When to Upgrade From Quick PDF Library to PDF SDK
Quick PDF Library is a comprehensive set of high-level PDF API functions designed to make working with PDF files fast and easy. It gives developers the ability to create, render, print, secure, merge, split and manipulate PDF files easily. Our product is ideal for independent developers, and small to medium-sized businesses, looking for a versatile, reliable and agile development kit.
But while it is great to have these exceptional abilities within your company, at some stage as your business will grow, you will need more power behind your PDF technology. This could include multi-platform support or more low-level functionality to build an app from the ground up. When your company gets to this stage, they need our Foxit PDF SDK.
The PDF SDK is perfect for any enterprise-class application, cloud service, desktop application, or mobile app that has to interact with PDF documents and forms — especially across platforms. It excels with multi-platform support, for a consistent user experience across client devices, and includes a wider variety of low-level features for complete control over your application. As a low-level API the SDK offers a wider variety of features and functionality, giving you more control over how the PDF technology integrates into your application.
When to make the switch
With all this in mind, when to make the switch from Quick PDF Library to Foxit PDF SDK seems like a straightforward question to answer. The ideal time to upgrade is when your product or service must have multi-platform support and low-level functionality to make it unique and powerful. Before this point organizations might need to ship products and upgrades to market as soon as possible, but once your product has a large enough customer base and your developer team has grown, you need to think about the direction that your company aims to go in and where your PDF technology fits in. Will your PDF technology slow your application down or will the limited processing hurt your customer satisfaction?
Although Quick PDF Library might be a great fit for you now, think about what the future holds for your company. Does your application require converting many different file formats into PDFs? Does it have multiple sources for PDFs that were created in unpredictable ways? If so Foxit PDF SDK is extensively tested to ensure edge cases are kept under control, which may not be the case with our Quick PDF Library.
If you have gotten to the stage in your product lifecycle where you are asking these questions to yourself, it is time to start thinking about switching to Foxit PDF SDK and broadening your product’s horizon.
What you need to know about both products
| Pricing | Quick PDF Library | Foxit PDF SDK |
|---|---|---|
| Royalty Free | Yes | No |
| Annual Maintenance | Yes | Yes |
| Per Developer | Yes | Unlimited Developers |
| Per Platform (cost) | Yes | Yes |
| Intended Use | Small to Medium Businesses | Medium to Large Businesses |
| Skill Level | Easy-to-use, Basic Programming Skills | Requires Experienced Developers |
| Main Benefits | Quick Installation and Set-Up | Sophisticated, Reliable, Large Volumes of PDF Processing |
| Scope | Most Cases -90% | All Cases (Edge) – 99% |
| Technical Overview | ||
| Focus | PDF Manipulation & Simple Render | Full Application |
| Viewer | Display (render) only | Complete Reader functionality |
| Threading | Single | Multiple |
| Programming Method | Functional | Object Oriented |
| Speed | Standard | Fast |
| Development Speed | Quick & Basic | Moderate & Comprehensive |
| Libraries/Codebase | Delphi, C, C++, Visual Basic | C, C++, Visual Basic |
| Platforms | Windows, Mac (basic), iOS (basic), Android (basic) | Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, UWP |
Try our Foxit PDF SDK as a free 30-day trial today and see just how much you have been missing.