Bluebeam vs. Foxit PDF Editor

The program is great for editing construction drawings, stamping/approving official documents and overlaying revised documents to see design changes. You can use it as an estimating takeoff tool, estimating database, document control, cloud document storage, the list goes on! Bluebeam poses many applications for the user to utilize for the desired needs. There may be some other software that has one specific function that can perform the specific task better, but Bluebeam is a holistic program with many tools for use.

Incentivized

Great for marking up depositions or pleadings with highlights, comments, and notes during case review.
Supports Bates stamping, password protection, and other features often required for electronic filing.

Built-in tools allow for quick and secure redaction of privileged or confidential information before sharing or filing. Less appropriate if you needed to work on real time collaboration or building complex form templates from scratch.

Incentivized

• Once you set Bluebeam Revu as your default PDF handler, it launches immediately when clicking a PDF to open. The speed with which it opens documents is impressive.
• Creating PDF's out of other documents, such as Word, Excel, JPG's, etc. is simple.
• Digitally signing documents is a simple, secure process. You can keep your signature password-protected, yet still access it quickly.
• The Bluebeam Revu mobile application ( I use the iOS version on an iPad Pro), is awesome. Not only does it handle PDF's like you would expect it to, it allows for effortless digital signing of documents on the fly. Nice to be able to quickly sign a document and email right back out from the tablet no matter where I am.

Incentivized

• FoxitPhantom carries superior editing tools over Adobe Acrobat and similar products. It allows you to modify text, images, & objects in a more robust fashion
• Integrates well with Microsoft Office products such as Word, PPT, & Excel
• Allows you to work in a nearly paperless environment

Incentivized

• If you have several tabs open and you try to drag one out for a side by side view then you do not have all the modification options and you have to combine them back together.
• There is a lag time when hitting the print option.
• There is also a lag time when opening files, sometimes I think the window is frozen.
• I wish the basic version also had basic file editing, as in editing a document as Adobe does.

Incentivized

• I have a dual monitor setup at work and there are times when I wish that I could view pdf documents on both monitors at the same time. I have not yet figured out how to do that with FoxitPhantom as it appears to limit the user to displaying multiple pdf documents as separate tabs on the same screen. If dual screen is an option in the software, it needs to be more apparent.
• I can't think of any other desired improvements. This software really does everything that I need it to do.

Incentivized

Bluebeam is a powerful PDF viewer and mark-up tool. We are more familiar with it than Adobe Acrobat Pro or other viewers, and it has more features geared towards construction document managers than Acrobat Pro does.

Incentivized

Because very few editors are so easy to use and deploy backed by speed and performance. Foxit PDF is known for its speed and performance, allowing users to open and work with PDF files quickly and efficiently

Foxit's user-friendly interface is easy to navigate and use, making it a popular choice for users who are new to PDF software.

I'm constantly finding that Bluebeam Revu does more than I knew it could. And when I find something that it can't do, I've found that Bluebeam truly listens to its user base and will work to incorporate any good suggestion when feasible.

Incentivized

It's great tool to use for any type of business in the world and short cut the time to convert files and has other different features like I Assistant for summarizing, rewriting, and extracting key data from your documentEdit text and images, reorder, and delete pages in a PDFConvert PDFs and export to Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPointEasily create, fill, sign, and send formsAdd security and password-protect PDF filesTurn scanned documents into editable, searchable PDFsCompare two versions of a PDF to review all differencesSign documents, request signatures, and track responses in real timeSmart Redact to automatically remove sensitive informationIncludes mobile app

FoxitPhantom PDF integrates very well with the Microsoft Office products, which is where I found I use this the most. It performs about as well as can be expected, without any out of place latency. Whether it be merging, deleting, editing or rearranging pages, its performance holds up even with larger documents.

Incentivized

Its hard for me to give a rating on this one as we rarely have to use the support feature for Bluebeam. However, when we have used it, they have been ultra supportive in helping us get exactly what we needed. I know another engineer was trying to figure out a feature and the rep gave a detailed tutorial on how to complete the task

Incentivized

I haven't personally had interaction with the customer support from FoxitPhantom, however based on conversations I have had with members in the organization, I was given positive feedback. Their website has a lot of information and tutorials. If you need to contact them, they are quick to respond. User manuals are readily available.

Incentivized

We feel there is not another program out there that would compare to Bluebeam at this current time. Some of the other programs out there do not include studio or the overlaying process which is one of our main uses. The ease of hyperlinking makes this product stand out the most.

Incentivized

Foxit PDF Editor had the most tools that I frequently use and it had them right where I expected them. All of the others that I demoed either lacked tools I use often or were not nearly as intuitive to use.

Incentivized

• A major positive aspect is being able to take your computer home without taking the entire set of paper drawings. They have made it so easy to navigate a set of drawings that I can work at home using only the digital drawings.
• Collaboration with owners and architects has been a great feature. Setting up a Bluebeam studio and having everyone get in and mark things up, then having the architect be able to go in and see what markups have been added, has made the constructability review process much much better.
• Even when not working on drawings, Bluebeam is a very good tool for working with standard PDF documents. The markup tools are very easy to use.
• The negative aspect is the takeoff function because some people would like estimators to use the Bluebeam takeoff because it would make their job easier down the road; however, the actual act of doing a full scale takeoff in Bluebeam would require much more time.

Incentivized

• For a PDF software in a our company is difficult to translate the software performance into financial results. With a PDF software is a lot less obvious than an ERP of a Payroll System, but one advantage could be the savings that a lower cost of licensing would bring when it is used by a bigger number of users.
• A positive impact is the ease of use when creating and filing new hired employees, but once again, it is hard to say that it is faster than a different PDF software and even if that was the case the savings in time would be probably unnoticeable. At least one would be having a process with no hassles when creating and saving your PDF documents for your employees.
• So far no crashes. I have never heard a complain about Foxit crashing even when you have dozens of documents opened at the same time. We can't say the same when using other applications like Excel... This brings peace of mind and less frustrated users.

Incentivized