PDF editors · #8 of 19 · ↑ Preview · ↓ Sejda
Stirling PDF
sampled: 3 of 4 assistants this week
Stirling PDF lands in the PDF editors category with an overall score of 17 out of 100, named in 17 of 68 answers across AI assistants. Claude rates it highest at 36, while ChatGPT and Perplexity each give it 9. It shows up most reliably for open-source or self-hosted PDF tool questions, named in 3 of 3 answers, and does well for browser-based editors and privacy-focused document handling, each named in around half the relevant answers. It's never mentioned for redaction, PDF summarising or chat, form filling and signing, or converting to Word, Excel, or extracting tables.
this is mine claim it, free, forever. We also check whether ChatGPT and Claude can read stirlingpdf.com.
Who's talking about you
| assistant | score | named in, this week | usual spot, this week |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 9 | 10% of answers | #2.0 |
| Claude | 36 | 60% of answers | #5.4 |
| Gemini | not sampled this week | ||
| Perplexity | 9 | 10% of answers | #1.5 |
Questions you win
| question | named in | best spot |
|---|---|---|
| What's the best open-source or self-hosted PDF tool? | 3 of 3 | #1 |
| Which PDF tool is best for privacy and sensitive documents? | 2 of 3 | #1 |
| What's the best online PDF editor that works in the browser? | 2 of 4 | #3 |
| What are the best PDF editors in 2026? | 2 of 4 | #7 |
| What's the best free PDF editor? | 1 of 3 | #1 |
| What's the best tool to edit a PDF without a subscription? | 1 of 3 | #2 |
| What's the best alternative to Adobe Acrobat? | 1 of 3 | #7 |
| What's the best PDF editor for Windows? | 1 of 3 | #7 |
| What's the best OCR tool to make a scanned PDF searchable? | 1 of 3 | #7 |
| What's the best PDF editor for Mac? | 1 of 3 | #8 |
| What are the best PDF editors? | 1 of 3 | #9 |
| What's the best tool to merge, split and reorder PDF pages? | 1 of 4 | #3 |
Questions you lose
| question | who got named instead |
|---|---|
| Which PDF editor is best value for a small business? | Nitro PDF, Foxit, PDF-XChange Editor |
| What's the best PDF editor app for iPhone or Android? | PDF Expert, Adobe Acrobat, UPDF |
| What's the best tool to fill in and sign a PDF form? | Adobe Acrobat, PDFgear, Preview |
| What's the best tool to convert a PDF to Word or Excel? | Adobe Acrobat, ABBYY FineReader |
| What's the best tool to compress a large PDF? | Adobe Acrobat, iLovePDF, Wondershare PDFelement |
| What's the best tool to redact or remove sensitive text from a PDF? | Adobe Acrobat, Foxit, PDF-XChange Editor |
| What's the best tool to extract tables or data from a PDF? | Adobe Acrobat |
| What's the best AI tool to summarise or chat with a PDF? | Adobe Acrobat |
Assistants cited 15 pages for questions in this category that name your rivals and not you. Claim to see them. See all sources for PDF editors.
In their words
- ChatGPT“If you mean “one self-hosted web app that replaces most PDF utilities”, I’d start with Stirling-PDF.”
- Claude“Best free cross-platform: Stirling PDF”
- Gemini“Stirling-PDF — Best for Privacy & Open-Source Users”
Closest rivals
- Stirling PDF vs Preview17
- Stirling PDF vs Sejda16
- Stirling PDF vs Smallpdf18
- Stirling PDF vs PDF Expert14
- Stirling PDF vs PDF-XChange Editor21
All Stirling PDF alternatives · Full PDF editors leaderboard · Sources