Compare the Top Free PDF Readers as of March 2026

What are Free PDF Readers?

PDF readers are software applications that enable users to access, open, and read PDFs. PDF readers are essential tools for being able to open and read PDF files. Advanced PDF readers may also support form filling, digital signatures, and interactive features embedded in PDF documents. PDF readers are widely used in both personal and professional settings to view reports, manuals, eBooks, contracts, and other documents that need to preserve formatting across different devices and platforms. Compare and read user reviews of the best Free PDF Readers 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
    Leader badge
    Starting Price: $49.99
    Partner badge
    View Software
    Visit Website
  • 2
    Smallpdf

    Smallpdf

    Smallpdf

    Made in Switzerland, the land of watches, banks, and clean design, Smallpdf is an award-winning company that offers a suite of clever document management tools for everyone—for work, for home, for life. Founded in 2013, Smallpdf provides a simple, secure, and reliable answer to heavy, awkward PDF software. By removing unnecessary features and adding a deep focus on user experience, Smallpdf has become the most-loved and most-trusted PDF software on the planet, serving over 500 million users, 100,000 different companies, in 24 different languages, and in every country in the world—even Antarctica! Smallpdf integrates seamlessly with professional and personal tasks, boosting productivity and simplifying the way people manage their documents, with tools to compress, convert, edit, sign, protect, and unlock PDF documents in just a few easy steps.
    Starting Price: $7/month/user
  • 3
    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
  • 4
    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
  • 5
    Xodo

    Xodo

    Apryse

    With Xodo, you can edit, annotate, sign, and share PDFs on desktop, mobile, and web. Xodo makes working with PDFs quick and easy, so you can get things done. Gone are the days of printing and faxing. Sign contracts, expense reports, cover letters, or any other document on your smartphone or tablet, using just your finger or stylus. Sign it then and there. Instead of fumbling for a pen or wasting printer ink, use just your finger to sign any document. Save your signature to sign future documents instantly with just a tap of your finger or a click of the mouse. Then save and share with whoever needs it. What used to take back and forth emails can now be done in seconds. Xodo takes the stress out of filling forms. Simply complete forms on the go from your smartphone or tablet by typing onscreen for fill-in fields and tapping to select checkboxes and other options. Save time and energy. Fill in forms from your smartphone or tablet, then save and share with whoever needs to see it.
  • 6
    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)
  • 7
    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
  • 8
    Javelin PDF Reader

    Javelin PDF Reader

    Drumlin Security

    Javelin PDF readers provide all the core functionality needed for viewing standard PDF files and PDF files encrypted using our free Drumlin Publisher software (.drmz and .drmx files). These readers support internal and external hyperlinks, contents/navigation trees, a range of page display formats, plus document text searching, annotation, and markup. Encrypted files are protected against content copying and onwards distribution. They may also have restrictions applied such as whether printing is permitted and whether they expire at some point and can no longer be viewed. The properties and/or info facility in the Javelin readers provides details of these Digital Rights Management (DRM) settings. Visually impaired users should select the Mac OSX/Catalina Javelin3 software as this supports text-to-speech conversion. You can use Javelin on a PC or Mac connected to a large corporate network with a restrictive firewall.
    Starting Price: Free
  • 9
    Haihaisoft PDF Reader
    Haihaisoft Reader is a free PDF document reader and printer, with an extremely fast launch speed and a rich feature set. It is also for reading PDF documents protected by the DRM-X platform. It is now available for Windows, Mac, Android, and iPhone/iPad. Read and print all Adobe PDF documents and open protected PDF documents by Adobe Acrobat. The download size of Haihaisoft Reader is only 3 MB which is a fraction of Adobe Reader. We know security and privacy are very important for you. Haihaisoft PDF Reader highly respects the security and privacy of users and will never connect to the Internet without users' permission. For protecting your privacy, Haihaisoft PDF Reader doesn't connect to the Internet in the background for updating. You just need to check the version and update the software with a single click in the help menu. With DRM-X platform everyone can easily set different rights permissions and securely share their document.
    Starting Price: Free
  • 10
    PDF Viewer Pro
    With PDF Viewer for iPad, iPhone, Mac, and Android, you get annotations, forms, signatures, document editing, and sharing, all in one free package. Whether you're working alone or collaborating with a team, PDF Viewer maximizes productivity, allowing you to easily read, review, annotate, and search PDFs. Your documents should always be at your fingertips. No matter if you're prepping on the way to your next meeting, reviewing a proposal, or reading over the latest offer, our PDF Viewer allows you to view PDFs when it's convenient for you. Annotating your PDF documents by highlighting text, adding notes, freehand ink drawings, images and more is simple and easy with PDF Viewer. When you've finished, easily share or print those documents too. Highlight text, ink drawing, and adding images and notes, are just some of the many annotation types available. Using the annotation inspector, you can quickly adjust the style of your annotations to fit your needs.
    Starting Price: Free
  • 11
    Lumin PDF

    Lumin PDF

    Lumin PDF

    We are the bridge between paper and the cloud, our seamless PDF workflows help you achieve greater impact with less administration. Edit PDFs within Google Workspace. Open Lumin directly from Gmail, Google Drive, or Google Classroom. Uploading old documents to the cloud has never been easier. Get your team on the same page with real-time feedback and manual tools. Submit work, negotiate terms, and sign everything with Lumin Sign. Enjoy our comprehensive free plan for K-12 teachers and students. Our products are implemented using a rigorous and constantly updated security system. We also have a Google-verified storage system that ensures your files never have to leave Google Drive. Collaborate with your current colleagues and attract new ones with Lumin and Lumin Sign. Our innovative solutions are great on their own, but together they're even better. Lumin reduces the comings and goings of your team. With a cloud workspace integrated with Google, you can collaborate in real-time.
    Starting Price: $9 per month
  • 12
    Flexcil

    Flexcil

    Flexcil

    Flexcil is a study toolkit that allows PDF annotation, notes creation, and convenient sharing with others. Review and utilize PDFs to study effectively. Use PDF reader, digital note, annotation, and reference manager in one page. Use simple Gestures UX to annotate PDF and organize notes efficiently without interruption. Save time to read, organize, and edit materials. Use the time saved to concentrate on your study. You don’t have to go through Apple’s default complex process! With Flexcil, you can select text and images, and take notes by intuitive pen gestures. By combining PDF reader and digital note, you can view the PDF while dragging elements from it to your notes at the same time and organize them easily. Edit PDFs to your taste by merging, adding, and moving. You can also edit Notes as well! All resources organized in Flexcil such as texts, images, and notes are linked systematically to trace your data easily and quickly.
  • 13
    Kaagaz

    Kaagaz

    Kaagaz

    Security of documents is core to Kaagaz. The app can work completely offline, making sure that the documents stay on your phone only. In case of cloud storage also, the documents are completely encrypted and stored on highly secure servers in India. Kaagaz doesn't have any annoying Ads or unwanted Watermark in the App. You can in fact have a 'Custom Watermark' to personalize your documents. Kaagaz provides you a seamless experience, that too completely free. Kaagaz is a completely Indian app built for the Bharat users. Just click a photo, adjust the borders & apply filter of your choice and your document is ready to be shared as a PDF or Image. Kaagaz is also an organized storage space for all your documents on your phone. You can organize documents by making Folders in Kaagaz. You can also search for documents easily. Also, you can back-up documents on Kaagaz Cloud so that you don't lose them ever.
  • Previous
  • You're on page 1
  • Next
MongoDB Logo MongoDB