Overview

PDF editing spans text, tables, images, charts, links, and pages, alongside annotations, forms, conversion, and collaboration. That breadth makes ONLYOFFICE a practical choice for document-heavy teams, especially those that need on-premises deployment. For occasional conversions or simple viewing, its collaboration and administration features may be more than the job requires.

Key features

Editing, review, and forms

Users can revise PDF text and adjust embedded content including tables, shapes, images, SmartArt, charts, hyperlinks, and pages. This is more capable than a markup-only reader, though the feature set will matter most to people who routinely revise existing documents. Annotation tools include highlighting, underlining, strikethrough, comments, freehand drawings, and stamps. Forms can be created and filled using text areas, images, combo boxes, drop-down lists, and check boxes, making the editor suitable for preparing reusable paperwork as well as reviewing it.

Collaboration and document controls

Teams can co-edit in real time or use paragraph-locking mode, with comments, built-in chat, Telegram, and Jitsi calls available for coordination. This is a meaningful advantage for group review, but less relevant to solo users. Redaction permanently removes selected text, words, phrases, pages, or page ranges. Security features include AES-256 encryption, end-to-end encryption in Private Rooms, JWT access protection, granular permissions, and controls over downloading, printing, and copying.

Scanned documents and integrations

OCR extracts text from scanned PDFs, and users can connect AI assistants. ONLYOFFICE advertises more than 40 ready integrations, including Box, Moodle, Nextcloud, Odoo, and WordPress. That range may suit organizations already working in those systems, while readers with a standalone PDF workflow may not benefit from the connections.

Pricing

ONLYOFFICE uses a freemium model with a free plan, a free trial, and paid pricing from $20/mo. Free desktop apps support offline PDF conversion and editing on Windows, Linux, and macOS; the free Documents apps on iOS and Android support PDF viewing, not editing. That gives individuals a useful offline option, but mobile users who need to edit PDFs should check whether this setup meets their needs.

The Startup plan has custom pricing and includes 3 admins, unlimited users and guests, 12 rooms, and 2 GB of file storage. It suits smaller teams that need shared rooms, though its storage limit is modest for document-heavy work. Business costs 3020.00 USD per month, billed per admin per month, and includes unlimited users, guests, and rooms, 250 GB per admin, and professional support. It is better suited to teams that need more storage and support, but the per-admin billing makes seat count an important cost factor. Enterprise has custom pricing, unlimited admins, users, guests, and rooms; it is the option for organizations that need unlimited administration and workspace capacity.

Platforms

ONLYOFFICE PDF Editor supports web, Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, Android, and self-hosted deployments. Desktop apps support offline editing and conversion, while the free mobile Documents apps are for viewing PDFs. Self-hosting is a particular advantage for organizations that need to keep data within their own infrastructure; mobile users seeking free editing should look elsewhere.

Who it's for

Choose ONLYOFFICE if your team needs collaborative PDF editing, form creation, redaction, and deployment choices that include self-hosting. Its free desktop apps also make sense for individuals who need offline editing on a computer. It is a weaker fit for people who mainly want a free mobile editor or a lightweight tool for occasional file conversion.

Pros and cons

Pros: Broad editing, annotation, form, OCR, and redaction features make it useful for more than simple PDF review.
Pros: Real-time and paragraph-locking co-editing, plus multiple communication options, support coordinated team workflows.
Pros: Offline desktop editing and conversion are free, and self-hosting supports organizations keeping data on their own infrastructure.
Cons: Free mobile apps support viewing rather than editing, limiting their use for people who work on PDFs from a phone or tablet.
Cons: Business is billed per admin, so the quoted monthly rate can rise with the number of administrators.
Cons: Startup includes only 2 GB of file storage, which may constrain teams with larger document collections.

Alternatives

For a broader comparison, see PDF editors.

WPS PDF Editor is another freemium option with a free plan and a broader listed platform range that includes browser extensions; its Standard plan includes 1 GB of cloud storage, 47 file formats, and 46 languages.
Smallpdf may suit users who want a freemium web and mobile option with a 7-day free trial; its free plan includes 30+ tools and two Sign.com documents per month.
PDF Candy is another freemium choice with desktop apps, though its free Web + Desktop plan has page and hourly restrictions, no batch processing, and limited file size.
PDFgear is worth considering if a free plan is the priority; its online editor has a 100 MB per-PDF limit.
iLovePDF offers a free Basic plan with limited tools and document processing, making it an alternative for readers whose needs fit those limits.
Foxit PDF Editor is a paid alternative with no free plan; its annual subscription costs 129.99 USD per year and includes DMS and 300 AI credits per month.
DocHub is a freemium option with a free plan capped at three uses per month across core features.
Sejda PDF Editor is another freemium PDF editor.

Verdict

ONLYOFFICE PDF Editor is a strong choice for teams that need collaborative editing, forms, document controls, and a self-hosted option, with free offline editing for desktop users as a bonus. Choose it when those capabilities are central to the workflow; look elsewhere if you need free PDF editing on mobile or only occasional, simple PDF tasks.

	Nitro PDF Pro	ONLYOFFICE PDF Editor
Free plan		Yes
Free trial	Yes	Yes
Platforms	iOS, macOS, Windows	Android, api, iOS, Linux, macOS, self-hosted, Web, Windows
Free plan	No	Yes
Text editing	Yes	Yes
Annotation tools	Yes	Yes
OCR	Yes	Yes
PDF conversion	Yes	Yes
Form creation	Yes	Yes
Supported platforms	Windows, macOS, iOS	web, Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, Android, self-hosted

Nitro PDF Pro vs ONLYOFFICE PDF Editor

Nitro PDF Pro

ONLYOFFICE PDF Editor