Stirling PDF V2, our complete open-source replacement to Adobe Acrobat, is now liv!
Version 2 has been a year in the making but brings a full redesign of the app, along with the most requested changes from the community over the past year.

Highlights

• Brand new and quick UI with lots of polish to allow easy context switching
• Files can now move between operations, Upload a file once and perform multiple operations on it without requiring reuploads
• Undo, redo and complete version history for all files changed
• Native desktop applications with full "open with" functionality finally being a true desktop replacement for other PDF apps
• Allowing split deployments with a separated frontend and backend
• Complete System setting customisation from within UI so admins can customise all settings without interacting with server config files
• Desktop to server linkage so you can have a desktop experience whilst having the performance of a server for a hybrid experience
• Text editing (alpha), Basic PDF text editing is now available as an early-access feature for paid users. It’s still alpha and will improve over time.

Licensing and pricing

• We’re introducing a new, unlimited-seat SERVER tier for the lowest price in the industry. Key details:
  • Unlimited seats
  • PDF Text Editing
  • Full admin control
  • $99/server/month or $1000/server/year
• Going forward, our open-core license will be enforced: individual users and teams up to 5 users can fully use Stirling PDF for free; organisations with more than 5 users will need a license.
• All existing users are grandfathered. If you’ve been with us up to this point, you should see no change in what you can use today. To access new features or make new changes to your users you can quickly upgrade in your Admin Settings.

Migration

Due to this being a major release, any production deployments should consider backing up their config directory before deploying this change

Extra notes

Please note that with this large update and introduction of several new pieces of functionality there may be rough edges.
If you run into issues please

• open a GitHub issue, or
• drop into Discord and let us know!

Our team will also be working to updating our github branching, documentation and various other artifacts over the next few days so please let us know if we miss anything or if you have questions!