Free PDF tools compared: iLovePDF, PDF24, Sejda, BentoPDF and Convertio

Five tools, one job each does best

All five are free, run in the browser, and cover the basics — merge, split, compress, convert. Past that, they stop being interchangeable. iLovePDF is the broad workspace: merge, split, compress, Office conversions, e-signature and watermarking, batch processing across a free tier built for everyday documents (premium lifts the size limits). PDF24 Tools does roughly the same list of jobs but with no file-size cap, no watermark and no account requirement at any tier, built by a German company that gives the whole toolbox away.

Sejda and BentoPDF answer a different question — not 'what can it convert' but 'what happens to my file.' Convertio answers a third: 'is it even a PDF.' Each is covered below.

None of the five is on this list because it's the only option — PDF tools online are not scarce. They're here because each one is honest about what it does, works without dark patterns (no fake 'download' buttons, no forced trial that silently starts billing), and actually completes the job it advertises. That's the same bar every listing in this catalogue clears, PDF tools included.

Does your file actually leave your computer?

iLovePDF, PDF24 and Convertio all process your file on their servers — you upload it, the tool works on it, you download the result. That's how nearly every online PDF tool works, and it's fine for a document with nothing sensitive in it.

Sejda takes a middle position: uploads still happen, but the catalogue lists its free tier as deleting files after two hours — a stated retention window rather than an indefinite one. BentoPDF goes further and skips the upload step entirely: it's built to run client-side, meaning the merging, splitting, compressing and signing all happen inside your own browser, and the file never crosses the network. It's also open-source and installable — the only one of the five that can sit on your home screen as its own app.

Editing text, not just moving pages around

Merge, split, compress and convert all treat a PDF as a fixed object — pages move, get combined, get resized, but the content on each page doesn't change. Sejda is the one built to edit the text directly inside a PDF: fix a typo, update a figure, adjust a line, without recreating the document from scratch.

None of the other four in this comparison make that claim. If your task is 'change what a PDF actually says' rather than 'reorganize or shrink it,' Sejda is the tool built for that job specifically.

When the file isn't a PDF at all

Convertio isn't a PDF tool first — it's a general converter that happens to include PDF among roughly 300 supported formats: documents, images, audio, video, ebooks and archives, all from the same interface, with import straight from Dropbox or Google Drive as well as your own machine. The free tier caps at 100 MB per file.

That breadth is the trade-off against the other four: iLovePDF, PDF24, Sejda and BentoPDF are all specialists that do PDF work well. Convertio is the one to reach for when the actual problem is 'I have a .mov and I need a .mp4,' and it happening to also handle PDFs is a bonus rather than the point.

Picking one for the job you actually have

Merging a few files or compressing one for an email attachment, with nothing confidential in it: PDF24 or iLovePDF, either one. Editing the actual text inside a PDF: Sejda. A contract, a medical form, anything you'd rather not upload anywhere: BentoPDF. Converting a file that was never a PDF to begin with: Convertio.

All five are free to use for this kind of everyday task, and none of them are on this directory by accident — each is listed under Utilities, the same category as Calculator.net and dozens of other single-purpose tools that exist to save you from installing desktop software for a job you'll do three times a year.

And they combine fine: compress a scan with PDF24 first if it's too large to email, then open the smaller file in Sejda if a field on it still needs editing. Nothing about using one commits you to it for the next step — they're separate tabs, not a suite you're locked into.

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