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Test scope & comparison notes
These are recorded facts, not a unified ranking. Tested tiers and scope are not consistently recorded. Read pricing with its date and timing with its conditions. Privacy observations reflect visible flows and statements, not a security audit.
Cross-task capability coverage across selected products
Each product is scored independently per task edge; switch tasks below while keeping shared products selected| Task edge | lightpdf.com | sejda.com | Switch / compare |
|---|---|---|---|
| PDF to Word | 78/100 DOCX · Output attached | 74/100 DOC · Output attached | Active task |
| PDF compression | 88/100 PDF · Output attached | 95/100 PDF · Output attached | |
| Scanned PDF OCR | 82/100 DOCX · Output attached | 95/100 PDF · Output attached | |
| PDF merge & split | 90/100 PDF · Output attached | 97/100 PDF · Output attached |
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Browse this task →| Criterion | LightPDF PDF to Word 78/100 Seven-aspect task score After free account sign-in, the exported DOCX preserves both pages of text and a native editable table with solid fidelity, but guests are blocked by a login modal at the download step after conversion. Tested export DOCX · Output attached Historical test · 2026-10-19 | Sejda PDF to Word PDF to Word 74/100 Seven-aspect task score Upfront free limits, no-login ad-free export, and 2-hour auto-deletion; however, it outputs legacy .doc without native tables, suiting text extraction. Tested export DOC · Output attached Historical test · 2026-10-19 |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing & rules | ||
| Pricing plans | LightPDF Individual Free, Monthly, Annual and Perpetual plans; Team & Business and Education tabs priced separately · 2026-10-21 Plan · source date Monthly / one-time Annual bill / period Quota & limits Free Plan2026-10-21 ↗ Free Free Free Web only; max file size 10 MB, 1-year cloud storage for up to 5 files; downloading converted DOCX requires signing in to a free account Monthly Plan2026-10-21 ↗ USD 19.99/month — Monthly 1-month full access to all PDF tools across Web, Mobile and Desktop, unlimited file size, plus 1,000 AI credits/month Promotional price USD 19.99/month (strikethrough USD 29.99), billed monthly, cancel anytime；Unused AI credits expire monthly Annual Plan2026-10-21 ↗ — USD 49.99/year Annual 1-year full access to all PDF tools across 5 platforms (1 active device at a time), unlimited file size, plus 1,000 AI credits/month 3-day free trial then USD 49.99/year (strikethrough USD 89.99; skipping trial saves USD 5)；1,000 AI credits per month expire monthly Perpetual Plan (Lifetime)2026-10-21 ↗ USD 109.99 · one-time payment Usage / one-time Usage / one-time One-time payment for lifetime access to all PDF tools across 5 platforms, unlimited file size, plus 40,000 AI credits 40,000 AI credits granted instantly and valid until used 4 plan / billing-period records, all listed; — means that period is not recorded. Individual pricing lists Free, Monthly USD 19.99, Annual USD 49.99 (with 3-day trial or $5 skip-trial discount), and Perpetual USD 109.99; per-feature AI credit deductions require hover tooltips and enterprise plans require custom quotes. Verification has gaps; unknown prices and quotas are not inferred. Cancellation, sources & verification recordCancel recurring subscriptions via support ticket or payment platform email link; money-back guarantee is 30 days for Perpetual, 7 days for Annual, and 3 days for Monthly. LightPDF official Individual pricing page ↗ · 2026-10-21 Capture 1 ↗ | Sejda personal web and desktop plans (Free / Web Week Pass / Web Monthly / Desktop+Web Annual); USD · 2026-10-21 Plan · source date Monthly / one-time Annual bill / period Quota & limits Free2026-10-21 ↗ Free Free Free No account required; documents up to 50 pages or 50 MB and up to 3 tasks per hour; files automatically deleted after 2 hours. Web Week Pass2026-10-21 ↗ USD 5 · one-time payment Usage / one-time Usage / one-time One-time payment of USD 5 for 7 days of Sejda Web access (unlimited documents, no page or hourly limits, up to 500 MB per file; excludes Sejda Desktop). One-time payment; does not auto-renew Web Monthly2026-10-21 ↗ USD 7.5/month — Monthly Sejda Web monthly subscription (unlimited documents, no page or hourly limits, batch multi-file processing; excludes Sejda Desktop). Recurring monthly billing; cancel anytime Desktop+Web Annual2026-10-21 ↗ — USD 63/year Annual Billed annually at USD 63/year (save 30% over monthly), including 1 year of unlimited access to both Sejda Web and Sejda Desktop. Recurring annual billing; cancel anytime 4 plan / billing-period records, all listed; — means that period is not recorded. The converter page states the free allowance (documents up to 50 pages or 50 MB, 3 tasks per hour, files deleted after 2 hours); the official pricing page (/upgrade) lists the 7-day Web Week Pass (USD 5 one-time payment), Web Monthly (USD 7.50/month), and Desktop+Web Annual (USD 63/year). Cancellation, sources & verification recordWeb Week Pass is a one-time 7-day payment with no auto-renewal; monthly and annual plans use recurring billing and can be cancelled anytime. Sejda official pricing and upgrade page ↗ · 2026-10-21 Capture 1 ↗ |
| Free & trial allowance on the test date | Downloaded valid 39,398-byte DOCX after free Google sign-in; 1 table (16 cells), Page 2, and 100% of text checkpoints preserved. | Unauthenticated free users can run up to 3 tasks per hour for documents up to 50 pages or 50 MB |
| Cancellation & refunds | Cancel recurring subscriptions via support ticket or payment platform email link; money-back guarantee is 30 days for Perpetual, 7 days for Annual, and 3 days for Monthly. | Web Week Pass is a one-time 7-day payment with no auto-renewal; monthly and annual plans use recurring billing and can be cancelled anytime. |
| Disclosure of costs & limits | Not verified | Page limit (50 pages), file size limit (50 MB), and 3-tasks/hour quota are disclosed upfront below the hero upload button |
| Task quality | ||
| Measured fixture results | Text retained: 100% · Editable table cells: 16 · Page 2 preserved: Yes | Text retained: 100% · Editable table cells: 0 · Page 2 preserved: Yes |
| Fixture findings | Preserved both pages of text, all key tokens, and one editable 4x4 table with high layout fidelity. | Retains 100% of text and table values across both pages, but exports legacy OLE .doc without native editable tables (table_count = 0). |
| Original historical observation | Downloaded valid 39,398-byte DOCX after free Google sign-in with 100% text retention, Page 2 preserved, and 1 native 16-cell table. | Sejda excels in upfront quota transparency and privacy restraint (91/100 Honesty), exporting an unwatermarked document in 11.36s without login and retaining 100% of text across both pages—however, it delivers a legacy binary OLE2 .doc (215.0 KB) rather than modern .docx and does not reconstruct native Word tables (table_count = 0). |
| Suitable uses · historical assessment | Not verified | Users who value upfront no-login quotas (≤50 pages/50 MB, 3 tasks/hr) or a $5 7-day pass without auto-renewal and primarily need full text extraction |
| Result & output evidence | ||
| Scans / OCR | The fixture is a text PDF; scans and OCR were not tested | The fixture is a text PDF; scans and OCR were not tested |
| Delivery capabilities | ||
| Recorded export specifications | DOCX · Output attached · Check watermark record | DOC · Output attached · No watermark in test |
| Historical specification note · not an official maximum | Not verified | Full 2-page watermark-free legacy .doc (OLE2 Word 97-2003, 215.0 KB) |
| Watermark observation | Not verified | Watermark-free |
| Batch & API | Not verified | Paid plans unlock batch multi-file processing and the offline Sejda Desktop application |
| Recorded free-tier dimensions | Not verified | Not verified |
| Attached file dimensions | Not verified | Not verified |
| Published allowances & file limits · not tested | Free Plan: Web only; max file size 10 MB, 1-year cloud storage for up to 5 files; downloading converted DOCX requires signing in to a free account | Free: No account required; documents up to 50 pages or 50 MB and up to 3 tasks per hour; files automatically deleted after 2 hours. |
| Speed & reliability | ||
| Timing observation | Network-observed server wait: 6.45s · End-to-end reference: 10.01s | Network-observed server wait: 11.36s · End-to-end reference: 11.36s |
| Date & fixture | 2026-10-19 · anchor_pdf2word_v1 · US-West (California, AS2914) | 2026-10-19 · anchor_pdf2word_v1 · US-West (California, AS2914) |
| Repeated tests & reliability | No standardized repetition count, success rate or variability range is recorded. | No standardized repetition count, success rate or variability range is recorded. |
| Interaction experience | ||
| Account requirements | Not verified | No login in this test |
| Sign-in methods | Google / Facebook / Apple / email login required when clicking Download Files | No login required for free conversion; optional Pro account sign-in |
| Manual adjustment | Not verified | Not verified |
| Interaction observations | Uses a post-conversion login wall at the download step and places a "Download for MacOS" desktop app button beside Download Files. | Converts our 2-page anchor PDF via the "Edit text" mode and downloads the full document without login, ad pop-ups, or email capture gates. |
| Background & reputation | ||
| Service lifecycle notice | Not verified | Not verified |
| Operator | AI Document Tool Suite (Wangxu Tech / Apowersoft) | Sejda BV (Amsterdam PDF Utility Vendor) |
| Recorded origin | Not verified | Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Domain history record | Not verified | 2016–Present |
| Background & reputation assessment | Operated by Wangxu Technology (HK) Co., Limited (Apowersoft) since 2018. | Operated since 2016 by Amsterdam-based Sejda BV, a well-established developer of web and desktop PDF tools affiliated with the open-source PDFsam team. |
| External reputation record | Not verified | Not verified |
| Engineering & privacy | ||
| Processing location | Uploaded for cloud processing | Uploaded for cloud processing |
| Third-party tracking record | Not verified | Not verified |
| Engineering & privacy assessment | Uploads to Alibaba Cloud Hong Kong OSS and converts via gw.aoscdn.com async task queue; requires account login to retrieve the converted DOCX. | HTTPS-encrypted transfer; explicitly commits on both landing and download screens to automatically delete uploaded and converted files after 2 hours, alongside a manual immediate-delete option. |
| Retention statement | Explicit retention period unconfirmed; inspect policy record | Claims deletion within 2 hours; deletion not independently verified |
| Evaluation basis | ||
| Pricing transparency | 15 / 35 Landing page headlines "Free Online PDF to Word Converter" and completes cloud conversion for guests, but clicking Download Files triggers a mandatory login modal; after free Google sign-in, the full 38.5 KB DOCX downloads without payment. | 32 / 35 Directly discloses the free allowance right below the upload button on the landing page ("Documents of up to 50 pages or 50 MB and 3 tasks per hour. Files stay private. Automatically deleted after 2 hours"); the official /upgrade page transparently lists the 7-day Web Week Pass ($5 one-time payment, no auto-renewal), Web Monthly ($7.50/mo), and Desktop+Web Annual ($63/yr). |
| Interaction restraint | 12 / 30 Uses a post-conversion login wall at the download step and places a "Download for MacOS" desktop app button beside Download Files. | 27 / 30 Converts our 2-page anchor PDF via the "Edit text" mode and downloads the full document without login, ad pop-ups, or email capture gates. |
| Background & reputation | 15 / 20 Operated by Wangxu Technology (HK) Co., Limited (Apowersoft) since 2018. | 18.5 / 20 Operated since 2016 by Amsterdam-based Sejda BV, a well-established developer of web and desktop PDF tools affiliated with the open-source PDFsam team. |
| Engineering & privacy | 10 / 15 Uploads to Alibaba Cloud Hong Kong OSS and converts via gw.aoscdn.com async task queue; requires account login to retrieve the converted DOCX. | 13.5 / 15 HTTPS-encrypted transfer; explicitly commits on both landing and download screens to automatically delete uploaded and converted files after 2 hours, alongside a manual immediate-delete option. |
| Task quality | 61 / 65 Exported a valid 39,398-byte (38.5 KB) DOCX (43 paragraphs): 4/4 headings, 12/12 table cell values, 3/3 body phrases, and the Page 2 marker are 100% preserved, and the 4×4 financial table is reconstructed as 1 native 16-cell Word table. | 43 / 65 Exports a valid legacy OLE2 Word 97-2003 .doc file (215.0 KB): isolated LibreOffice import and macOS textutil inspection confirm 100.0% text retention (4/4 headings, 12/12 table text entries, 3/3 key body phrases, and Page 2 verification token preserved), but table cells are not reconstructed as a native editable Word table (table_count = 0, with 3 inline graphic objects) (43.0/65) |
| Deliverable specifications | 15.5 / 20 Signed-in free account exports a complete, watermark-free 2-page DOCX with native editable table structure; deducted for the post-conversion login gate on guest download. | 14 / 20 Delivers a complete 2-page watermark-free document (215.0 KB, free quota ≤50 pages/50 MB, 3 tasks/hr) without login, but outputs legacy binary OLE2 .doc rather than modern OpenXML .docx, incurring a format specification deduction (14.0/20) |
| Processing speed | 12 / 15 2026-10-21 single-sample network timing: OSS upload and hash registration took 3.19s (PUT upload ~1.89s), and async conversion task /v2/tasks/conversion (r16 to r21) took 6.45s server wait (end-to-end 10.01s). | 10 / 15 2026-10-21 single-sample network timing: file upload takes 1.07s (POST /api/files/upload), and pure server conversion from POST /api/tasks (operation: pdfToWord) to polling completion (GET /api/tasks/[id]/change) takes 11.36s (10.0/15) |
