Free and Premium
FontiaPDF compared with other online PDF editors
This page lines up FontiaPDF with six well-known online PDF editors (Sejda, iLovePDF, Smallpdf, PDF24 Tools, Adobe Acrobat online and PDFgear) on the things that change how you work: whether you need an account, whether free downloads carry a watermark, what the free limit is, whether you can change the text that is already in the PDF, where your file is processed and what the paid plans cost.
Everything about the other brands comes from their own public pages, checked on October 27, 2026, and may have changed since. Where a site doesn’t say something clearly, the table reads “no public data” instead of guessing. There are no opinions or quality tests here, only what each company publishes.
How to compare editors with your own PDF in 3 steps
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Pick a PDF that matters to you
Use one with whatever you most need to keep intact: a table, two columns, your company font or a form. A test file with a single line of text won’t show the differences.
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Make the same change in each editor
Fix the same line (a date, an amount, a typo) and notice whether the editor lets you change the existing text or only lets you put a new text box on top of it.
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Download and check
Open every downloaded PDF and compare the font on the edited line, whether anything moved, whether a watermark appeared and how many downloads you have left that day.
Free use: sign-up, watermarks and limits
| Editor | Account needed for free use | Watermark on free output | Published free limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| FontiaPDF | No | No | 20 exports a day and 50 MB per PDF; the tools that run in your browser don’t use up exports |
| Sejda | No (“No signup required”) | No, according to its editor’s page description | Documents up to 200 pages or 50 MB, and 3 tasks per hour |
| iLovePDF | No public data for Edit PDF | No public data | Edit PDF: 1 file and 100 MB per task; free use is “limited”, with no figure |
| Smallpdf | No clear public data | No clear public data | Up to 2 conversions a day, according to its help pages |
| PDF24 Tools | No | No, according to its editor’s page description | No published limit (“No limits”) |
| Adobe Acrobat online | Free Adobe account to download or share | No public data | No published figure |
| PDFgear | No | No | 100 MB per PDF, no usage limit |
Changing the text that is already in the PDF
| Editor | Edits existing text for free? | What it says about the original font |
|---|---|---|
| FontiaPDF | Yes | Reuses the embedded font if it has every character; if not, that line uses the closest equivalent |
| Sejda | Yes | If the original font is missing characters, its editor offers a replacement or keeping the original |
| iLovePDF | Yes; Edit PDF is listed in its free plan | No public data |
| Smallpdf | No: direct text editing requires Pro | No public data |
| PDF24 Tools | To change text, it recommends converting the PDF to Word first | No public data |
| Adobe Acrobat online | No: the free version only annotates; Acrobat Pro edits text | No public data |
| PDFgear | Not in the online editor, which only adds text boxes; yes in its desktop app | Not applicable |
Where your file is processed and how long it is kept
| Editor | Browser or server | Published retention |
|---|---|---|
| FontiaPDF | In your browser while you edit; on our server only when you download with changes, compress, extract pages or edit document images | Processed in memory and discarded when done, never written to disk |
| Sejda | Server; its desktop version works locally | Deleted automatically after 2 hours |
| iLovePDF | Server | Up to 2 hours; signed documents, up to 5 years |
| Smallpdf | Server, in the European Union | 1 hour with an account; without one, “a reasonable period of time” |
| PDF24 Tools | Server, in Germany | Usually 1 hour |
| Adobe Acrobat online | Uploaded to Adobe | Only files saved to your account are kept; no public figure otherwise |
| PDFgear | In the browser, nothing uploaded | Not applicable |
Published prices
| Editor | Monthly | Yearly | Short pass with no auto-renewal |
|---|---|---|---|
| FontiaPDF | USD 7.50 | USD 55 | Week Pass: USD 5, 7 days, one-time payment |
| Sejda | USD 7.50 per user, web only | USD 63 per user, web and desktop | Web Week Pass: USD 5, 7 days, one-time payment |
| iLovePDF | $7, currency not stated | $47 | No public data |
| Smallpdf | No public data | No public data | Not listed; its 7-day trial asks for a card |
| PDF24 Tools | Free, no paid plans | Free | Not applicable |
| Adobe Acrobat online | No public data | No public data | No public data |
| PDFgear | Free | Free | Not applicable |
Smallpdf and Adobe load their prices with JavaScript (Adobe, by country), so they aren’t listed. iLovePDF’s are the ones its site showed from Chile, VAT included.
What FontiaPDF doesn’t do
- A desktop app: it runs in the browser, and there is a Chrome and Firefox extension that opens the editor from your browser.
- Files over 50 MB, on any plan.
- Converting a PDF to Word or other office formats.
- Reflowing paragraphs: each line is edited on its own.
Sources and date
Third-party data checked on October 27, 2026 on the public pricing, editor, help, privacy and terms pages of sejda.com, ilovepdf.com, smallpdf.com, tools.pdf24.org, adobe.com and pdfgear.com; it can change at any time. Phrases in quotation marks are copied from those pages.
Sejda, iLovePDF, Smallpdf, PDF24, Adobe Acrobat and PDFgear are trademarks of their respective owners. They are named only to identify their products; FontiaPDF is not affiliated with any of them.
What’s preserved and what isn’t
Preserved
- The original font of every line you edit, as long as it is embedded in the PDF and has all the characters you type.
- Everything you don’t touch: images, tables and the rest of the pages.
- Text stays text: you can select and search it in the downloaded PDF.
Limits
- A scanned PDF is an image: you first need to recognize its text with the editor’s OCR.
- If you make a line longer, the lines below it don’t move.
- The maximum size is 50 MB per PDF.
Free or Premium
Free
20 exports a day, no sign-up and no watermark.
- Edit text, sign and fill in forms
- Merge, split, number pages and watermark in your browser
- OCR in your browser
Premium
Unlimited exports and extra features.
- Unlimited exports
- Reorder, duplicate and extract pages from the panel
- Password-protect the PDF
Frequently asked questions
Why do some cells say “no public data”?
Because that brand doesn’t state it clearly on its public pages, or only shows it with JavaScript depending on your country. We’d rather leave a gap than guess.
How current is this comparison?
The data is from October 27, 2026. Any service can change its terms at any time, so check the pricing page of the one you’re interested in before you decide.
What does “no auto-renewal” mean for the Week Pass?
It is a one-time payment for 7 days of Premium that never turns into a subscription: when it ends, you go back to the free plan without doing anything. Every FontiaPDF plan comes with a 14-day refund guarantee.
Is FontiaPDF affiliated with these brands?
No. FontiaPDF is an independent project; the other brands are named only to identify their products.
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