A free Nitro alternative
A free Nitro alternative — Nitro has no permanent free plan at all; PDFCure is free forever.
Nitro is a capable PDF and eSign suite built for teams, but it has no free tier to speak of — only a 14-day free trial, after which every plan is paid (from about $15–18/user/month).
PDFCure covers the everyday tasks people reach for — merge, split, compress, convert, sign — for free, indefinitely, running locally in your browser with nothing uploaded.
If you just need to get one PDF task done and don't want a trial clock counting down, PDFCure doesn't have one.
PDFCure vs Nitro
| PDFCure | Nitro | |
|---|---|---|
| Where files are processed | In your browser — never uploaded | Uploaded to Nitro's cloud (a desktop app is also available) |
| Free plan | Yes — free forever | None — 14-day trial only, then paid |
| Account required | No | Yes, from day one |
| Price after the trial | Still free | From ~$15–18/user/month |
| Works fully offline (installed PWA) | Yes | Desktop app only — the online tools need a connection |
| Number of tools | 165+ | A team-oriented suite — create, convert, edit, eSign, secure |
Where Nitro does more: Nitro's admin controls, audit trails, and eSign workflow features are built for organizations standardizing on one PDF tool company-wide — a different use case from a free, no-signup, one-off tool.
Comparison reflects each product's publicly documented free tier and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Nitro.