techtuate vs. SmallPDF
SmallPDF is one of the slickest paid PDF tools online. Its free tier looks generous until you hit the 2-task-per-hour wall or notice the watermark on your output. techtuate has no walls.
TL;DR
SmallPDF Free = 2 ops/hour, watermark on output. SmallPDF Pro = $15/mo. techtuate = unlimited, no watermark, no sign-up, $0 forever.
The free-tier traps you only notice mid-task
- 2 tasks per hour. Need to merge three PDFs and split a fourth? You'll be waiting 60 minutes between attempts, or upgrading.
- Watermark on output. The free tier brands every PDF you produce.
- Sign-up required for most operations beyond a basic preview.
- File uploaded to their servers for processing.
The techtuate version
- Unlimited operations. Browser CPU is the only ceiling, and modern browsers are fast.
- No watermark. Ever.
- No sign-up. Land, drop a file, work, download.
- Nothing uploaded. Your file stays in your browser tab.
Where SmallPDF is still nice to have
Worth being honest about the things SmallPDF does that techtuate doesn't (yet):
- OCR on scanned PDFs.
- E-signature workflows with audit trail.
- Polished Office-to-PDF conversion (Word, Excel, PPT).
If those are your daily driver, SmallPDF Pro at $15/mo is reasonable. If you mostly need to annotate, merge, split, rotate, fill a form, or build a PDF from images, you're paying $180/yr for buttons you barely press.
Cancel SmallPDF, try this for a week.
You can keep your Pro subscription. Or don't.
Open the PDF editorSee also: all comparisons · vs. iLovePDF · vs. Adobe