PDFBox is a free, well-documented Java library. It requires a JVM, has a slow cold start, and has only minimal XFA support and no WASM.
Apache PDFBox is a widely used open-source Java library maintained by the Apache Software Foundation. It covers text extraction, form filling, PDF creation, and digital signatures. The main constraints are JVM startup overhead (800 ms–2 s cold), high memory baseline, minimal XFA support, and no WASM target. PDFluent is a native Rust library with a sub-30 ms cold start and a ~6 MB WASM binary (~2 MB Brotli-compressed).
use pdfluent::Document;
fn main() -> pdfluent::Result<()> {
let doc = Document::open("contract.pdf")?;
// Extract text
let text = doc.page(0)?.extract_text()?;
println!("{}", text);
// Fill AcroForm field
let mut form = doc.acroform()?;
form.set_field("signature_date", "2024-04-14")?;
form.flatten()?;
doc.save("contract_signed.pdf")?;
Ok(())
}import org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.PDDocument;
import org.apache.pdfbox.text.PDFTextStripper;
import org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.interactive.form.PDAcroForm;
public class Example {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
PDDocument doc = PDDocument.load(new File("contract.pdf"));
// Extract text
PDFTextStripper stripper = new PDFTextStripper();
String text = stripper.getText(doc);
System.out.println(text);
// Fill AcroForm field
PDAcroForm acroForm = doc.getDocumentCatalog().getAcroForm();
acroForm.getField("signature_date").setValue("2024-04-14");
acroForm.flatten();
doc.save("contract_signed.pdf");
doc.close();
}
}| Feature | PDFluent | Apache PDFBox |
|---|---|---|
| Language / runtime | Rust, no runtime | Java / JVM required |
| Cold start | < 10 ms | 800 ms – 2 s (JVM) |
| Memory baseline | 15–30 MB | 200–500 MB (JVM heap) |
| WASM / browser support | ||
| XFA forms | Limited | |
| PDF/A validation | Partial | |
| Digital signatures (PAdES) | ||
| License | Commercial | Apache 2.0 (free) |
PDFluent is better when performance matters: high-volume batch processing, serverless environments, or anything where JVM cold start or memory overhead is a problem. Also choose PDFluent if you need XFA support or digital signatures.
Apache PDFBox is a reasonable choice if you already have a Java stack, cost is a constraint (it's free), and throughput requirements are moderate. For basic PDF reading and text extraction in a Java service, PDFBox works well.
PDFBox is a solid choice for JVM-based applications that do not need XFA, WASM, or fast cold starts. It is free and well documented. If your stack is already Java, it works. If you are starting new, need serverless, or need XFA support, PDFluent is a better fit.
Try PDFluent free for 30 days
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