Platform Comparison

The iLovePDF alternative that never says you have reached your limit.

iLovePDF has an enormous toolset, but the free plan runs out of daily tasks, shows ads between jobs, and processes every file on their servers. Drops does the everyday PDF work locally in your browser, with no counter and no upload.

Guest upload — max 10 MB per file·Upgrade for bigger files

Drag & drop drop pdfs to merge, edit or host — everything runs locally in your browser here

or use an

Or publish directly from your favorite AI tools

Claude

ChatGPT

Cursor

Grok

Gemini

iLovePDF vs Drops at a glance

No “free tasks used today” wall — unlimited documents, free forever.
Merging, splitting, editing and signing happen in your browser, not on a server.
No ads or upsell interstitials between tasks.
The finished PDF can be published to a hosted link with a QR code.

Feature Comparison

Drops vs iLovePDF vs Smallpdf

Unlimited, private and browser-based — versus metered cloud processing.

Feature	No LimitsDrops	iLovePDF	Smallpdf
Price for unlimited use	$0 / free forever	Roughly $5–$7 / month	Roughly $12 / month
Free-tier daily task limit	None	Yes — daily cap	Yes — daily cap
Ads or upsell screens during a job
Files processed in your browser (never uploaded)
Merge, split and reorder pages
In-place editing of existing PDF text
Hosted share link + QR code for the finished PDF
Publish and automate with AI agents (MCP)

How It Works

Do the same jobs as iLovePDF without the task counter

Merge, sign and publish in three steps — offline once the page is open.

1

Drop your PDFs into the browser

Open the merge tool or the Advanced PDF Editor and drop one or more files. They are read locally with PDF.js — no upload step and no waiting queue.

2

Merge, edit or sign locally

Reorder and combine files, click any line to edit existing text, whiteout sensitive fields, or place a signature. Every operation runs in your tab.

3

Download or publish a share link

Save a clean PDF to your device, or publish it to a private https link with a QR code you can text, email or print.

Where iLovePDF gets frustrating

iLovePDF is one of the most complete PDF tool suites anywhere, and its conversion range is excellent. The complaints are almost always about the same three things: a daily free-task allowance that runs out mid-project, advertising and upgrade prompts sitting between you and the download button, and the fact that every document you open is uploaded to their infrastructure to be processed.

None of that is unreasonable for a free service that has to pay for servers. It is just unnecessary when the work could happen on the device already sitting in front of you.

How Drops approaches the same problem

The heavy lifting runs in your browser with PDF.js and pdf-lib, so there is no server to meter and nothing to upload.
Because there is no per-task server cost, there is no free-task ceiling, no advertising interstitial, and no forced account.
Publishing is built into the same app: instead of emailing an attachment, you can hand over a link and a QR code.

When iLovePDF is still the better pick

For exotic conversions such as PDF to PowerPoint, PDF to Excel with layout recovery, or bulk OCR of scanned archives, a cloud suite with a bigger conversion catalogue may still win. Drops focuses on the high-frequency jobs you do weekly: merge, reorder, edit text, sign, protect and share.

Frequently Asked Questions

Switching from iLovePDF to Drops

Pricing, privacy, file limits, and what actually changes in your workflow.

No. There is no daily allowance, because the work happens in your browser rather than on our servers. You can merge, edit, split and sign as many documents as you like, free.

Not for local tools. Merging, splitting, editing, whiteout and signing all run client-side, so the file contents stay on your device. Only files you deliberately publish are uploaded, and only so they can be hosted on a shareable link.

The core document jobs are covered — merge, split, reorder, edit text, sign, protect and host. If you need specialist conversions such as PDF to PowerPoint or spreadsheet layout recovery, a large cloud suite currently has more conversion breadth.

No. There are no interstitials between the upload and the download, and no upgrade wall in the middle of a task. The tools are free and stay free.

No account is needed to edit, merge, split or sign. A free account only adds extras such as keeping published links permanently and using your own custom domain.

They reflect publicly listed plans at the time of writing and are a rough comparison only. iLovePDF and Smallpdf change pricing and free-tier rules regularly, so check the vendor site for current numbers.

AI Document Workflows

Batch PDF jobs, driven by your AI agent

Point Cursor, Claude Code or ChatGPT at the Drops MCP server and have the agent merge, tidy and publish documents in one prompt — no clicking through a web wizard.

Claude

ChatGPT

Cursor

Grok

Gemini

Drops

One key connects them all · you.drops.sh

1.Create an API key

Sign in at app.drops.sh/account and create a key. Think of it as a password just for your agent — you can revoke it anytime.

2.Connect your agent

In your agent’s settings, add Drops as a tool and paste your key. One-time setup, about a minute — we show you exactly what to copy.

3.Ask it to publish

'Merge these three invoice PDFs, add page numbers, and publish the result to Drops.' Your agent builds the page, uploads it, and hands you a live link. No dashboard needed.

Try asking your agent

“Merge these three invoice PDFs, add page numbers, and publish the result to Drops.”

Show the one-time setup snippet

Paste this into your agent’s MCP settings (Cursor, Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and most tools), replacing the key with yours:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "drops": {
      "url": "https://api.drops.sh/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer drops_live_YOUR_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Endpoint: https://api.drops.sh/mcp

Stop counting free tasks — do them all

Merge, edit, sign and publish PDFs with no daily limit and nothing uploaded.

Start free with Drops

No credit card required · Go live in seconds