GN PDF vs Sejda vs iLovePDF vs Smallpdf — 2026

GN PDF · February 8, 2026 · 14 min read · Comparison· Review

The scoring system

Five criteria, equally weighted, each scored out of 10:

Privacy. Does my file leave my browser? How long is it stored?
Speed. Open to first usable state. Single edit to download.
Fidelity. Does the output look identical to the original where I didn't touch it? Does text remain selectable?
Limits. Daily caps, page caps, file-size caps, watermark policy.
Power features. Layers, signatures, image library, smart font matching, OCR.

Round 1 — Privacy

GN PDF — 10/10. The PDF never leaves the browser tab. There is no server-side endpoint to receive it. Whatever the marketing copy claims, the architecture is what matters; pop open DevTools' Network tab and you will see no POST of the file content.

Sejda — 6/10. Files are uploaded to Sejda's servers, processed there, and deleted "after two hours". You have no way to verify the deletion.

iLovePDF — 6/10. Same pattern as Sejda. Files are uploaded, processed, and reportedly deleted.

Smallpdf — 6/10. Cloud-side processing again. Their privacy policy is clearer than most, but the architecture is the architecture.

Round 2 — Speed

I measured from clicking "Upload" to the first click on a piece of text. Times are average of three runs on a 100 Mbps connection.

Tool	Rental (12 pages)	Bank scan (8 pages)	Resume (4 pages)
GN PDF	2.1s	3.8s	1.4s
Sejda	6.2s	11.9s	3.9s
iLovePDF	5.4s	10.1s	3.3s
Smallpdf	4.8s	9.0s	3.0s

Why is GN PDF roughly 2-3x faster? Because the file never has to travel up to a server and back. Round-trip time is gone from the loop.

Round 3 — Fidelity

The acid test: open the original side-by-side with the exported file. On the rental agreement, all four editors held up: text edits matched the source font well. On the scanned bank statement, GN PDF's "smart text matching" (auto-detect font, weight, italic, colour) clearly beat Sejda's textbox-overlay approach. On the resume, only GN PDF and Acrobat (not in this comparison) preserved the resume's specific Inter weight; the others fell back to Arial.

Round 4 — Limits and watermarks

	Free daily limit	File size cap	Watermark on free?
GN PDF	None	Your RAM	Never
Sejda	3 edits / day, 200 pages	50 MB	No
iLovePDF	1 edit / hour free	25 MB	Sometimes
Smallpdf	2 edits / day	5 MB	Sometimes

Round 5 — Power features

This is where Sejda has historically been strong (per-page rotate, drag-reorder, page numbering). But GN PDF's V2 has caught up on most of it and added a few unique tricks: proper layer / z-order controls, an IndexedDB image library for re-using signatures and logos across sessions, custom ink-colour signature drawing, and the Devanagari shaping patch on top of Fabric.

The verdict

For day-to-day work, GN PDF wins on 4 of 5 criteria — privacy, speed, limits, fidelity — and ties on power features. The one area where Sejda still leads is per-page bookmark editing and an advanced PDF form builder, both of which are on our V2 roadmap.

If you mostly need to edit a few PDFs a week, sign documents, and convert images, GN PDF is genuinely better. If you need enterprise features like batch APIs or PDF/A certification, you're outside the scope of any free browser tool — pay for Acrobat.