Core vs Pro vs Enterprise

At a glance

NextPDF ships in three editions. The open-source core is a complete, production-grade Portable Document Format (PDF) 2.0 engine. NextPDF Pro and NextPDF Enterprise build on that foundation. Editions are cumulative: NextPDF Pro includes everything in the open core, and NextPDF Enterprise includes everything in NextPDF Pro.

The matrix compares editions by the value each capability gives you, not by its implementation. Each row names a capability, summarizes the benefit, and marks the lowest edition that includes it. For the standards behind these capabilities, see Compliance and conformance.

Capability matrix

Legend: ● included · ○ not included. A ● marks the lowest edition that includes the capability. Every higher edition includes it too.

Document generation and layout

Capability	Benefit	Core	Pro	Enterprise
PDF 2.0 generation	Create modern, standards-based PDF documents from your application.	●	●	●
Flow layout	Lay out long, content-driven documents with automatic pagination.	○	●	●
Table of contents	Generate a navigable table of contents without hand-built bookmarks.	○	●	●
Reusable templates	Standardize recurring documents so each output stays consistent.	○	●	●
Charts	Render bar, line, and pie charts directly in a document.	○	●	●
Advanced font tooling	Subset and tune fonts for smaller, portable, print-ready files.	○	●	●
Multi-stage output pipeline	Chain post-processing steps into a repeatable output flow.	○	●	●

Document operations

Capability	Benefit	Core	Pro	Enterprise
Basic merge and split	Combine or separate PDFs for routine document assembly.	●	●	●
Advanced merge	Reliably assemble complex documents from many sources.	○	●	●
Document comparison	See exactly what changed between two document versions.	○	●	●
Classification	Sort incoming documents by type for automated routing.	○	●	●
Optimization	Reduce file size for faster delivery and lower storage cost.	○	●	●
Structural manipulation	Transform existing PDF content, not only newly generated output.	○	●	●
Conversion and parsing	Bring external formats into the pipeline with a required companion package.	○	●	●

Barcodes

Capability	Benefit	Core	Pro	Enterprise
Specialty barcodes	Add logistics, retail, and supply-chain symbologies to labels and forms.	○	●	●

Signing and trust

Capability	Benefit	Core	Pro	Enterprise
Signing contracts	Target a stable, public signing interface in any edition.	●	●	●
Baseline digital signatures	Sign documents so recipients can verify integrity and origin.	○	●	●
Sensitive-data detection and masking	Find and mask sensitive content before you share a document.	○	●	●
Trusted-timestamp signatures	Bind a trusted time to a signature so the signing moment is provable.	○	○	●
Long-term archival signatures	Keep a signature verifiable for years, beyond the signing certificate’s life.	○	○	●
Hardware key custody	Sign with keys kept in certified hardware, so they never leave the device.	○	○	●

Compliance, archival, and forensics

Capability	Benefit	Core	Pro	Enterprise
Standards-based e-invoicing	Produce invoices that follow the European e-invoicing semantic model.	○	●	●
Archival document profiles	Create documents intended for long-term preservation.	○	○	●
Long-term validation data	Include the material a verifier needs to validate a signature in the future.	○	○	●
Compliance evidence	Package audit-grade evidence for regulated retention and review.	○	○	●
Conformance validation	Check documents against their target profiles.	○	○	●
Forensic analysis and tamper detection	Investigate documents and detect changes made after the fact.	○	○	●

Intelligence and integration

Capability	Benefit	Core	Pro	Enterprise
Document inspection	Inspect a document’s structure for diagnostics and tooling.	●	●	●
Job streaming	Stream progress for long-running document jobs.	●	●	●
Document intelligence	Search and analyze document content by meaning.	○	○	●
Webhook delivery	Send completed jobs to your services through webhooks.	○	○	●
Batch signature validation	Validate many signed documents in one pass.	○	○	●
Electronic filing	Support electronic court and government filing workflows.	○	○	●

Acceleration

Capability	Benefit	Core	Pro	Enterprise
CPU acceleration sidecar	Speed up generation with an optional CPU-optimized companion service.	○	●	●
GPU acceleration sidecar	Scale heavy workloads with an optional GPU-accelerated companion service.	○	○	●

Editions explained

Open-source core. A complete PDF 2.0 engine for generating modern, standards-based documents. It is free and open, and it forms the foundation for every commercial edition. To compare the open distributions with a commercial edition, see Choose your path.
NextPDF Pro. The mid-tier commercial edition. It adds advanced generation, document operations, specialty barcodes, baseline signing, and privacy tooling for teams that build document-heavy products.
NextPDF Enterprise. The upper-tier commercial edition. It includes everything in NextPDF Pro, plus long-term archival signing, hardware key custody, compliance and archival assurance, forensics, intelligence, and operational tooling for regulated and high-scale deployments.

Editions are cumulative and selected by license. A single Premium package carries both commercial editions. The signed license you activate determines which capabilities run. Evaluation output carries a watermark; a paid license removes it without application code changes. See Licensing and activation for the full flow.