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Foxit Reader

Ranked 6 of 6 PDF readers by recommenders

People recommend Foxit Reader as a simple PDF reader with a strong annotation system, though it is not open source.

People recommend Foxit Reader as a simple PDF reader with a strong annotation system, though it is not open source.

6 people gave an opinion

recommend it
6
criticize it
0
approval share
100%
Each figure is one person. RecommendsCriticizes

Recommended in 4 of 13 months

  1. November 2025: not recommended
  2. December 2025: not recommended
  3. January 2026: recommended
  4. February 2026: not recommended
  5. March 2026: not recommended
  6. April 2026: recommended
  7. May 2026: not recommended
  8. June 2026: recommended
  9. July 2026: not recommended
  10. August 2026: not recommended
  11. September 2026: not recommended
  12. October 2026: recommended
  13. November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)

Why it doesn’t carry the badge

  • 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
  • Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
  • Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.

The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works

Other PDF readers people recommend

The four most recommended other PDF readers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.

Foxit Reader compared with 4 alternatives
ProductRecommendCriticizeApprovalMonthsOwnedBadge
Apple Preview422860%10——
Okular12571%5—Approved
MuPDF11379%7—Approved
SumatraPDF11192%7—Approved
Foxit ReaderThis page60100%4——
See all 6 PDF readers, ranked

What people said

All 6 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.

“tried and tested tools that are simple like Foxit PDF don't fit the bill for most things”

RecommendsComment from 26 Oct 2026 in “PaperPilot – Zero-Cloud, Pure-Rust PDF Engine with WASM and MCP”

“Foxit Reader is 950MB with more features.”

MixedComment from 8 Oct 2026 in “What ArtCraft's Vibe-Coded Apps Say About Adobe”

“FoxIt's annotation system is one of the best I've experienced”

RecommendsComment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Your ePub Is Fine. Kobo Disagrees. Blame Adobe”

“Just give me a FoxIt Reader clone for .epub, that's all.”

RecommendsComment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Your ePub Is Fine. Kobo Disagrees. Blame Adobe”

“LibreOffice, Citrix, FoxIT Reader”

MixedComment from 10 Apr 2026 in “France Launches Government Linux Desktop Plan as Windows Exit Begins”

“it isn't open source but it's very good”

RecommendsComment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: Is there a good open-source alternative to Adobe Acrobat?”

Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.