PDF Architect Reviews

Summary: The paid version was quite limited in its commenting & marking up tools. You also need to watch out for the automatic subscription renewal which may catch you out if you are not planning to renew. Once it renews, good luck trying to get anything back.

Positive: Generally similar to all other pdf editing tools out there & may do the job for most people if you only need it for simple editing & commenting tools.

Negative: Marking up tools are limited.
Generally pdfs can be slow to load so if you are dealing with numerous pdfs all the time, is probably not the product for you.
Watch out for automatic renewals.

Summary: I never got to use it - the nagging process was just too annoying for me. Stay away from its free version.

Positive: I never got to try the free features that I wanted. It was too annoying for me to use the free version.

Negative: It was running a service or a check at login - which displayed a rather large nagging screen that I needed to "resolve issues" with it - by buying a licence. That is just too much nagging for me!

Summary: If you want a half functioning PDF editor this is for you! Everything from the PDF editing, to multi doc combing works slowly, is glitchy, and has limited features. Customer service- good luck finding a phone number. Additionally, they sent me email after email during my renewal period telling me they would cancel my renewal since my card was not up to date, then charged my card and refused to refund it once I realized they had dishonestly done this. A total scam for a little less cost than Adobe PDF Pro which is a much better product.

Positive: Editing PDF text is a very useful tool when it works correctly or at all. Also has e-sign capability when it isn't erroring out.

Negative: Poor customer service.
Glitchy.
Limited editing ability.
Poor designed e-signature add-on.

Summary: It's not worth the pain from strange PDF compatibility problems, poor interface design and the constant activation process.

Positive: It is not as expensive as competing Adobe products and it does edit most PDFs. That's about all I can say that's positive.

Negative: There are oddball issues with printing and fillable PDFs. Several of the interface design decisions make you scratch your head trying to find features that should be self-explanatory. But the biggest pain is that at least twice a week I'll go to use it and find I have to reactivate the stupid thing. I reached out to support more than once and was told if I don't use it daily it will require reactivating. Make no sense to me. I'd stay away from this just over the activation pain.

Summary: Worst customer service, No accountability - IF they made changes then they should offer refunds or inform customers up front about issues!!!

Positive: I used the program for 4 years, overall it worked well! I had the pro version and it did all that I needed. See CONS - BIG CHANGES!

Negative: This year on renewal Kaspersky has blocked the program from updating, downloading, etc. Therefore I can no longer use any feature at all that I paid for! I emailed support and they confirmed in writing that they are working with Kaspersky to allow access to the program being safe - this is their problem to work out, not mine as a customer! If they are not compliant with requirements for safe operation, they need to sort that out! I added PDF Architect to my safe list and approved list and it will still not download, update or allow me to use any features! At no point in purchase or renewal do they mention that the program does not work when your system is protected by Kaspersky! This is up to PDF Architect to rectify or inform their customers! I then asked for a phone call and a refund and they refused and stopped replying! They said I was past my 30 days. My program renewal is annual and renewed in October, it was working then, this issue came up in January and I now have a PAID for program, that the supplier can not make work and will not offer ANY refund! DO NOT PURCHASE!!! YOU WILL BE WASTING YOUR MONEY IF YOU ACTUALLY NEED A FUNCTIONING RELIABLE PROGRAM!

Summary: Do not do it - do not purchase as will leave you disappointed
Not always working the way you think or would like. Always had problems with the app just overlooked the inconvenience as I managed to get by.
No being able to use properly is a bridge too far.

Positive: Seemed alright - used V7 and upgraded to V8 due to cost benefit.
Lot of flashy potential but cost.

Negative: App lost internet connection on 01/01/22, a common problem which does not allow you to access your paid version.
Cannot resolve by self or by support - only got to use 2 months of subscription.
Support is minimal or useless.
Will have to buy a PDF subscription elsewhere as I need for work.

Summary: Tried to get money back as product didn't work as claimed for me, 8 weeks of trying and no money back to date.

Positive: The price is fair for the claimed PDF editor and OCR features. The layout is cluttered but straightforward.

Negative: Can not edit within text boxes from previous sessions and their advertised money back guarantee is a scam.

Summary: Auto-renewal is not exactly what they say; they automatically process renewal fees to your credit card, but the application deactivates. Most of the customer service reps don't know how to reactivate. I lost over 45 days because it deactivated.

Positive: Application is fairly easy to use and will accomplish the basic needs. Editing pdf is possible but is tedious.

Negative: Customer service is horrible and continues to decline. Customer service isn't knowledgeable or is poorly trained with their product.

Summary: Poor technical support, they will continue to bill you even if you cancel your subscription and remove their software.

Positive: None, I was billed despite canceling my subscription 3 months prior due to poor functionality and support from this company. Now need to get my money back. Caveat emptor. I hope they will at least delete my personal information.

Negative: Kludgy interface and terrible support if you have more than one device such as a desktop and pen enabled laptop.

They will bill you again despite canceling your subscription.

Summary: For a company that thrives on making things easy for the customer was definitely not asking what was really happening I lost the sale for the 55 licenses that they gave me the reseller pricelist for and told me to simply contact [email redacted] and it would be as simple as that 6 days lately and my client unhappy I still have no resolution

Positive: The online explanation of what it said it could do but no one would get back to me nor could I reach support.

Negative: Everything as the support to even get to someone even after finding out the company when you try to call was under MYclick they said they would have someone contact us and 6 days still no contact no licenses no support.

Summary: Whatever. Customer service for billing is terrible. Good luck trying to reach a person and rectify a billing problem.

Positive: The product is fine, it does what you'd expect. The actual pdf work is good, but I won't be buying again. The billing is a mess.

Negative: The automatic renewal billing is a mess. Re-up your subscription manually, or you'll be billed and rebilled twice. AND you'll never get a response to customer service.

Summary: Good for use, when it works.

Positive: Easy to use and good tools to manage pdf files.

Negative: Lots of advertisements, asking you to upgrade to more expensive versions. After declining, it suddenly started to fail recognizing my user, so I cannot use my PRO license. Furthermore, the yearly price is quite expensive.

Summary: it is a little cumbersome to try to line up the text to overwrite. For the price, I guess it is okay, but as an editor, it is sub quality.

Positive: You can modify an existing file by using text boxes and overwriting the document's text areas you want to change.
Price is better for the infrequent user.

Negative: Can't do any copying of the PDF, text or otherwise. Only with the OCR version can you do this. Adobe Acrobat offers this with their free version. Disappointing that they can throw in at least what other free PDF editors can do.

Summary: If you need to adjust or otherwise work in PDFs with some regularity, I'd suggest a different product. This one is not reliable.

Positive: I was hoping this software could do what I needed at a better price point than the brand name software.

Negative: The program has a lot of flaws: I cannot edit PDFs adequately. It's clear I've made an edit, versus it blending seamlessly into the document. At times, the program would seize up and not allow me to adjust the size of a window, for example, or not open a document at all, often necessitating a reboot. Finally, when I declined to extend my license, I was kicked out of the program with a month left on my original license.

Summary: Seemed to work OK with single page pdf creation, but multi-page documents I lost faith in it. Just double-check larger documents with Acrobat Reader.

Positive: Relatively inexpensive. Somewhat intuitive to use after some use. Didn't seem to cause problems with my Windows PC.

Negative: - Some merged files would freeze and lockup in Acrobat reader. Worked fine in PDFArch, but that was of no use when sending files to others.

- Annoying to always have to "switch" to Pro version when opening program. Don't understand why the free version needs to stay on your computer after paying for Pro.

- Customer service is slow and rarely of much help.