# SumatraPDF

11 Hacker News commenters recommended SumatraPDF and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Fast, simple PDF reader for Windows that opens files almost instantly and displays them cleanly. It does not edit PDFs.

## Why people recommend it

- Very fast to open (2 comments): "starts faster than a blink of an eye and displays PDFs for reading very nicely" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47828220)) "You will not beat SumatraPDF for speed of opening & reading PDF's." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49529396))
- Reads PDFs nicely (2 comments): "starts faster than a blink of an eye and displays PDFs for reading very nicely" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47828220)) "I use SumatraPDF for reading, but it doesn't do editing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49529391))
- Simple and excellent software (2 comments): "There's just something about their simplicity I've always loved on Windows" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50196794)) "It's an excellent piece of software." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47768224))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Apple Preview](https://hackerapproved.com/p/preview.md): 42 recommend
- [Okular](https://hackerapproved.com/p/okular.md): 12 recommend
- [MuPDF](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mupdf.md): 11 recommend
- [pdf.js](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pdf-js.md): 10 recommend
- [Foxit Reader](https://hackerapproved.com/p/foxit-reader.md): 6 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "SumatraPDF", https://hackerapproved.com/p/sumatrapdf/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).