SumatraPDF
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 3 of 6 PDF readers by recommenders
Fast, simple PDF reader for Windows that opens files almost instantly and displays them cleanly. It does not edit PDFs.
Fast, simple PDF reader for Windows that opens files almost instantly and displays them cleanly. It does not edit PDFs.
12 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 92%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 11 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Very fast to open
“starts faster than a blink of an eye and displays PDFs for reading very nicely”
Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe” “You will not beat SumatraPDF for speed of opening & reading PDF's.”
Comment from 1 Sep 2026 in “Hang on to Your Firefox” Reads PDFs nicely
“starts faster than a blink of an eye and displays PDFs for reading very nicely”
Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe” “I use SumatraPDF for reading, but it doesn't do editing.”
Comment from 1 Sep 2026 in “Hang on to Your Firefox” Simple and excellent software
“There's just something about their simplicity I've always loved on Windows”
Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “Claude Duet” “It's an excellent piece of software.”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “Write less code, be more responsible”
Other PDF readers people recommend
The four most recommended other PDF readers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Preview | 42 | 28 | 60% | 10 | — | — |
| Okular | 12 | 5 | 71% | 5 | — | Approved |
| SumatraPDFThis page | 11 | 1 | 92% | 7 | — | Approved |
| MuPDF | 11 | 3 | 79% | 7 | — | Approved |
| pdf.js | 10 | 4 | 71% | 8 | — | Approved |
What people said
9 of the 13 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“There's just something about their simplicity I've always loved on Windows”
“If it's half as good as the author's other project, Sumatra PDF then it will be amazing.”
“You will not beat SumatraPDF for speed of opening & reading PDF's.”
“I use SumatraPDF for reading, but it doesn't do editing.”
“suamtraPDF cames with one”
“starts faster than a blink of an eye and displays PDFs for reading very nicely”
“Jesus that code is garbage.”
“It's an excellent piece of software.”
“Most are free and open source to boot.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.