Comparison
Hati PDF vs iLovePDF vs Smallpdf
Same tools. Cheaper price. Pay with M-Pesa. Designed for East Africa first — used worldwide.
$3 / month
vs $9 Smallpdf · vs $4.30 iLovePDF
$20 / year
vs $108 Smallpdf · vs $48 iLovePDF
Mobile money ✓
No competitor accepts M-Pesa
| Feature | Hati PDF | iLovePDF | Smallpdf | PDF24 | Sejda |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Pro | $3 | $4.30 | $9 | Free | $7.50 |
| Annual Pro | $20 | $48 | $108 | Free | $63 |
| Weekly plan | $1 ✓ | — | — | — | — |
| Free basic tools (no signup) | ✓ unlimited | ✓ unlimited | 2/day only | ✓ | 3/hour |
| Mobile money (M-Pesa, Tigo, Airtel) | ✓ | — | — | — | — |
| Card payments (Visa/MC) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| Files auto-deleted in 1 hour | ✓ | 2h | 1h | 30 min | 5h |
| OCR (text recognition) | Premium | Premium | Pro | ✓ free | ✓ free |
| Edit PDF text | Premium | Premium | Pro | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI chat with PDF | ✓ | — | ✓ | — | — |
| East Africa landing pages (SW/EN) | ✓ | — | — | — | — |
| Free desktop app | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ Win | — |
Source: competitor public pricing pages, Dec 2025. Prices converted to USD where applicable.
Why is Hati PDF cheaper?
We run on modern serverless infrastructure with browser-side PDF processing — no expensive server compute per task. We pass the savings to you.
Is it the same quality as iLovePDF?
Yes — we use the same pdf-lib / pdf.js engines under the hood. The output is byte-equivalent for merge, split, compress, sign and stamp operations.
Can I pay with M-Pesa or Tigo Pesa?
Yes. Hati PDF integrates with Selcom to accept M-Pesa, Tigo Pesa, Airtel Money and Halotel. No competitor in this list supports mobile money.
What happens to my files?
Files are encrypted in transit and at rest, and auto-deleted within 1 hour for guests. Paid users can keep files for 30 days in their dashboard.
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