iLovePDF is a big PDF toolkit, and for many jobs it's excellent. People look for an alternative mostly for one reason: on its website, files are uploaded to its servers. Its site says they're deleted within 2 hours, which is reasonable, but contracts, payslips and ID scans are things many people would rather not send anywhere. Santra takes the opposite approach with a much smaller set of PDF tools: everything runs on your PC.
What each one offers
| Feature | Santra | iLovePDF |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | Your Windows PC, offline | Website for everyone; desktop and phone apps with Premium |
| Files uploaded | Never | Yes on the website; its desktop app runs heavy tasks offline |
| Merge, compress PDFs | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Password-protect and unlock | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| PDF to Word, Excel, PowerPoint | ✗ No | ✓ Yes |
| OCR, edit, sign, redact | ✗ No | ✓ Yes |
| Free use | First 25 files, any size | Free on the web with per-task limits (e.g. 100 MB for most tools) |
| Paid | US$19 once, up to 3 PCs | Premium subscription; price depends on your country |
When iLovePDF is the better pick
- You need PDF to Word, Excel or PowerPoint. Santra deliberately doesn't offer these, because the results are unreliable everywhere.
- You need OCR, editing, e-signatures, redaction or forms.
- You work on a Mac, a phone or a borrowed computer: a browser is all iLovePDF needs.
When Santra is the better pick
- The files are private and you'd rather they never leave your PC.
- You merge, compress or lock PDFs often and want it done in one drag, without opening a website.
- You also convert Word, Excel and PowerPoint files to PDF, or images to one PDF, from the same gesture.
- You prefer paying once (US$19) over a subscription.
How to switch for everyday PDF jobs
- Install Santra on Windows 10 or 11.
- Select your PDFs in File Explorer, start dragging them and tap Alt.
- Drop them on Merge, Compress, Lock or Unlock. The new PDF is saved next to the originals.
Guides: merge PDFs, compress a PDF, password-protect a PDF, Word to PDF and JPG to PDF.
A word on the details
iLovePDF's plans and limits come from its own pricing, desktop and security pages, checked on 22 October 2026. Its prices were shown to us in Indian rupees, so we haven't listed a US dollar price; check its pricing page for your country.