The Best Free Smallpdf Alternative in 2025

Why Users Are Switching from Smallpdf to heyPDF

Smallpdf has long been a trusted name in online PDF tools, but its increasingly restrictive free tier is pushing users to look for alternatives. In 2025, Smallpdf's free plan limits users to just 2 task completions per hour and a low daily cap. Users who need to process several documents — students during exam season, professionals on deadline — find this severely limiting.

heyPDF vs Smallpdf: Key Differences

Here is a direct comparison of what makes heyPDF a superior alternative to Smallpdf for users who value simplicity and freedom:

• No Task Limits: heyPDF imposes no daily or hourly caps on its free tier. Process as many files as you need.
• No Paywall for Core Tools: Smallpdf gates popular features like PDF to Word conversion behind its Pro plan. On heyPDF, all 26 tools are free.
• No Mandatory Registration: Smallpdf now requires an account for most operations. heyPDF never asks for an email or sign-up — just upload and go.
• No Watermarks: heyPDF never stamps your output files with watermarks, regardless of whether you have an account.
• Privacy-First Architecture: Files are automatically deleted after 2 hours. No cloud storage, no retention, no risk.

All the PDF Tools You Need, Completely Free

heyPDF covers every major PDF task in one place: merge multiple files, split by page range, compress to reduce file size, rotate pages, extract images, convert to and from Word/Excel/PowerPoint, add password protection, remove passwords, add watermarks, add page numbers, perform OCR on scanned documents, and sign PDFs digitally.

Who Uses heyPDF as a Smallpdf Replacement?

Students use heyPDF to combine research papers, compress dissertation files before submission, and convert lecture slides to PDF. Business professionals use it to merge contracts, extract pages from reports, and password-protect sensitive invoices. Freelancers use it to create professional PDF portfolios without any software installations. Since heyPDF runs entirely in the browser, it works equally well on a work laptop, a home Mac, or a mobile phone.

Is heyPDF Really Free Without Limits?

Yes. heyPDF's 26 core PDF tools are genuinely free with no artificial daily task limits. There is an optional Pro subscription that unlocks priority processing speed and larger file sizes, but the core functionality is completely free and unrestricted. We believe the best PDF tool should be accessible to everyone.