SumatraPDF vs MuPDF

SumatraPDF7.1Visit MuPDF6.5Visit

Higher score SumatraPDF #6 in PDF Readers 7.1/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 4 of 4 features Visit SumatraPDF

vs

MuPDF #11 in PDF Readers 6.5/10 Free plan · paid from $299/mo · 14-day trial Free plan✓ 1 of 4 features Visit MuPDF

• SumatraPDF fits best

  Portable Windows reading with signatures

• MuPDF fits best

  Developers needing a powerful open-source viewer

Advertiser disclosure: iTechGuides is reader-supported. We may earn a commission when you click some links. It never changes our verdict. How we rank.

Side by side

Feature	SumatraPDF 7.1/10 Visit ↗	MuPDF 6.5/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	7.1	6.5
Ranking	#6 in PDF Readers	#11 in PDF Readers
Best for	Portable Windows reading with signatures	Developers needing a powerful open-source viewer
Pricing model	Free	Free plan + paid
Starting price	Not published	Not published
Free plan	✓	✓
Free trial	—	—
Deployment	Desktop	Cloud, Self-hosted, Browser extension
Platforms	Windows	Web, Linux, Windows, macOS
Support	Docs, Community	Email
Built for	Solo, Small business, Mid-market	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise
Features SumatraPDF 4/4 · MuPDF 1/4
Annotation tools	✓	✓
Form filling	✓ (best)	Not published
Offline access	✓ (best)	Not published
Text-to-speech	✓ (best)	Not published
Specs
OCR support	Not published	Not published
Platform support	Desktop	Cross-platform
Our review
Pros	Opens PDFs, ebooks, comics, images, and several document formats Supports annotations, digital signatures, and Windows text-to-speech Portable deployment and command-line PDF operations support local workflows	Supports rendering, extraction, annotations, redaction, forms, and signatures Runs across web, desktop, mobile, API, and embedded environments Includes mutool command-line tools and bindings for five languages
Cons	Windows-only, with no macOS, Linux, web, or mobile versions Cannot fill PDF forms, despite supporting form-field highlighting Scanned pages require OCR elsewhere	No OCR support AGPL terms may not fit proprietary embedding or redistribution Primarily a developer library, not a standalone consumer reader
Our verdict	SumatraPDF is a free, open-source desktop reader for Windows. It is aimed at people who want to read PDFs and a broad set of other local formats, including EPUB, MOBI, CBZ, DjVu, XPS, CHM, and image files. Text search, document navigation,… Read the review →	MuPDF is an open-source C library and document engine for developers building PDF and document workflows across desktop, mobile, web, server, and embedded environments. It covers viewing, rendering, extraction, conversion, annotation,… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• SumatraPDF — where it wins

  • Opens PDFs, ebooks, comics, images, and several document formats
  • Supports annotations, digital signatures, and Windows text-to-speech
  • Portable deployment and command-line PDF operations support local workflows

  Where it doesn't

  • Windows-only, with no macOS, Linux, web, or mobile versions
  • Cannot fill PDF forms, despite supporting form-field highlighting
  • Scanned pages require OCR elsewhere

• MuPDF — where it wins

  • Supports rendering, extraction, annotations, redaction, forms, and signatures
  • Runs across web, desktop, mobile, API, and embedded environments
  • Includes mutool command-line tools and bindings for five languages

  Where it doesn't

  • No OCR support
  • AGPL terms may not fit proprietary embedding or redistribution
  • Primarily a developer library, not a standalone consumer reader

• SumatraPDF7.1/10 · Free plan

  A portable Windows reader with broad format support, annotations, signatures, and command-line tools.

  Visit SumatraPDFFull verdict →
• MuPDF6.5/10 · Free plan · paid from $299/mo · 14-day trial

  A developer-focused PDF engine with broad document tooling and cross-platform support.

  Visit MuPDFFull verdict →