PDF Studio vs Smallpdf

PDF Studio is a PDF editor that maintains compatibility with the PDF Standard. It creates PDFs from scans, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, text, and image files, and supports direct editing of PDF text, images, and shapes as well as redaction. OCR can recognize text and make searchable PDFs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Pro adds batch processing for multiple documents and an Action Wizard for automating tasks. Integrations include DocuSign, Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive; cloud documents are edited as temporary local copies and returned to the service when saved. Security features include password protection, encryption, permissions, digital signatures, digital IDs, and trusted certificates. Pro also supports PDF/A, PDF/X, and PDF/UA validation or conversion, plus accessible tagged PDF creation. The free PDF Studio Viewer can read and annotate PDFs and fill interactive forms. PDF Studio Pro costs $149, paid once for one user on two computers, with a perpetual license. The Unix installer does not include native OCR or scanning features.

Smallpdf is a PDF service with tools for editing, converting, compressing, organizing, sharing, protecting and scanning documents. Users can add text, shapes, images and freehand annotations, create forms and use OCR. It supports electronic signatures, including signing, requesting signatures and tracking documents. Files can be stored, managed and shared across devices, and the mobile app supports PDF scans, document organization and file sharing. Smallpdf is available on the web, Windows, iOS and Android, and also supports a Chrome extension. Integrations include Google Workspace and Dropbox. Thirty PDF tools are available for free, and the free trial lasts seven days. Pro costs $12 a month, billed monthly per user. Team costs $10 a month per user and covers 2 to 100 users, with a minimum of two seats. Smallpdf says it uses 256-bit TLS encryption for information transfer and is ISO/IEC 27001 certified and compliant with GDPR, CCPA and nFADP. Customer support is available around the clock.