PDF tools that can save a filled-in form as Word
Prices and features checked 20 September 2026
Two different things get called "PDF to Word". One re-flows the document into editable paragraphs, which is what Acrobat and Word itself attempt and what mangles most forms. The other keeps the page exactly as it looks and wraps it in a Word file, which is what you usually want for a completed form.
This page lists tools that will hand you a .docx at the end, and says which kind of conversion each one does.
Feature comparison
| Feature | PDFpad | iLovePDF | DocHub | Adobe Acrobat | Microsoft Word (open a PDF) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type on a flat (non-form) PDF | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly |
| Fill existing form fields | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Typed signature | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly |
| Drawn signature (touch/mouse) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly |
| Upload signature image | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Save and reuse signature | Yes | Paid only | Yes | Yes | No |
| Date and tick fields | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly |
| Flatten so fills can't be moved | Yes | Yes | Partly | Paid only | Partly |
| Save as PDF | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Save as Word (DOCX) | Paid only | Paid only | Partly | Paid only | Yes |
| Reorder / delete / merge pages | No | Yes | Yes | Paid only | No |
| Works on a phone browser | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| File never uploaded | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| No watermark on free tier | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| No account needed to start | Yes | Partly | No | No | No |
Pricing
| Tool | Free tier | Paid | Billing |
|---|---|---|---|
| PDFpadChecked 20 Sept 2026 | Unlimited filling and signing; 3 PDF exports per 30 days, each with a small footer line | £6 a month, £39 a year, or £2 to unlock one document for 24 hours | Monthly or annualOne click from the account page, any time |
| iLovePDFChecked 20 Sept 2026 | Free tier with per-tool monthly caps — most tools allow 1 document a month, merge allows 25 | Premium "9GBP / month", or "60GBP Billed annually" | Monthly or annual |
| DocHubChecked 20 Sept 2026 | €0/month, with all core features sharing a limit of "3 uses/mo" | Basic €8/month and Pro €12/month, with "Billed Yearly Save 25%" | Monthly or annualDocHub states you can cancel during the 30-day Pro trial "without any obligations" |
| Adobe AcrobatChecked 20 Sept 2026 | Free online tools — Adobe says you can "convert documents to and from PDF, edit PDFs, and sign them — all for free" | Acrobat Standard £14.99/mo incl. VAT and Acrobat Pro £19.97/mo incl. VAT on an annual plan billed monthly; £178.85/yr and £238.75/yr prepaid; £24.98/mo and £29.96/mo with no commitment | Monthly or annual |
| Microsoft Word (open a PDF)Checked 20 Sept 2026 | Not free — part of a Microsoft 365 subscription or a perpetual Office licence | — | — |
What each vendor says
iLovePDF
- The free tier is metered per tool: iLovePDF lists a limit of one document a month on most tools, with larger allowances on merge. [source]
- Premium is listed at 9GBP a month or 60GBP billed annually for 1–25 users. [source]
- Every tool works by uploading the file to iLovePDF's servers and downloading the result. [source]
DocHub
Adobe Acrobat
- Acrobat is the most capable tool on this list: it edits the existing text in a PDF, which PDFpad deliberately does not do. [source]
- The annual plan is the advertised price; paying month to month costs £24.98 (Standard) or £29.96 (Pro) including VAT. [source]
- The free online tools require an Adobe account and upload the file to Adobe. [source]
Microsoft Word (open a PDF)
- Word converts the PDF rather than editing it, and Microsoft warns that the result "might not look exactly the way it looked as a PDF". [source]
- Microsoft adds that "the converted document might not have a perfect page-to-page correspondence with the original" and that pages full of graphics may arrive as uneditable images — which is most scanned forms. [source]
Questions
- Why does my form look wrong after converting to Word?
- Because the converter is guessing at the layout. Microsoft states that a PDF opened in Word "might not look exactly the way it looked as a PDF" and that pages may break in different places. Forms, with their boxes and rules, are the hardest case.
- How does PDFpad export Word files?
- It puts one image of each finished page into a .docx at the original page size with no margins, so Word cannot reflow anything. It is a Pro feature.
Try it on your PDF
Open your document, fill it in, sign it and save. Nothing is uploaded, and you don’t need an account to start.
or drop a file here · nothing is uploaded
Competitor names are used descriptively to identify their products. Every price and feature above was read from the vendor's own page on the date shown and is re-checked quarterly. If something here is out of date or wrong, tell us and we will correct it.