The Best Free Xodo Alternative in 2026
Xodo's free web tier is limited to one action per day, with paid plans starting at $7.99/month (billed annually) for the web tier alone — more for desktop or the full document suite. If you need PDF tools without a daily action cap or a subscription, PDFlexa is a strong alternative with unlimited free use of its core tools.
Xodo vs PDFlexa: Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Xodo | PDFlexa (Free) |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free web tier: 1 action/day. Paid from $7.99/mo | ✅ Free (core tools, no daily cap) |
| Platform | Web, desktop (Windows/Mac), mobile — separate plans | ✅ Any browser, any OS, one experience |
| Account required | ✅ Yes | ❌ No account needed |
| Merge PDF | ✅ Yes (paid tiers) | ✅ Yes, free |
| Split PDF | ✅ Yes (paid tiers) | ✅ Yes, free |
| Compress PDF | ✅ Yes (paid tiers) | ✅ Yes, free |
| PDF to Word/Excel/PPT | ✅ Yes (paid tiers) | ✅ Yes, free |
| Edit PDF text | ✅ Yes (paid tiers) | ✅ Text overlay, free |
| Sign PDF | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes (image-based) |
| OCR | ✅ Yes (paid tiers) | ✅ Yes (24 languages), free |
| Document comparison | ✅ Yes (paid tiers) | ✅ Yes |
| Batch processing | ✅ Yes (paid tiers) | ✅ Yes, for merge/convert tools |
| AI Summary | ❌ Not on base plans | ✅ Yes — free |
| AI Translation | ❌ Not on base plans | ✅ Yes — free (30+ languages) |
| Chat with PDF | ❌ Not on base plans | ✅ Yes — free |
| Free daily usage limit | 1 action/day (web free tier) | ✅ No daily action cap on core tools |
Why People Look for a Xodo Alternative
1. The Free Tier Is Very Limited
Xodo's free web plan allows one action per day — enough to try the product, not enough for regular use. To do more than one PDF task daily, you need a paid plan starting at $7.99/month billed annually ($10.99/month billed monthly), with desktop and mobile priced separately. PDFlexa's free tier has no daily action limit on its core tools.
2. Fragmented Pricing Across Platforms
Xodo Web, Xodo PDF Studio Desktop, and Xodo Mobile are priced and licensed separately, with a bundled "Document Suite" available for users who want all three. PDFlexa works identically across desktop and mobile browsers under a single free tier, with no platform-specific purchase needed.
3. No Built-In AI Features on Base Plans
Xodo's core plans focus on traditional PDF editing, viewing, and annotation. PDFlexa includes AI-powered summarization, translation, and chat-with-PDF free on every account, plus AI Smart Redact for automatically flagging sensitive information.
4. Account Required From the Start
Xodo requires an account to use its tools. PDFlexa's core tools work immediately with no signup, which matters for quick one-off tasks where creating an account feels like unnecessary friction.
Where Xodo Has an Edge
Xodo PDF Studio Desktop offers a mature, feature-dense desktop editing experience (60+ features) that a browser-based tool doesn't fully replicate — including deeper annotation tooling built up over years for reading-heavy workflows like academic papers and technical documents. If desktop-grade annotation depth for reading and reviewing PDFs is your primary need, Xodo's desktop app is a genuine strength.
Which PDFlexa Tools Replace Xodo?
Here is every common Xodo task and its PDFlexa equivalent:
- Combine files → Merge PDF
- Reduce file size → Compress PDF
- Extract pages / split document → Split & Extract Pages
- Export to Word → PDF to Word
- Export to Excel → PDF to Excel
- Export to PowerPoint → PDF to PowerPoint
- Export to image → PDF to JPG or PDF to PNG
- Convert to PDF → Word to PDF, Excel to PDF, PowerPoint to PDF
- Fill & sign forms → Fill PDF and Sign PDF
- Add comments / markup → Annotate PDF
- Redact sensitive content → Redact PDF
- Password protect → Password Protect PDF
- Remove password → Unlock PDF
- Add watermark → Watermark PDF
- Rotate pages → Rotate Pages
- Delete / reorder pages → Delete Pages or Organize PDF
- Crop pages → Crop PDF
- Make scanned PDF searchable → OCR PDF (multi-language)
- Number pages → Add Page Numbers
- Flatten PDF → Flatten PDF
- Repair corrupted PDF → Repair PDF
- Convert to PDF/A → PDF to PDF/A
- AI summary, translation, chat, and smart redact → AI Summary, AI Translate, Chat with PDF, AI Smart Redact
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Xodo actually free?
Xodo offers a free PDF reader and a web tier limited to one action per day. Full editing, conversion, and OCR features require a paid plan starting at $7.99/month.
Does PDFlexa have a daily usage limit like Xodo's free tier?
PDFlexa's core PDF tools (merge, split, compress, convert, sign, and more) have no daily action cap on the free tier. AI features (summary, translation, chat, smart redact) are limited to 10 requests/day free, or 200/day on the €4.99/month premium plan.
Which is better for annotating research papers or long documents?
Xodo PDF Studio Desktop has a longer track record specifically for reading and annotation-heavy workflows. For everyday PDF tasks — merging, converting, compressing, signing — PDFlexa covers the same ground for free with no install.
Can I use PDFlexa without creating an account?
Yes — all core tools work immediately with no signup. An account is only needed for premium features like extended cloud storage.
Need to combine files first? See our guide on how to merge PDF files.