These two get compared because both say "PDF SDK", but they solve opposite problems. PSPDFKit (now Nutrient) is built around viewing a document faithfully and layering things on top of it: annotations, form fields, signatures, redaction. Polotno SDK is built around editing a design, and treats a PDF as a format it can read into editable layers and write back out. If your users need to review and mark up documents, PSPDFKit is the answer and this page will say so plainly.
Pick the one that matches what your users do
Pick PSPDFKit if…
- Your users read and annotate documents. Highlights, comments, sticky notes, ink, and stamps are its core surface. Polotno has no annotation layer at all.
- You need AcroForm fields. Filling, validating, and flattening interactive forms is a first-class feature there and unsupported here.
- You need e-signatures or certified redaction. Digital signature workflows and true content removal are compliance features with real legal weight. Deleting an element in a design editor is not the same thing and should never be sold as if it were.
- You need iOS and Android native SDKs. PSPDFKit ships them. Polotno is JavaScript and TypeScript, in the browser and under Node.
- Fidelity to the original file matters more than editability. A viewer renders the PDF as authored; a schema import reinterprets it.
Pick Polotno SDK if…
- Your users change the document, not comment on it. Import a PDF and get text as text, images as images, vectors as paths, all editable on a canvas.
- You generate documents from data. One stored template plus a database row, rendered thousands of times through the Cloud Render API.
- PDF is one output among several. The same JSON schema exports PNG, JPG, SVG, HTML, PPTX, GIF, and MP4.
- Your users are not document specialists. The editing surface is a design canvas, closer to Canva than to Acrobat.
- You want print output. CMYK, spot colours, bleed, crop marks, and PDF/X-4 come out of PDF export.
Viewing a document vs rewriting one
1. What happens when you open a PDF
PSPDFKit renders the document. The page you see is the page as authored, and anything you add sits in a separate annotation layer that a compliant viewer can show, hide, or export separately.
Polotno parses the document. pdfToJson() returns typed elements with explicit coordinates, fonts, and colours, and from that point you are editing a design rather than a document. That is powerful when the goal is to change the content and lossy when the goal is to preserve the file exactly.
2. Who the editing surface is for
PSPDFKit's UI is a document reader with tooling around it, and it assumes the underlying page is fixed. Polotno's UI is a canvas with layers, templates, and asset panels, and it assumes everything is movable.
3. Output
PSPDFKit writes PDF back with annotations and form data intact. Polotno writes vector PDF through @polotno/pdf-export, or any of the other supported formats, from the same schema. Form fields and annotations are not carried through, because they were never parsed in the first place.
4. Platform
PSPDFKit covers web, iOS, Android, Windows, and server. Polotno covers browsers and Node. If your roadmap includes native mobile, that decides it on its own.
When PSPDFKit is the right call
If the words "annotation", "form field", "signature", or "redaction" appear anywhere in your requirements, buy PSPDFKit. Those are not features Polotno is missing temporarily; they are outside what a design-schema editor does. A compliance workflow built on a visual stamp that any recipient can delete would be worse than no feature at all.
The same goes for high-fidelity viewing. If your product's promise is "this looks exactly like the file we were sent", a renderer is the right architecture and a parser is the wrong one.
Where the naming gets confusing
PSPDFKit rebranded to Nutrient. Both names refer to the same product, and search volume still sits overwhelmingly with the old one, so you will see the two used interchangeably in comparisons and job listings.
FAQ
Can Polotno annotate a PDF?
No. There is no annotation, comment, or highlight layer. You can add text and shapes to a page as design elements, but they become part of the design rather than a separate reviewable layer, and there is no annotation model to export.
Can Polotno fill PDF forms?
No. AcroForm widgets are not parsed as interactive fields. If your workflow is "user completes a form and you flatten it", that is PSPDFKit territory.
Is Polotno cheaper?
Usually, but that is the wrong axis to decide on. The two products do different jobs, and buying the cheaper one because it is cheaper is how you end up shipping a viewer that cannot view or an editor that cannot edit. Pricing is on the pricing page if the capability question is already settled.
Can I use both?
Yes, and some products do. PSPDFKit for the review workflow, Polotno for the authoring one. They share nothing, so the integration cost is two SDKs rather than one.
Does Polotno support digital signatures?
No. Cryptographic signing and validation are not implemented.
Which one handles scanned documents?
Neither, without OCR. PSPDFKit offers OCR as a component. Polotno returns a scan as image elements with no text to edit, and its docs tell you to run OCR elsewhere first.
