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Best PDF Converter
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6 Best PDF Converter For 2026 | 30+ Personally Tested Tools

There are over 80+ PDF converters out there. The only question is which one is the best PDF converter for you?

To give you a fair and complete picture of your options, I have tested 30+ PDF converters with one mission: help you find the best ones.

Stay here, because in this article, I will reveal the best PDF converter tools I found after spending numerous months testing.

Let’s dive in!

Which PDF converter is the best in 2026?

When preparing my list of best PDF converters, I considered PDF converting capabilities, other features, pricing, and user interface.

Using these criteria, here are my six best PDF converters in 2026:

Best PDF converters

Overall score

My top picks

Best PDF converter overall

Rating: 5 out of 5.
Best online pdf converter

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
Best free pdff converter

Rating: 4 out of 5.
Best affordable PDF converter

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
best pdf converter for Mac users

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Best PDF converters for 2026

Now, let’s see a more detailed breakdown of the best PDF converters in 2026!

Rating: 5 out of 5.
Best PDF converter overall_pdfFiller

I found pdfFiller as the best PDF converter tool in 2026. It is a cloud-based PDF editor that you can use to convert PDF files online.

In addition to its PDF converter tool, it is a complete platform for PDF signing and editing that allows you sign and edit documents, send them for signature, and manage the whole electronic document workflow in one place.

Overall, it is an easy-to-use PDF converter with a user-friendly interface, and it comes at an affordable price.

Converting pdfs with pdfFiller

pdfFiller is an online PDF converter that supports numerous file formats. With this PDF editor, you can convert PDF files into JPEG, Excel, PPT, and Word documents. It works both ways, so you can convert these file formats into PDF documents.

Essentially, it provides two easy methods to convert files. First, you can convert files if you select the PDF converter among the “all the tools” option on your homepage.

Alternatively, if you already work with a specific document, you can simply save it as another file format. The PDF conversion takes a few seconds, and once it is ready, it will automatically download the file you need.

Based on my experience, the PDF conversion does not affect the content itself (i.e., there are no twisted elements and they don’t overlap), regardless of the file type.

pdffiller's key features

PDF reader: With pdfFiller, you can read your uploaded files online. Also, you can zoom in and out of your documents.

PDF editing tools: pdfFiller has advanced PDF editing features. It lets you edit all the elements of your PDF files. You can change the font type, size, underline the text, and adjust the opacity level. pdfFiller supports image editing options as well. So, you can easily move them around, change the size, flip, rotate, crop, erase, and change them.

Annotate PDFs: This PDF converter tool provides many annotation tools. You can highlight, add sticky notes, draw, redact text, and more.

Organize PDFs: It is easy to rearrange, add, and delete pages with just a few clicks. On the left side, just click the three dots to delete, add, duplicate, or move pages around.

PDF forms and signatures: Using pdfFiller, you can create and fill forms easily. As for electronic signatures, this PDF editor provides a robust feature set thanks to its enterprise-grade eSignature solution, which offers SOC 2 Type II & ISO 27001 certifications for trust and legal validity. You can draw, upload, and capture your signatures with your webcam. Additionally, you can add your signatures via QR code, text, and email.

Optical character recognition: With pdfFiller, you can convert scanned or image-based PDFs into editable, searchable text.

Password protection: pdfFiller allows you protect your documents with passwords.

Document management: This PDF converter tool is also an advanced cloud-based document management platform. You can create custom labels and folders for yourself or your team, so you can structure your documents. In addition, it offers a document library that includes many customizable government, legal, and business forms. However, you can also create reusable templates for invoices, proposals, and so on.

Team collaboration tools: pdfFiller provides shared workspaces, centralized user controls, role-based access, and audit trails to help teams collaborate on documents. Furthermore, you can share PDF files with a few clicks via links or emails. Lastly, you can also add comments and mentions directly in the document.

AI tools: pdfFiller’s AI features areΒ designed to automate and streamline document workflows, includingΒ chatting with PDFs,Β summarization,Β translation, AI-powered document generation, and so on.

pdfFiller pricing plans

pdfFiller does not offer a free version, but you can try it for 30 days with its free trial before buying.

With the Basic Plan, you can edit, fill, draw, and rearrange pages, as well as convert your PDF documents into Word files, and get customer support within a day. It is $8 per month with annual billing or $20 per month with monthly billing.

If choosing the Plus Plan, it is $30 month-to-month or $12 per month with an annual commitment. It offers some advanced features like smart document tags and folders, password protection, and allows you to create reusable templates and add basic fillable fields.

pdfFiller’s Premium Plan is $40 monthly or $15 per month with an annual billing for more advanced features. With this plan, you can sign documents, access the US legal forms library, use custom branding on your documents, and more.

Finally, pdfFiller offers two business plans, starting with a minimum of 10 users.

pdffiller's interface

When using pdfFiller’s conversion feature, it worked smoothly for me and provided high-quality conversions for any file format. As for the other features, pdfFiller has excellent PDF editing tools, and its document management & team collaboration functions make it an ideal choice for teams as well.

I discovered pdfFiller’s signing and editing solutions allow users to sign documents, edit them, send them for signature, and manage the full electronic document workflow.

Overall, I had a very positive experience with pdfFiller when testing it. For me, it offers the best PDF file converter currently.

Let’s summarize pdfFiller’s pros and cons!

pdfFiller’s pros
  • It has solid and easy-to-use PDF conversion tools
  • pdfFiller has great PDF editing features for images
  • It is an ideal PDF editor for teams with its solid team collaboration features
  • pdfFiller offers budget-friendly annual plans
  • With the tags and folders, you can easily structure your documents
  • Offers one of the best electronic signature solutions
  • User-friendly interface
  • Using pdfFiller, you can access various tools for efficient document management
  • You can create reusable templates
  • pdfFiller offers a refund within 180 days from the purchase date & responsive billing and tech support
pdfFiller’s cons
  • No permanent free plan; payment is required to download edited documents after the free trial.
  • Lacks advanced PDF reading features

Related article:

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
Best online PDF converter

Smallpdf is a lightweight online PDF converter that offers many features for editing, compressing, and annotating PDF files.

Smallpdf review PDF conversion

One of the main strengths of Smallpdf is its PDF conversion features. It allows you to convert PDFs into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and various image formats.

That said, Smallpdf supports almost any file format you work on a daily basis. It works vice versa, so you can convert image files to PDFs as well.

To convert PDF files, you only need to drag and drop the files into Smallpdf. The PDF conversion process takes a few seconds, and you will get the desired file format right away.

When testing Smallpdf, I experience excellent output quality. Also, I appreciated that you can use the conversion tools without downloads or signups.

Smallpdf's editing features

PDF reader: Smallpdf offers basic features for reading PDF files. So, can zoom in and out with one click and select whether you want to fit the page to height or width.

PDF editing tools: It supports many font types for the text boxes and lets you change text, size, color, and alignment. Also, you can insert image files into your PDF documents. Once it’s inserted, you can move them around, change their size, and adjust their opacity level.

Annotate PDFs: Smallpdf offers essential annotation tools, including drawings, shapes, and highlights. When highlighting the text, you can use some further tools like underlining, strikethrough, and squiggling.

Organize PDFs: Smallpdf lets you merge, split, rotate, delete, and extract pages from your PDFs. You can combine multiple PDFs into a single, longer document, making it easier to read and review everything in one file.

PDF forms and signatures: This PDF converter software includes an easy-to-use feature that lets you sign documents by drawing, typing, or uploading your signature.

Optical character recognition: With Smallpdf, you can convert scanned documents or image files into editable PDF format.

Password protection: You can set passwords for your PDFs and other formats, too. Moreover, it has an Unlock feature, so you only need to upload your file, enter the password, and download your unrestricted document.

File compression: This feature is useful when dealing with large PDF files. If you need to make them smaller, you can lower the resolution, and Smallpdf will change the size accordingly.

AI tools: Smallpdf has many useful AI features. That said, you can chat, summarize, and translate your PDF documents.

Smallpdf pricing_yearly plans

Smallpdf’s free version gives you access to all the basic tools for document management. It covers compression, PDF conversion tools, passwords, a PDF editor, and e-signature features. Nevertheless, the Free Plan has a daily download limit for these features.

The Pro Plan is ideal for professionals who require unlimited downloads and access to all Pro features. The Pro version of Smallpdf starts at $10 per month if the annual billing is chosen. Alternatively, if you want to pay monthly, you can use its monthly plan for $15.

SmallPDF has a dedicated plan for teams. You can get this plan for $8/month per seat if opting for the yearly billing. In the case of monthly billing, the Pro For Teams Plan will cost you $12/month per seat.

Smallpdf user interface

Smallpdf is ideal for quick, everyday tasks like merging, splitting, and compressing files without software installation. Also, it is a free PDF converter tool that you can use online.

In addition to its free PDF converter, Smallpdf offers numerous free online tools, including compression, merging, signing, and more.

Furthermore, the integration with my Google Workspace made it easy to read, edit, and manage my documents without leaving my Workspace.

To wrap up my experience with Smallpdf, I think it is an excellent online PDF converter ideal for those who need an easy-to-use solution for converting and editing PDF files.

Let’s wrap up Smallpdf’s pros and cons!

Smallpdf’s pros
  • Intuitive user interface
  • Supports many file formats for PDF conversion
  • Advanced PDF organization tools
  • Fantastic AI tools
  • Quick file compression
  • Chrome extension
Smallpdf’s cons
  • Lacks advanced PDF reading functions
  • Limited annotation tools

Related articles:

Rating: 4 out of 5.
best free pdf converter_PDFgear

PDFgear is a 100% free PDF converter tool. You can download it for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android devices, and there’s also an online version.

Converting pdfs with PDFgear

With PDFgear, you can convert PDF files into Microsoft Word documents, Excel, PowerPoint, PNG, JPEG, and more. Also, you can convert some of the file types to PDF.

You can select the range of the pages you want to convert, and PDFgear will handle the rest. The PDF conversion process takes 10-30 seconds, depending on the size of the documents. For me, it converted a 52-page document to a Microsoft Word document in 15 seconds.

The quality of the output is great, and I did not find formatting issues.

PDFgear's key features

PDF reader: PDFgear offers single and double-page view options, and it also has an auto-scroll tool. Also, its online viewer displays your documents in a book-like format, which feels closer to the traditional reading experience.

PDF editing tools: Using this PDF conversion software, you can edit text, adjust fonts, color, and size, and make it bold or italic. Additionally, you can insert and edit images as well.

Annotate PDFs: You can highlight, underline, and strike through text with a few clicks. Also, you can highlight areas of your pages and add notes, shapes, and text boxes.

Organize PDFs: With PDFgear, you can easily rearrange pages by dragging and dropping them in your PDF. It lets you extract, delete, insert, and rotate pages of your scanned documents.

PDF forms and signatures: PDFgear provides essential features for creating and filling out forms. Also, you can create your e-signatures to sign documents.

Optical character recognition: It has a quite decent OCR feature to convert scanned PDFs into editable text.

Password protection: This PDF converter allows you to set passwords for PDF files. However, there is no option to restrict the editing or printing of the PDF files.

File compression: You can compress multiple PDF files easily with PDFgear.

AI tools: When launching the AI co-pilot, you will get some sample prompts you can use to interact with your PDFs. It is also valuable that you can not only chat with the AI but also add commands, for example, to protect the PDF with a password or convert it to another format.

PDFgear is a 100% free PDF converter tool.

my experience with PDFgear

PDFgear is an easy-to-use tool with a simple user interface. I would not call it shiny or beautiful; the focus was on ease of use rather than modern design.

I used the PDF conversion feature on multiple files, and it worked well every time. So, I have no complaints about it.

While it does not offer the most advanced editing features, it offers great value for free. And its AI features are outstanding. They really help a lot in digesting and working with PDF files faster.

Let’s see the pros and cons I found when testing PDFgear!

PDFgear’s pros
  • 100% free PDF converter
  • Supports various file formats for conversion
  • Works on many devices
  • Solid AI features
  • A simple PDF editor
PDFgear’s cons
  • Limited PDF editing features
  • The UI is a bit old-fashioned
  • Some users raised red flags about transparency & safety on Reddit
Here, I show you the best Adobe alternatives, including PDFgear

Rating: 4 out of 5.
Best affordable PDF converter

One of my favorite PDF converters is EaseUS PDF Editor. It is a budget-friendly PDF editor with numerous advanced features.

Let’s see how to convert files with this PDF editor!

PDF conversion features review

You can convert your PDF documents into 10+ different formats, including Word, Excel, PNG, and more. When converting PDFs, it took 20-30 seconds to get the format I selected.

To use its PDF converter, just click on the “Convert” tab, and you can access these features quickly. After that, you only need to select the format of the output, and that’s it.

The output quality, whether in Word or PDF format, is outstanding.

If there is a chance that you need the advanced features, use the above link for signup and the code THEBUSINESSDIVE20 to get 20% OFF if you fall in love with EaseUS PDF later.

EaseUS PDF editing features

PDF reader: This PDF converter provides an extensive feature set for PDF viewing. You can choose from single- or two-page layouts, and it includes a dedicated e-book reading mode for maximum eye comfort.

PDF editing tools: With a few clicks, you can add, edit, and remove text or images on your PDFs. When you select the text, you can choose from various formats, styles, sizes, and colors. EaseUS uses drag-and-drop editing, so you can easily move text boxes and images around.

Annotate PDFs: You can smoothly draw, add lines, shapes, highlights, and stamps to your PDF documents. When highlighting, it lets you choose the highlight color. In addition, you can insert comments and callouts, which are helpful when adding comments to your team members.

Organize PDFs: I loved how easy it is to rearrange pages. With EaseUS PDF editor, you can modify the order of the pages, replace, split, extract, and merge them.

PDF forms and signatures: EaseUS PDF Editor is a straightforward solution to create and fill forms. Using its digital signatures, you can sign documents with a few clicks.

Optical character recognition: The OCR technology EaseUS PDF editor utilizes is top-notch. When converting scanned images into PDF files, I experienced accurate outputs.

Password protection: This PDF converter offers reliable security features to help you protect your files with passwords.

File compression: The compression feature of EaseUS PDF Editor is a helpful functionality, and it works pretty well. You only need to add the file you want to compress and select the level of compression.

EaseUS pricing plans

You can purchase EaseUS’s monthly plan for $19.95, while the yearly plan costs $49.95. Such plans include one license for one computer and 1-year free upgrades. If you go for the lifetime upgrades, it will be $79.95.

Regardless of which plan you choose, you will access every feature of EaseUS.

Overall, EaseUS is currently one of the cheapest PDF converters on the market alongside with pdfFiller. Compared to Adobe Acrobat Pro DC’s pricing plans, it is significantly cheaper.

If there is a chance that you need the advanced features, use the above link for signup and the code THEBUSINESSDIVE20 to get 20% OFF if you fall in love with EaseUS PDF later.

EaseUS PDF user interface

EaseUS PDF Editor is a top PDF converter tool offering many advanced features to manage your PDF files. I mostly used it on my Windows PC, and it worked great.

The PDF conversion is easy and fast. It supports Microsoft Office (.doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx), various images (JPG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, GIF), HTML, and TXT, as well as creating PDFs from these and other files like DWG, EPUB, and MOBI.

There are two things I did not like when testing EaseUS PDF’s reading tools. First, it does not have a mobile version. Additionally, EaseUS does not offer an in-built AI assistant.

Let’s see the pros and cons I found when testing PDFgear!

EaseUS PDF Editor’s pros
  • A budget-friendly PDF conversion and editor tool
  • An easy-to-use PDF editor
  • It offers a smooth and fast experience when working with PDF files
  • It has solid OCR features
  • EaseUS PDF Editors provides advanced password security
  • I loved its PDF reading features
EaseUS PDF Editor’s cons
  • It lacks a mobile version
  • No built-in AI features

If there is a chance that you need the advanced features, use the above link for signup and the code THEBUSINESSDIVE20 to get 20% OFF if you fall in love with EaseUS PDF later.

Related article:

Rating: 4 out of 5.
A Solid PDF converter_PDNob

PDNob is a solid PDF editor to convert files & manage PDF documents. It has solid PDF conversion features and works on Windows, Mac, and iOS.

PDF converting with PDNob

Using PDNob, you can convert PDFs into Excel, PowerPoint, images, Word documents, and more. To access this feature, just click on the “Convert” tab, and you can see the conversion options here. Select the format you want, and you are good to go.

The conversion takes 10-15 seconds, and you can work on the document in the desired format. Ultimately, it is a pretty straightforward tool that worked great during the testing of PDNob.

Use the above link and the discount code TS-TBD-20 to get 20% OFF from the paid plans.

PDNob PDF tool's editing features

PDF reader: PDNob offers decent PDF reader features, such as zoom in and out and multiple view options.

PDF editing tools: PDNob has some solid PDF editing features. It uses a drag-and-drop system, and you can easily add new text and images. Also, you can smoothly edit them, such as changing the font type and adjusting the alignment of the text.

Annotate PDFs: Using this PDF converter, you can easily add annotations, for example, comments, text highlights, and more to your PDF documents.

Organize PDFs: You can easily organize your scanned documents with PDNob. You can insert a new page, rotate, split, or replace them with a few clicks.

PDF forms and signatures: PDNob includes both form-filling and basic e-signature capabilities.

Optical character recognition: You can find the OCR feature on the top sidebar. It supports 20+ languages, including English, French, German, and Chinese. You can either scan your document into editable text or searchable text in an image.

Password protection: With PDNob, you can easily add password protection to your PDF files and restrict access to more sensitive data. When limiting access, you can choose from more possibilities. For instance, you can only allow others to print, but do not allow editing.

File compression: You can compress your PDF files with the PDNob PDF editor. If you select high quality, you can reduce the file size without losing quality.

AI tools: PDNob’s AI assistant helps you summarize your PDFs in seconds. Additionally, you can chat with your files to access the information you need instantly. Finally, you can use AI to translate your files.

PDNob's paid plans

PDNob offers a one-week free trial. You can access 50 AI Credits, 2 GB cloud storage, and the ability to upload 120 pages per file, and the size has to be below 15MB.

The monthly plan‘s regular price is $49.99. However, PDFNob is running a campaign, so you can get it for $14.99. It covers 100 AI credits/month, one month of free updates, 20 GB of cloud storage, and no watermarks.

Also, if you want to utilize the AI image translator, it is $15.95 monthly, no matter which plan you choose.

The one-year license‘s original price is $79.99, but you can get it for $35.99 now. Essentially, it offers the same features as the PDNob PDF editor in its monthly plan.

Finally, the PDNob PDF editor has lifetime access for $349.95. Its current price is $69.99, and it offers lifetime access to all the features.

Use the above link and the discount code TS-TBD-20 to get 20% OFF from the paid plans.

PDNob's PDF organizer tools

PDNob is a solid PDF converter tool with an extensive feature set to manipulate your PDF files. The PDF conversion was quick, and had no problems with the output quality.

As for the other features, PDNob offers a wide range of PDF editing and annotation tools for document management. With its easy-to-use tools and user-friendly interface, I had almost zero learning curve with this PDF editor.

To summarize, I had an absolutely positive experience with the PDNob. With its solid feature set, it rightfully deserved its spot among the best PDF converters.

It’s time to see PDNob’s pros and cons!

PDNob’s pros
  • User-friendly interface
  • Easy-to-use PDF conversion
  • Accurate OCR technology
  • Great AI features
  • Straightforward PDF editing
PDNob’s cons
  • Lacks advanced forms and signing tools

Use the above link and the discount code TS-TBD-20 to get 20% OFF from the paid plans.

Related articles:

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
Best PDF converter for Mac users

PDF Expert is the preferred choice for macOS and iOS users, offering integration with the Apple ecosystem and AI-powered assistance. It is fast, easy to use, and offers excellent tools for PDF conversion and editing.

convert PDFs with PDF Expert

You can convert PDFs into Microsoft Office formats, plain text, or image files. For me, it took around 10-15 seconds to convert the PDF file, and the output was always accurate.

To summarize, I was satisfied with the conversion features when testing PDF Expert.

Editing PDFs with PDF Expert

PDF reader: When reading documents in PDF Expert, you can choose from a one-page or a two-page layout. PDF Expert also offers the possibility to view two pages vertically next to each other or horizontally after each other.

PDF editing tools: With PDF Expert, you can easily add, replace, and resize images and text boxes in your files. I loved that you can easily insert links in the PDF document that point to external websites or to other pages in the document.

Annotate PDFs: With this PDF converter, you can highlight text, comment, draw, and add stickers and shapes. I particularly loved that you can leave audio comments in the documents.

Organize PDFs: It is super easy to rotate, add, reorder, and remove pages from your PDF documents. With a few clicks, you can combine multiple PDFs into one or split a PDF into multiple documents.

PDF forms and signatures: PDF Expert allows you to fill out or create PDF forms in minutes. You can add text boxes, number fields, checkboxes, and places for signatures. To use the signing tool, just type your name, and PDF Expert will transform it into a handwriting format.

Optical character recognition: PDF Expert has a built-in OCR, so it recognizes the font type and seamlessly inserts the new text in the same format.

Password protection: With PDF Expert, you can set passwords to your PDFs with a few clicks.

File compression: With PDF Expert, you can compress files on your Mac, iPhone, and iPad as well. Just click on the File and select the Reduce File Size option, and PDF Expert will optimize the file so you can share it more easily via email.

AI tools: It offers an AI assistant to generate summaries and list the main points. That said, you can get a quick understanding of the PDF documents fast.

PDF Expert pricing plans

PDF Expert offers two paid plans.

You can get a lifetime subscription for a one-time fee of €149.99. While it includes almost all the features except the PDF Co-pilot, you have to pay for the updates, and you will not have access to the iPhone and iPad versions.

The annual subscription is €63.74 for the first year and €84.99 for the remaining years. It includes the updates, iPhone and iPad versions, and the PDF Co-pilot.e price is much higher than that of some of its competitors.

PDF Expert user interface

PDF Expert is a simple PDF editor and one of the best PDF converters. It has all the features you need to convert files quickly.

I loved PDF Expert’s user-friendly interface. It is easy to navigate its pages, access the tools, and convert PDF files into different formats.

Overall, I had a positive experience with PDF Expert, and I think it is the best PDF converter for Mac users.

Let’s dive into PDF Expert’s pros and cons!

PDF Expert’s pros:
  • Easy-to-use PDF conversion features
  • Great PDF reading tools
  • A fast software
  • Intuitive user interface
  • Reasonable pricing
PDF Expert’s cons:
  • Works only on Mac and iOS devices

Related articles:

Summary: The best PDF converter in 2026

After testing more than 30 PDF converters, I think these are the best ones in 2026. Happy to hear your thoughts on my list, and feel free to comment on this article. I read all of them.

I hope I was able to find the best PDF converter in 2026. As always, I will keep updating this list to ensure it reflects reality.

If you’re still not sure if these are the best PDF converters for you, check out our library of PDF editors here to find the one that fits you best.

Why you can trust our reviews

At thebusinessdive.com, our team tests, reviews, and compares hundreds of productivity apps every year β€” from project management tools to note-taking apps. We dive deep into real-world use cases to help you find the right tools that actually improve your workflow, not just add noise.

Our mission? No fluff, no shortcutsβ€”just honest, hands-on insights from productivity pros.

Have a question or suggestion? I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to reach out anytime at aronkantor@thebusinessdive.com.

Frequently asked questions

Which PDF reducer is best?

For me, the best PDF converter is pdfFiller. In addition, I recommend checking out Smallpdf, PDFgear, EaseUS PDF Editor, PDFNob, and PDF Expert.

What is the best completely free PDF converter?

PDFgear is a 100% free PDF converter. Besides PDFgear, Smallpdf also offers free online tools, including a PDF converter.

What is the best program to edit PDF files?

There are numerous PDF editors on the market. After testing 30-40 PDF editors, I compiled a list of the best PDF editors. You can check it here.

What is the best desktop PDF converter?

The best desktop PDF converters are EaseUS PDF Editor, PDNob, and PDF Expert, based on my experience.

Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself, and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links through which, at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission. Read the full privacy policy here.

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