Alternatives to MuPDF

Compact, very fast PDF and XPS viewer with a command-line toolkit. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.

Replacements

Listings that take over the same core job as MuPDF.

  • Sumatra PDF

    A small, fast, open-source reader for PDF, EPUB, MOBI, CBZ, DjVu and other documents on Windows.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsCommand line

    Sumatra PDF is a GPL-3.0 reader for Windows only that opens many ebook and comic formats, with customizable shortcuts and themes, but has no macOS, Linux or mobile versions.

  • Okular

    Universal document viewer for PDF, EPUB, comics, DjVu and more.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinux

    Okular gives a fuller interface for PDF, EPUB, comics and DjVu with annotations stored separately, runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, and pulls in KDE libraries.

  • Evince

    GNOME's lightweight document viewer for PDF, PostScript and other document formats on Linux.

    FreeOpen sourceLinux

    Evince is a simple GPL viewer that fits the GNOME desktop and opens PDF and PostScript, but it runs only on Linux and has no command-line toolkit.

  • Foxit PDF Reader

    Free PDF reader with annotation, form filling and signing.

    FreemiumProprietaryWindowsmacOSLinuxAndroidiOS

    Foxit PDF Reader is closed-source freeware on desktop and mobile with a full annotation and form-filling toolset, though its installer and interface promote paid products.

  • Adobe Acrobat

    Adobe's PDF software: the free Acrobat Reader for viewing and commenting, and paid Acrobat plans for editing and conversion.

    FreemiumProprietaryWindowsmacOSWebAndroidiOS

    Adobe Acrobat is proprietary with a free Reader for commenting, form filling and Fill & Sign across desktop, web and mobile; editing and conversion require a subscription.

  • Sioyek

    A PDF reader built for textbooks and research papers, with keyboard control and quick jumps to figures and references.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinux

    Sioyek is a keyboard-driven GPL-3.0 reader for Windows, macOS and Linux aimed at papers and textbooks, with figure and reference overlays, but its last tagged release is from 2022.

  • Skim

    macOS PDF reader and annotator built for reading papers.

    FreeOpen sourcemacOS

    Skim is a BSD-licensed macOS-only reader with SyncTeX integration and annotation tools for academic papers, replacing MuPDF's minimal viewer on Mac only.

  • zathura

    A minimal, keyboard-driven document viewer with plugin support for PDF, PostScript and DjVu.

    FreeOpen sourceLinux

    zathura is a keyboard-driven Linux viewer under the Zlib licence that can use MuPDF or poppler as its PDF backend.

Also worth comparing

These listings name MuPDF as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.

  • Atril

    The MATE desktop's multi-page document viewer for PDF, PostScript, DjVu, XPS and comics.

    FreeOpen sourceLinux

    MuPDF is a very fast AGPL viewer on desktop and mobile with a minimal keyboard-driven interface and the bundled mutool for scripted PDF manipulation.

  • Ghostscript

    PostScript and PDF interpreter behind a great deal of other software.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinuxCommand line

    MuPDF comes from the same Artifex licensing model under AGPL-3.0, adding a fast viewer and mutool, but does not interpret PostScript or PCL.

  • Papers

    A GNOME document viewer for reading, searching and annotating PDFs, DjVu, TIFF and comics.

    FreeOpen sourceLinux

    MuPDF is an AGPL viewer across desktop and mobile with very fast rendering and a bundled command-line toolkit, but a deliberately minimal keyboard interface.

  • Poppler

    PDF rendering library with pdftotext, pdftoppm and pdfinfo tools.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinuxCommand line

    MuPDF provides a fast rendering library and viewer under AGPL-3.0 with its mutool toolkit, but commercial use of the library needs a paid Artifex licence.

  • qpdfview

    A tabbed Qt document viewer for PDF, PostScript and DjVu files.

    FreeOpen sourceLinux

    MuPDF is a very fast, minimal cross-platform viewer that also reads XPS and ships the mutool command-line toolkit, under the AGPL-3.0 license.

  • Xpdf

    A PDF viewer plus command-line tools for extracting text and images and converting PDFs to HTML.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinuxCommand line

    MuPDF combines a fast minimal viewer with the mutool command-line toolkit on desktop and mobile, under AGPL with paid commercial licensing.

  • Xreader

    Linux Mint's document viewer for PDF, PostScript, DjVu, XPS and comic book files.

    FreeOpen sourceLinux

    MuPDF is a very fast, compact viewer for PDF and XPS on Linux and other platforms, with a deliberately minimal keyboard-driven interface and a command-line toolkit.

Similar software

Related functionality, not a direct replacement.