Side by side
AvePDF vs HankPDF
Both stand on pdf compression software. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.
AvePDF covers common PDF tasks and conversion across a wide range of formats, with cloud upload and save options. The Free plan has processing and file-size limits, and free uploads may be retained; Premium costs $45 a year, billed annually as one payment per user.
Visit AvePDFChoose HankPDF for local, open-source compression of scanned PDFs, especially when searchable output and command-line or Python access matter. Look elsewhere if you need an offline desktop app; HankPDF is a command-line tool, and Python setup requires native dependencies.
Visit HankPDFThe facts
| AvePDF | HankPDF | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Not published | Not published |
| Runs on | Android, iPhone, Linux, Web | API, Linux, Mac, Self-hosted, Windows |
| Lowest paid plan | AvePDF Premium: $45 per user a year | Free or on request |
| Plans published | 2 | 1 |
| Maker | Not published | Not published |
| Website | avepdf.com | github.com |
| On pdf compression software | #2 of 39 | #6 of 39 |
AvePDF: what it does well
- Offers more than 100 conversion formats.
- Free plan includes 50+ document tools.
- Supports Google Drive and Dropbox uploads.
- Free users can embed its widgets.
- Premium files are not retained.
What to know first
- Free plan allows 2 operations per 6 hours.
- Free plan has a 128 MB file limit.
- Free-service files may be retained to train models.
- No offline desktop app is listed.
HankPDF: what it does well
- Processes PDFs locally without normal-use network activity or uploads.
- Offers CLI compression, chunking, and selected-page image exports.
- Provides a Python compress() API and console command.
- Checks output text, image similarity, and PDF structure.
- Apache-2.0 licensed and cleared for commercial use.
What to know first
- Python installation requires separate Tesseract and qpdf binaries.
- Already-efficient PDFs may not shrink.
- jbig2enc is optional rather than included with Python installation.
Alternatives to AvePDF Alternatives to HankPDF The whole list