Sejda vs Stirling PDF (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Sejda if

• Fits if you need a week of heavy PDF work and then nothing for months
• Works for Linux users who want a desktop PDF editor

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you want to edit on your phone, as there's no app
• Tight if you OCR long scans, as even paid plans stop at 100 pages
• Not for you if you want the desktop app monthly, as only the week pass and annual plan include it
• Watch out: free desktop use is 3 tasks a day, 200 pages and 50MB a file, with OCR up to 10 pages
• Too light for linking to cloud storage or other apps, as no integrations are on record

Pick Stirling PDF if

• Fits if you want PDF tools that keep files on your own machine
• Works for developers who want an API for PDF jobs

Look elsewhere if

• Tight if you run a team, as SSO and the team workspace are not on the free plan
• Pricey if you need Team, at $99 a month for up to 100 users
• Watch out: air-gapped use, SCIM, data residency and audit logs need the sales-only Enterprise plan
• Watch out: automation credits cost 1 cent each after the first 1,000 a month
• Skip it if you want a phone app, as none is listed

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.

Stirling PDF

• The Team plan is $99 a month for 100 users; SSO and the team workspace are not on the free plan.
• Air-gapped deployment, SCIM, data residency and audit logs need the sales-only Enterprise plan.
• Automation through the PDF Processor uses credits: 1,000 free each month, then 1 cent per credit, prepaid or as used.
• The Linux desktop download is a .jar file that you run manually.

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.

Stirling PDF

60+ PDF tools

The editor offers 60+ tools, including redaction, OCR, compression and conversion, on the web, desktop or your own server.

Private by design

Stirling says the editor runs on your machine and the source is public, so files do not have to go to a third-party site.

Self-hosting

Run it with the official Docker image, on Kubernetes with Helm, or from a .jar file on a server.

API and MCP

Every PDF operation can be called from your own systems, with webhooks when a job finishes.

Pipelines and policies

The PDF Processor chains operations and applies rules to files as they arrive, with each action logged.

In-editor assistant

An assistant can redact, translate, summarize or convert the file you have open when you ask.

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.

Stirling PDF

• Free$0

  60+ PDF tools on web, desktop and self-hosted, open source, with 1,000 monthly credits; no card required.

• Team$99

  per month for up to 100 users

  Adds single sign-on, a team workspace and invites, and central control of the tool catalog; more capacity in blocks of 100 users.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Sold through sales: air-gapped deployment, SCIM provisioning, data residency, audit logs, uptime SLAs and custom terms.

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.

Stirling PDF

No public discounts listed.