A PDFgear Alternative: What Matches and Where Your File Goes
On October 20, 2026, we matched the 37 cards on PDFgear's online tools page against PulsarKit. 34 of the 36 tools behind them had a counterpart; PDF to PSD and PSD to PDF had none.
By PulsarKit ·
Price is not the difference
PDFgear is free, and its online tools ask for no account. On October 20, 2026, its Compress PDF page said: “As of now, you can swiftly access all features and online tools of PDFgear without any registration.” Its page on why it is free says it shows no ads and runs on investment.
That page, last updated April 2, 2024, also says most features will stay free and “there will be a fee for some advanced options”. It adds that no timeline has been set.
PulsarKit works on similar terms. On the same date it had more than 200 free tools for files in the browser, with no sign-up, no subscription and no payment form. The site is paid for by advertising, and results carry no watermark.
So the useful questions are different: which jobs each site covers, where your file goes, what limits apply and what PDFgear's apps add.
34 of 36 PDFgear tools, checked on October 20, 2026
On October 20, 2026, PDFgear's online tools page showed 37 tool cards in five groups, plus four cards for its apps. XLS to PDF opens the same page as Excel to PDF, so the cards lead to 36 tools. For each one we looked for a PulsarKit tool that does the same job, not one with identical features. Both sites change, so this is a count on one date.
At that check, 34 of the 36 had a counterpart. Merge PDF, Split PDF, Crop PDF, Rotate PDF, Extract PDF and Delete PDF Pages match one to one. So do Compress PDF, Edit PDF, Annotate PDF, Flatten PDF and Sign PDF, and Unlock PDF, which needs the password on both sites. Conversions match both ways between PDF and Word, Excel, PowerPoint, JPG and PNG. RTF, TXT and HEIC files turn into PDF here too.
PDFgear often gives one job two cards, so one PulsarKit tool can cover both. Compress PDF covers Compress PDF to 100KB with its size target. PDF Forms covers Fill out PDF and Create fillable PDF, and Annotate PDF covers Highlight PDF. Read PDF matches our PDF Viewer. Add Pages to PDF takes PDFs, images and blank pages in one place. Here the same job takes Merge PDF, plus Insert blank page for empty pages.
Some matches are narrower. PDFgear's converters to Word, Excel and PowerPoint read scans with built-in OCR. Our PDF to Word does that too, but our Excel and editable PowerPoint conversions need OCR PDF first. PDFgear's Flatten PDF can also turn whole pages into an image, while ours flattens form fields and markup. Neither online editor changes text that is already in the PDF; PDFgear's Edit PDF page says only its desktop program can.
What PulsarKit does not have
On October 20, 2026, two tools had no counterpart: PDF to PSD and PSD to PDF. A PSD file takes two steps here: PSD to JPG on our server first, then JPG to PDF in your browser. That is not counted as a match.
PulsarKit also has no desktop program and no app to install from a store. PDFgear has free programs for Windows and Mac and apps for iPhone, iPad and Android. Its Windows and Mac pages list batch conversion, OCR, editing existing text and an AI assistant. The Mac page says: “Most editing tools within PDFgear work locally on the Mac.”
The gap also runs the other way. At that check, PDFgear's online tools page had no card for adding a password, watermarks, page numbers, redaction or comparing two PDFs. PulsarKit has a browser tool for each, such as Protect PDF for a password. PDFgear's online tools page lists only PDF tools, while PulsarKit also covers images, video, audio and text.
Where your file goes
PDFgear's tool pages say where the work happens. On October 20, 2026, 21 of its 37 cards led to pages saying the work stays in the browser. Among them are Edit PDF, Merge PDF, Split PDF, Sign PDF, JPG to PDF, PNG to PDF and HEIC to PDF. Most say “All processing occurs entirely within your browser”, and Merge PDF says “Merging takes place on your device”.
The pages of the other 16 said “Files processed by Amazon Cloud Servers in the US” and “Files deleted 20 minutes after leaving the site”. They include Compress PDF, the conversions from PDF to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PSD, and the conversions from Word, Excel, PowerPoint, RTF, TXT and PSD to PDF.
On PulsarKit, the counterparts for 24 of the 34 ran in the browser that day, so the file stayed on your device. That includes our Compress PDF and Text to PDF, while PDFgear's Compress PDF and TXT to PDF use its servers.
The other 10 are conversions between PDF and Word, Excel or PowerPoint, plus RTF to PDF. They ran on our server, so for these jobs both sites upload the file. Each of our server tool pages says the file is deleted after processing and the result is wiped within about two hours.
A result does not need a trip through your downloads folder: a list of next tools under it passes the file straight on.
Limits, as each site states them
On October 20, 2026, most PDFgear tool pages compared the online tool with its desktop program in a table. For the server tools and the editor tools, such as Edit PDF and Fill out PDF, the online limit was 100 MB. Tools such as Split PDF, Rotate PDF and JPG to PDF listed no limit, and so did the programs.
Browser tools on PulsarKit have no cap on the number of jobs. Each tool page states its largest file, since a browser tool works in your device's memory. On October 20, 2026, most PDF tools took files up to 300 MB, and Edit PDF and Annotate PDF up to 200 MB. JPG to PDF took photos up to 100 MB each.
Our server converters for Word, Excel and PowerPoint took 300 MB per file, three times PDFgear's online limit, with 30 jobs an hour. Converting from PDF, ours also cap pages: PDF to Word at 500 and PDF to Excel at 200. PDFgear's PDF to Excel page says it has “no restrictions on page numbers”. Where PDFgear lists no limit, our tools stop at the size their page names.
Where to start
To shrink a PDF without sending it anywhere, Compress PDF runs in your browser here, with a level or a target size. For a large Word, Excel or PowerPoint file, our converters take up to 300 MB on our server.
If you need PSD conversions, OCR in Excel and PowerPoint conversions or an offline program, PDFgear has them and PulsarKit does not.
Tools used in this article
Compress PDFMake a PDF smaller by re-encoding the images inside it, dropping duplicated objects and clearing metadata, without sending the document anywhere.
PDF to WordTurn a PDF back into an editable DOCX, DOC, ODT or RTF file, with OCR for scans that have no text layer at all. Runs on our server; files are deleted automatically within about two hours.
PDF FormsType into the fields of a PDF form in your browser, or draw new fields on a flat page and turn it into a form other people can fill in.
Merge PDFCombine several PDFs into one document in the order you choose, without uploading anything.
Protect PDFPut an open password on a PDF, encrypt it with AES-256 and decide who may print, copy or edit it.
PSD to JPGFlatten a Photoshop PSD into a single JPG or PNG, or pull every visible layer out as its own image in one ZIP, without opening Photoshop. Runs on our server; files are deleted automatically within about two hours.Read next
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