The Best PDF Compression Software of 2024

With over 73 million new PDF files saved every day in Google Drive & Mail, PDFs are crucial to how our world operates every day.

Whether you’re a business owner or simply someone who is looking for a way to send some files over the Internet, more efficiently, you’ll have encountered the need to compress a PDF at some point. The best way to do this is to use PDF Compression Software, which allows you to easily compress PDFs with a click of a button.

To make sure you don’t spend hours online looking for a solution, we’ve compiled a list of the top PDF compression software in 2023.

What is PDF Compression Software?

In an era of remote work and global communication, the biggest hassles people often encounter are transferring bulky, oversized files.

This is because:

●  If you’re sending documents by email, you’ll have to adhere to an attachment file size limit. Large documents may exceed this limit without compression.

●  Uploading larger PDFs can take a long time, especially with slow internet speeds.

●  Uncompressed PDFs can take up unnecessary storage space – especially if they contain a lot of graphics and images. Compressing them allows you to save that storage.

A PDF compression tool can effortlessly decrease the size of PDF documents so users can send them with ease. It also optimizes your document by downsampling and compressing images and text within a PDF. This often means resizing certain elements of a document, which can lower the quality. When you’re using the correct tools, document quality and readability are not compromised while still ensuring that the file size is small enough to be easily sent through.

Criteria to Consider When Looking for the Best PDF Compressor Software

What kind of security does the software provide?

The safety of your data is important. Any good software will have security features built in to protect your data. Ensuring that any PDF Compression software that you use is compliant with security regulations ensures your data stays secure. Some compliance regulations to look out for are PCI, HIPAA, Section 508, GDPR, and WCAG.

Test the software features

Not all software is ideal for all companies. Ensuring that you test the software out before a full rollout throughout your organization is crucial, as you don’t want to start investing time and paying for a tool that doesn’t suit your company’s needs. Save time and money by ensuring that the tool has all the features you need and they’re easy to use. 

Budget Is A Top Consideration When Selecting Software For Business

Different-sized companies have different budgets. Making sure you select the right kind of software within your price range is important. Only spend on the features you need. There’s no point in buying premium tools full of features your business won’t use.

Check the Best Tools Available

It’s always important to study and review all the options available to you.

Our stringent review process ensures that you learn exactly what tools fit your needs. Findstack’s knowledge base is filled with reviews and comparisons of important business software to help equip your business with the information it needs to choose the right tools that can help them scale efficiently.

Best PDF Compressor Software

1. EasePDF 

Best Overall

EasePDF is a PDF conversion, editing, and compression tool giving you plenty of control over your documents. You can easily batch-compress PDFs to save storage space, and the tool has a great user interface to facilitate your workflow.

Features:

• Activate OCR Function

Optical character recognition (OCR) is a function that allows a PDF reader to register scanned, printed, and even handwritten elements on a document to be able to be edited and adjusted.

This allows you to merge, compress, convert, edit, and annotate documents that have already been printed with ease.

To use the OCR function, simply insert whichever PDF you want to use into the tool.

• Accelerated Conversion

EasePDF uses accelerated conversion to complete functions at a much higher speed than usual, meaning you can convert PDFs much more quickly and effectively. It does this through CPU hardware acceleration.

To use this feature, just insert your file into the tool and let the computer do the rest.

• Secure Conversion

EasePDF automatically deletes your files from their server 24hrs after use, meaning that your data will never be logged or stored. This means that ultimately, you’ll be more secure when using EasePDF.

To ensure your files are automatically deleted, just use the tool as normal. Let the tool do the rest for you!

Pricing

2. PDFfiller 

Best Web-Based Option

PDFfiller is a great tool that can take your PDFs to the next level. Compressing, editing, and managing documents has never been easier. PDFfiller also has automated eSigning capabilities, which makes signing PDFs simple.

Features

• Edit PDFs on your Computer

PDFfiller easily allows you to edit PDFs and other documents on your computer. This removes all of the stress from the process, and instead allows you to get on with the work that you need to do.

To do this, simply install PDFFiller and open your document in the application. This will allow you to edit PDFs on your computer with ease.

• Add fillable fields in forms

PDFFiller lets you quickly and easily add fillable fields to your PDF forms, meaning that the forms are fillable digitally with ease. This simplifies the process of creating forms and contracts for your business and is doable within the platform.

To do so, insert your file into the tool and select the ‘Add Fillable Fields’ feature in the editor. The sidebar on the right will give you many options to be able to add fields to your document.

• Unlimited Cloud Storage

PDFfiller comes with unlimited cloud storage, meaning that you can access the up-to-date version of documents anywhere, on any device. It allows you to seamlessly stop working on one device and switch over to another, without having to send the file over.

Pricing

3. LightPDF 

Best Easy-to-Use Option

LightPDF is a PDF solution that helps boost your productivity and has over 20 practical PDF tools. With this tool you can edit, convert, compress, merge, annotate, watermark – all by simply uploading a PDF and getting started.

Features

• Edit PDFs With Ease

LightPDF lets you easily edit PDFs within its tool. Instead of having to mess around in other applications to be able to alter your documents, this tool makes the process simple with no fuss.

To edit PDFs, simply insert your file into the tool. The tool’s editor will allow you to change whatever you’d like without any fuss.

• Convert PDFs To Other File Types

LightPDF lets you convert any PDF file to another type such as a .docx or .html file. This lets you save and share your PDFs much more easily and freely, as well as letting you ensure that your documents are the type that you need them to be. 

To convert your PDF to another file type, simply click the corresponding button in the ‘Convert’ menu.

• Essential PDF Functions

LightPDF allows you to complete essential PDF functions with ease, as well as easily store, compress, manage, and convert PDFs with a few simple clicks.

Pricing

4. iLovePDF 

Best Free Option

iLovePDF is a tool that gives you everything you need to manage and edit your PDFs for free. 

Features

• Essential PDF Tools

iLovePDF has every PDF function that you’ll ever need, including the ability to Merge, Split, and Compress your documents. All of the tools that you’ll need are on your sidebar, and all you’ll ever need is a few clicks!

Just click on the function that you want to undertake, and let the tool do the rest for you. No stress or fuss, and can be done directly in the tool’s desktop app.

• PDF Security Tools

If you need to lock or unlock a PDF, iLovePDF has you covered. Its tool lets you secure or decrypt any PDF, meaning that you can ensure that your PDF is secure and that you can access PDFs that you may not remember the password for.

• PDF eSignature Tools

iLovePDF is eSignature compatible and lets you both digitally sign PDFs and create PDFs to be digitally signed with ease. You can easily invite others to sign with just a few clicks, even simply in your browser.

Pricing

5. SmallPDF

Best For Merging Files

SmallPDF allows you to be more productive and work smarter with your PDF documents. With it, you can compress, convert, and edit digital documents with ease.

Features

• Edit PDFs With Ease

SmallPDF allows you to easily edit your PDFs within its PDF editor, meaning that you can work on your documents without fuss or hassle. The easy-to-use, intuitive inline editor is great for any work application.

All you need to do is insert your PDF into the tool, and open it in its editor. From there, you can easily make alterations to your document.

• Vital PDF Tools

SmallPDF’s collection of the most essential PDF management and editing tools means that compressing, converting, merging, splitting, and scanning PDFs is, as the name suggests, simple. All you have to do is select the feature that you’d like to use.

• Simple PDF File Management

SmallPDF makes file management simple and effective. All of your documents are saved within its file system and are accessible through the cloud, meaning that you can make changes wherever you are.

Pricing

6. Soda PDF 

Best For Security

Soda PDF is designed around simplicity and ease of use. Instead of being complicated, this tool is simple to use and improves your workflow. 

You can easily compress your documents, edit PDFs and manage them all through one dashboard.

Features:

• Edit PDFs Simply

SodaPDF’s pdf document editor makes it simple to revise and modify a document. All you need to do is upload the file into the app, and use the app’s elegant inline editor to make all of the alterations you need to.

PDF editing has never been easier than it is with SodaPDF, and the tool allows you to take your documents to the next level.

• All of the PDF Essentials

SodaPDF gives you all of the essential tools that you need to manage your PDFs. This includes merging, splitting, editing, compressing, and converting PDFs with a few clicks. 

All of these functions are available within SodaPDF’s high-quality tool. This means that you can complete any of these functions while also being able to edit and alter the content of the documents.

• Security

SodaPDF lets you secure your PDFs with 256-AES password encryption, meaning that you can ensure that your data and files stay secure at all times.

Pricing

Use Findstack to Find the Best Tools

PDFs are essential to how we do business today. By using a PDF compressor, you can send these documents more easily, avoid file size limits and save time when sending files. 

With PDFs being so crucial to communication today, using our guide to work out which PDF Compressors are best for your business can be one of the most important decisions you can make.  

Interested in finding the perfect software tools to elevate your business? Visit our blog to browse through our guides to help you work out the best software for your business’s needs. You can also check out Findstack’s knowledge base to check out our extensive guides on different software. From eCommerce to CMS, and even Graphic Design, our site will help you find the best tools your business needs.