Sejda Alternative (Free, No 3-Tasks-Per-Hour Wall)
Sejda's free tier caps you at roughly 3 tasks/hour. Here's an honest side-by-side with a free alternative — limits, privacy, signup, and tools compared.
Sejda is one of the better online PDF suites — this isn't a takedown. But the free tier is limited in ways that surprise people mid-task: roughly 3 tasks per hour, a file-size ceiling around 50 MB, and per-tool page caps. If you keep hitting that hourly wall, here's an honest look at what else is free and how the trade-offs differ.
What Sejda's free tier actually limits
The three things people run into:
- ~3 tasks per hour. Do a merge, a compress, and a split, and you're often done for the hour on the free plan.
- ~50 MB per file and page caps on some tools before an upgrade prompt.
- Otherwise full-featured — Sejda's free tools themselves are solid and it doesn't stamp watermarks.
None of that is unreasonable for a free service. It's just a specific shape of limit — per-hour and larger-file — and whether it fits depends on how you work.
pdfty — the free alternative, and its different limits
pdfty runs in any browser with no sign-up and no watermark. Its free limits are shaped differently:
- 10 operations per day (not per hour)
- 20 MB and 50 pages per file
- Files auto-deleted after 1 hour
- Everyday tools: Merge, Compress, Split, PDF to Word, Sign PDF, Rotate, Protect, Watermark, and more — 30 in total.
Be clear-eyed about the trade: pdfty's 20 MB cap is lower than Sejda's ~50 MB, so a large scanned file is a point for Sejda. But 10/day is more forgiving than 3/hour if you're doing a handful of small jobs spread across a workday — and there's no account to create.
Side-by-side: the honest version
| Factor | Sejda (free) | pdfty (free) |
|---|---|---|
| Task limit | ~3 tasks per hour | 10 operations per day |
| Max file size | ~50 MB | 20 MB |
| Page cap | Per-tool caps apply | 50 pages |
| Sign-up required | No for basic use | No |
| Watermark | None | None |
| File retention | Deleted after a few hours | Deleted after 1 hour |
| Tool count | Wide suite | 30 tools |
| Best when | One large file, right now | Several small jobs across the day |
Read that table as trade-offs, not a scoreboard. Sejda's higher file-size ceiling is a real advantage for big scans; pdfty's per-day model and faster deletion suit steady small-batch work.
Where the two are basically the same
For the common jobs — combining a few PDFs, shrinking a file for email, converting to Word, adding a signature — the output is effectively identical. Both run in the browser, neither watermarks, and neither makes you install anything. The choice comes down to which limit you hit first: Sejda's hourly wall or pdfty's daily allowance, and whether your files fit under 20 MB or need the larger cap.
Smallpdf and iLovePDF, briefly
If you're comparing the whole field:
- Smallpdf — polished, but the free tier is the tightest of the bunch (about 2 tasks per day before it asks you to sign up or go Pro). More on that in Free Smallpdf alternative.
- iLovePDF — big tool list, free to start, but it steers you toward creating an account and upgrading fairly quickly. Compared in iLovePDF alternative.
All four (Sejda, Smallpdf, iLovePDF, pdfty) do the everyday jobs well. They differ mainly in where the free ceiling sits and how hard they push signup.
Which should you pick?
- Big files (30-50 MB), one at a time → Sejda's larger size cap fits better.
- Several small tasks across a workday, no account → pdfty's 10/day avoids the hourly reset.
- You want the absolute widest free tool list in one place → try both and keep whichever's limit you hit less.
There's no single winner — pick by the limit that matches your day.
Frequently asked questions
Is Sejda actually free?
Sejda has a free tier that's real and useful, but it's capped — roughly 3 tasks per hour, ~50 MB per file, and per-tool page limits — after which it prompts a paid plan. It's free for light use, not unlimited.
What's the best free alternative to Sejda?
For no-signup browser use, pdfty covers the same everyday tools with a different limit shape: 10 operations/day, 20 MB, 50 pages, no watermark, files deleted in 1 hour. Whether it beats Sejda depends on your file sizes and pace.
Does pdfty have a file-size limit like Sejda?
Yes — 20 MB and 50 pages per file on the free plan. That's lower than Sejda's ~50 MB, so genuinely large scans are a point in Sejda's favor. Be aware of it before you start.
Do I need an account to use pdfty?
No. There's no sign-up for the free plan. You open a tool, upload, run it, and download — the file is deleted from the server within 1 hour.
Is Sejda or pdfty more private?
Both delete uploaded files automatically. pdfty deletes within 1 hour and requires no account, so there's less tied to you. For fully offline privacy on any of these tasks, a desktop tool like Mac Preview keeps files on your machine entirely.
Can pdfty do everything Sejda does?
Close, for the everyday set — merge, split, compress, convert, sign, rotate, protect, watermark, OCR and more (30 tools). Sejda's suite is broad too; the practical differences are the free-tier limits and file-size cap, not the core feature list.
Does pdfty add a watermark to free files?
No. No watermark on the free plan, and no watermark from Sejda either. Some other "free" PDF sites do stamp output — neither of these does.
Which is faster?
Both are fast for typical files; a merge or compress is a few seconds each. The real bottleneck for most people isn't speed — it's whether Sejda's per-hour cap or pdfty's per-day cap stops them first.
The pdfty team builds privacy-first online PDF tools — compress, convert, OCR, sign and protect. Files are deleted within 1 hour. About us →
