Wondershare PDFelement vs. Square 9 Softworks

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Wondershare PDFelement
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
PDFelement is a document management solution from Wondershare Software headquartered in China.
$79.99
per year per user
Square 9 Softworks
Score 9.4 out of 10
N/A
For document-intensive companies looking to improve business efficiency, Square 9 Softworks develops solutions for process automation that aim to drive increased productivity across all business applications.
$50
per month per user (5 User Minimum)
Pricing
Wondershare PDFelementSquare 9 Softworks
Editions & Modules
PDFelement
79.99USD
per year per user
PDFelement
129.99USD
one-time fee per user
Square 9 Process Automation Essentials
$50
per month per user (5 User Minimum)
Square 9 Digital Transformation Essentials
$68
per month per user (5 User Minimum)
Square 9 Enterprise Essentials
$75
per month per user (10 User Minimum)
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Wondershare PDFelementSquare 9 Softworks
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsFor Individuals: Yearly Plan: $79.99/user; 2-Year Plan: $109.99/user Perpetual Plan(one-time): $129.99/user For Teams: Yearly plan starts at $109/year for 1 user For Education: Yearly Plan: $47.99/user; Perpetual Plan(one-time): $99.99/userOffered via a three-tier pricing model that allows customers to scale their solution up or down based on the changing needs of their organization. Pricing excludes professional services and implementation fees
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Wondershare PDFelementSquare 9 Softworks
Best Alternatives
Wondershare PDFelementSquare 9 Softworks
Small Businesses
Square 9 Softworks
Square 9 Softworks
Score 9.5 out of 10
PowerDMS by NEOGOV
PowerDMS by NEOGOV
Score 7.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
MSB Docs
MSB Docs
Score 9.4 out of 10
MSB Docs
MSB Docs
Score 9.4 out of 10
Enterprises
M‑Files
M‑Files
Score 8.9 out of 10
M‑Files
M‑Files
Score 8.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Wondershare PDFelementSquare 9 Softworks
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
4.9
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.6
(0 ratings)
6.5
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.5
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.4
(0 ratings)
7.9
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
6.4
(0 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.5
(0 ratings)
4.5
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Wondershare PDFelementSquare 9 Softworks
Likelihood to Recommend
PDFelement Pro is well suited for all of our needs and our clients' needs. I bought the Windows version and liked it so much that I purchased the Mac version at the discount that I was offered at checkout. It performs well and is easy to learn and use. Companies could save so much money by using PDFelement instead of Adobe Acrobat Standard/Pro
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Square 9 Softworks is well suited for unique needs within companies. We have built, renovated, and optimized custom workflows within our archives, designed highly specific interfaces with our ERP platform, and Square 9 Softworks has answered the bell through it all.
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Pros
  • It does a great job of turning paper forms into digital documents via the advanced OCR technology.
  • The price point of PDFelement is extremely competitive considering that it is feature rich.
  • The available support from documentation and videos make PDFelement a tool that is quick to implement.
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  • The software is very flexible, and the technicians were great at implementing our customizations for the PO project.
  • While indexing fields in Global Search, the Key Free tool works great.
  • Global Search is well-organized. It's easy to navigate and find your documents.
  • The process for completing your project was well done. Communicating with individuals at Square 9 who were responsible for different aspects of the project was easy.
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Cons
  • I wish there was a lighter program for just reviewing a document and then to transition seamlessly to an editing mode. It takes a few seconds longer to load than Preview on my Mac, and based on that frustration, I use Preview to view documents.
  • A lower price for upgrades.
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  • Overall, it is not as stable as other software. Some errors could not be fixed, such as a form going forward without approval because a user pressed "enter" twice in a row.
  • I probably only use 20% of the functionality. Beyond that, I'd have to pay for development. We did that once, and the project that we paid for never was implemented. They allowed us to request a design before my time that was so complicated that they never got it to work. Once I came on board, I implemented a much simpler solution.
  • Our upgrade took much, much longer than expected, and was disrupted by so many software issues.
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Likelihood to Renew
Excellent, easy to use product
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We are definitely renewing our SmartSearch. This is the only place all of our companies contracts and regulatory filings are kept. Our company would lose track of all expiring contracts if we did not renew. We would also need to spend many hours figuring out a new organizational system for all of our files, as well as savings the documents from SmartSearch onto the computer.
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Usability
I am a novice and I am using it like a pro because it is so easy to work with
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The items I am searching for are easily found. They are found in at least 95% of the searches. The failure rate generally is related to another employees user error or a template error set up by our Square 9 team in house.
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Reliability and Availability
No issues. Works perfect
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Square-9 can get this product out to you in almost the same hour your order it. We got ours very fast.
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Performance
There is a lot of learning. Although some of the functions you can probably pick up relatively quickly, some of them, including compressing the size or using a different language, remains a myth to me.
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With the PDF projected viewer, the document retrieval-to-display can drag for a second more than some systems, and the capture workflow if you overload a server array can also drag, but those are the only two issues we've ever seen with this product, and they are not serious issues at all.
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Support Rating
Recently I have had a problem with introducing another laptop to the same license. I wrote an email to the Support Team of Wondershare Software and they successfully fixed the issue in less than 24 hours. Very unusual and impressive.
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Support is always extremely helpful and responsive. Whenever we have a question, it is simple contacting them and also setting-up an appointment, if necessary. Scheduling the appointment is easy and they are willing to talk on the phone, which is not always true with software companies. Their report support tools are also really east to use.
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In-Person Training
No answers on this topic
It would have been higher, but the training is a bit muted for the lesser qualified office equipment vendors who signed up as partners to sell and support it. The more experienced ECM vendors and customer end-users will find the training very good, but a bit slow.
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Implementation Rating
Just pay, download, activate and start using it
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I think the implementation could have gone a little smoother than it did. Now that I know how to use the software, I could do it myself. I feel that as an organization, we could have been a little better prepared. If the consultant was more aware of what we were looking for, they could have assisted in setting up some workflows for us as per the contract. But because we were not prepared, the initial implementation process was a little painful. That said, adding a document management system to ANY business kinda means everyone has to re-think the way they do their work which can be difficult for some staff.
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Alternatives Considered
I haven't used any other product besides PDFelement. I found a product that I love and I'm sticking with it. I will say that I went with PDFelement based on reviews and based on the features that this product supplies vs. the others. I trust the company behind PDFelement (been using Wondershare Ultimate Video Converter for years), so I trusted the name
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SharePoint and Square 9 Softworks are similar in some ways and totally different in others. They both do workflow, although Square 9 Workflow gives administrators more options. They both have a repository, although Square 9 GlobalSearch is more structured in terms of customization. Using field values allows for more exact search capabilites. Square 9 AI tools allows administrators to get the correct data off the page more precisely with less effort.
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Scalability
Super easy Word style layout and format.
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The scale-ability is quite good actually, but you need competent sales/support folks providing it to you, so the scale is set right for the demands of your system use. Some resellers are not good at doing this, some are fantastic. If you are scaled correctly at first implementation, you'll be very happy with this system.
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Return on Investment
  • Positive impact. PDFelement is one of my principal tools for the visualization and editing of any kind of PDF documents.
  • Size optimization of documents is also a very good tool, it helps me to send presentations in an adequate size, especially for top customers.
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  • Reduction in human error through manual data entry process now being automated
  • Reduction in cost due to automation allowing the function to not require a full time employee
  • Reduction in time spent performing the previous manual tasks. Example: on our consolidated shipment days, it could take doc clerk 2-3 hours to prepare master document package. This has been reduced to 30 minutes or less (depending on size of shipment and time needed for OCR to complete)
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ScreenShots

Wondershare PDFelement Screenshots

Screenshot of AI-powered support for chatting with PDFs/summaring/proofreading/rewriting/explaining/translating the PDF file content.Screenshot of file conversion to and from PDF format in high quality.Screenshot of PDF generation, which can be done from images, Word documents, and various formats, including batch create.Screenshot of certificate-based legal signatures, and documents can be sent to bulk signers, and signatures collected and tracked from anywhere, on any device.Screenshot of text recognition, from scanned PDFs and images.Screenshot of the PDF text editor, with images, forms, and pages.

Square 9 Softworks Screenshots

Screenshot of GlobalSearch, which allows users to organize and sort documents based on extracted dataScreenshot of automated data extraction from documents using Square 9's AI-powered extraction tool, TransformAI.Screenshot of GlobalCapture, which is used to build workflows and automatically assign tasks to users.Screenshot of a front-facing Portal for new hires and applicants. This lets them fill out important employee documents such as job application, Direct Deposit and W-4 forms.Screenshot of the hiring and onboarding portal, where new hire documentation is completed.Screenshot of GlobalForms, which has new hire government forms such as I-9 and W-4 forms.