PDFelement vs Stirling-PDF
On the evidence we track, Stirling-PDF leads this comparison with a composite score of 59/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.
Capabilities
Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for pdf editors. “-” means undocumented, not absent.
What each one is
The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.
PDFelement
A full-featured PDF editor that enables text and image editing, interactive form creation with fillable fields, page merging and splitting, file conversion, and intelligent redaction of sensitive data. It includes optical character recognition for scanned documents and is available across Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android.
Stirling-PDF
LeaderA comprehensive PDF platform offering 60+ tools for editing, signing, redacting, and converting documents. Available as desktop applications, a web interface, or self-hosted server with API access.
Pricing
List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.
PDFelement
From $129.99 one-time for individuals or $139/user/month for teams. Free trial available.
- PDFelement for Individuals$129.99 perpetual (12% discount from $159)
- Edit text and images
- Annotate documents
- Merge and split pages
- OCR scanning
- Convert to and from PDF
- +4 more
- PDFelement for TeamContact sales
Stirling-PDF
LeaderFree for individuals. Team plan from $99/month for 100 users. Enterprise with custom pricing.
- FreeFree
- 60+ PDF tools
- Web, desktop, and self-hosted options
- Private and open-source
- 1,000 monthly credits for automation
- Team$99/month for 100 users
- Everything in Free
- Single sign-on (SSO)
- Team workspace and invites
- Add capacity in blocks of 100 users
- One bill instead of per-seat licenses
- +1 more
- EnterpriseContact sales
- Everything in Team
- Air-gapped and self-hosted deployment
- SCIM provisioning
- Data residency and audit logs
- Uptime SLAs
- +1 more
Platform & deployment
Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.
Integrations
What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.
PDFelement
Not documented yet.
Stirling-PDF
Leader- SharePoint
- S3
- FTP
- OAuth
PDFelement or Stirling-PDF: which one depends on you
A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.
Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works
Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.