IT Glue vs. Tungsten Power PDF

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
IT Glue
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
IT Glue, a Kaseya company since the December 2018 acquisition, is an information management platform that allows for efficient storage and retrieval of all the documentation an organization needs to help their MSP run better. By integrating PSA and RMM data, the vendor says they can help increase efficiency, and reduce onboarding times.
$29
per month per user (5 user minimum)
Tungsten Power PDF
Score 9.4 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
Tungsten Power PDF (formerly Kofax) is a solution to manage PDFs for businesses and individuals available with a one-time purchase with no subscription fees. It has a built-in eSignature integration with SignDoc and DocuSign for a complete end-to-end document…
$129
one-time fee per license
Pricing
IT GlueTungsten Power PDF
Editions & Modules
Basic
$29.00
per month per user (5 user minimum)
Select
$34.00
per month per user (5 user minimum)
Enterprise
$39.00
per month per user
Power PDF Standard
$129
one-time fee per license
Power PDF for Mac
$129
one-time fee per license
Power PDF Advanced
$179
one-time fee per license
Power PDF Business
Get a Quote
per year per seat
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
IT GlueTungsten Power PDF
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup Fee$545 one-time feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsDesktop licenses are buy once, own forever. No subscription fees. Business server licenses are term-based or perpetual with optional maintenance & support contract. Volume and upgrade discounts available.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
IT GlueTungsten Power PDF
Considered Both Products
IT Glue
Chose IT Glue
IT Glue is better than any Wiki site we have used. Integrating the Wiki sites with our IT information is too difficult, and they will not easily show statistics from the servers we service. IT Glue will integrate easily with things like Auvik and Lion Guar,d which is why we …
Chose IT Glue
Confluence was really cool but would require a lot of work to reach the same feature-set IT Glue provides off the shelf.
Chose IT Glue
We used simply OneNote before IT Glue and still keep basic info in there. [I believe] it was not great for sharing outside the company but worked very well to share securely with staff. RoboForm can be used to share info to your clients, such as passwords and configuration …
Chose IT Glue
Currently, we are evaluating using Sharepoint instead of IT Glue as documents and items are searchable within the document instead of by title. We feel that by only searching by title and the type it hinders the speed at which information can be found easily.
Chose IT Glue
The documentation is much better than Passportal but the password management does not work quite as well. Overall, it's the clear leader currently.
Chose IT Glue
Although it doesn't show up in the search bar here, we've also used BizDox.

While all these provide many of the same services, for us, IT Glue just works much better. We can get to the information we need from anywhere, it's well organized, and we get it quickly. But above all …
Chose IT Glue
Before IT Glue, we were using office Word documents, spreadsheets, and OneNote for storing client documentation - it was a mess. Since moving to IT Glue all of our documentation is in one place, more organized and easily accessible. The initial input of information was long and …
Chose IT Glue
This seemed like a cool product. You run these PowerShell scripts that you run on the client computer that updated in IT portal. It worked good at first but then it would mysteriously double the computer in IT Portal. If I don't catch it, it will triple and grow and grow. Later …
Chose IT Glue
We tried Confluence but it had such a steep learning curve not only for the installer but for everyone involved. It didn't go very far and everyone got fed up with it quickly. I know confluence can do a ton of things but when you don't have dedicated people to implement you …
Chose IT Glue
IT Glue is much easier and cleaner to use than Confluence. It has a lot more functionality being able to sync across other pieces of software we use, such as ConnectWise Manage and ConnectWise Automate. Alerting to our Slack channel helps in some situations as well. A lot more …
Chose IT Glue
This is no joke, when demoed IT Glue at a convention, and then set a call for the rest of the team to look at it, and it was so intuitive and easy to access data, that we signed, without looking at other software.. Prior to ITGlue all data was in our RMM software.
Chose IT Glue
Spiceworks is a free tool to use if you're in MSP. The community is fantastic, but it lacked in certain features. The amount of information I can put into IT Glue is leagues ahead of Spiceworks. You also have to have supplementary software to reach the wealth of information …
Chose IT Glue
We used SharePoint for quite a while and then moved to IT Glue. Then IT Boost came out, and I wanted to like it but it was super flakey and had some security issues. Overall IT Glue has kind of a sucky sales department, but otherwise, it's a solid product that I would recommend …
Chose IT Glue
We used Bright Gauge a long time ago. At the time, we didn't have enough process and procedure in place to truly evaluate it, so we're currently going through an evaluation of Bright Gauge again now and we'll decide what works better. I don't think we're losing IT Glue …
Chose IT Glue
Couldn't choose Wikipedia but IT Glue definitely has more options for saving content. It's user friendly and is straightforward. There are several editing tools that come in handy when writing up procedural documentation and I found Wiki to be more difficult to use. You'd have …
Chose IT Glue
SharePoint requires specialized training, Confluence isn't MSP-specific, and ITBoost is new and not yet proven. IT Glue's integration with the rest of our toolset was what sold it for us.
Chose IT Glue
ITG was created specifically for IT providers and had the integrations that we need for our PSA tool.
Confluence is an amazing platform and may end up being our next move.
Chose IT Glue
We chose IT Glue particularly because it's tailored to IT documentation. As a managed IT service provider, it's perfectly in line with what we were looking for. The flexibility and tagging in particular were the kind of features we were looking for. Confluence is very good, …
Tungsten Power PDF
Chose Tungsten Power PDF
PDF exchange is much better because it includes more professional features needed for engineers And professionals. It also has a lot of features that makes the interface much more easy to use such as the ability to copy the file directly into your clipboard from the PDF …
Chose Tungsten Power PDF
My CFO mandated Tungsten due to cost. I prefer Adobe, but no longer have access to it.
Chose Tungsten Power PDF
Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Acrobat Reader
Chose Tungsten Power PDF
Much easier to use. TBH I bought Nuance based on reviews and price point. A risk that proved worth taking.
Chose Tungsten Power PDF
I have used Tungsten's Power PDF for several years now and cannot remember the other pdf programs I used to use.
Chose Tungsten Power PDF
Just as good if not better than the Adobe product line with less cost. We needed a PDF writer and editor. Tungsten Power PDF allowed us the same functionality at a fraction of the cost. We thought it was worth trying and it was definitely a great choice for our business …
Chose Tungsten Power PDF
Adobe is overly expensive.
Chose Tungsten Power PDF
Similar functionality, easier to use, less expensive.
Chose Tungsten Power PDF
Low cost with similar function
Chose Tungsten Power PDF
Ease of use, dependability, local access without the need for an online connection or subscription, and general familiarity of the software after years of use. Nitro is difficult to use, never works right, and jumbles files where it is hard to find what you are working on. …
Chose Tungsten Power PDF
Tungsten Power PDF is easier to use and more user friendly than Adobe Acrobat. Most versions of Adobe Acrobat either do not have all of the features that Tungsten Power PDF has, or charge a fee/premium for licensing. Tungsten Power PDF integrates all of these features into …
Chose Tungsten Power PDF
ease of use, cost savings, intuitive interface
Chose Tungsten Power PDF
We have had instances where we've used the other two products. Adobe did not offer a one time payment at the time so we did not go with that one. Most users currently use Foxit. I would not say that Foxit nor Kofax really beat each other out, some prefer one or the other based …
Chose Tungsten Power PDF
Adobe Acrobat and Nuance Power PDF, which is the core of Kofax Power PDF. Kofax Power PDF generally performs as well Acrobat, without the high price.
Chose Tungsten Power PDF
Acrobat, however the cost was prohibitive.
Chose Tungsten Power PDF
Kofax Power PDF is cheaper than Adobe Acrobat and has better functionality when it comes to editing PDF documents
Chose Tungsten Power PDF
Adobe Acrobat Professional. I prefer the Kofax Power PDF Product, but as I advised above, because I use LEAP, I have to use Adobe Acrobat Professional
Chose Tungsten Power PDF
The worst part of the Adobe product is you have to pay monthly. I think, the second problem is their interface sucks. John Warnock would be turning in his grave.
Chose Tungsten Power PDF
Web based programs have been used in the past but are very restrictive
Chose Tungsten Power PDF
I used PDFelement. It has an intuitive interface but I found Kofax to be more professional and productive.
Chose Tungsten Power PDF
I have used (and still use) Adobe Acrobat (also named Acrobat DC) with customer computer. The use is fairly identical in function and use. Based on price model I prefer to pay a one time fee for Kofax Power PDF over monthly payment for Adobe.
Features
IT GlueTungsten Power PDF
PDF Editors
Comparison of PDF Editors features of Product A and Product B
IT Glue
-
Ratings
Tungsten Power PDF
7.8
Ratings
7% below category average
Edit Text and Images00 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Merge or Split PDFs00 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Add Annotations00 Ratings7.80 Ratings
Text Recognition (OCR)00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Page Management00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Form Creation and Editing00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Secure PDFs00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Convert to Different Formats00 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Comment and Review Tools00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Undo and Redo Actions00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Best Alternatives
IT GlueTungsten Power PDF
Small Businesses
Square 9 Softworks
Square 9 Softworks
Score 9.1 out of 10
pdfFiller
pdfFiller
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
MSB Docs
MSB Docs
Score 9.4 out of 10
pdfFiller
pdfFiller
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Tungsten Capture
Tungsten Capture
Score 8.0 out of 10
Bluebeam
Bluebeam
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
IT GlueTungsten Power PDF
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(0 ratings)
8.7
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.5
(0 ratings)
9.8
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.9
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.5
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
3.6
(0 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.5
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
IT GlueTungsten Power PDF
Likelihood to Recommend
IT Glue is well suited to any size managed service provider that requires a secure central knowledge base. IT Glue also integrates well with N-Central to automatically populate the configurations tab with all the relevant Workstation, Printer, and Server information making client on-boarding a breeze.
Read full review
Tungsten does not handle movement of pages well inside of document. Small documents with under 10 pages is fine, but 100+ page documents are extremely difficult to move pages or groups of pages around. We replace Adobe with Tungsten and in general the reception has been fine. It is a little clunky with clicking on links instead PDF's as you have you click the hand, and then to copy text you have to go back and click the arrow.
Read full review
Pros
  • Flexible Assets are custom questions or forms that you get to create to keep the kind of documentation that *you* want. Our team has done this, and have developed a comprehensive system in our documentation that is better than anything we've ever had.
  • Tagging. This feature is so helpful when interlinking related items in the documentation system. IT Glue makes it so easy to tag other configurations, including printers, firewalls, phones, etc.
  • Public sharing of knowledge base articles. Often our clients need to know how to do something. We can add pictures, step-by-step walkthroughs that save us and them a ton of time.
  • iFrame embedding. There's some flexibility to the web pages that have been helpful for putting other things, such as Cognito Forms in.
Read full review
  • Typewriter functionality is great, although can take some time to load. This allows you to fill in text wherever applicable without turning the rest of the pdf into editable text.
  • Fast load times
  • Has autogenerated text feature so anything in the pdf can become editable
Read full review
Cons
  • So far we have enjoyed the functionality of ITG with one exception:
  • The search feature is severely lacking. We have thousands of articles in this knowledge base but the search window is about 1" wide and only shows the first few words of each article. Within our system, those first few words are often the same "SYSTEMS: How-To...". If we are searching for a system, we will have no alternative but to manually try to find this document by browsing through folders within ITG.
  • Unfortunately ITG has not responded to a flurry of enhancement requests around this feature, that go back quite a while.
  • The functionality that would make this a killer app for us would be a dedicated search page that displayed results like a Google search page.
  • Ability to export all client documentation if the client moves to another provider.
Read full review
  • I find that quickly editing text within a document or adding a line of text is clunky and can snowball into things popping out of place. I prefer to export text, and then work on it elsewhere.
  • Sometimes it seems that text recognition is trying too hard and throws me paper punches as "O"s and wrinkles as shapes, so I have to get rid of those artifacts.
  • The "Update Available" popup which is usually not an actual update announcement but rather an offer to sell me something is annoying.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Overall IT Glue meets every need that we need it to. IT is easy to use and convenient and we have not had very many issues with it since the inception. I would easily recommend it to anyone who needs this software.
Read full review
It was very easy to learn the software and find the features I needed, and I was able to use the help menu for any questions I had. Staff was easily able to start using with no additional training. It easily works with things created in Adobe - handling field forms just fine.
Read full review
Usability
The interface is excellent and very easy to use. As long as the text you input into the system can be easily read, you will have no problem finding it with all the different categories offered. Sometimes, the slider on the right can blend in with dark backgrounds, making it hard to see.
Read full review
It is fast and easy to get the hang of. It really didn't take a lot of effort to learn how to use this program and I appreciated that it was pretty "plug and play" and there wasn't a long learning curve.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
Other that a PDF partially disappearing if left up for a long period of time - no issues. (If you close it and reopen it, it is all there. We have some PDFs that are 400-600 pages long.)
Read full review
Performance
Other than a few access outages, ITGlue is always up and available to us. Their ability to export Playbook, that contain our customers data, and securely send those over to them is amazing and are produced pretty fast. We have IT Glue linked with several other services and software and we have not found that it slows anything down.
Read full review
Pages nearly always load at the expected rapid speed. Some documents that print quickly from Adobe Reader print much more slowly from Power PDF. I have never generated a report - that's a feature I didn't know existed until now and do not know what it's for
Read full review
Support Rating
No problems with support when needed it. Their answers on how to handle DR/BC situations when ITG is down are not stellar. They don't seem to get the business risks of their suggestions to just give the xls backup to engineers (aka give all passwords of ALL clients to engineers in an unencrypted flat-file where it is easy to copy, print, etc.)
Read full review
I haven't had much interaction with support for this product as it is relatively easy for me to use and intuitive. When Kofax acquired the program it rewrote some of the features and I think I reached out for help at one point but tech support provided a quick answer. I did have a very positive experience with the sales staff who helped me get a discount on the current version because I'm a long-time user.
Read full review
In-Person Training
No answers on this topic
I got an overview of the product from my predecessor who was about to retire from the job I now hold. He did not go into very many of the features and probably only knew about the ones he used most frequently.
Read full review
Online Training
No answers on this topic
We watched the training videos and tested out the features and functionality side by side. Some features are not used on a regular basis is it is convenient to go back and review training on that particular functionality when needed.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
It was simple and we were using the program the same day. It was as easy as downloading the program and getting in there and playing around. We felt comfortable with it within the first few hours of use.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Currently, we are evaluating using Sharepoint instead of IT Glue as documents and items are searchable within the document instead of by title. We feel that by only searching by title and the type it hinders the speed at which information can be found easily.
Read full review
I initially selected Tungsten Power PDF because it was more affordable; however, I soon discovered the features and stability of the Tungsten product was comparable to working directly within the Adobe environment. I feel very confident now, that I would select Tungsten Power PDF ABOVE any of the Adobe products and not just because of the price point!
Read full review
Scalability
No answers on this topic
Not really familiar since I'm the only person who uses it. But in the past it has been my understanding that Power PDF was offered only on a single-license basis, so it's been expensive for me to use it at home and at work because I had to pay for it on my own. In my current position management supports it so I at least only have to pay for it once.
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • We've had a number of false starts on getting all of our clients' assets documented. The culture shift just has not happened yet and there is a general lack of trust in the data.
  • It's nice to not have to go hunting for information about client assets anymore. We can be much more productive this way.
Read full review
  • I save hundreds every month by not sending documents to outside editors.
  • On a monthly basis, I have received files that would be very limited in use, but the PDF software allows me to work with them, saving hours of human power otherwise wasted.
  • The software is worth the money, but it can be more competitively priced.
Read full review
ScreenShots

IT Glue Screenshots

Screenshot of PasswordsScreenshot of WorkflowsScreenshot of Workflows - choose triggerScreenshot of ApplicationsScreenshot of NetworksScreenshot of Activity logs

Tungsten Power PDF Screenshots

Screenshot of the PDF Create Assistant, which can be used to create multiple PDFs at the same time from a variety of source formats. Create individual PDFs, or combine into one PDF package.Screenshot of PDF Profiles that can be created to apply commonly desired settings to new PDF documents created in Power PDF.Screenshot of the application's color, changed from purple to blue, light gray or dark gray.Screenshot of some lightweight document automation that can also be achieved with the Watched Folder and Sequence features.Screenshot of where packages can be signed with pre built templates using Kofax Sign Doc or other integrating e-signersScreenshot of PDFs that can be navigated with a thumbnail view