--- title: Apache PDFBox Reviews meta_title: 'Apache PDFBox Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 12 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how Apache PDFBox works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.3 review_count: 12 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-08-09' parent_category: name: Collaboration & Productivity url: https://www.g2.com/categories/collaboration-productivity --- # Apache PDFBox Reviews **Vendor:** The Apache Software Foundation **Category:** [Document Generation Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/document-generation) **Average Rating:** 4.3/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 12 ## About Apache PDFBox Apache PDFBox library is an open source Java tool for working with PDF documents. ## Apache PDFBox Reviews ### 1. Innovative library for the general use of PDF **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jacob H. | Computer Programmer, Computer Software, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 30, 2019 **What do you like best about Apache PDFBox?** The truth is that it is a very useful tool but it is being named relatively now, it is very useful since it is open source therefore anyone can use it and besides that it allows us to operate with PDF files, that is to say , allows us to create, process, print, divide, combine, extract texts, among many other functions, it is worth mentioning that it is a JAVA library and to be used with this programming language, its integration is super simple and fast in the language. **What do you dislike about Apache PDFBox?** The only negative thing is that it does not have much support or a large community to support it, in addition to technical support is not very good at the time of consulting doubts but outside of that I think a very good option to turn to as a programmer when we want to use functions with PDF. **Recommendations to others considering Apache PDFBox:** I recommend it widely and more because it is open source and its use can be by anyone who wants it, besides that it is a library that in my opinion is super complete and that making the call to their respective elements is not complicated. It is much better than other options that I have used and certainly much better than trying to perform the functions from scratch. **What problems is Apache PDFBox solving and how is that benefiting you?** The truth is that I have used this library on very specific occasions but I can say that I have not left any complaint, the library is very good and practices for the amount of functions that simplifies you. ### 2. Make a PDF document with zero licensing cost **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Media Production | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 12, 2019 **What do you like best about Apache PDFBox?** Apache PDFBox is free, is less resouce intensive, fast, can be easily integrated to the JAVA code, has lots of examples and is still growing to support newer features. And one thing special you can edit a pdf say remove 10 pages from an existing document by simply writing 2 lines of code. **What do you dislike about Apache PDFBox?** Not all features are supported. Compared to the paid licensed iText is the best in this category but the cost involved may not be feasible for all small companies who have IT as a supporting area in their business. Also since not everyday we require all advanced feature so PDFbox is pretty good. Its is a little memory intensive where iText stands optimized. So depending upon the business leverage low cost and best solution PDFbox would be my choice. **Recommendations to others considering Apache PDFBox:** Easy to use, lots of handy examples, free of cost, can be commercially used as well. Easy to integrate in the JAVA projects , maven / gradel etc dependency, continuous improvements are present, styling tables, different borders, report format, colors can be easily added. **What problems is Apache PDFBox solving and how is that benefiting you?** Creating PDF documents, reports on the fly , comerical reports to be sent to clients, various UI designs like table etc, editing of PDF by removing unwanted pages or adding / inserting PDF pages as and when required. No licensing headache, several examples and support community on the internet. The major benefit was lowering the cost in reports generation on the fly, easy to use and team found it very comfortable to switch with lots of handy examples. ### 3. Apache PDFBox is a Great Server Based PDF Manipulation Framework **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Josen R. | Business Owner, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 31, 2019 **What do you like best about Apache PDFBox?** This project is open source and community driven. People have come together to create a truly functional set of utilities to perform common PDF tasks. **What do you dislike about Apache PDFBox?** There isn't really anything that I didn't like. As with any tool, it takes time to learn the syntax and practicing write code. **What problems is Apache PDFBox solving and how is that benefiting you?** I needed to manipulate PDF files on the server and this interface allowed me to do that. ### 4. a versatile tool to work with pdf **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 12, 2019 **What do you like best about Apache PDFBox?** is flexible to extract and create pdf, It is also the rendering of the images, and the visualization **What do you dislike about Apache PDFBox?** I would say that I do not have the minimum requirements, which are: Java6 or higher. pdfbox fontbox levigo-jbig2-imageio commons-loggin **Recommendations to others considering Apache PDFBox:** If you want to obtain better visualization of images and have a performance resource use it without a doubt for your work, you must have the minimum for your installation **What problems is Apache PDFBox solving and how is that benefiting you?** a quality option to work with pdf files ### 5. It's one of the best and well documented API for manipulating PDF documents using java language!! **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** piyush s. | Software Engineer, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 13, 2018 **What do you like best about Apache PDFBox?** the best thing is that it's an opensource API in java , we just have to download the JAR file and import JPDFBox class to access PDF document from your java program,and it contains all kind of methods that you can think of while working with PDF documents,we can extract text , create PDF , split PDF ,insert image , watch preview of PDF using java language !! **What do you dislike about Apache PDFBox?** they release new versions very rarely , sometimes it throws exception although your code is correct!! **Recommendations to others considering Apache PDFBox:** If you want to access any PDF document using java then you should use this API for sure , it's rally easy to understand and implement , you can also find different video tutorials for this API!! **What problems is Apache PDFBox solving and how is that benefiting you?** We created PDF online printing software for different collages in Gujarat in which we used this API for getting some information like page no,Author ID of user and also for generating their bills in PDF!! ### 6. Must have to PDF manipulation in Java **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 11, 2019 **What do you like best about Apache PDFBox?** Ease of use and API clarity. It is very easy to extract text from PDF to feed it through indexing for example. **What do you dislike about Apache PDFBox?** Documentation is very clear but it is not always easy to find samples. **What problems is Apache PDFBox solving and how is that benefiting you?** I extract data from invoice to do automatic classification of costs. ## Apache PDFBox Discussions - [The final combined PDF is non-linearized](https://www.g2.com/discussions/26446-the-final-combined-pdf-is-non-linearized) - 1 upvote - [View Apache PDFBox pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/apache-pdfbox/reviews?filters%5Bnps_score%5D%5B%5D=4§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-08-10+14%3A28%3A14+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=c3dd95fe-42a2-4fe5-a88d-e44a96644884&secure%5Btoken%5D=dedb47127565e16388ec367f3bce9dc7620242c9230dc0d70253ccdca5b48789&format=llm_user) ## Apache PDFBox Features **Additional Functionality** - Third-Party Integrations - To-Do List - @mentions - Single Sign On - File Management - Activity Dashboard - Drag & Drop - Alerts/Notifications - Prioritization - Access Controls/Permissions - Screen Sharing - Content Management - Brainstorming - AI Copilot - File Transfer - Calendar Management - Status Tracking - Real-Time Notifications - Version Control - Task Management - Activity Tracking - Real Time Editing - Communication Management - Chat/Messaging - Tagging - Generative AI - Assignment Management - Task Scheduling - Project Management - Collaboration Tools - Workflow Management - Secure Data Storage - File Sharing - Document Storage - Task Progress Tracking - Discussions/Forums - Commenting/Notes - Reporting & Statistics - Contact Management - Video Conferencing - Progress Tracking - Mobile Access - API - Document Management - Customizable Branding **Data Sources** - Software - Spreadsheets - Documents **Generation** - Templates - Automation - Branding - Email Templates - Alerts/Notifications - Document Templates - Customizable Templates **Delivery** - Workflow - Schedule - Batch - Compliance Management - Workflow Management **Generative AI** - AI Text Generation - AI Text Summarization - AI Text-to-Image - AI Image-to-Text - Generative AI - Document Generation **Agentic AI - Document Generation** - Autonomous Task Execution **Additional Functionality** - Customizable Forms - Multiple Format Support - Activity Dashboard - Activity Tracking - Drag & Drop - Digital Signature - Collaboration Tools - API - Search/Filter - Third-Party Integrations - Text Editing - Audit Trail - Approval Process Control - Content Management - Multiple Output Formats - Offline Access - Data Import/Export - Access Controls/Permissions - Forms Management - Data Synchronization - Content Library - Customizable Fields - Multi-Language - Data Storage Management - Contract Drafting - Archiving & Retention - Full Text Search - Interaction Tracking - Contract/License Management - Document Review - Batch Processing - Conditional Logic - Document Management - Document Storage - Template Management - Electronic Signature - Reporting & Statistics - Version Control - AI Copilot - Workflow Automation ## Top Apache PDFBox Alternatives - [Adobe Acrobat](https://www.g2.com/products/adobe-acrobat/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (4,669 reviews) - [Wondershare PDFelement](https://www.g2.com/products/wondershare-wondershare-pdfelement/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (1,028 reviews) - [Docusign CLM](https://www.g2.com/products/docusign-clm/reviews) - 4.3/5.0 (497 reviews)