Best iLovePDF Alternative — Free PDF Tools Online (2026)

Feature	iLovePDF	StaxFree
PDF merge	✅	✅
PDF split	✅	✅
PDF compress	✅	✅
PDF rotate	✅	✅
Watermark PDF	✅	✅
Add page numbers	✅	✅
Image to PDF	✅	✅
PDF to Word / Excel	✅	❌
OCR (scanned PDFs)	✅	❌
e-Signature	✅	❌
Where files are processed	On its servers (files deleted within 2 hours, per its terms)	In your browser
Free plan limits	Per-task limits, e.g. 200 MB for Compress PDF (see its pricing page)	No daily limit; browser memory is the ceiling
Paid plan	Premium (price varies by region)	None

Feature

iLovePDF

StaxFree

PDF merge

✅

PDF split

✅

PDF compress

✅

PDF rotate

✅

Watermark PDF

✅

Add page numbers

✅

Image to PDF

✅

PDF to Word / Excel

✅

❌

OCR (scanned PDFs)

✅

❌

e-Signature

✅

❌

Where files are processed

On its servers (files deleted within 2 hours, per its terms)

In your browser

Free plan limits

Per-task limits, e.g. 200 MB for Compress PDF (see its pricing page)

No daily limit; browser memory is the ceiling

Paid plan

Premium (price varies by region)

None

iLovePDF vs browser-based PDF tools

iLovePDF is one of the most popular online PDF platforms: many tools, a clean interface, widely recommended. Like any cloud PDF service, its tools send your file to its servers to be processed. For anything you'd be uncomfortable emailing, a tool that keeps the file on your device is the safer choice. iLovePDF's pricing page lists per-task limits on its free plan (file size and number of files per task, for example 200 MB for Compress PDF). Its terms say processing happens on its servers and that files are deleted within two hours of processing. This page is an independent comparison, last checked against iLovePDF's own pricing and terms pages on 15 October 2026; Stax is not affiliated with iLovePDF.

What Stax does differently

Stax PDF tools use PDF-lib for manipulation (merge, split, watermark, page numbers, rotate) and a client-side compression pipeline for file size reduction. Your file is never sent anywhere: you can check this yourself by opening DevTools → Network tab, clicking Process and looking for a request that carries your file. You will not find one. The page does make other requests, to our own analytics and to third-party analytics and advertising scripts (the privacy page lists them), and none of those requests contain your file. There is also no daily limit and no login prompt.

Where iLovePDF still wins

iLovePDF offers PDF-to-Word, PDF-to-Excel and PDF-to-PowerPoint conversion, e-signatures and OCR, which Stax does not. If you need to extract a spreadsheet from a PDF or make a scanned document searchable, iLovePDF (or Adobe Acrobat) is still the right choice.

Who uses Stax as an iLovePDF alternative

Legal professionals compress and merge court filings without uploading confidential client documents to a third-party server. Accountants and CA firms split large audit reports and add page numbers to financial statements. Small business owners in India create PDF invoices from images of bills and receipts. Students merge multiple assignment pages and compress them to meet submission file size limits. HR teams watermark offer letters and add page numbers to policy documents — all without the files leaving the computer.

PDF compression — how Stax does it differently

iLovePDF compresses PDFs on its own servers, and it may reach smaller sizes on some files. Stax compresses PDFs client-side by re-encoding embedded images at a lower resolution using the Canvas API. For PDFs that are mostly text, the size reduction is usually small. For PDFs with high-resolution images or scans it can be much larger, but only when the tool redraws the pages as pictures, so the text can no longer be selected and you should keep the original. For image-heavy PDFs that need the smallest possible size, iLovePDF or Smallpdf may yield smaller files.

File size limits and browser performance

Stax has no server-imposed file size limit, so the ceiling is your device's available memory. A very large PDF can be slow or fail, especially on a phone, and a desktop application such as Adobe Acrobat or Foxit PDF is more suitable than any browser-based tool for files of that size.

Frequently asked questions

Is Stax a real iLovePDF alternative?

For the core PDF operations — yes. Stax covers PDF compression, merging, splitting, page rotation, watermarking, adding page numbers, and image-to-PDF conversion. All run entirely in your browser with no file upload. iLovePDF is a cloud service whose tools run on its servers, and its pricing page lists per-task limits on the free plan (for example 200 MB for Compress PDF). Stax has no server-side limit because no server is involved; the limit is your browser's memory.

Why does it matter that Stax doesn't upload PDFs?

PDFs often contain sensitive content: contracts, tax documents, medical records, financial statements, NDA materials. When you use a cloud PDF service such as iLovePDF, your file is sent to its servers for processing, and its terms say files are deleted within two hours of processing. Stax processes everything in your browser using PDF-lib and PDF.js. The file never leaves your device.

What's the file size limit on Stax PDF tools?

There's no server-side limit. The practical limit is your device's available memory, so a very large PDF can be slow or fail, especially on a phone. For files of that size a desktop app like Adobe Acrobat or Foxit is more appropriate.

Does Stax support OCR (making scanned PDFs searchable)?

Not currently. OCR is a computationally intensive task that's difficult to run in-browser at acceptable speed. iLovePDF offers OCR as a cloud feature. If you need to make a scanned PDF searchable, Adobe Acrobat or iLovePDF's OCR feature is the right tool for that specific task.

Can I use Stax PDF tools on my phone?

Yes. The Stax PDF tools run in Android and iOS browsers. Memory on a phone is the limiting factor for large files, so try a smaller file or a desktop browser if a job fails.