PDF Architect vs Xodo Sign

PDF Architect is a Windows PDF viewer and editor for creating, viewing, and editing PDF files. It can change text and images, manage pages, merge files, and insert or customize page elements. Conversion covers PDF, Word, Excel, HTML, text, and image formats. Review features include annotations and comparing two PDFs; form tools support creating and filling fillable forms. Secure adds passwords, permission levels, and digital signatures. E-Sign lets users prepare, send, and track documents in the application and creates a manifest for archiving the signature process; it requires a PDF Architect account. The Free plan costs nothing and includes viewing, creation from Word, Excel, and PPT, page rotation, deletion and rearrangement, and merging. Business deployment supports MSI packages and GPO, and the maker describes it as cloud-optional and local by default. Microsoft Office is required for plug-in use and Word conversion.

Xodo Sign is an online service for signing, sending and managing documents through PDF editing and e-signature workflows. Users can prepare documents by adding signer and form fields, create reusable templates, set sequential signing order, send reminders and track document status. Completed signatures include a tamper-evident audit trail with signer activity, timestamps and IP addresses. The service runs on the web, iOS and Android, and the Xodo app supports reviewing, signing and sending documents on mobile. Named integrations include Google Docs, Zoho, Dropbox, Salesforce, Zapier and Gmail. Developers can use a JSON-based REST API, webhooks and embedded signing. Listed security and compliance capabilities include eIDAS, U.S. ESIGN, GDPR and SOC 2 Type 2. The Free plan is listed at free and allows up to 3 documents per month; a separate feature-page FAQ says 5 documents per month. Basic costs $10 a year and Professional $16 a year, both billed yearly per user. Professional adds PDF editing tools for redaction, annotation, page reordering and text editing.