AvePDF vs LightPDF
AvePDF
avepdf.com
LightPDF
lightpdf.comSide by side
| Figure | AvePDF | LightPDF |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $3.75/mo | $1.33/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 5 |
| Spec score · PDF Merger Software | 8.6 (#7) | 9.3 (#3) |
| Spec score · PDF mergers | 7.9 (#12) | 9.2 (#5) |
| Founded | 2020 | 2018 |
| Integrations | The converter supports upload from Google Drive, Dropbox, and a web address, and lets users save results to cloud storage. | LightPDF's MCP documentation says its server can be configured in MCP-compatible clients such as Cursor and Claude. |
| PDF tools | The service lists tools for merging, splitting, compressing, converting, protecting, redacting, signing, OCR, PDF/A conversion and validation, and scanning. | Its web guide says the AI Agent can perform PDF tasks such as conversion, merging, watermark removal, page numbering, and compression through chat. |
| Product | AvePDF is a browser based service for editing, converting, and managing PDF and other electronic documents. | LightPDF describes itself as an AI-powered PDF solution for editing, converting, annotating, signing, organizing, and chatting with documents. |
| Support | The Premium plan includes technical support. | The pricing page says users can contact live chat or submit a support ticket and receive a response within 24 hours. |
Plans
LightPDF
- Free PlanFree
- Monthly Plan$5.99 a month
- Yearly Plan$15.99 a year
- Lifetime Plan$39.99 a month
- Lifetime Plan$39.99, paid once
In their own words
AvePDF
AvePDF is a browser-based service for editing, converting, and managing PDF and other electronic documents. Its tools cover merging, splitting, compression, conversion, protection, redaction, signing, OCR, PDF/A conversion and validation, and scanning. The converter handles more than 100 formats, including raster and vector images, office and text formats, CAD, and SVG. Files can be uploaded from Google Drive, Dropbox, or a web address, with results saved to cloud storage. The Free plan costs nothing and includes 50+ document tools, 2 processing operations per 6 hours, files up to 128 MB, and up to 10 files per processing. Premium costs $45 a year, billed annually as one payment per user; it includes unlimited processing, files up to 512 MB, and up to 100 files per processing, as well as no ads, technical support, and early beta access. Free-service uploads may be retained to improve services, including to train models; Premium files are not retained. Premium subscribers also receive multiple levels of encryption.
LightPDF
LightPDF is an AI-powered PDF service for editing, converting, annotating, signing, organizing, and chatting with documents. Its AI Agent accepts chat requests for tasks such as merging, conversion, watermark removal, page numbering, and compression. Other listed AI features include translation, image processing, data extraction, invoice generation, and document enhancement. LightPDF offers a conversion API for PDFs and office documents, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, images, HTML, and text. It is available on the web, Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows, with a Chrome/Edge extension. The free plan is web-only, limits files to 10MB, includes five cloud files for one year, and allows three AI Agent questions per day. Monthly and yearly plans include 1,000 AI credits per month; the lifetime plan includes 40,000 credits valid until used. Monthly costs $5.99 a month, Yearly costs $15.99 a year and includes a 3-day free trial, and Lifetime costs $39.99 a month. Premium features can be used on one device at a time.