fyllyoRedact a contract
A name, address and account number found on three pages, blacked out, and saved as a separate redacted copy. The original stays as it was.
Fyllyo Paid
The free PDF editor for your Mac.
Read, sign, organize, password-protect and recognize text in PDFs, with no account. When you need redaction, certificate signing and text editing, pay $99 once. Acrobat Pro costs $239.88 a year.
Free forever · Paid is $99 once · No subscription · Apple silicon, macOS 13 or later
Your files never leave your Mac.
Free for everyday PDFs. Paid for the pro tools.
The free tools don’t expire and need no account. Fyllyo Paid is one purchase, for one Mac, with free updates.
Free, with no account
- Read, search and printOpen several PDFs in tabs, find any word, zoom, and print.
- Fill in forms and signType into fillable forms, add comments and highlights, and sign with a signature you draw.
- Organize pagesRotate, delete, reorder and insert pages, or save a single page on its own.
- Combine, split, images to PDFMerge files into one, split one into several, and turn photos and scans into a PDF.
- Recognize text in scansMake scanned pages searchable and copyable. It runs on your Mac with Apple’s text recognition.
- Password-protect a PDFRequire a password to open it, or limit printing and copying. And open PDFs that need one.
Fyllyo Paid, $99 once
- Find and redactFind names, numbers or any phrase and black them out. They’re removed from the page and from comments, form fields, bookmarks, document details and attachments, then checked for leftovers.
- Sign with a certificateA digital signature from your .p12 or .pfx certificate. Anyone can check who signed and that nothing changed since.
- Edit textChange words in the PDF itself, in the same font when it can, and the paragraph reflows around them.
- Remove hidden dataAuthor and app details, scripts, attachments, earlier versions, and the camera and location details inside photos.
- Make PDFs smallerLarge images scaled down and stored as JPEG. Text, fields and drawings stay sharp.
- XFA and calculating formsOpen the government XFA forms Preview can’t, and forms that add up their own totals.
- Fill forms from documentsAdd a client’s documents and Fyllyo fills the form with AI that runs on your Mac, with every answer linked to its source.
See it work
Recorded in the app, with a sample contract and receipt.
Make a scan searchable
Search a scanned receipt and find nothing. Recognize its text, and the same search finds it. Copy and paste work too.
Free
Sign with a certificate
Choose your certificate, sign, and the bar says who signed and that the file hasn’t changed since.
Fyllyo Paid
Reorder and rotate pages
Move the last page to the front, turn a sideways page, and save.
Free
The tools Preview doesn’t have
Preview is fine for reading. These are the jobs people usually pay Adobe for.
Redaction you can trust
Black out a name everywhere it appears, including in comments, fields and attachments. Fyllyo then checks the saved file for anything left behind, and keeps your original as it was.
Password protection, free
Require a password to open a PDF, or stop others printing, copying or changing it. Files are encrypted with AES-256, and PDFs that need a password open with every tool working.
Scans you can search
Turn a scanned receipt, contract or statement into a PDF you can search and copy from. It runs on your Mac, for free.
Fyllyo, Acrobat and Preview
What each one does on a Mac. Acrobat prices are from adobe.com, checked October 2026.
| Fyllyo | Acrobat Pro | Preview | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free; Paid is $99 once | $239.88 a year (Pro, annual plan) | Free with macOS |
| Read, comment, sign by hand, organize pages | Free | Yes | Yes |
| Password-protect a PDF | Free | Yes | Yes |
| Make scanned PDFs searchable (OCR) | Free, on your Mac | Yes | Selects text, doesn’t save it |
| Find and redact, with a check for leftovers | Paid | Yes | No leftover check |
| Sign with a digital certificate | Paid | Yes | No |
| XFA forms (common in government forms) | Paid | Yes | No |
| Forms that calculate their totals | Paid | Yes | No |
| Edit existing text | Paid, a line or paragraph at a time | Yes, and page layout | No |
| Fill forms from documents with AI on your Mac | Paid | No | No |
| Export to Word or Excel | No | Yes | No |
| Windows | No | Yes | No |
What it doesn’t do yet
- Windows and Intel Macs: Fyllyo needs a Mac with Apple silicon.
- Converting PDFs to Word or Excel, or creating PDFs from Office files.
- Comparing two versions of a document.
- Sending documents out for others to sign.
- Turning a flat, scanned form into a fillable one.
What it needs
A Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later) and macOS 13 Ventura or later. The download is about 200 MB.
Filling forms from documents uses an AI model of about 5 GB, which downloads only when you use it. 16 GB of memory is recommended for it.
Fyllyo is signed and notarized by Apple, and updates install by themselves.
Pay once.
Never pay Adobe again.
Acrobat Pro is $239.88 a year. Fyllyo Paid is $99, once, with free updates for life.
Start with the free tools. Sign in to try everything in Paid for 5 days, with no credit card.
Fyllyo Paid
$99one-time · lifetime licence
- Find and redact, with a leftover check
- Sign with a certificate
- Edit text
- Remove hidden data
- Make PDFs smaller
- XFA forms and forms that calculate
- Fill forms from documents with AI on your Mac
- One Mac at a time, free updates for life
Apple silicon · macOS 13 or later. Download for Mac
Questions
Is Fyllyo really free?
Yes. Reading, filling in, commenting, drawn signatures, page tools, combining, splitting, images to PDF, recognizing text in scans and password protection are free, with no account, and they don’t expire. Fyllyo Paid adds the pro tools for $99 once.
Is Fyllyo a good Acrobat alternative on a Mac?
For most PDF work, yes: reading, signing, organizing, OCR, redaction, certificate signatures, text edits and forms. It doesn’t convert PDFs to Word or Excel, compare documents, send documents out for signature, or run on Windows. If you need those, keep Acrobat.
How do I password-protect a PDF on a Mac for free?
Open the PDF in Fyllyo, choose Security from the viewer’s menu, tick “Require password to open”, enter the password twice and save. The saved file is encrypted with AES-256. You can also limit printing, copying and editing.
How do I make a scanned PDF searchable?
Open it in Fyllyo and choose Tools, then “Recognize text in scanned pages”. Fyllyo adds an invisible text layer using Apple’s text recognition on your Mac, so you can search, select and copy the text. It’s free.
Why does my government form say “Please wait” in Preview?
It’s probably an XFA form, which Preview and most browsers can’t show. Fyllyo Paid opens XFA forms and lets you fill them in and save them.
Is redaction in Fyllyo safe?
Redaction removes the text and images under each mark, not just covers them. Fyllyo also removes matching text from comments, form fields, bookmarks, document details and attachments, checks the saved file for anything left, and saves a separate redacted copy so the original isn’t overwritten.
Are my files uploaded?
No. Everything happens on your Mac, including text recognition and form filling with AI. The only exception is setting up your own custom form for automatic filling, which sends the blank form and your setup notes.
What happens after the free trial?
Signing in to the app starts a 5-day trial of Fyllyo Paid, with no credit card. When it ends, the free tools keep working. Buy Fyllyo Paid for $99 once to keep the pro tools, with free updates.