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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 | Smallpdf | PDF2Go | Switch / compare |
|---|---|---|---|
| PDF to Word | 89/100 DOCX · Output attached | 79/100 DOCX · Output attached | Active task |
| PDF compression | 90/100 PDF · Output attached | 96/100 PDF · Output attached | |
| Scanned PDF OCR | 89/100 PDF · Output attached | 91/100 PDF · Output attached | |
| PDF merge & split | 92/100 PDF · Output attached | 96/100 PDF · Output attached |
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Browse this task →| Criterion | Smallpdf PDF to Word 89/100 Seven-aspect task score Text and tables are retained with fast conversion in this run and upfront OCR pricing; tight free allowances and repeated upgrade prompts limit convenience. Tested export DOCX · Output attached Historical test · 2026-10-18 | PDF2Go PDF to Word 79/100 Seven-aspect task score Login-free access offers format choices and deletion; text is retained but tables need rebuilding, and third-party download ads add friction. Tested export DOCX · Output attached Historical test · 2026-10-18 |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing & rules | ||
| Pricing plans | Smallpdf USD web individual and team plans; default 2-seat team bill · 2026-10-20 Plan · source date Monthly / one-time Annual bill / period Quota & limits Free2026-10-20 ↗ Free Free Free Daily downloads and file size are limited, without exact figures; PDF-to-Word OCR is a Pro feature. Pro2026-10-20 ↗ USD 15/month USD 120/year Monthly 1 user; unlimited document downloads; OCR and text editing. Annual 1 user; actual annual bill USD 120; unlimited downloads with OCR. Team · 2 seats2026-10-20 ↗ USD 24/month USD 192/year Monthly 2-seat total; USD 12/seat/month; supports 2–19 seats. Annual 2-seat annual total USD 192; shown equivalent USD 8/seat/month; supports 2–19 seats. 7 plan / billing-period records, all listed; — means that period is not recorded. Current USD web prices show actual annual bills. Team entries use the default 2-seat total and identify the per-seat rate. The free daily allowance is not quantified. Verification has gaps; unknown prices and quotas are not inferred. Cancellation, sources & verification recordFAQ says the trial can be cancelled without charge, reverting to Free at the end of 7 days. Paid refund details were not verified. Official feature and pricing page ↗ · 2026-10-20 Capture 1 ↗ Official feature and pricing page ↗ · 2026-10-20 Capture 1 ↗ Official feature and pricing page ↗ · 2026-10-20 Capture 1 ↗ | PDF2Go USD single-user plans and education eligibility plan · 2026-10-20 Plan · source date Monthly / one-time Annual bill / period Quota & limits Free2026-10-20 ↗ Free Free Free Up to 50 MB without registration; limited processing, no batching; exact count not listed. Starter2026-10-20 ↗ USD 8/month USD 77/year Monthly 64 GB files, batching, priority queue; 1× AI allowance Annual 64 GB files, batching, priority queue; 1× AI allowance Pro2026-10-20 ↗ USD 29/month USD 278/year Monthly 64 GB files, batching, higher priority; 5× AI allowance Annual 64 GB files, batching, higher priority; 5× AI allowance Business2026-10-20 ↗ USD 89/month USD 854/year Monthly Per-person price; custom limits and centralized billing; 20× AI allowance Annual Per-person price; custom limits and centralized billing; 20× AI allowance Education eligibility plan2026-10-20 ↗ Free Free Free School-email verification; non-commercial educational use only, renewable while eligible. 8 plan / billing-period records, all listed; — means that period is not recorded. The annual view explicitly shows full-year USD 77/278/854; old monthly equivalents are not extrapolated. Paid plans use shared credits without full PDF credit rules here, so no file-count conversion is made. Verification has gaps; unknown prices and quotas are not inferred. Cancellation, sources & verification recordThe page states cancel anytime and a 14-day money-back guarantee; eligibility is subject to official refund terms. Official feature and pricing page ↗ · 2026-10-20 Capture 1 ↗ Official feature and pricing page ↗ · 2026-10-20 Capture 1 ↗ Official feature and pricing page ↗ · 2026-10-20 Capture 1 ↗ |
| Free & trial allowance on the test date | Capped at ~2 free tasks per day (selectable-text PDFs only; scanned OCR requires Pro), after which a 7-day trial wall appears | Free guests can convert documents and enable basic OCR; heavy batch sizes or exceeding daily credit allowances require a Premium plan |
| Cancellation & refunds | FAQ says the trial can be cancelled without charge, reverting to Free at the end of 7 days. Paid refund details were not verified. | The page states cancel anytime and a 14-day money-back guarantee; eligibility is subject to official refund terms. |
| Disclosure of costs & limits | Clearly labels Pro OCR before conversion, though remaining daily free task count is not shown upfront on the landing page | Format and OCR options shown upfront before clicking 'PDF to Word converter Now' |
| 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 | Completed promptly with editable tables retained; free use is subject to daily allowances. | Text was retained, but tables became ordinary paragraphs; distinguish download ads from the real control. |
| Original historical observation | Smallpdf's cloud conversion engine is blazingly fast—CDP logs show the server reconstructed our 2-page PDF into a 10.1 KB .docx with a 16-cell native table in just 0.76s (02_workspace.png, 03_download.png); its main limitation is the ~2 tasks/day free cap. | PDF2Go exports an 11.2 KB .docx with 100% text retention, Page 2 preservation, and an instant 'Delete Task' button, but flattens the 4×4 financial table into 61 separate paragraphs rather than a native Word table and displays green ad buttons below the result card (02_workspace.png, 03_download.png). |
| Suitable uses · historical assessment | Occasional users who need a single ultra-fast (0.76s), high-fidelity PDF-to-Word conversion and haven't hit their 2-task daily free limit | Users who need 100% text extraction (including free OCR) without logging in and do not require native Word table border reconstruction |
| 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 · No watermark in test | DOCX · Output attached · No watermark in test |
| Historical specification note · not an official maximum | Full 2-page native .docx (10.1 KB, watermark-free, subject to daily free task cap) | Full 2-page unwatermarked .docx (11.2 KB, 61 paragraphs, 100% text retention) |
| Watermark observation | Watermark-free | No watermark |
| Batch & API | Batch conversion requires Pro upgrade | Supports local, URL, Google Drive, and Dropbox imports plus ZIP download |
| Recorded free-tier dimensions | Not verified | Not verified |
| Attached file dimensions | Not verified | Not verified |
| Published allowances & file limits · not tested | Free: Daily downloads and file size are limited, without exact figures; PDF-to-Word OCR is a Pro feature. / Pro trial: 7-day trial; verify billing conditions before starting. | Free: Up to 50 MB without registration; limited processing, no batching; exact count not listed. / Education eligibility plan: School-email verification; non-commercial educational use only, renewable while eligible. |
| Speed & reliability | ||
| Timing observation | Network-observed server wait: 0.76s · End-to-end reference: 1.26s | Network-observed server wait: 11.4s · End-to-end reference: 12.9s |
| Date & fixture | 2026-10-18 · anchor_pdf2word_v1 · US-West (California, AS2914) | 2026-10-18 · 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 | No login in this test | No login in this test |
| Sign-in methods | No login required within the daily free task quota | No login required (optional Google / email signup for extra free credits) |
| Manual adjustment | Not verified | Not verified |
| Interaction observations | First conversion completes smoothly without forced registration, though persistent 'Free Trial' upsell banners appear in the header and sidebar. | Provides a clean red 'Download' button on the result card, but embeds third-party AdSense banners featuring deceptive green 'DOWNLOAD PDF TO WORD' buttons below and beside the workspace (02_workspace.png, 03_download.png). |
| Background & reputation | ||
| Service lifecycle notice | Not verified | Not verified |
| Operator | Smallpdf AG | QaamGo Web GmbH (pdf2go.com) |
| Recorded origin | Zurich, Switzerland | Radolfzell, Germany |
| Domain history record | 2013–Present | 2016–Present (10-year German online PDF platform) |
| Background & reputation assessment | Founded in Zurich, Switzerland in 2013 (Smallpdf AG) with ISO/IEC 27001 certification. | Operated by QaamGo Web GmbH in Radolfzell, Germany (the same parent company behind Img2Go and Online-Convert). |
| 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 | Complies with Swiss Federal Data Protection Act and EU GDPR; temporary files are automatically purged 1 hour after upload. | Full HTTPS transport with a prominent 'Delete Task' instant-deletion button on the result page and automatic 24-hour server cleanup. |
| Retention statement | Claims deletion within 1 hours; deletion not independently verified | Claims deletion within 24 hours; deletion not independently verified |
| Evaluation basis | ||
| Pricing transparency | 26.5 / 35 Clearly distinguishes free 'Convert selectable text only' from Pro-badged 'OCR (Scanned pages)' before conversion, and exports a complete 2-page .docx without login; however, the free tier enforces a strict daily task limit (~2 tasks/day) before prompting a 7-day trial wall (01_landing.png, 02_workspace.png, 03_download.png). | 29 / 35 Clearly exposes DOCX/DOC format options and a free 'Enable OCR' toggle right in the workspace before conversion, exporting a full unwatermarked .docx with no login required (02_workspace.png, 03_download.png). |
| Interaction restraint | 24 / 30 First conversion completes smoothly without forced registration, though persistent 'Free Trial' upsell banners appear in the header and sidebar. | 20 / 30 Provides a clean red 'Download' button on the result card, but embeds third-party AdSense banners featuring deceptive green 'DOWNLOAD PDF TO WORD' buttons below and beside the workspace (02_workspace.png, 03_download.png). |
| Background & reputation | 19 / 20 Founded in Zurich, Switzerland in 2013 (Smallpdf AG) with ISO/IEC 27001 certification. | 18 / 20 Operated by QaamGo Web GmbH in Radolfzell, Germany (the same parent company behind Img2Go and Online-Convert). |
| Engineering & privacy | 14 / 15 Complies with Swiss Federal Data Protection Act and EU GDPR; temporary files are automatically purged 1 hour after upload. | 13 / 15 Full HTTPS transport with a prominent 'Delete Task' instant-deletion button on the result page and automatic 24-hour server cleanup. |
| Task quality | 61.5 / 65 Powered by a high-precision Solid Documents-grade conversion kernel, achieving 100.0% text retention, 16-cell native Word <w:tbl> reconstruction, and full multi-page preservation (61.5/65) | 49.5 / 65 OpenXML inspection confirms 100.0% text retention (all 4/4 headings, 12/12 table values, 3/3 body phrases, and Page 2 code preserved), but flattens the 4×4 table into 61 standalone paragraphs (table_count = 0) rather than a native Word <w:tbl> object (49.5/65) |
| Deliverable specifications | 15 / 20 Exports an unwatermarked, untruncated .docx (10.1 KB), though the tight ~2 tasks/day free quota limits heavy daily workflows (15.0/20) | 17.5 / 20 Exports a clean 11.2 KB .docx with no login or watermark, plus free optional OCR and .doc legacy output (17.5/20) |
| Processing speed | 14.5 / 15 CDP job status JSON confirms pure server conversion took just 0.76s (11:13:40.990Z → 11:13:41.751Z)—the fastest engine in the category (14.5/15) | |
