“Using Pilotbrief and Nutrient allows this all to be done
electronically, saving not only paper but also precious time.”
IBM Cognitive Applications
compare
When developer velocity, AI, and security decide the deal, modern teams pick Nutrient. Below you’ll find the 2025 head‑to‑head: what’s equal, where Apryse holds niche edges, and why Nutrient delivers compounding ROI.
| Nutrient | Apryse | |
|---|---|---|
| | Nutrient builds forward — with an AI-native, JSON-first
platform that’s cloud-ready by default and built for developers who
need to move fast without accumulating tech debt. | Apryse, by contrast, builds around — relying on a
legacy foundation extended through acquisitions, wrappers, and XML-based
tooling that slows innovation and adds complexity. |
| Core architecture | Unified, modern codebase, continuously improved since 2011. | Legacy core from 1998, layered with complexity from multiple
acquisitions. |
| Data format | ||
| Deployment | ||
| Generative AI capabilities |
Protect your customers and organization with a PDF SDK that’s built on PDFium, the same secure PDF engine battle tested in Chromium and maintained by Google. With SOC 2-compliant processes and a flawless 10-year track record of zero security vulnerabilities or exposures, Nutrient is the PDF SDK that organizations trust — from enterprises to government agencies, and startups.
| Nutrient | Apryse | |
|---|---|---|
| PDF engine | Optimized and well-maintained fork of PDFium (open source,
peer‑reviewed) | Proprietary, closed source |
| Known CVEs | 0 | 12 public CVEs (2018–2025) |
| SOC 2 Type 2 | | |
| Independent penetration testing | Annual | |
The Nutrient core SDK and user interface sit on top of an optimized fork of PDFium — the same PDF engine used in Chromium, Android, and countless other applications by 2 billion users to open trillions of PDFs every year.
| PDFium PDF Engine | Apryse | |
|---|---|---|
| Contributors | Google, Microsoft, Dropbox, Nutrient | Apryse |
| Active users | Billions | <0.1 percent of PDFium footprint |
| Code commits (12 months) | 1,892 | Undisclosed |
| Commercial dependencies | 0 | 2 |
| Open source dependencies | 12 | 50+ |
| Nutrient | Apryse | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| PDF viewing and rendering | Best-in-class performance and fidelity | Reliable | Draw |
| Multi-tab and side-by-side view | Available, not optimized | Built-in with shared resources — optimized, but only critical for
high-tab volume use cases | Apryse |
| UI customization | Basic; new API coming soon | Modular + open source fork — flexible but demands ongoing
maintenance and upgrade costs | Draw |
| Real-time collaboration | Built-in, seamless across SDKs | Requires manual server setup | Nutrient |
| Annotation status workflows | Coming Q4 2025 | Standard support — useful for sequential reviews, but Nutrient
leads in real-time collaboration | Apryse |
| Annotation attachments | Supported, fewer layout options | Rearranging and tab opening | Draw |
| PDF content editing | Faster, smoother UX across platforms | More feature-rich but laggy UX | Nutrient |
| DOCX document authoring | JSON-based, AI-enhanced, light-weight | XML-based, collaborative modes | Draw |
| Spreadsheet editing | Not yet | Viewer available, not editing | Apryse |
| Measurement tools | Parity confirmed | Parity confirmed | Draw |
| Pattern-based redaction | Advanced rules/templates via GDPicture | Not available | Nutrient |
| AI redaction | Unique: natural-language driven | Good with digital documents only | Nutrient |
| Table extraction (including OCR) | Robust OCR and layout logic | Supported — visual-only; Nutrient prioritizes full table
extraction over detection. | Nutrient |
| Table detection (bounding boxes) | Not supported | Claimed AI, unconfirmed — only for born-digital documents,
limited use in real-world workflows | Apryse |
| Form field detection (AI-based) | Not supported | Claimed AI, unconfirmed — only for born-digital documents,
limited use in real-world workflows | Apryse |
| AI data extraction | GenAI, multi-format, prompt-based | Not available | Nutrient |
| Text comparison | Interactive diff + AI summary + jump-to | No sidebar, limited interactivity | Nutrient |
| AI-powered comparison | Unique in market | Not available | Nutrient |
| XFA support (legacy forms) | Not supported | Supported — legacy-only format with limited tool compatibility;
best to migrate | Apryse |
| Rich media (audio/video annotation) | Not supported | Supported — niche use case for multimedia workflows, not needed
in most B2B stacks | Apryse |
| Annotation format (Instant JSON) | Human-readable, AI-friendly | XFDF/XML-based | Nutrient |
| Generative AI Assistant | Native generative AI across viewers: chat, redact, translate,
compare | No generative AI capability | Nutrient |
Built-in AI for document assistance, data extraction, redaction, and text comparison
Open-core engine designed with zero known CVEs
Global, follow-the-sun SLAs to keep your teams moving
Only pay for the components you need, nothing more
Client-side, cloud, containerized, or fully self-hosted
Our solutions engineers can show you why.