This is long but if you read it you may not need to read any other reviews. I've been using Soda PDF Pro 360 since July 2023 an annual renewal subscription July to July so this is the full experience. Previously I was on an Adobe subscription. Adobe is expensive. My requirements were PDF Editing, encryption and ideally OCR. Initial Soda activation was a bit tricky but eventually it was up and running. The user interface is (still) not at all intuitive and there was quite a learning curve before I could efficiently edit documents. Some of the conversions (eg pdf to word) leave you with complex reformatting and re-edits that can take as long as typing the document out again. The OCR has never really worked properly. Encryption worked and still does.I could cope with that as Soda was relatively cheap and things were OK for the first year. As is commonly reported there were issues with renewal. In year 2, I ended up with two accounts and double payments for one subscription year. After (unnecessary) to and fro, I agreed to let Soda carry forward the subscription for a further year (Year 3) rather than issuing a refund as the editing software seemed to be working OK within its limitations. Having thought the renewal issue was resolved at that point, I continue to this day to receive reminders and invitations to subscribe and upgrade which in reality point to a portal for new licence purchases. However that is not the reason I will not be subscribing again. In Year 3 things started going badly wrong. Soda started crashing. Soda now crashes regularly and when it crashes it can take out other systems down too so you must reboot. If that does not work you deactivate firewall and uninstall/reinstall Soda. If that doesn't work, you use the restart tool (you have to ask for it).In August 2025, just into Year 3 of subscription (pre-paid), I was kicked out of the Soda altogether. I was told I had to reactivate (through a new purchase portal) so I declined based on past experience - also I had an active pre-paid subscription. Then the restart tool stopped working. This went on for almost 2 weeks with no solution from customer support (very slow due to 'volume of enquiries'). By this point a critical backlog of urgent work had accrued so I rang the phone Soda helpline number for customer services. I got connected to a third party (Adaware) which was a surprise, and the real fun began. Adaware required access to my system for the fix. 3P access can be necessary and I was desperate so went ahead. They fixed the fault quite quickly, then said the reason why Soda crashed was due to poor general system house-keeping. Luckily, they happened to sell industry-leading house-keeping software that sorts that out and I get a free VPN (why?). I confess I'm not an obsessive 'defrager' and with the a backlog I couldn't afford the pdf editing/encrypting failing again so after a quick in-call TrustPilot check I bought PCHelpSoft Adaware etc figuratively and literally for 5 years. That was over £200 but still cheaper than the monthly subs rate offered for PCHelpSoft (and still available).The crashes kept happening immediately but they were less frequent and they could be retrieved until I got a second shut out just after Christmas. Soda customer service had got no better and I didn't want a repeat of the August 2025 experience so I called the helpline again (January 8 2026).I got a different third party assisting this time. They needed access, they fixed the problem after a while. They told me the clean-up software I bought was not what I required. What I really needed was their industry-leading support package available for just shy of £1000. They told me I'll get a guaranteed refund from the previous vendor (unlikely I thought, and subsequently Adaware/PCHelpSoft declined - 30 day limitation apparently). They even wrote the request in my name complete with their own take on English usage.So Soda crashes and customer support is outsourced to upsellers. What's the business model?Here's the kicker. Adaware does not close down properly either and I can't turn off the Adaware scheduler. So it leaves a massive undeletable icon right in the middle of my screen every day telling me what a great job it has done for my money. Soda this for a game of soldiers. If I could have the Soda of the first year or so and smoother renewal, I'd stay. But I won’t. I can’t trust them. Big shame.
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