Pdftools PDF Viewer SDK
Client-side PDF viewer SDK for web and mobile, with true redaction built in.
Operated by Apryse
Where your files are processed
No server involved
A client-side SDK: it renders, annotates and redacts inside the browser or the mobile app, which is the vendor's whole pitch — "directly on the client without a server-side PDF library". No Pdftools service is in the path. That is a property of the library itself: what an application built with it does with your file depends on that application, not on this.
Entirely client-side: the vendor's pitch is to work with PDFs "directly on the client without a server-side PDF library", and it documents self-contained deployment in air-gapped environments including iOS and Android devices. There is no Pdftools service in the path, so a document opened in it does not leave the device.
What it does
A PDF viewer you embed rather than a service you call: it renders, annotates and redacts in the browser or in a mobile app, without a server-side PDF library behind it. It ships as two npm packages, one for the headless engine and one for a ready-made interface you can restyle or replace, and it is built on the vendor's own rendering engine rather than a browser's built-in PDF support. Its redaction is the claim worth reading: the PDF is rebuilt without the marked content when it is exported, and the vendor says residual data — metadata, embedded objects, hidden elements — goes with it.
Best for: Teams building a document experience where the file must not be sent anywhere: air-gapped deployments, mobile apps that work offline, and regulated industries where showing a PDF inside somebody else's viewer is not acceptable. It is one of the components here that documents removal-grade redaction in a client-side component rather than in a desktop application or a service, and MuPDF.js documents browser-capable redaction as well, so it is a capable option rather than the only one.
Worth knowing: It is sold by a vendor that is joining Apryse, so the commercial terms and the support organisation are in motion — and it is a paid SDK with a trial on request and no published price, so the cost has to come from a conversation. The redaction claim is strong and specific, and it is still a vendor claim rather than a test: this index records eight redaction verdicts as tested and this is not one of them, so anybody relying on it for confidential documents should redact one and inspect the output rather than trusting the sentence. Being client-side, its security properties follow the browser or the app rather than a server you control, which cuts both ways — nothing is uploaded, and the document is on the device. And despite being aimed at air-gapped use, the packages are installed from npm, which is a supply-chain surface a genuinely disconnected environment has to handle deliberately. Client-side and air-gapped deployment are supported options rather than proof that every embedding application sends no files anywhere: the SDK can open URLs and a custom integration controls its own input and output. Free evaluation is not a free production tier, and the product page advertises full-function testing without time limits as well as a requested trial licence, so the two are worth reconciling against the licence document rather than summarised as request-only. Edit here means annotation and form operations primarily, not general editing of existing text.
Details, and where each comes from
Vendor statements, our own reading of their pages, and the things nobody has established yet, each answered separately. Where we have not confirmed something it says so rather than guessing, and a row nobody has established is greyed out.
- Versions covered
- Web · iOS · Android · Self-hosted
- Website
- pdf-tools.com
- Requires an account
- Not applicable
- Free tier
- No
- Watermark on trial output
- Not verified
- Maximum file size
- Not verified
- Batch processing
- Not verified
- Data residency
- Self-hosted
- Open source
- No
- Self-hostable
- Yes
- Licence
- Commercial; trial licence on request
- Redaction
- Removes the content
- Programmatic access
- Embeddable library
- Last availability check
- Responded in 70 ms 16 October 2026
Checked automatically by our own runner, not reported by the vendor. 100% of our last 30 checks got a response.
What the redaction verdict rests on
From the vendor's own documentation, read 22 September 2026. Not tested by us.
“Pdftools delivers true redaction by permanently eliminating residual data such as metadata, embedded objects, and hidden elements. The PDF is rebuilt without the redacted content, ensuring sensitive information is fully removed.”
What that does not establish: The strongest redaction wording on any record added in this batch, and it earns the verdict because it describes the mechanism rather than naming a feature: the file is rebuilt without the content, and the vendor names the categories that usually survive a page-level redaction — metadata, embedded objects, hidden elements. That is the failure mode this index's guide was written about. What it does not establish: a test. This is a vendor claim, the index records eight verdicts as tested and this is not one of them, and no page read states what happens to attachments or document-level JavaScript specifically. Settling it is cheap in principle — mark one string, export, and search the output — and until somebody does, the verdict is documentation-based.
https://www.pdf-tools.com/products/viewing-printing/pdf-web-viewer/
What the vendor says
Claims are labelled rather than repeated as fact. Where we have checked something ourselves, it says so and shows when. Checked means we read the vendor's own page and it says what we recorded — not that we tested the behaviour, unless the note says we did.
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“Work with PDFs directly on the client without a server-side PDF library. The Pdftools Viewer SDK offers high performance, flexible integration, and comprehensive viewing and editing tools.”
Checked by us — the source says this Read 1 October 2026
Confirmed. The quoted text appears in the rendered page as read on 2026-10-01. This claim was carried as reported rather than checked until this read. The first read of this page captured too little of the rendered text to compare, so it was read a second time with the network quiet.
Standing: Not re-read against the live source
Check it yourself: the source, the SHA-256, and how we checked
- From
- the text a browser renders
- SHA-256
- ced0c45a7012230a9a4cd0423edfa5dc10887719600140b56dab5d8adfe0a76a
How we checked: Read as rendered text in headless Chrome on 2026-10-01 and saved to the evidence archive, so the read can be repeated against the same file. Comparison ignores case, punctuation and hyphenation, which is why "open-source" on the record matches "open source" on the page.
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“True redaction: Mark text for redaction. When exporting, redacted text is not exported and becomes truly redacted for ultimate security.”
Checked by us — the source says this Read 1 October 2026
Confirmed. The quoted text appears in the rendered page as read on 2026-10-01. This claim was carried as reported rather than checked until this read. The first read of this page captured too little of the rendered text to compare, so it was read a second time with the network quiet.
Standing: Not re-read against the live source
Check it yourself: the source, the SHA-256, and how we checked
- From
- the text a browser renders
- SHA-256
- ced0c45a7012230a9a4cd0423edfa5dc10887719600140b56dab5d8adfe0a76a
How we checked: Read as rendered text in headless Chrome on 2026-10-01 and saved to the evidence archive, so the read can be repeated against the same file. Comparison ignores case, punctuation and hyphenation, which is why "open-source" on the record matches "open source" on the page.
Each claim is quoted from the vendor's own pages. This section describes what we have and have not checked — it is not a judgement about anyone.
Sponsorship is distribution, not an endorsement or a promise of search rankings, AI citations, traffic, or sales. This listing is a free entry, compiled from published sources.
Related reading
- Which PDF tools really redact — which tools remove the content rather than cover it.
- Which PDF tools keep your file on your machine — what we count as processing on your own device.