SmallPDF vs MConverter: Free Plan Comparison

The first result you get when searching for a “PDF compressor” is usually SmallPDF. Being the top result and not looking like A.I. slop does make this website appear reliable. But how useful is it really for its free users? To test this, I compressed and converted two files of 300 KB and 10 MB to compare SmallPDF’s capabilities against MConverter.

Quick Comparison#

Here is everything I discovered in short:

Now, let’s go into the details of each of these points.

Daily Limits#

Before using SmallPDF, there is no way to tell what their free daily limit is. To find out, I started compressing PDFs one by one and was surprised to find the free limit is only 2 files per 24 hours. While that is disappointing, the process of finding out that limit was even more annoying to me. The website allows you to upload and convert/compress a third file, but then puts a paywall when you try to download it. At this point, your only options are paying for Pro, signing up for the 7-day free trial, or waiting until the next day to process two more files.

Luckily, MConverter offers a significantly larger free daily limit of 15 free conversions per day, no strings attached. Find out more about MConverter’s free plan here.

Batch Processing#

Batch conversion is the perfect feature for converting multiple files without constantly clicking around to process them one by one. Unfortunately, similarly to the hidden free daily limit, there was no information about the batch conversion limit of SmallPDF either. I tried batch converting 4 files only to find out that batch conversion is completely unavailable to free users. You cannot work with multiple files in SmallPDF for free.

Contrary to what SmallPDF offers, all MConverter users can enjoy a free batch conversion limit of up to 8 files. A handy feature, especially when combined with the 15 free conversions per day.

Compression Levels#

PDF compression tools let you specify how much the file size should be reduced, at the expense of quality. The free plan of SmallPDF only lets you select the Basic level, while Moderate and Strong are locked behind a paywall, as is the Custom option.

With MConverter, though, you can choose between all three PDF compression strengths for free: Basic, Strong, and Extreme. This freedom gives you more flexibility and lets you decide if you prefer preserving very fine details, or if you absolutely need to get that PDF under 10 MB so that you can email it. All for free.

Compression Results#

SmallPDF is most commonly used as a PDF compressor even though it can also be used for converting, merging and splitting PDF files. I decided to do a test compression of 2 PDF files of 300 KB and 10 MB to estimate how much smaller they actually get. The first one was reduced to 13 KB and the second to 198 KB making them both over 90% smaller than the original. That test also showed me that only Basic compression is available to free users.

The text was just as easy to read as the original and the resolution of the images in the PDF was almost completely preserved.

MConverter offers 3 levels of compression for all its users: Basic, Strong and Extreme. The Basic compression reduced the size of the 10 MB file by 86% and the 300 KB file by only 3%. The Strong compression reduced the larger file by 92% and the smaller file by 4%. Finally, the results from the Extreme compression were quite different with the 10 MB file being reduced by 96% and the 300 KB being reduced by 92%.

With MConverter the image quality was preserved during the Basic and Strong compression but distorted by the Extreme compression.

Compression Speed#

Speed is another major consideration for this type of products, especially when you need to use them urgently. To compress a 300 KB PDF, SmallPDF took about 8 seconds, whereas MConverter took 1 second regardless of the compression level.

Before discussing the 10 MB file, it is important to remember that file conversion consists of 2 parts - uploading and compressing, and this difference is most noticeable with larger files. While the uploading is dependent on your internet speed, the compression speed is up to the website we use. For more objective results, I will only present the time spent on the actual compression. Both SmallPDF and MConverter needed 4 seconds to complete the Basic compression of the 10 MB PDF. However, MConverter needed 18 seconds to complete the Strong compression and 17 seconds to complete the Extreme compression.

Upload Size Limits#

You can probably already guess that the file size limit of SmallPDF was not disclosed in advance either. I attempted to convert a 100 MB PDF to Word, only to find out the limit is 15 MB. That may be enough for some ordinary documents, but it prevents free users from converting larger PDFs.

MConverter, on the other hand, can convert or compress files up to 100 MB for free. This makes it the more practical option when working with larger PDFs.

Conversion Formats#

With a focus on file compression, SmallPDF only offers 5 file formats to convert PDFs to. Two of which are the image formats JPG and PNG. However, when choosing to convert to an image, I always automatically received JPG images without the option to choose PNG. This potential error reduces the available conversion formats to 4. So while it does offer the basics, it cannot really be considered a full-blown file converter.

If you need to convert to a more specific or rare format, you may prefer MConverter. It has a large variety of file formats to convert PDFs to and from, including 5 E-book formats, 3 presentation formats, different text files, and many image formats.

Subscriptions & Refunds#

Due to SmallPDF’s limited free version of only 2 conversions or compressions per 24 hours, you may be tempted by their 7-day free trial. However, that requires you to make an account and fill out your credit card details. As can be seen in reviews from dissatisfied customers, this could allegedly lead to unexpected charges for a yearly plan if you forget to cancel your trial in time.

Other SmallPDF customers complain that even after cancelling their free trials and subscriptions, unauthorized charges allegedly continue:

As for their refund policy, SmallPDF offers no guarantees, and instead promises to work on a case-by-case basis:

However, there are multiple customer complaints about refused refunds, even when the service was not used at all:

The abovementioned reviews are just a few examples from the last couple of months. There are more reports of similar experiences, which is why it is important to be careful when signing up for SmallPDF’s free trial.

For comparison, MConverter has a strictly guaranteed refund policy, available for all paid plans. As long as you haven’t used the product excessively, all refund requests are honoured. Note that on a case-by-case basis, MConverter also grants refunds in additional cases to those in the refund policy.

Summary#

SmallPDF’s free limit is 2 files per 24 hours, with no batch processing, and their 7-day free trial could bring you an unexpected paid yearly subscription. Contrast that with MConverter’s 15 free daily conversions and the ability to convert up to 8 files at once.

SmallPDF also only offers Basic compression to its free users, whereas MConverter unlocks all three compression levels for free. SmallPDF’s high compression rate is less useful due to the free plan’s size limit of 15 MB, which is significantly less than MConverter’s 100 MB. With a larger focus on file conversion, MConverter offers a wider variety of formats while SmallPDF only offers 5 file formats to convert PDF to (with PNG being impossible to select).

In conclusion, while SmallPDF offers high quality compression and conversion to all its users, it is outdone by MConverter when it comes to free daily limits, file size limits and variety of formats to convert to.