LightPDF vs PDFtk
LightPDF
lightpdf.comPDFtk
pdflabs.comSide by side
| Figure | LightPDF | PDFtk |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $1.33/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 5 | 4 |
| Spec score · PDF Merger Software | 9.3 (#3) | 7.9 (#16) |
| Integrations | LightPDF's MCP documentation says its server can be configured in MCP-compatible clients such as Cursor and Claude. | PDFtk Pro includes PDFtk Server, providing both a graphical interface and command-line interface; the product pages list no third-party integrations. |
| Security | The pricing page states that data is encrypted in transit and at rest and lists ISO/IEC 27001, ISO/IEC 27701, and GDPR. | PDFtk Server can decrypt input when the password is supplied and encrypt output; PDFtk Pro can apply passwords to open a PDF or restrict operations such as printing, assembly, copying, or editing. |
| Support | The pricing page says users can contact live chat or submit a support ticket and receive a response within 24 hours. | PDF Labs invites questions about its products by email to Sid Steward and asks users to include PDF Labs in the subject for prompt delivery. |
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
PDFtk
- PDFtk FreeFree
- PDFtk ServerFree
- PDFtk Pro$3.99, paid once
- PDFtk Server Redistribution License$995, paid once
In their own words
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.
PDFtk
PDFtk is a PDF toolkit from PDF Labs, available as graphical and command-line editions for Linux, macOS, Windows, and self-hosted deployments. PDFtk Free provides a graphical interface for merging and splitting PDF documents and pages, and includes the PDFtk Server command-line tool. PDFtk Pro adds splitting, merging, rotation, watermarks, stamps, and security controls for pages and documents. PDFtk Server handles command-line processing such as filling forms with X/FDF data, adding or updating bookmarks and metadata, attaching or unpacking files, and attempting repairs on corrupted PDFs. It can decrypt an input when its password is supplied and encrypt output. Pro can set opening passwords or restrict printing, assembly, copying, and editing. Server is free under GPL Version 2; commercial redistribution generally needs a separate license. PDF Labs lists Free and Server at free, Pro at $3.99, paid once, and a redistribution license at $995 as a one-time purchase. Products may create temporary local troubleshooting logs.