CrazySmartPDF vs Able2Extract

Short answer: Able2Extract (by Investintech) is a mature, paid desktop converter — $199.95 as a one-time purchase, or $49.95 for a 30-day license (see Investintech for current pricing) — that does real batch conversion across many formats. Its signature hands-on control — where you define the column boundaries yourself — is part of pulling tables out of PDFs back into Excel (its PDF→Excel extraction), a genuine strength for that job rather than a feature of its Excel→PDF output. CrazySmartPDF takes the opposite stance on the Excel→PDF path: the re-layout is automatic (you don’t draw anything), it self-checks each render, and it’s free. The catch on our side is scope and platform — CrazySmartPDF only turns Excel into PDF and needs Excel on Windows, whereas Able2Extract is a broader converter that also does things we don’t.

At a glance

	Able2Extract	CrazySmartPDF
Cost	Paid — $199.95 one-time or $49.95 per 30-day license (see Investintech for current pricing)	Free
Scope	Broad converter (incl. pulling tables out of PDFs back into Excel)	Excel-to-PDF layout only
Excel→PDF layout	Standard converter output (its define-the-columns control is a PDF→Excel extraction feature, not this direction)	Automatic re-layout — wide columns fitted or sliced across pages, row-atomic
Batch	Yes	Yes — a folder in one pass, with a run log
Dropped content	No “what got dropped” report advertised	Flagged — reports the rows/columns it clamped
Self-check of the output	Not advertised	Flags blank and clipped pages (flags, not auto-fix)
Platform	Desktop (paid)	Windows + Excel 2016+ only

What Able2Extract is great at

Able2Extract is a capable, established tool, and its manual approach is a strength for the right user. If you need to sit down and decide exactly how a table breaks into columns — or you’re going the other direction and pulling structured data out of a PDF back into a spreadsheet — that hands-on control and its broader conversion feature set are things CrazySmartPDF simply doesn’t offer. For those jobs, Able2Extract is the more complete tool, and the price buys a mature, supported product.

Where CrazySmartPDF is different

The core contrast is automatic vs manual:

Automatic layout, not drawn by hand. Able2Extract’s define-the-column-boundaries control is part of its PDF→Excel extraction (the reverse direction), not its Excel→PDF output. For turning Excel into PDF, CrazySmartPDF decides the pagination itself — wide columns fitted or sliced across pages, no row split — with nothing to draw.
It self-checks. After rendering, CrazySmartPDF rasterises the PDF and flags blank or clipped pages before it reaches you — a step Able2Extract doesn’t advertise.
It reports what it clamped. When content falls outside a print area, you get told which rows and columns, rather than discovering it later.
Free. No licence fee — neither a one-time purchase nor a recurring cost.

The honest limitation

CrazySmartPDF is narrower than Able2Extract. It only renders Excel to PDF — it can’t extract tables out of PDFs, and it doesn’t offer the manual layout controls some workflows want. It also needs Microsoft Excel 2016+ on Windows, with no Mac or Linux build (the web version is a beta). If your work needs PDF-to-Excel extraction with hands-on column control, or a broader converter, Able2Extract is the better fit — automatic re-layout and a self-check are the two things it doesn’t offer that we lead with, and that’s the whole trade.

Which should you use?

Use Able2Extract when you need to pull data out of PDFs back into Excel (with hands-on column control), or want one paid tool that converts in several directions.
Use CrazySmartPDF when you’d rather the layout just be done for you and checked, you’re on Windows with Excel, and free matters.

CrazySmartPDF is free to use, with no trial clock. See how it works →