# Stirling PDF review (2026): is the free plan enough? > Open-source PDF editor you can run on your own machine or server Checked Nov 12, 2026 ยท graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA. Stirling PDF is an open-source PDF editor with 60+ tools that runs in a browser, as a desktop app or on your own servers. It is free for individuals. Paid plans add team administration, single sign-on and larger deployments, and a separate PDF Processor automates work billed per credit. - **Category:** PDF Editors - **Made by:** Stirling PDF Inc. - **Website:** https://www.stirling.com - **Runs on:** Web, macOS, Windows, Linux - **Who should skip it:** Tight if you run a team, as SSO and the team workspace are not on the free plan. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 12, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 12, 2026, Stirling PDF has a free plan, and paid plans start at $99 per month for 100 users (Team). - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **Free plan:** Free for individuals: 60+ PDF tools on web, desktop or self-hosted, plus 1,000 monthly credits for automation. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | 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. | | Enterprise | Custom | Sold through sales: air-gapped deployment, SCIM provisioning, data residency, audit logs, uptime SLAs and custom terms. | Read from https://www.stirling.com/pricing on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Stirling PDF before buying. ## Key features - **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. ## Good for - People who want a free, open-source editor with no account limits - IT teams that must keep documents on their own servers - Developers who want to call PDF operations through an API ## Worth knowing - 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. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 3.2 out of 4**, graded Nov 12, 2026. Stirling PDF is an open-source PDF editor with 60+ tools that runs on the web, as a desktop app or self-hosted, free for individuals. Teams pay $99 a month, and anything beyond a team workspace needs the sales-only Enterprise plan. - **Value for money: A.** Free for individuals, with 60+ tools on web, desktop or self-hosted and 1,000 automation credits a month. - **Free plan and trial: A.** The free plan has no cap on the PDF tools a normal person uses; automation credits are 1,000 a month, then 1 cent each. - **Features: B.** 60+ tools, an API, an MCP server, pipelines and an in-editor assistant. Gaps named are in team features, not the core tools. - **Ease of use: C.** Web and desktop apps exist, but the Linux desktop download is a .jar file run by hand, and self-hosting is a setup job. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, Mac, Windows and Linux, plus an API and MCP. No phone apps. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Stirling PDF's own pages on 12 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among PDF editors - Stirling PDF's GPA of 3.2 is higher than 27 of the 28 other PDF editors we grade. - It stands best on free plan and trial (A, above 25 of 28) and worst on ease of use (C, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $99 a month, against a middle price of $6.33 for the category: 19 of the 19 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.7 out of 4. 8 tools score higher and cost less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/pdf-editors ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace Stirling PDF you would be making connections to other products, each kept working as those products change. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 3.2 is higher than 27 of the 28 other PDF editors we grade. It costs $1,188 a year. Stirling PDF is open source, so there is a third way: take its code and run it yourself. - You could not: Connections to other products, each kept working as those products change. - You could not: Editing the text inside a PDF without breaking its layout. - You could not: Apps for macOS, Windows and Linux that stay in step with each other. - You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself. - You could not: What a company asks for before it lets staff use something: single sign-on. - You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. **Tags:** PDF editing, Open source, Self-hostable, Public API, Workflow automation, AI features ## Alternatives - [PDFsam](https://toolgpa.com/tools/pdfsam): Split and merge PDFs offline, with paid Visual and Enhanced editions. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/pdfsam-vs-stirling-pdf) - [Sejda](https://toolgpa.com/tools/sejda): Web and desktop PDF tools, free within daily limits or by the week. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/sejda-vs-stirling-pdf) - [PDF24 Tools](https://toolgpa.com/tools/pdf24): Free online PDF tools paid for by ads, plus an offline Windows app. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/pdf24-vs-stirling-pdf) - [PDFgear](https://toolgpa.com/tools/pdfgear): Free PDF editor for desktop, mobile and web with an AI copilot. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/pdfgear-vs-stirling-pdf) - [PDF-XChange Editor](https://toolgpa.com/tools/pdf-xchange-editor): Windows PDF editor with a free edition and perpetual licenses. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/pdf-xchange-editor-vs-stirling-pdf) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026: - https://www.stirling.com/ - https://www.stirling.com/pricing - https://www.stirling.com/download - https://www.stirling.com/about Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/stirling-pdf Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).