Fraud!
Older, legally bought versions cant be installed anymore, Licence key is not accepted any more (used the original setup file!!)
This is simply fraud.
February 24, 2026
Unprompted review
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2.8
Average
5 reviews
Replied to 50% of negative reviews
Typically replies within 48 hours
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Lifetime license without installer access after maintenance…
I would like to share my experience regarding the “lifetime license” policy.
I purchased a lifetime license for PDF-XChange PRO in good faith. At the time of purchase, there was no clear information that access to installers for licensed versions could later be removed, nor that customers would be required to archive installers indefinitely in order to retain usability of the license.
Under the current policy, once maintenance expires and the grace period passes, a customer may hold a valid, fully paid lifetime license but have no practical way to reinstall the software. In real-world scenarios such as system reinstallation or hardware replacement, this renders the license unusable in practice.
Applying such limitations retroactively creates a misleading impression of what a “lifetime license” actually guarantees. Regardless of the reasoning behind the policy, this outcome is confusing and unfair from a customer perspective.
I am posting this for transparency, so other users can make informed decisions.
January 8, 2026
Unprompted review
Will no longer provide access to software I purchased
I purchased PDF-XChange with what was advertised as a perpetual licence, meaning I could continue using the software without paying ongoing fees, with updates optional via maintenance.
Three years later, after formatting my PC, I discovered I could no longer download the installer for the version I legally purchased, despite having a valid serial key and the company still being in operation.
Support informed me that as of May 2025 they removed access to older installers unless you have an active maintenance agreement. In other words, if you do not keep paying, you lose access to the software entirely unless you happened to back up the installer yourself.
There was no mass email, no warning, and no notice to customers that access to installers would be revoked. When I raised this, support stated that it was my responsibility to keep a backup and that they never promised to keep installers available.
They refused to provide the installer and refused to offer any solution at all other than paying more money via a maintenance agreement if I wanted access to the software I had already purchased.
A perpetual licence is meaningless if the vendor can later deny you access to the software you paid for. This is not what most consumers would reasonably understand a perpetual licence to mean.
I seriously question why anyone would want to pay ongoing maintenance fees to a company that treats its paying customers so poorly. I would not recommend this company to anyone.
December 22, 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from PDF-XChange Co. Ltd
Whilst I appreciate you are frustrated I feel its necessary to offer some perspective and balance as to why this decision was taken - I suspect it may not pacify you - but its important to lay some facts out to balance our mutual positions for impartial users to then make a judgement.
1: Over 28 years of being in business & almost 25 years of offering PDF-XChange as a product we have released 100's & possibly 1000's of releases and versions - clearly offering access to all of these builds historically is both practically & commercially impossible.
2: Over those years and specifically in more recent times nefarious actors have sought increasingly to find vulnerabilities in all software applications, file formats and processes & as these have emerged in common with our contemporaries we have sought to block and patch these just as vigorously - meaning that necessarily having older builds available means we are leaving these same vulnerabilities in place that could potentially cause serious harm and damage to our clients & users which would be irresponsible & negligent on our part.
3: Similarly through various means users on occasions allow their licenses & serial numbers to become compromised & shared publicly - with each new build we endeavor to make this more difficult & for any advantage gained by illegal pirating to be negated.
4: We offer free support to all clients, those using our paid for products, irrespective of their maintenance standing & all of our millions of freemium version products users, using an up to date version is therefore essential.
5: It is impossible to maintain a list of clients who do and do not want to be advised of changes to our products and announce these via email - when we have in the past we suffer huge 'bounce' rates as a consequence of redundant and incorrect (sometimes deliberately so) email contact info. We all receive torrents of abuse for spam and also have ended up on 'spam' warning lists and server blacklists because some unhappy recipient decides that what they are receiving if of no interest to them for various reasons - the work and time required to remove ourselves and restore service to our clients is therefore untenable.
There are an ever increasing number of Software vendors taking the same actions we have to ensure the robustness of their products and services and if you are not using software such as ours offering a 'perpetual' license - but as a subscription service - you dont eve have the choice - every time you login to use your product - it will be updated - like it or not.
The cost of ownership of our products - despite its premium pricing over time is amongst the lowest in the industry and certainly and we aim to keep it this way. We also aim to ensure it is amongst the safest and robust to use.
We cannot do this if their are compromised versions available either from us or other services (legal and many not legal) with known vulnerabilities for 'bad actors' to access and use.
For the overwhelming majority of users the cost of maintenance is modest - much lower than annual subscription fees to Adobe and our peers and the perpetual license model offers excellent value.
So respectfully in our defense - we believe we have acted responsibly and proportionally - offering healthy discounts to encourage users to maintain their products for the benefit of all concerned - or should they choose to shoulder the risk of using older and unpatched versions - the ability to do so by archiving locally a copy of the product installers they purchase within their valid maintenance period - going forward.
What we have been forced to do has annoyed a minority and for this we are very sorry - but the vast majority of our clients understand the logic and fact that such a decision was necessary and probably over due and in the vast scheme of things also for the benefit of all concerned - both our clients and indeed ourselves.
Sincerely
PDF-XChange Co Ltd.
Paid £70 for a license but was given a trial and no support
Bought a lifetime license for their product which refuses to activate. Continually states I am in a maintenance trial without the paid features.
Reached out to their support and was told it'd be forwarded to the developer.
Have chased for a month but have had no follow up.
Paid over £70 quid for a trial.
October 12, 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from PDF-XChange Co. Ltd
Hi trusted, It appears it was sent to the wrong developer and lost, sorry for the undue wait. I have one of our best support techs picking it back up and he will contact you shortly to help get the issue solved asap.
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