Smallpdf vs Stirling PDF

as AI assistants see them, week of 2026-10-26

brag about it: X · LinkedIn

Smallpdf edges out Stirling PDF overall, scoring 18 versus 17 and appearing in 21 of 68 answers compared to Stirling PDF's 17. Smallpdf is named in every answer (4 of 4) for compressing large PDFs, while Stirling PDF sweeps the open-source or self-hosted PDF tool question, named in 3 of 3 answers. Head to head, Smallpdf comes out ahead more often, named more in 9 questions versus 6 for Stirling PDF, with 5 ties. By assistant, Claude rates Stirling PDF highest at 36, while Perplexity favors Smallpdf at 27. Neither tool is named for redacting sensitive text or summarizing PDFs with AI.

Head to head

metric	Smallpdf	Stirling PDF
score	18	16
questions won	14	16

By assistant

Smallpdf

assistant	score	named in, this week	usual spot, this week
ChatGPT	14	20% of answers	#4.0
Claude	24	60% of answers	#7.8
Gemini	not sampled this week
Perplexity	not sampled this week

Stirling PDF

assistant	score	named in, this week	usual spot, this week
ChatGPT	6	10% of answers	#2.0
Claude	31	60% of answers	#6.2
Gemini	not sampled this week
Perplexity	not sampled this week

Where they differ

Only Smallpdf gets named for

What's the best tool to fill in and sign a PDF form?
What's the best tool to convert a PDF to Word or Excel?
What's the best tool to compress a large PDF?
What's the best PDF editor app for iPhone or Android?
What's the best PDF editor for Mac?

Only Stirling PDF gets named for

What's the best open-source or self-hosted PDF tool?
What are the best alternatives to PDFgear?
What's the best OCR tool to make a scanned PDF searchable?
What's the best tool to edit a PDF without a subscription?
Which PDF editor is best value for a small business?
What are the best alternatives to PDF-XChange Editor?
What's the best free PDF editor?

More comparisons

Not sold on either?

Scores count how often each assistant names a product, weighted by position. How the score works · Full PDF editors leaderboard