Alternative
Alternative to Sejda
Sejda is popular because it's honest-ish: the free tier works, the UI is uncluttered, and the subscription is cheaper than Smallpdf. The catches are the 3-tasks-per-hour limit and 50MB file cap on free, and a monthly fee (~$5.25 billed annually) to lift them. If you hit the hourly limit mid-workflow, you're stuck for 60 minutes.
PennyPDF replaces the hourly throttle with a credit system. Free tools (merge, split, rotate, reorder, crop, watermark, JPG conversions, page numbers, redact, PDF-to-text) have zero task limits — do 100 in an hour, no throttle. Paid tools cost 1-3 coins each, and you buy coins in packs starting at $0.99.
Editor-wise, Sejda's browser editor is its standout feature. PennyPDF's editor (/edit) covers the same scope — text, images, annotations, form fields — and runs fully in the browser for the free-tier features.
How it works
- 1Pick the PennyPDF tool matching your Sejda workflow (most have 1:1 equivalents at /#tools).
- 2For free tools: run as many as you want per hour. No throttle.
- 3For the PDF editor specifically: open /edit, upload or drag-drop your PDF.
- 4If you need compression, OCR, conversion, or signing, buy a coin pack once.
Frequently asked
Does PennyPDF have the same PDF editor as Sejda?+
Comparable scope — text, images, forms, shapes, annotations, page rearrangement. The big difference: Sejda runs the editor server-side after upload; PennyPDF runs it in-browser with no upload for most operations.
File size limits?+
PennyPDF free tier: 25MB. Paid: 100MB. API: 2GB. Sejda free: 50MB but throttled by task count. Realistic comparison depends on your file sizes.
Subscription vs. pay-per-use?+
Sejda Web is ~$5/month billed annually (~$63/year). PennyPDF Saver pack: $7.99 for 200 coins = 200 server-side operations. Below 200/year, PennyPDF is cheaper; above, Sejda.
Does Sejda have better OCR?+
Both use Tesseract under the hood with similar accuracy. Sejda supports 30+ languages; PennyPDF Phase 3 supports 12 with more being added. If you need a rare language, check both.
Can I use both?+
Absolutely — no lock-in on either. Many users keep Sejda Free for the editor and use PennyPDF for the server-side operations.
Why PennyPDF
- No subscription. Ever.
- Coins never expire — use them in 5 years.
- Client-side processing for 14 of 22 tools.
- No watermarks at any tier.
- Per-operation pricing, shown before you click.
- Same coins for web + public API.