PDFgear vs Sejda
We give PDFgear a 3.4 GPA and Sejda a 2.2, out of 4.0. PDFgear grades higher on value for money, the free plan, features and platforms. They get the same grade on ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Sejda
Web and desktop PDF tools, free within daily limits or by the week
How we grade them
| 3.4GPAPDFgearVery good | 2.2GPASejdaFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | ANothing to pay, and it edits existing text, converts, OCRs and has AI. The maker says investment pays for it, not ads or selling data. Hard to beat free for a full editor, though some advanced bits may become paid later. | CThe Desktop+Web Annual plan is $63 a year, a bit under the middle for PDF editors. Web only is $7.50 a month, and week passes are $5 for web or $7.95 with desktop, paid once, which is handy for a one-off job. |
| Free plan and trial | AEvery feature on every platform, with no signup, no ads and no caps on record. A free tool that edits text properly is rare in this category. | CFree on web and desktop with no signup, and that includes editing existing text. But desktop is capped at 3 tasks a day, 200 pages and 50MB a file, and OCR stops at 10 pages. |
| Features | BEdits text, images and form fields like a word processor, batch-converts to Office, OCRs in 30-plus languages, annotates and has an AI copilot. It covers the whole job. Sending for signature is on eSignGear, its separate site. | CEdits existing text, turns PDFs into fillable forms, merges, splits, converts to Excel and runs OCR, with batch jobs on paid plans. The gap the listing names: OCR stops at 100 pages even when you pay. |
| Ease of use | BNo store rating on record. No account to make and nothing to set up: install it and start editing. | BNo store rating on record. No signup on the web, and the desktop app installs and runs, so there's nothing to set up. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWindows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, the web and a browser extension. That's everywhere bar Linux, but integrations stop at ChatGPT and its own eSignGear, so no top grade. | CThe web, plus desktop apps for Windows, Mac and Linux, and Linux is a rare bonus. But there's no phone app and no integrations on record. |
| Best for | a full PDF editor that costs nothing | short bursts of PDF work, a week at a time |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: PDFgear and Sejda. How we grade
Where they differ
- PDFgear is free. Sejda starts at $5 per user for 7 days, paid once, with no renewal.
- Only PDFgear lists iOS and Android apps.
- Only PDFgear lists a browser extension.
- Only Sejda lists a Linux app.
At a glance
| PDFgear | Sejda | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free plan |
| Starts at | Free | $5 per user for 7 days, paid once, with no renewal |
| Free plan | Every feature is free on every platform with no signup; the maker says it shows no ads, does not sell data and covers its costs with investment. | Free on web and desktop with limits: on desktop, 3 tasks a day, files up to 50MB and 200 pages, OCR up to 10 pages and one file converted at a time. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Linux | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | PDF Gear Tech Pte. Ltd. | Sejda BV |
| Price read from | pdfgear.com | sejda.com |
| Checked | Oct 18, 2026 | Oct 18, 2026 |
Who each one suits
PDFgear
- Anyone who wants a full PDF editor without paying or signing up
- Windows and Mac users replacing a paid editor for everyday edits
- People who want to ask questions of long PDFs with built-in AI
Sejda
- One-off jobs: a week pass covers a short burst of PDF work
- Linux users who want a desktop PDF editor
- People who prefer files processed on their own computer
Worth knowing
PDFgear
- PDFgear says most features will stay free but some advanced options, such as cloud AI tools and special conversions, may become paid.
- Some advanced conversions upload files to its Amazon cloud servers; the maker says they are deleted straight after processing.
- There is no Linux version; the apps cover Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android.
- It is a young product: the first version came out in 2022.
Sejda
- Free use is capped at 3 tasks a day on desktop and by pages and hours on the web, with OCR limited to 10 pages.
- The Web plans do not include Sejda Desktop; only the Desktop Week Pass and the Annual plan do.
- There is no monthly plan that includes the desktop app, and no mobile app.
- Even paid plans run OCR on documents of up to 100 pages.
Key features
PDFgear
- Text and image editing
- Edits existing text, images, shapes, links, signatures and fillable form fields in a PDF, much like a word processor.
- Batch conversion
- Converts between PDF and Word, Excel, PowerPoint, text and images, with a batch mode for many files at once.
- OCR
- Pulls text out of scanned pages and turns scans into editable Word or text files, in more than 30 languages.
- AI copilot
- Answers questions about a document and summarizes it; the maker says it pays for the ChatGPT API behind it from its own funding.
- Annotation
- Highlight, underline and strike through text, and add notes, comments, stamps, shapes and text boxes.
- Online tools and eSignGear
- Browser tools for editing, merging, splitting, compressing and signing, plus eSignGear, a separate site for sending documents for e-signature.
Sejda
- Edit existing text
- Add, edit or move text and change its font, size and style, add links, images and shapes, and annotate, highlight and sign.
- Forms
- Fill and sign PDF forms, and turn an existing PDF into a fillable form.
- Merge, split and organize
- Combine files, alternate pages from two documents, split by pages, size, bookmarks or text, and reorder, rotate, crop or delete pages.
- Convert and OCR
- Converts PDFs to Word, Excel or CSV and images, and HTML or images to PDF, with OCR on scans and table extraction.
- Desktop app that works offline
- Sejda Desktop installs on Windows, Mac and Linux and processes documents on your computer rather than on Sejda's servers.
- Batch work and tool chains
- Paid plans process several files at once, and a workflow tool runs a series of tasks on PDFs in one go.
Plans
PDFgear
PDFgear$0
Editing, conversion, OCR, signing and the AI copilot on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and the web, with no account needed.
Sejda
Desktop+Web Free$0
No signup needed; page, hourly and file-size limits and some tool-specific limits.
Web Week Pass$5
per user for 7 days, paid once, with no renewal
Seven days of unlimited Sejda Web, then back to free; no desktop app.
Web Monthly$7.50
per user / month
Unlimited Sejda Web with files up to 500MB, OCR up to 100 pages and batch processing; no desktop app.
Desktop Week Pass$7.95
per user for 7 days, paid once, with no renewal
Seven days of unlimited Sejda Desktop and Sejda Web.
Desktop+Web Annual$63
per user / year
A year of Sejda Desktop and Sejda Web with no page or hourly limits, renewing yearly.
Ways to pay less
PDFgear
No public discounts listed.
Sejda
- Annual discount
Save 30% with the annual plan
Sejda's pricing page says the Desktop+Web Annual plan at $63 per user a year saves 30% over the $7.50 monthly web plan.
- Other savings
Team volume discounts from 2 users
Sejda gives volume discounts from 2 members, 20% for 10 users on its plans, and up to 60% off on desktop volume licenses.
