Comparison
Toolbox vs PDF Expert
MarkdownWhat each one is
Toolbox is a set of 96 small Mac tools for video, audio, images, PDFs, text and Mac housekeeping. It runs on your Mac, needs no account and costs from $19 once.
PDF Expert is a PDF reader and editor for Mac, iPhone and iPad.
Feature by feature
Only the areas where the two overlap are compared here.
| Feature | Toolbox | PDF Expert |
|---|---|---|
| Sign a document | Sign PDF tool | Document signing |
| OCR | Make PDF Searchable tool | Text recognition (OCR) |
| Convert to Word | PDF to Word tool | Conversion to Word, Excel and PowerPoint |
| Edit text, images and links | Not included | Included |
| Annotate | Annotate Screenshot for images; not a PDF editor | Annotation |
| Apps for iPhone and iPad | Mac only | iPhone, iPad and Mac |
| Price | From $19 one-time, no subscription | Yearly subscription for Mac, iPhone and iPad, or a Mac-only lifetime license; see pdfexpert.com/pricing for your region |
When PDF Expert is the better choice
Choose PDF Expert if you read, annotate and edit PDFs every day. It lets you edit text, images and links inside a document and works across Mac, iPhone and iPad. Toolbox does not edit text in a PDF.
Its AI-assisted features for interacting with a PDF are also part of its paid plans.
When Toolbox is the better choice
Choose Toolbox if you need quick PDF jobs like merging, splitting, redacting, password changes or compressing, and also work with video, images and audio.
Frequently asked questions
Can Toolbox edit the text in a PDF?
No. It can fill and flatten forms, sign, redact, merge, split, compress and convert, but it does not edit existing text.
Does PDF Expert offer a one-time purchase?
Its pricing page lists a yearly subscription and a Mac-only lifetime license, with the lifetime plan noting that new features may cost extra.
Do Toolbox PDF tools work offline?
Yes. They run on your Mac, and files are not uploaded.
Tools mentioned
- Sign PDFDraw or type your signature and place it on a document.
- Make PDF SearchableAdd an invisible text layer to scanned PDFs so you can search, select and copy their text.
- PDF to WordTurn PDFs into Word documents you can edit, with headings, lists and paragraphs.
- Merge PDFsCombine several PDFs and images into one document.
- Compress PDFMake PDFs smaller by recompressing their images.
