Here at Mailform, we’re focused on helping customers be more productive with documents. PDFs are the primary document format we support, and one question we get from time to time is how to actually fill out the forms online (as opposed to printing, filling it out, and scanning it in). PDFs are used commonly for newsletters, instruction manuals, and tax and healthcare forms, and a ton of government paperwork. Despite this, you can also create your own PDF and even make a fill-out form by using one of these tools. Which tools you actually use depends on your needs, device and price point.

PDFfillerPDFfiller is a web based application that makes it easy to create, edit, or make a form to fill out easily. All you need to do is upload the document to the website and use all the available tools. You can upload documents from your computer, or if you prefer, from cloud storage services like Box, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive and more. Once uploaded, PDFfiller.com provides several basic video tutorials on how to use every feature including the fill-out form creation. Pricing starts at $6 per month, but you can upgrade to professional and business plans to get more features.

PDFBuddy Another free web-based PDF tool is available from PDFBuddy. It offers a range of tools to edit your documents online, meaning you don’t have to download and install any software. The best thing about this tool is user-friendly interface. The home page has an upload button with which you can search for the document you want to edit from computer. Once uploaded, the interface provides easy access to all available tools on the left-hand toolbar. PDFBuddy.com offers free usage up to three times a month, but you can get unlimited access for only $7.99 a month. There is also a pay-as-you-go method for those who don’t want to subscribe. There is no difference between the payment plans; all provide the same tools for adding signature, filling out forms, adding or removing images, and more.

Adobe Acrobat Adobe is the grandaddy of the PDF format, and their flagship is Adobe Acrobat (now part of the document cloud). Acrobat is widely popular and constantly updated to provide more features and stable performance. It is not a web app, but stand-alone software that you must install on your desktop or mobile device. This provides a key advantage, which is that Adobe Acrobat can be used offline as well. The latest version has FormsCentral feature with which you can build a form to fill out: this is available only in the paid subscription plan. There is also a full set of document-editing tools including but not limited to reformatting, replacing texts, moving page elements, and changing font. The new version, Adobe Acrobat XI Standard, is available for $299.

PDFEscape A cloud-based PDF editing tool, PDFEscape allows you to upload and edit up to 10 documents for free. Each file must be less than 10MB and 100 pages. You can upgrade for more with the Premium or Ultimate Plan subscription. Even the free service gives you access to a variety of editing tools, fill forms, create forms, and print without watermark.

FoxitsoftwareFoxit is a strong competitor for Adobe Acrobat. One of its best offerings for PDF editing is the Phantom PDF Standard, available for about $77.00 or probably less. It is smaller than Acrobat, and therefore it consumes less computer resources. In general, you can consider this the lightweight version of Adobe Acrobat; it is less expensive, but there is also limitation in features as a result. However, PDF form filling and creations are available.

Hope these are helpful! Thanks for reading and please reach out if you have additional questions!