Alternatives to PDF24
PDF24 is free, funded by advertising, and the advertising is why its online tools upload your documents to its servers. Its Windows Creator does the same work locally. Some of the tools below are desktop software with no server in the path at all, which matters if the document is not one you want to hand to an ad-funded service.
PDF24, as the index records it
- Files:
- Mixed - depends on version and feature
- Redaction:
- Removes the content
- Price:
- Free
- Platforms:
- Web · Windows
Worth knowing before you stay or go: The online tools upload documents to PDF24's servers in Germany. The privacy policy says uploads and results are usually deleted after about one hour, with no backups. It names an exception for optional AI recognition of invoice data. PDF24 Creator works offline on Windows. There is no macOS or Linux version, and it is currently version 11.31.1. No paid tier or subscription was found. The services are funded by advertising, with an optional AI feature. Editing means adding writing, images, shapes and freehand drawing, not rewriting existing page text. Signing is an electronic signature, not a certificate-based digital signature. Password protection uses AES-256 and can set permissions, but the pages do not establish that every reader enforces them. OCR produces searchable output and PDF/A with deskewing and cleaning. No accuracy figure is published. Redaction is a separate tool.
The short answer
The closest PDF24 alternatives in this index are Adobe Acrobat , Foxit PDF Editor and PDF Candy . They share enough of the job to be worth comparing, which is why they are on this page - a shared job tag is a candidate, not a finding that they work the same way. What separates them from PDF24 is what they charge and whether your file leaves your machine. PDF24 processes some versions on your device and runs others on a server, which the vendor documents, and 1 of the 6 listed have no vendor service in the path .
What else does the same jobs
7 or more of the same jobs, ordered by how many jobs they share - not by who pays us.
| Tool | Price | Licence | Your files | Redaction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe Acrobat 7 jobs in common: Edit, Convert, Compress, Merge, OCR, Protect, Sign | Free · paid from £14.99 a month | Not verified | Mixed - depends on version and feature | Removes the content |
| Foxit PDF Editor 7 jobs in common: Edit, Protect, OCR, Convert, Merge, Sign, Compress | From £8.15 a month | Not verified | Mixed - depends on version and feature | Removes the content |
| PDF Candy 7 jobs in common: Convert, Edit, Compress, Merge, OCR, Protect, Sign | Free · paid from £4.00 a month | Proprietary | Mixed - depends on version and feature | Covers it - content is not removed |
| PDF Studio 7 jobs in common: Edit, Merge, Protect, Sign, Convert, OCR, Compress | Paid | Proprietary | No server involved | Removes the content |
| Power PDF 7 jobs in common: Edit, Protect, Convert, Sign, Merge, OCR, Compress | From £95.00 one-off | proprietary | Mixed - depends on version and feature | Not determined |
| Master PDF Editor 7 jobs in common: Edit, Merge, Protect, Convert, Sign, OCR, Compress | From £59.30 one-off | proprietary | Mixed - depends on version and feature | Removes the content |
A tool marked same owner is operated by the same company as PDF24. That does not make it bad, but it is not an independent alternative - switching to it does not change who holds your documents or sets your terms.
1 of the 6 is desktop or command-line software, so there is no server in the path at all - PDF Studio. That is a statement about how the software is built rather than something we measured, which is why the files column words it differently from a tool we tested.
PDF24 compared head to head
- PDF24 vs iLovePDF A paid browser toolkit against a free one, on the fact that matters most.