Alternatives to PDFgear
A free PDF reader, editor and converter for desktop and mobile, with online tools and an AI assistant. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
PDFgear
A free PDF reader, editor and converter for desktop and mobile, with online tools and an AI assistant.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as PDFgear.
Adobe Acrobat
Adobe's PDF software: the free Acrobat Reader for viewing and commenting, and paid Acrobat plans for editing and conversion.
Adobe Acrobat gives a free Reader for viewing, commenting and signing on all major platforms, but editing and conversion require a paid Acrobat Standard or Pro subscription.
UPDF
A cross-platform PDF editor with annotation, OCR, conversion, redaction and built-in AI tools.
UPDF matches the cross-platform reach with editing, OCR, conversion, redaction and batch processing, but full features sit behind a paid plan.
PDFelement
A commercial PDF editor for creating, converting, editing, annotating, protecting and signing PDF files.
PDFelement is a paid commercial editor for Windows, macOS, Android, iOS and web, whose mobile app also works as a document scanner.
PDF24 Creator
A free Windows PDF toolbox with a printer driver and dozens of tools for merging, converting, compressing and editing PDFs.
PDF24 Creator is free Windows 10 and 11 software that works offline with a virtual PDF printer, OCR, merging and conversion, but has no macOS or mobile version.
PDF-XChange Editor
Windows PDF editor whose free version covers most everyday tasks.
PDF-XChange Editor is Windows only, keeps most features in its free version, and watermarks output from paid-only features instead of hiding them.
LightPDF
Online and desktop PDF editor and converter with OCR and AI document chat.
LightPDF offers editing, conversion, OCR, signing and AI chat across web, desktop and mobile, but full features require a Pro subscription and online tools use vendor servers.
PDF Reader Pro
A commercial PDF reader and editor for annotating, converting, signing and organizing PDFs on desktop and mobile.
PDF Reader Pro offers editing, conversion, OCR, forms and signing on desktop and mobile, with many features and AI tools requiring payment through a credit system.
Stirling PDF
A self-hosted web PDF toolkit for merging, splitting, converting, signing and editing PDFs on your own server.
Stirling PDF is an open-source toolkit you self-host or run as desktop apps, keeping files on your own instance, with some team features behind paid licenses.
Also worth comparing
These listings name PDFgear as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
BentoPDF
Browser-based PDF toolkit that edits, merges and converts files locally.
PDFgear adds installable apps for Windows, macOS, iOS and Android alongside online tools, all free, with AI features that send content online.
DocHub
An online PDF editor for annotating, filling, signing and sharing documents in the browser.
PDFgear offers free editing and signing with no sign-up on desktop, mobile and web, though it does not track signature requests.
Foxit PDF Reader
Free PDF reader with annotation, form filling and signing.
PDFgear adds free editing, conversion, merging and signing on desktop, mobile and web with no sign-up, though it has no Linux version and AI features go online.
Icecream PDF Editor
A Windows PDF editor for editing text, annotating, managing pages and filling forms.
PDFgear offers free editing, conversion, merging and signing on Windows, macOS and mobile, without sign-up, though AI features use an online service.
iLovePDF Desktop
Desktop version of the iLovePDF toolset for offline batch work.
PDFgear provides free editing, conversion and merging on Windows, macOS and mobile without an account, with AI features sent online.
KDAN PDF
PDF reader and editor across Windows, macOS, Android and iOS.
PDFgear offers editing, conversion, merging and signing free across desktop and mobile with no sign-up, while its AI features use an online service.
Lumin
A cloud PDF editor for viewing, editing, annotating and signing PDFs, with Google integration.
PDFgear gives free editing, conversion and signing on desktop, mobile and web with no sign-up, though it lacks Google integration.
PDF Expert
Polished PDF reader and editor for macOS and iOS.
PDFgear is free with no sign-up and runs on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS and web, but its AI features send content online.
Preview
Apple's built-in macOS app for viewing, annotating, merging and signing PDFs and images.
PDFgear is a free editor and converter for macOS, Windows and mobile with no sign-up, adding PDF editing, though its AI features send content online.
Sejda PDF
PDF editor available both online and as a desktop application.
PDFgear provides editing, conversion, merging and signing free without sign-up on desktop, mobile and web, though it is closed source and AI features use an online service.
Soda PDF
PDF editor with matching online and desktop applications.
PDFgear provides editing, conversion, merging and signing at no cost and without an account on desktop, mobile and web, though its AI features send content online.
Sumatra PDF
A small, fast, open-source reader for PDF, EPUB, MOBI, CBZ, DjVu and other documents on Windows.
PDFgear adds free editing, conversion, merging and signing on Windows, macOS and mobile, but is closed source and does not target ebook formats.
Tungsten Power PDF
PDF editor for creating, converting, editing, redacting and e-signing PDFs, formerly Kofax Power PDF.
PDFgear offers free editing, conversion, merging and signing without an account on desktop, mobile and web, though it remains closed source.
Xodo
PDF reader and editor across web, desktop and mobile.
PDFgear offers editing, conversion, merging and signing at no cost without sign-up, adds macOS, but its AI features send document content online.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Smallpdf
Browser PDF tools for compressing, converting, editing and signing.
iLovePDF
Browser PDF toolkit for merging, splitting, compressing and converting.
ChatPDF
An AI tool that summarizes PDFs and answers questions about them, with citations to the source.
PDFsam Basic
Splits, merges, rotates and extracts PDF pages entirely offline, in batches rather than one file at a time.
