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A free alternative to iLovePDF, Smallpdf and Adobe Acrobat online
Folio is a free online PDF studio: 41 PDF tools (merge, split, compress, convert, OCR, sign, redact and more) and a full PDF editor that you use in your browser, with no account and no sign-up.
Free, no account, no paid plan. Folio doesn't count tasks or downloads and adds no watermark. Files you add are processed on Folio's own server and deleted automatically after 6 hours (24 hours for documents open in the editor).
What you can do with Folio
- Organize: Merge PDF, Split PDF, Organize PDF, Rotate PDF, Remove pages, Add page numbers.
- Make PDFs smaller: Compress PDF with three levels, and see the size before and after.
- Convert: PDF to Word, Word to PDF, PDF to Excel, PDF to PowerPoint, JPG to PDF, PDF to JPG and more.
- Edit: the PDF editor changes existing text in the same font size and colour, and adds text, images, shapes, highlights, notes and form fields.
- Sign and secure: Sign PDF, Protect PDF (AES-256), Unlock PDF, Redact PDF (including Aadhaar numbers).
- Scans and text: OCR PDF in English, Hindi and Tamil, AI Summarizer, Compare PDF.
- Extras: workflows that chain tools over many files, Scan to PDF with your camera, and an editor for the text in screenshots.
How Folio compares
| Folio | iLovePDF | Smallpdf | Adobe Acrobat online | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paid plan | None: every tool is free | Premium and business plans | Individual and team plans | Acrobat subscriptions, with a 7-day Acrobat Pro trial |
| Free use | No task or download counter, no account | Limited document processing, with a file-size limit per tool (for example 15 MB for PDF to Word and OCR, 100 MB for Merge, 200 MB for Compress) | 30+ tools with limited document downloads | Free online tools such as Merge and PDF to Word; some steps, such as organizing merged pages, ask you to sign in |
| Apps | Web only | Web, mobile and desktop with Premium | Mobile app (limited on the free plan) | Online tools in any browser |
Other products' details are from their own websites in November 2026 and may change; check their pricing pages for the latest.
Where the others do more
iLovePDF Premium adds desktop and mobile apps and digital signatures; Smallpdf has a mobile app; Adobe makes Acrobat, the desktop PDF editor. Folio is a website only, with no cloud storage, and its Sign PDF places a drawn, typed or uploaded signature rather than a certificate-based digital signature. Translate PDF isn't available on the Folio website.
Questions and answers
What is a good free alternative to iLovePDF?
Folio has the same kind of tool grid as iLovePDF (merge, split, compress, convert to and from Word, Excel, PowerPoint and JPG, OCR, sign, protect, redact and more) plus a full PDF editor, all free with no account. It has no paid plan, so nothing is held back for a Premium tier.
Is there a Smallpdf alternative without a download limit?
Folio doesn't count tasks or downloads and has no paid plan: every tool can be used as often as you need, without an account.
Can Folio replace Adobe Acrobat?
For everyday jobs in the browser, such as merging, compressing, converting, OCR, editing existing text, signing and redacting, yes. Folio is web only: it has no desktop or mobile app, no cloud storage and no certificate-based digital signatures.
What happens to files I upload to Folio?
Files you add are processed on Folio's own server and deleted automatically after 6 hours (24 hours for documents open in the editor). There is no account, so they are not linked to you.
Made by Niranjan D · Folio vs iLovePDF and Smallpdf · llms.txt