Apryse, formerly PDFTron, is one of the most complete document platforms available: viewing, annotation, forms, redaction, OCR, conversion, digital signatures, across web, mobile, server, and half a dozen languages. Polotno SDK is narrower on purpose. It is a design editor with a JSON schema, which reads PDFs into editable layers and writes them back out. The honest comparison is scope against fit.
Pick the one that matches the job
Pick Apryse if…
- You are processing documents rather than designing them. Splitting, merging at byte level, OCR, classification, and extraction are the platform's home ground.
- You need the compliance features. Certified redaction, digital signatures, PDF/A archiving, and accessibility tagging carry legal weight that a design tool cannot claim.
- You are not on JavaScript. Apryse ships .NET, Java, Python, C++, iOS, and Android. Polotno is JS and TS only.
- You need a faithful viewer. Rendering the file as authored, including annotations and form state, is its core competence.
- Your documents carry structure that must survive. Bookmarks, tagged content, embedded attachments, and internal links are preserved by a document library and dropped by a schema import.
Pick Polotno SDK if…
- Your users author, not administer. The surface is a design canvas with layers, templates, fonts, and asset panels.
- You generate personalised documents at volume. Certificates, invoices, tickets, and labels from one template plus a data row, through the Cloud Render API.
- PDF is one format among many. The same schema exports PNG, JPG, SVG, HTML, PPTX, GIF, and MP4.
- You want print-ready output without a print stack. CMYK, spot colours, bleed, crop marks, PDF/X-4 and X-1a from PDF export.
- You want to ship in days. A canvas editor with a React component and a JSON schema is a smaller integration than a document platform.
Breadth of platform vs fit for the job
1. Breadth against depth
Apryse covers more of the document lifecycle than Polotno ever will, and that is the point of it. Polotno covers the authoring end and covers it with a UI your end users can operate without training. Neither position is better in the abstract.
2. What "editing a PDF" means
In Apryse, editing usually means operating on the document object: modifying content streams, manipulating pages, editing form values. In Polotno, the PDF is parsed into a design and you edit that. Text becomes text elements you can restyle and reflow, which is more freedom than a content-stream edit and less fidelity than one.
3. Language and platform reach
This is often the first filter and the fastest one. Apryse runs almost anywhere. Polotno runs in the browser and under Node. A .NET backend rules Polotno out for server-side work regardless of every other consideration.
4. What you operate
Apryse is typically a licensed library you host. Polotno's rendering can run client-side, on your own servers, or through a managed API, and the schema is the same in all three. See rendering.
When Apryse is the right call
If your product's job is to handle whatever document a user throws at it — read it, extract from it, sign it, archive it, prove something about it — buy Apryse. The compliance surface in particular is not something to improvise. A design editor that deletes an element is not performing redaction, and treating it as if it were would be a real risk rather than a feature gap.
A note on the name
Apryse was PDFTron until 2023. Older comparisons, job posts, and Stack Overflow answers still use the old name, and both refer to the same product.
FAQ
Can Polotno replace Apryse?
For an authoring workflow, often. For a document-processing or compliance workflow, no. The features Polotno lacks in that direction are architectural rather than incomplete.
Does Polotno do OCR?
No. A scanned PDF imports as image elements with no text to edit. Run OCR with a dedicated tool first, then import the text-augmented file.
Which produces better print output?
Both can produce PDF/X. Polotno's print path is built around design work — CMYK conversion, spot colours, bleed, crop marks — and the preflight tool lets you check a file without writing code. Apryse's is built around document conformance and archiving.
Is Polotno cheaper?
Generally yes, and its licensing is simpler. That matters only after you have established the capability fit, which is where this comparison should be decided.
Can I merge PDFs with Polotno?
Pages can be concatenated through the schema, and the merge tool does exactly that. Form fields, bookmarks, annotations, and internal links are not preserved. For a byte-level merge that keeps them, use a document library.
