expected functions in its clean and straightforward interface so users could enjoy their document reading and editing experience without disturbance. PDFgear Copilot provides more possibilities as a personal document assistant. As it's powered by AI, users could easily manipulate all PDFgear functions and chat with PDFs by asking PDFgear Copilot. Get lost in various functions and comprehensive document content? Don't worry! Just ask Copilot! It will cover everything. With PDFgear and Copilot in it, processing PDF is like a walk in the garden.
    Starting Price: Free
  • 8
    KDAN PDF

    KDAN PDF

    Kdan Mobile Software

    KDAN PDF (formerly PDF Reader) is your all-in-one PDF solution. Edit, sign, OCR scan, convert, annotate, and fill forms in PDF documents. With innovative AI features, speed up your document workflow! Designed for Mac, iPhone, and iPad, KDAN PDF is trusted by millions for its comprehensive features and efficiency. AI FEATURES: • Analyze and extract key information or tables from a PDF, then convert the data into spreadsheets for further analysis or visualization. • Chat with PDF and get document analysis, advice, new ideas, or content summary • Text redaction - automatically identify and block sensitive information in a document
    Starting Price: $59.99/year (billed annually)
  • 9
    AmindPDF

    AmindPDF

    AmindPDF

    AmindPDF's user interface is very user-friendly and makes the operation of PDF easy. It can recognize PDF text as paragraphs or whole blocks of text, allowing users to edit text directly and smoothly, like in MS Word. for PDF protection, it allows adding passwords, setting document permissions, placing signatures, adding watermarks to PDF It also supports batch operations to process files, such as merge/split tool, compression tool, creation tool, Bates numbering tool, and conversion tool, so users can process multiple PDF files at once. AmindPDF is available for a number of platforms: Windows, iOS, and Android. Users are able to use the same PDF tool on a computer or mobile phone. So AmindPDF let you process or edit PDFs anytime, anywhere.
    Starting Price: $9.90
  • 10
    LiquidText

    LiquidText

    LiquidText

    Review documents faster. Find facts effortlessly. See the connections others miss. Go past the limits of paper with LiquidText. Note-taking and document analysis tools have changed little from the margin notes, highlighting, and sticky notes we have used forever. Most apps today try to duplicate paper, but, in spite of this, over 80% of knowledge workers still prefer paper at work and school. LiquidText moves beyond paper. It captures your reading, notes, highlights, annotations and observations just like paper; but goes further to reveal their connections, to source materials and each other in a way that documents and maps your project in a clear and shareable form. We connect related notes into ideas, and we connect your ideas into reports. Every note, idea and observation can be connected to others, and a single tap can show those relationships and original context.
    Starting Price: $7.99 per month
  • 11
    LightPDF

    LightPDF

    Wangxu Technology Co.,Ltd.

    LightPDF was designed to allow everyone to process PDF documents in the easiest way possible. Indeed, LightPDF comes with an easy-to-use interface. With this program, you can perfectly read PDF, edit or convert PDF. Built-in PDF editing features: Modify a PDF: add texts, annotate, insert links, add headers and footers. Convert PDF to other formats: Word, Excel, PPT, JPG, PNG, HTML, etc. Manage PDF pages: insert or delete pages, rotate pages, extract, replace, split or merge pages. Sign a PDF: add a manual or digital signature. Lock PDF: Add a password to your PDF document. Other tools: OCR, compress PDF, add background, etc. This all-in-one online PDF solution includes over 20 practical PDF tools which may simplify your digital work and boost productivity. You are able to edit, convert, compress, merge, annotate, watermark and manage PDFs or use the OCR functions without a hitch.
    Starting Price: Free
  • 12
    FreePDF

    FreePDF

    SoftMaker

    The free PDF editor for personal and business use. Create, edit, view, print and annotate PDF files... free of charge! Do you want to insert pictures into a PDF file? Do you want to change the order of pages in a PDF? Do you want to add new pages or delete existing ones? You can do all of these things with FreePDF! FreePDF can perform the following tasks for you: Rearrange the order of the pages in a PDF file, insert pages from other PDFs or remove pages. Insert pictures and drawings into your PDF and position them as desired. Customize the layout of PDF files by rearranging, moving and removing text and pictures. ... and much more! Of course, FreePDF is also a great PDF viewer that lets you view and annotate PDF files quickly and conveniently. The built-in PDF printer driver creates PDF files from any Windows application. In addition, FreePDF supports the secure encryption of PDFs.
  • 13
    CoolNew PDF

    CoolNew PDF

    CoolNew Software

    CoolNew PDF offers all-in-one experience to awesomize your PDF experience. All the tools you’ll need to be more productive and work smarter with documents.21 tools to convert, compress, and edit PDFs . Conversion features include CAD, office, image, texted and scanned copy conversions. Editing features include text, image, eraser, page number, size, watermark, paragraph and more. Users can combine or split PDFS, extract contents and optimize pdfs. merge and compress PDF. Reading and annotation features included. It edits, annotates, converts and combines file by one click, makes your tasks finish faster. CoolNew PDF offers you a familiar experience for editing PDF, just like you did it in Office.
    Starting Price: $6.49
  • 14
    Slim PDF Reader

    Slim PDF Reader

    Apryse Software

    Copy and paste PDF text, annotate PDFs, fill out interactive PDF forms, and validate digital signatures you receive on Windows, Mac, and Linux with a lightweight & completely free Slim PDF Reader. It comes with a Dark theme setting that will help you save battery on a laptop and reduce eye strain, a full range of advanced and customizable annotation tools, various document navigation tools, search and print features, ability to copy text for pasting into another application, snapshot tool, interactive PDF form filling and signature verification features. Slim PDF Reader is one of the smallest desktop PDF readers (download size only 15 MB), 100% bloatware free, fast and easy on system resources.
    Starting Price: Free
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