Alternatives to Sumatra PDF
Tiny, fast Windows PDF reader
Sumatra PDF ranks #12 of 13 in PDF tools, with an Alt Score of 37. It is licensed under GPL-3.0, free and available on Windows. 10 of 10 checklist rows are verified against a public source.
Windows users who want a fast, no-frills document reader instead of a heavyweight app like Adobe Acrobat — including people who need a portable, no-install version for USB drives.
A free, open-source viewer for PDF, ePub, MOBI, CBZ/CBR, DjVu, XPS, and CHM files with minimal memory use and near-instant load times. It supports tabbed viewing, customizable keyboard shortcuts and themes, and runs as 32-bit, 64-bit, or ARM64 builds on Windows 7-11. It has no ads, no bundled software, and is read-only — it does not edit or author documents.
Install it or run the portable version with no installation, then open a supported file to view, navigate, and search it through a minimal toolbar-driven interface.
Why people leave Sumatra PDF
Dashed reasons are sourced facts; the rest are opinions. Vendors can dispute.
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Ranked alternatives
Ordered by Alt Score. Click any score to see the breakdown.
Feature comparison
Rows come from the PDF tools checklist (14 rows). Human-verified cells only. ? means the value has not been verified.
| PDF tools checklist | Sumatra PDF | Foxit PDF Editor | Nitro PDF | UPDF | PDF-XChange | Adobe Acrobat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | ||||||
| Starts at | ||||||
| License | ||||||
| Platforms | ||||||
| Edit text & images | ||||||
| Annotate & comment | ||||||
| Fill & sign forms | ||||||
| OCR | ||||||
| Merge / split / compress | ||||||
| Redaction | ||||||
| Batch processing | ||||||
| One-time purchase option | ||||||
| Runs offline | ||||||
| Self-hostable |
Every fact and feature listed for Sumatra PDF is verified against its own pages. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.
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License GPL-3.0 verified 2026-07-11
GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 3, 29 June 2007
https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/blob/master/COPYING -
Pricing model Free verified 2026-07-11
Free and open source — no ads, no bundled software, no subscription
https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/free-pdf-reader -
Platforms Windows verified 2026-07-11
Windows 7, 8, 10 and 11 — native Windows application, 32-bit, 64-bit, and ARM64 builds
https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/free-pdf-reader -
Status active verified 2026-07-11
next: 3.7 Available in pre-release builds.
https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/docs/Version-history -
Edit text & images No verified 2026-07-11
Sumatra is a reader, not an editor, so we don't have editing functionality.
https://forum.sumatrapdfreader.org/t/how-to-edit-a-document-in-sumatra-pdf/675 -
Annotate & comment Yes verified 2026-07-11
You can delete annotations, change color, text and other attributes.
https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/docs/Editing-annotations -
Fill & sign forms No verified 2026-07-11
It's not that easy. Some forms can have field visibility controlled by JavaScript, so Sumatra can't display those without implementing JS support too.
https://forum.sumatrapdfreader.org/t/how-to-fill-pdf-forms-offline/689 -
OCR No verified 2026-07-11
Zonal OCR is not supported by SumatraPDF since it goes well beyond its remit
https://forum.sumatrapdfreader.org/t/how-to-read-specific-text-from-image-pdf-using-select-tool/1329 -
Merge / split / compress Partial verified 2026-07-11
merge — merge pages from multiple PDF sources into a new PDF
https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/docs/Tools -
Redaction No verified 2026-07-11
This one is not implemented yet. Please open an issue to track this.
https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/discussions/4505 -
Batch processing Partial verified 2026-07-11
prints all files indicated on this command line to the system default printer
https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/docs/Command-line-arguments -
One-time purchase option No verified 2026-07-11
Free and open source — no ads, no bundled software, no subscription
https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/free-pdf-reader -
Runs offline Yes verified 2026-07-11
Single self-contained `.exe` — no separate `libmupdf.dll`, settings live next to the exe
https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/docs/Installation -
Self-hostable No verified 2026-07-11
SumatraPDF is a free PDF, EPUB, MOBI, CHM, XPS, DjVu, CBZ and CBR reader for Windows.
https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/docs/SumatraPDF-documentation
FAQ
Yes. PDFgear, Smallpdf and iLovePDF have a free tier or are fully free. Free-tier limits in the comparison table are verified and dated.
Stirling PDF, PDFsam and Okular — every license claim links its source.