An iLovePDF alternative that doesn’t upload your file
iLovePDF is fast, free at the point of use, and very good at what it does. It is also a server: every document you drop into it is uploaded, processed and stored for a period before deletion. If that is the part you want to avoid, this page explains what changes and what you give up.
What iLovePDF does better
- More tools, and mobile and desktop apps Penstead has no equivalent of.
- Batch work at a scale a browser tab cannot match — merging twenty-five files at once, or processing very large documents without your own machine slowing down.
- Office and image conversion breadth, backed by years of server-side tuning.
- It handles a 100 MB file without asking anything of your laptop.
What iLovePDF publishes about its free plan
Most free tools cap uploads at 100 MB; Compress PDF allows 200 MB and Image to PDF 40 MB.
Read from ilovepdf.com/pricing on 2026-08-03.
Free task sizes are limited per tool — for example 25 files for Merge, 2 for Compress, 1 for Split.
Read from ilovepdf.com/pricing on 2026-08-03.
Premium is listed at $5/month billed annually, or $9 month-to-month.
Read from ilovepdf.com/pricing on 2026-08-03.
Competitors change their limits, and this page will go stale before we notice. If something here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
Where Penstead is different
Your file stays on your machine for most jobs
Editing, merging, splitting, organising, cropping, compressing, OCR, redaction, form filling and signing yourself all run in the browser tab. There is no upload, no queue, and nothing to delete afterwards — which also means no file size ceiling imposed by us, only whatever your own machine can hold in memory.
Redaction actually removes the text
Drawing a black box over a name in most tools leaves the text underneath, selectable by anyone who opens the file. Penstead rasterises every page carrying a redaction and rebuilds it from the flattened image, so the original characters no longer exist in the document. It is worth testing this on whatever tool you currently use before you send a redacted contract to anyone.
It ends in a signature, not a download
iLovePDF hands you a file. Penstead's point is the step after that: place the fields, send each signer their own private link, and get the executed copy back with an audit trail and a Certificate of Completion. Signers never create an account.
Use iLovePDF if…
- You are processing very large files, or many files at once, and would rather a server did the work.
- You want a mobile or desktop app.
- You need a conversion Penstead does not offer.
Use Penstead if…
- You would rather the document were not uploaded anywhere.
- You want to fix a document and then get it signed without changing tools.
- You are redacting something and need the text genuinely gone rather than covered.
Try it on the document you have open
Every browser tool is free with no account and no daily cap. Sending for signature is free 5 times a month.