iLovePDF alternatives that work offline on Mac

iLovePDF's website merges, splits, compresses, converts, edits, signs and protects PDFs on its servers. Your file is uploaded over HTTPS, and its security page says uploaded files are deleted for good within two hours of being processed. The free plan limits each task, like 2 files at a time for Compress and 25 for Merge. Premium is $7 a month, or $48 a year ($4 a month), on iLovePDF's pricing.

There's also iLovePDF Desktop, for Mac and Windows, which iLovePDF says handles most of its web tools without an internet connection. Its pages disagree on what's free: the pricing page says the free plan doesn't include Desktop, while the Desktop page shows a free reader. iLovePDF doesn't publish a list of which tools work offline.

We make Koi, so read this with that in mind. Koi is first below because it does iLovePDF's most-used jobs, merge, split, compress, organize and convert, on your Mac with nothing uploaded and no limits per task. It doesn't edit, sign, protect or watermark, and the picks say who does. Every fact about another app comes from its own site, help pages or Mac App Store listing, checked October 21, 2026. We didn't run tests or benchmarks.

• Two hours on a server is two hours too many for a contract, a tax form or an ID scan.
• Your company doesn't allow uploading files to outside sites.
• The free plan's limits per task get in the way of a big merge or a batch.
• You're offline, or a large scan takes ages to upload and download again.
• You don't want a $48 a year plan just to get the desktop app working offline.

1. Select the PDFs in Finder and start dragging them together.
2. While you hold them, press Shift. The PDF wheel opens round your pointer, “3 PDFs” in the middle.
3. Drop them on Merge. Move each up or down, or take one out, then click Merge PDFs.
4. To split instead, drop one PDF on Split and type ranges like 1-3, 4, 5-.

The merged file, like “First merged.pdf”, lands beside the originals. More in our guides to merging PDFs on a Mac and turning Word into PDF.

1. Open the first PDF in Preview and choose View, Thumbnails.
2. Drag the other PDF from Finder into the sidebar where its pages should go.
3. Drag thumbnails to reorder them.
4. Choose File, Export as PDF and save it under a new name.

From each app's own site, help pages or Apple's guides.

iLovePDF does more PDF jobs: page numbers, watermarks, passwords, editing, signing, and it's on phones and any browser. Its Desktop app also works offline for most tools. If you already pay for Premium, try that before anything else.

Koi is better if you want the common jobs done without a website, limits per task or an extra app open. Drag, hold Shift, drop. And Koi does far more than PDFs: the same wheel edits photos and videos and opens zips, and Koi itself types what you say with dictation, records calls and keeps a calendar, all on one plan.

“Offline” can mean different things on different apps, so ask four questions before you trust one with a private file:

• Does every tool run on the Mac, or only some? PDFgear and iLovePDF Desktop say most do, not all.
• Do AI features send the file somewhere? Summaries and chat usually do.
• Is the original kept? A tool that overwrites your file can't be undone.
• Does it need an account or a plan to work offline at all?

For Koi: every Shift wheel tool runs on your Mac with nothing uploaded, the original is never touched, and the Shift wheel uses no AI, so it never counts against Koi's usage. Koi does need an account and a plan.

• Merge, split, compress and convert on your Mac from a drag? Koi.
• Merge and sign for free? Preview.
• A free offline editor with conversions? PDFgear.
• An offline app with web-style tools? Sejda Desktop.
• A paid editor with batch tools? UPDF.

Also see Smallpdf alternatives, PDF Expert alternatives and Koi's plans.