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Comparisons
The watermark tools on the market differ less in whether they can add a mark and more in what they charge for the controls, how long they keep your file and how much they throttle you before you get a result. These comparisons set out the documented facts for each tool, note where the evidence comes from, and say plainly which one suits which situation.
What the comparisons look at
Where a figure comes from a vendor's own pricing or help page it is quoted as a fact with the date it was checked. Where it comes from a third-party source it is marked as such. Nothing here is estimated.
- Whether an account is required before the tool can be used
- The free limits: file size, pages, and tasks per hour or per day
- The watermark controls: styles, opacity, rotation, page range, tiling
- Price of the entry paid tier, and what it actually unlocks
- How long the file is kept after processing, and who processes it
Frequently asked questions
Are these comparisons independent?
They are written by the team behind this tool, so they are not independent - but they are sourced. Every price, limit and retention claim is taken from the vendor's own published pages or from a named third-party source, with the date it was checked, and each page says where we are worse as well as where we are better.
Which is better for one-off watermarking, a free tool or Acrobat?
For a one-off job, a free online tool. Acrobat is a paid desktop application whose watermark feature sits behind the paid tier, and its free online services do not include watermarking at all. Acrobat earns its price when you edit, sign and manage documents all day.