iLovePDF alternative: PDF tools that never upload your file

iLovePDF is a server-based toolbox: every file goes up to its cloud and comes back processed. This viewer is the opposite design: an iLovePDF alternative for annotating, signing, OCR, merging and page edits that runs in your browser tab, free and with no account. Below is a plain comparison, including the conversions and compression that iLovePDF does and this viewer does not.

Where iLovePDF and a local viewer differ

iLovePDF offers about two dozen tools on the web, plus desktop and mobile apps. The web tools upload the file, run the job on a server and offer a download link. Free use comes with ceilings on file size, pages and tasks per session, and premium removes them. The desktop app processes files on your machine but carries the same plan structure.

A browser-based viewer changes the model rather than the feature list. The PDF is opened with pdf.js in the tab, you work on the page directly, and pdf-lib writes a new file when you press Download. There is no job queue, no size tier and no account because there is no server doing the work. The trade-off is that heavy processing such as conversion is not available, and OCR, which is available, runs at laptop speed rather than data-center speed.

Feature table

Jobs you can do here instead of uploading

Choose the browser viewer for anything that touches the page without rebuilding the file format:

1. Rotate, delete and reorder pages. Open the file, use the thumbnail sidebar, download. Guide: rotate a PDF and save, delete pages from a PDF.
2. Merge two PDFs. Click Merge, pick the second file, it is appended; repeat for a third. See how to merge PDF files.
3. Make a scan searchable. OCR adds an invisible text layer; language follows your browser setting, English by default.
4. Mark up and sign. Highlight, draw, text, image, sticker, whiteout, drawn signature, with undo and redo.
5. Remove a permissions lock. Remove Restrictions strips the owner-password flags from a file that opens normally.

All of it works on Windows, macOS, Linux, ChromeOS and phone browsers, with the usual warning that a 300-page scan may run out of memory on a phone.

Jobs that still belong to iLovePDF or a desktop app

Conversion in either direction: PDF to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, JPG, and the reverse. The viewer has none of it; iLovePDF does, and so do Word, LibreOffice and the print dialog for documents to PDF. Compression, splitting by page range into separate files, adding page numbers and watermarks, and protecting with a password are also outside the viewer's scope. The split PDF guide and compress PDF guide list free options for each.

iLovePDF's Redact tool removes the underlying text; the viewer's whiteout box does not, so for legal or HR redaction use a real redaction tool. Its signature workflow can send a document to other people and collect their signatures with a record; the viewer only places your own drawn signature.

A practical way to combine them

Many people end up using both. Do the private, page-level work locally: strip restrictions, rotate, delete, merge, annotate, OCR, sign. Then, only if you need a format change, send the already-finished file to a converter. That way the sensitive draft with comments and the full original never leave your machine; only the final version does, and often that final version is going to be emailed anyway.

If you never need conversion, you can simply stop uploading. The online PDF viewer opens from any drop or file picker, and the Chrome extension opens PDF links from the web directly in it.

Frequently asked questions