Instead of MuPDF
MuPDF alternatives
MuPDF is an embeddable SDK for viewing and managing PDFs and other documents. It also handles editing, extraction, signing, rendering, redaction, annotation, splitting, merging, compression, and conversion, with support for formats including ePUB, images, CBZ, and XPS. Its bindings cover Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js, and C#, and it can be deployed on desktop, cloud or server, or embedded projects. It supports offline access and form filling but has no OCR. Its platforms include Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, web, Windows, and self-hosted deployments.
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Foxit PDF Reader
Free plan AndroidiPhoneMac+2Free PDF reading, signing, and text-to-speech — Foxit PDF Reader is a free reader for viewing, annotating, filling forms, and signing PDFs, with text-to-speech.
Free plan Visit site - 2
Kiosk
Free plan Open source AndroidExtensioniPhone+5Private PDF reading across devices and browser extensions — Kiosk adds highlighted full-text search, display modes, and device-side processing without telemetry, cloud processing, or an account.
Free plan Visit site - 3
StarForce Reader
Free plan AndroidiPhoneLinux+2Reading EPUB and protected document formats — StarForce Reader handles EPUB and protected SFPDF and PCDOC files, and can play protected videos on mobile.
Free plan Visit site - 4
Javelin PDF Reader
Free plan AndroidiPhoneMac+1Reading and distributing DRM-protected PDFs — Javelin reads Drumlin-DRM PDFs and supports expiry dates, dynamic watermarks, and publisher-controlled printing.
Free plan Visit site - 5
KDAN PDF
by KDAN PDFFree plan AndroidiPhoneMac+1PDF editing, OCR, conversion, and form creation — KDAN PDF adds text editing, OCR, PDF conversion, and form creation, capabilities not specified for MuPDF except conversion.
Free plan · paid from $59.99/yr · 7-day trial Visit site - 6
Okular
Free plan LinuxMacWindowsFree reading across document, image, and comic formats — Okular reads EPUB, DjVU, Markdown, image, and comic formats alongside PDF, while MuPDF supports a different range of formats and operations.
Free plan Visit site - 7
Komodo PDF
Free plan LinuxMacWindowsLocal PDF reading with cited document answers — Komodo adds document question answering with page citations and local indexing; remote chat sends retrieved passages to the configured provider.
Free plan Visit site - 8
Apache PDFBox
Free plan APILinuxSelf-hosted - 9
ComPDFKit PDF SDK
Free plan AndroidAPIiPhone+5 - 10
GemBox.Pdf
Free plan AndroidiPhoneLinux+3 - 11
Ghostscript
Free plan APILinuxMac+2 - 12
libHaru
Free plan LinuxSelf-hostedWindows - 13
Nutrient SDK
Free plan AndroidAPIiPhone+5 - 14
OpenPDF
Free plan AndroidLinuxMac+2 - 15
PDFium
Free plan AndroidLinuxMac+2 - 16
PDFsharp
Free plan LinuxMacSelf-hosted+1 - 17
PoDoFo
Free plan APILinuxMac+1 - 18
Poppler
Free plan AndroidAPILinux+3 - 19
Prince
Free plan APILinuxMac+2 - 20
QuestPDF
Free plan LinuxMacSelf-hosted+1 - 21
Spire.PDF
Free plan AndroidAPIiPhone+5 - 22
Syncfusion PDF Library
Free plan AndroidAPIiPhone+5 - 23
WeasyPrint
Free plan APILinuxMac+2 - 24
OpenHTMLtoPDF
Free plan Self-hosted - 25
pdf-lib
Free plan Self-hostedWeb - 26
Adobe Document Generation API
Free plan Web - 27
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Aspose.PDF
Free trial AndroidAPILinux+4 - 30
callas pdfToolbox SDK
Free trial APILinuxMac+2 - 31
Datalogics Adobe PDF Library
Free trial APILinuxMac+2
A ready-to-use reader may be a better fit than an SDK, or you may need a particular reading tool, OCR, protected-file controls, or document question answering. MuPDF has a free AGPL option, but server-based AGPL use requires source-code disclosure to users, and embedding may require a commercial license starting at $299 per month. Compare each alternative’s platforms, formats, reading and editing tools, privacy approach, licensing, and DRM controls before switching.