Smallpdf, TinyPNG, Bitly and Invoice Simple Alternatives in 2026: Free vs Paid Compared (iLovePDF, Adobe, Canva, Jobbit)

Nobody sets out to pay for a PDF compressor. It happens on a Tuesday: the tender portal wants the file under 5 MB, the free site says you have used today's two tasks, and £9 a month looks cheaper than missing the deadline. Six months later the card is paying Smallpdf for PDFs, TinyPNG for images, Bitly for the QR code on the van and Invoice Simple for invoices, four subscriptions for four jobs that each take a minute. The free vs paid question for online tools is rarely about features. It is about limits: how many files a day, how big, with or without a watermark, and whether the thing you printed keeps working after the trial.

This comparison puts the numbers side by side. For each of the four jobs it lists the free-plan limits and the paid price of the market leaders in 2026, then the Smallpdf alternative, TinyPNG alternative, Bitly alternative and Invoice Simple alternative that costs nothing: Jobbit's tool pages, where an AI agent does the job from one form with no daily cap, no watermark and no card. Prices are the vendors' list prices at the time of writing, in the currency each vendor quotes, and change often, so treat them as a guide.

How we compared the tools

1. What the free plan actually allows. Tasks per day, file size, images per batch, invoices per month, and whether the output carries a watermark or an advert.

2. What the paid plan costs on the vendor's own pricing page in September 2026, monthly and annual where both exist.

3. The catch that pushes people to pay. Usually a cap that appears at the worst moment.

4. Privacy. Where the file goes and how long it stays there.

5. What Jobbit does for the same job, honestly, including where a paid tool is still the better buy.

Free vs paid at a glance: the four subscriptions and the free alternative

Add the four cheapest paid plans together and a one-person business pays about £30 a month, roughly £360 a year, for four minute-long jobs. That is the number to keep in mind through the rest of this guide.

PDF tools: Smallpdf and iLovePDF alternatives

What you get free

Smallpdf gives everyone two tasks a day and then asks you to wait until tomorrow or upgrade. iLovePDF is more generous on task count but caps file sizes and slows batches on the free tier, and the free Adobe Acrobat online tools let you try each once before the sign-in wall. All three upload your file to their servers; each publishes a deletion window (Smallpdf says an hour, iLovePDF says two hours), which is fine for a menu and not fine for a payslip, a contract or a client's ID.

What you pay

Smallpdf Pro is $15 a month, or $108 on the annual plan, and unlocks unlimited tasks, batch processing and OCR. iLovePDF Premium is listed between $4 and $9 a month depending on billing and region, with a Business tier at $15 per user. Adobe Acrobat Standard runs to about £14 a month in the UK and is a different class of product: a full desktop editor with e-signatures, which most small businesses never open.

The Smallpdf alternative on Jobbit

The Jobbit PDF compressor asks three things: the file, the size you need (under 1 MB, 2 MB, 5 MB or 10 MB) and what the document is for. The agent compresses to that target, checks the text is still sharp, and hands the file back in a chat with the before and after sizes. There is no task counter and the same chat merges, splits or converts the next file in one sentence. Where a paid tool still wins: legally evidenced e-signatures with an audit trail, which is Acrobat's or DocuSign's job, not a compressor's. The full method, including scanned documents, is in how to compress a PDF for free.

Image tools: TinyPNG and Canva alternatives

What you get free

TinyPNG's free tier is honest and useful: 20 images per session, 5 MB each, drag and drop, no account. The limit bites when a product shoot produces 80 photos. Canva's free plan resizes one design at a time and keeps Magic Resize, the one-click multi-format feature, for Pro. Squoosh runs entirely in the browser, which makes it the privacy pick, but it is one image at a time and has no HEIC input.

What you pay

TinyPNG Web Pro is $39 a year for unlimited images through the web interface, up from $25 the year before. Canva Pro is £13 a month or £100 a year plus VAT in the UK, and you are paying for a design suite to get a resizer.

The TinyPNG alternative on Jobbit

The Jobbit image resizer and converter takes a folder, not a file: pick the job (HEIC to JPG, Instagram sizes, under 200 KB for a website, passport photo, marketplace listing, WebP for speed), the output format and how many, attach the images and get one zip back, resized, converted and renamed. Batch size is not a setting because there is no counter. Where Canva still wins: designing the thing in the first place. Where TinyPNG still wins: a developer API for automated compression in a build pipeline. The 14 platform sizes and the HEIC workflow are in how to resize and convert images for free.

QR codes and short links: Bitly and QR Tiger alternatives

What you get free

Bitly's free plan is five short links a month, two QR codes and the shared bit.ly domain, with an interstitial page on some links. QR Code Monkey is free and generates static codes, which is the right kind. QR Tiger, Uniqode and Flowcode lead with dynamic codes: a redirect they host, editable and tracked, which is why a "free" code can stop working when the trial ends, after you have printed 500 flyers.

What you pay

Bitly Core is $10 a month billed annually for 100 links a month and 90 days of analytics; Growth is $29. QR Tiger and Uniqode start around $10 to $15 a month for dynamic codes with tracking. These are fair prices if you need to change the destination after printing or count scans per campaign. Most menus, business cards and vans do not.

The Bitly alternative on Jobbit

The Jobbit QR code generator makes static codes only: the URL is inside the pattern, nothing sits between the phone and your page, and the code cannot expire because there is no subscription to lapse. You get a PNG for screens and an SVG for print, tested to scan, with your logo in the middle and your brand colour if you want it, and the print size for where it is going. If you also want a short link on your own domain, ask the agent in the same chat and it builds one on yourbusiness.co.uk rather than bit.ly. Where Bitly still wins: scan analytics across many campaigns. The seven uses and the print rules are in how to make a free QR code that never expires.

Invoice apps: Invoice Simple alternative

What you get free

Invoice Simple's free Essentials tier allows three invoices a month, which is exactly enough to get you attached and one short of a normal month. Zoho Invoice and Wave are free without an invoice cap, in exchange for an account, their branding on the free templates and, with Wave, a push towards their payment processing. Word and Google Docs templates are free forever and the reason so many invoices go out without a number, a due date or the right VAT line.

What you pay

Invoice Simple Essentials is $6.99 a month, Plus is $13.49 for ten invoices a month and reminders, and Premium is $19.99 for unlimited invoices and signatures. Over a year the Premium plan costs more than most sole traders spend on their accountant's software.

The Invoice Simple alternative on Jobbit

The Jobbit invoice generator asks who the invoice is for, the amount and currency, what it covers, whether VAT applies and the due date. Back comes a numbered PDF invoice with payment terms and your bank details, plus an editable DOCX, and your details are kept for the next one. There is no monthly count. In the same chat the agent writes the covering email, schedules the reminder for the day after the due date and adds the statutory late payment interest wording UK businesses are entitled to use. Where a paid app still wins: card payment links inside the invoice and a full bookkeeping ledger, which is Xero or FreeAgent territory. The nine fields every UK invoice needs are in how to write an invoice that gets paid.

The hidden costs a price table does not show

• Daily caps arrive at deadlines. Two tasks a day is plenty until the day you have three.

• Watermarks on the free tier. Common on video and design tools, rarer on PDF tools, always a surprise on the thing you already sent.

• Expiring codes. A dynamic QR code from a trial is a liability on anything printed. Static codes cannot expire.

• The subscription you forgot. Tool subscriptions are small enough to survive every card statement review. Four of them are £360 a year.

• Your files on someone else's server. Free converters are fine for a menu. For contracts, payslips, ID scans and client work, use a tool that runs in your own workspace or on your own machine.

• Cancelling. Smallpdf, Canva and Bitly are cancelled from the account page; Invoice Simple and app-store subscriptions are cancelled through Apple or Google if you bought them in the app, which catches people out.

Where a paid tool is still the right buy

An honest comparison names the cases where the subscription earns its keep. Acrobat or DocuSign for signatures with an audit trail. Canva Pro if you design in Canva every day and the resizer is a bonus. Bitly Growth or QR Tiger if you run campaigns and need scan counts by location. Xero, FreeAgent or QuickBooks if you want invoicing tied to your bank feed and your tax return. TinyPNG's API if compression has to run automatically inside your website's build. For everything else on this page, the free Jobbit tool does the job without a cap, and the 4 free online tools guide shows all four side by side.

What "free" means on Jobbit

The free plan gives every account 100 credits a day; each of these jobs uses a small part of that, so a normal day of PDFs, images, codes and invoices fits inside it. There is no card at sign-up, no watermark and no per-tool subscription, because the tools are not products of their own: they are one form in front of a general AI agent that builds websites, writes documents and runs research from the same chat. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Manus and Meta's Muse can each draft an invoice or explain how to compress a file; the difference here is that the agent runs the software and hands back the finished file. Paid plans exist for people who use the agent for bigger work and are set out in Jobbit pricing explained. If you have wondered why the 40 most searched free tools all lead to a paywall, our most googled free online tools guide covers the whole category.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free alternative to Smallpdf?

For compressing, merging and converting PDFs without a daily cap, Jobbit's PDF compressor does the job from one form on the free plan, with no watermark and the target size you choose. iLovePDF is the closest like-for-like free website, with a bigger task allowance than Smallpdf but file-size caps and a queue.

Is Smallpdf Pro worth $15 a month?

Only if you process PDFs all day and need OCR and batch tools every week. For a small business that compresses a few files a month, the free tier's two tasks a day or a free agent tool covers it, and Acrobat Standard is the better paid option if you also need signatures.

How can I resize images for free without a limit?

Jobbit's image resizer takes a whole folder per message and returns a zip, with formats including HEIC, JPG, PNG and WebP and a size target such as under 200 KB. TinyPNG's free tier is good for up to 20 images at a time; Squoosh is free and private but handles one image at a time.

Do free QR codes expire?

Static QR codes never expire because the link is encoded in the pattern itself. Dynamic codes from trial plans on QR Tiger, Uniqode, Flowcode and similar services redirect through the vendor's server and can stop working when the trial or subscription ends. Jobbit generates static codes only.

What is a free alternative to Invoice Simple with unlimited invoices?

Jobbit's invoice generator produces a numbered PDF and an editable DOCX with VAT and payment terms, with no monthly invoice count, on the free plan. Zoho Invoice and Wave are also free with unlimited invoices in exchange for an account and their branding.

Are free online converters safe for confidential documents?

Reputable sites such as Smallpdf and iLovePDF delete uploads within hours, but you are still sending a contract or payslip to a third party. For sensitive files, use a tool that keeps the work in your own workspace, such as an AI agent with a private sandbox, or a desktop application.

How much do small businesses spend on tool subscriptions?

The four cheapest paid plans in this comparison, Smallpdf Pro, TinyPNG Web Pro, Bitly Core and Invoice Simple Essentials, add up to about £30 a month or £360 a year at 2026 list prices. Jobbit's free tools cover the same four jobs with no card and no cap.