| Fact |  PDF SqueezerDrag a fat PDF in, get a small PDF out, for twenty dollars |  PDFgearFree PDF editor for Mac with no account and no paid tier |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $19.99 | Free |
| Licence | PerpetualUpdates included, forever | FreewareNothing to buy |
| The catch | Compression only: no editing, OCR or signing, and a future major version may be paid | Closed source with no stated business model, so nothing guarantees it stays free |
| Against a subscription | not established | Replaces Adobe Acrobat Pro$240 a year |
| Seats | 5 MacsWitt Software's FAQ: one person may use an app on up to five devices, whether it was bought on the Mac App Store or direct through Paddle. | not established |
| Developer account | None needed | None needed |
| Works offline | Yes | Partly |
| Apple Silicon | Native | not established |
| Free trial | Yes | does not apply |
| On Setapp | Yes | No |
| Buy direct | Get it |
Both prices read 22 Sep 2026, on the pages these buttons open. Minimum macOS and App Store rating are not established for either app, so those rows are left out.
In their own right
PDF Squeezer
A single-purpose compressor for PDFs that are too big to email or upload. Drop files in, pick a compression profile, and it rewrites the images inside, in batches, with a before-and-after view.
PDFgear
Edits text inside finished PDFs, converts to and from Office formats, merges, splits, signs and OCRs — and asks for nothing: no licence, no account, no watermark. The app to try before you spend money on PDF editing.