CoolUtils Online PDF Merger vs LightPDF
CoolUtils Online PDF Merger
coolutils.com
LightPDF
lightpdf.comSide by side
| Figure | CoolUtils Online PDF Merger | LightPDF |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $1.33/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 7 | 5 |
| Spec score · PDF Merger Software | 9.4 (#1) | 9.3 (#3) |
| Spec score · PDF mergers | 9.2 (#4) | 9.2 (#5) |
| Company founding | LinkedIn lists Softplicity as founded in 1998. | LightPDF's about page says its PDF team was formed in January 2015 and the LightPDF brand launched in January 2018. |
| Company history | CoolUtils says it has operated online since 2003 and supports more than 1,400 file types across its tools. | LightPDF's About page says its team began in January 2015 and launched the LightPDF brand in January 2018. |
| Licence | The product is distributed under paid personal, commercial, server, site and royalty-free proprietary licence terms rather than an open-source licence. | LightPDF's EULA describes the software as copyrighted proprietary software, licensed for one computer at a time, with redistribution, sublicensing and network hosting restricted. |
| Rating on Trustpilot | 4.9 out of 5 from 140 reviews | 3.7 out of 5 from 75 reviews |
| Support | The support policy says one year of maintenance and technical support is included, with optional discounted annual renewals and a usual response time of 24 hours. | The pricing page says users can contact live chat or submit a support ticket and receive a response within 24 hours. |
| What it does | The online service combines multiple uploaded documents into one downloadable PDF in a browser. | LightPDF is an AI-powered PDF service for editing, conversion, annotation, signing, organization, document chat and related workflows across web, mobile and desktop. |
Plans
CoolUtils Online PDF Merger
- Online PDF MergerFree
- Online PDF Merger FreeFree
- PDF Combine Personal License$59.90, paid once
- PDF Combine Commercial License$75.90, paid once
- PDF Combine Server License$350, paid once
- PDF Combine Site License$750, paid once
- PDF Combine Royalty-free License$1,400, paid once
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
CoolUtils Online PDF Merger
CoolUtils Online PDF Merger combines multiple files into one PDF in a browser, without signup or software installation. The free tool accepts up to five files per pass, with a limit of 50 MB per file. The order of the upload slots determines the sequence in the merged document. JPG, PNG and GIF images are accepted as well, with each image becoming a PDF page. CoolUtils says uploads and downloads use encrypted SSL/TLS connections and are processed in isolated environments. The product page says documents are used for merging and are not stored afterward; CoolUtils also says uploaded files and converted results are automatically deleted from its servers within 24 hours. The listed platform availability includes Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, web and Windows, though the primary platform is web. The online page does not list integrations, batch merging or page selection. CoolUtils recommends its desktop product for recurring or folder-level work and command-line automation.
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.