Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

DocSpring VS PDF-XChange Editor

Compare DocSpring VS PDF-XChange Editor and see what are their differences

DocSpring logo DocSpring

PDF filling API that makes it easy to fill out PDF forms and convert HTML to PDFs

PDF-XChange Editor logo PDF-XChange Editor

The smallest, fastest, most feature-rich PDF editor/viewer available
  • DocSpring PDF Template Editor
    PDF Template Editor //
    2025-02-26
  • DocSpring HTML Template Preview
    HTML Template Preview //
    2025-02-26
  • DocSpring HTML Template Editor
    HTML Template Editor //
    2025-02-26
  • DocSpring Auto-generated Web Form
    Auto-generated Web Form //
    2025-02-26
  • DocSpring E-Signatures
    E-Signatures //
    2025-02-26
  • DocSpring View Submissions
    View Submissions //
    2025-02-26
  • DocSpring View API Request Logs
    View API Request Logs //
    2025-02-26
  • DocSpring Postman Collection
    Postman Collection //
    2025-02-26

We provide a PDF filling and generation API:

  • Upload your PDF to our visual template editor to set up form fields and data types
  • Post JSON to fill out existing PDF forms with data
  • Generate editable PDF forms, or overlay static data on top of fields
  • Create HTML/CSS templates with Liquid fields, then post JSON to generate PDFs
  • Use our merge API to combine multiple PDFs into a single document

PDF generation doesn't need to be complicated or take weeks of engineering time. Use our battle-tested service to start filling out PDFs in minutes.

  • PDF-XChange Editor Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-03

DocSpring

$ Details
freemium $49.0 / Monthly (Starter - 50 PDFs / mo)
Release Date
2017 October
Startup details
Country
United States
State
Delaware
City
Newark
Founder(s)
Nathan Broadbent
Employees
1 - 9

DocSpring features and specs

  • Automated PDF Generation
    DocSpring allows users to automate the generation of PDFs by filling out templates with data. This can significantly reduce the time and effort needed to create documents.
  • API Integration
    DocSpring offers a robust API, which allows developers to integrate PDF generation into their own applications easily, enhancing productivity and workflow automation.
  • Flexible Templates
    The platform supports flexible and customizable templates, enabling businesses to maintain brand consistency while meeting specific document formatting requirements.
  • Secure Data Handling
    DocSpring ensures data security through encryption and secure storage options, making it suitable for handling sensitive information.
  • Ease of Use
    The user interface is designed to be intuitive, making it easy for businesses to create and manage PDF templates without requiring extensive technical knowledge.

PDF-XChange Editor features and specs

  • Feature-Rich
    PDF-XChange Editor offers a wide range of features including annotation tools, OCR, content editing, and more. This makes it a comprehensive solution for managing PDF documents.
  • Lightweight
    The application is relatively lightweight and performs efficiently even on less powerful systems, providing a smooth user experience.
  • User Interface
    The interface is intuitive and user-friendly, making it easy to navigate through various functions and features.
  • OCR Support
    PDF-XChange Editor includes robust Optical Character Recognition (OCR) capabilities, allowing users to convert scanned documents into editable and searchable text.
  • Customization
    It offers a high level of customization, allowing users to tailor the toolbars, menus, and other interface elements to meet their specific needs.
  • Cost-Effective
    The software provides a good balance of features and cost, making it an affordable option for both individual users and businesses.

Possible disadvantages of PDF-XChange Editor

  • Learning Curve
    Due to its extensive feature set, new users may find it challenging to learn and master all of the functions and tools available in the software.
  • Limited Free Version
    The free version of PDF-XChange Editor is limited in functionality, with many advanced features requiring a paid license to access.
  • Watermarks
    Free version annotations and some features will include watermarks on the documents, which could be inconvenient for professional use.
  • Occasional Bugs
    Some users have reported occasional bugs and software instability, which could interrupt workflow and reduce productivity.
  • Complexity of Features
    Some of the advanced features may be overly complex for users who only need basic PDF editing capabilities, making the user experience overwhelming.

Analysis of PDF-XChange Editor

Overall verdict

  • PDF-XChange Editor is considered a good choice for those requiring a robust PDF editing solution. It combines functionality and ease of use, making it appealing to a broad spectrum of users from casual users to professionals.

Why this product is good

  • PDF-XChange Editor is widely regarded as a powerful and versatile PDF editing software. It offers a wide range of features, including text editing, annotation tools, OCR (Optical Character Recognition), and the ability to create and fill forms. Its user-friendly interface and efficient performance are often praised, making it suitable for both basic and advanced PDF editing tasks. Additionally, it supports a wide array of file formats and provides integration with popular cloud storage services.

Recommended for

  • Individuals who frequently need to edit or annotate PDF documents.
  • Professionals requiring advanced PDF functionality such as OCR and form creation.
  • Users looking for a cost-effective alternative to other leading PDF editors.
  • People who value integration with cloud storage and multiple file format support.

DocSpring videos

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PDF-XChange Editor videos

PDF-XChange Viewer Tutorial

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to DocSpring and PDF-XChange Editor)
Document Automation
100 100%
0% 0
PDF Tools
5 5%
95% 95
PDF Editor
0 0%
100% 100
HTML To PDF
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare DocSpring and PDF-XChange Editor

DocSpring Reviews

We have no reviews of DocSpring yet.
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PDF-XChange Editor Reviews

The 13 Best Free PDF Editors (February 2024)
PDF-XChange Editor offers some great tools, but not all of them are free to use. If you use a non-free feature, the PDF will save with a watermark on every page.
8 Best Adobe Acrobat Alternatives In 2022 [Updated List]
PDF-Xchange Editor is one of the most inexpensive alternatives to Acrobat Pro. It has all the tools necessary for creating, editing, and annotating PDF files and also has OCR and tools for digitally signing the documents. It also allows you to export PDF files to MS Office formats.
10 Best PDF Expert Alternatives for Various Tasks in 2022
Thereby, PDF Xchange Editor comes before PDF Expert in the OCR technology. This PDF expert alternative provides you with the advanced OCR plug-in of ABBYY, which counts to be more precise, adaptive, and faster than the standard OCR engine (at work by PDF Expert), and be completed with features such as dynamic stamps, say, a stamp that adopts the system date in an automatic...
Source: fixthephoto.com
13 of the Best Free PDF Readers
For those users looking to add audio to their PDFs, PDF-XChange Editor could be the solution. Besides the having ability to add recordings and other audio, users can view and edit the PDF files, along with adding in a signature. The best feature of PDF-XChange, though, might be its Optical Character Recognition Tool. With this tool, users can scan in a printed document and...
Source: www.indeed.com
Top 5 Best Free Alternatives to Adobe Acrobat DC
PDF-XChange Editor offers amazing amount of features for free (about 80%). Some of them are free only in Editor (but not free in others competitors). And all free features in Editor are very precise and detailed. With the stable work and good support, PDF-XChange Editor is very user-friendly for high level professional documents
Source: whatvwant.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, DocSpring seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 5 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

DocSpring mentions (5)

  • Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (February 2025)
    I'm still working on DocSpring [1], originally launched on Hacker News in October 2017 under the name "FormAPI." It's a PDF generation API with a template editor UI for setting up fields on PDF forms. It makes it easy to turn complex tax and immigration forms into simple type-safe APIs with strong validations. I've been having a lot of fun with AI agents lately. Have tried a lot of them - Cline, Roo Code,... - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Launch HN: Onedoc (YC W24) – A better way to create PDFs
    For programmatic filling of PDFs, have a look at DocSpring: https://docspring.com. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • So you want to modify the text of a PDF by hand
    Great post. I've spend a lot of time reading through the PDF specification over the last ~5 years while building DocSpring [1], and I still feel like I've barely scratched the surface. Qpdf is a great tool. One of my other favorites is RUPS [2], which really lets you dig into the structure of a PDF. [1] https://docspring.com [2] https://github.com/itext/i7j-rups. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Workflow for automating document creation from a "database"
    Hi /u/pepeday, I’m the founder of a software product that I built to solve this problem. The service is called DocSpring: https://docspring.com We provide a platform that you can use to set up PDF templates, and automatically generate PDFs by filling in those templates with data from your database. Please feel free to send me a message and I’d be happy to speak with you and help you figure out a solution. I can... Source: over 3 years ago
  • How do you fill copies of the same PDF certificates with Excel data?
    - https://docspring.com/ (super advanced features, a bit bloated). Source: over 3 years ago

PDF-XChange Editor mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of PDF-XChange Editor yet. Tracking of PDF-XChange Editor recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing DocSpring and PDF-XChange Editor, you can also consider the following products

row2pdf - Generate customized PDFs from CSV data with our easy-to-use template builder. Perfect for bulk document generation, invoices, certificates, and more.

Adobe Acrobat DC - Make your job easier with Adobe Acrobat DC, the trusted PDF creator. Use Acrobat to convert, edit and sign PDF files at your desk or on the go.

DocRaptor - As the only API powered by the Prince HTML-to-PDF engine, DocRaptor provides the best support for complex PDFs with powerful support for headers, page breaks, page numbers, flexbox, watermarks, accessible PDFs, and much more

Sumatra PDF - Sumatra PDF is a slim PDF/DjVu/EPUB/XPS/CHM/CBR/CBZ/MOBI viewer for Windows.

MailMergic - Effortless Mail Merge for PDFs — Generate, personalize, and send documents in minutes, not hours.

Foxit Reader - Foxit Reader is a free and light-weight multi-platform PDF document viewer.