4 Best Free DOCX to PDF Converters

Microsoft Word has two standard file types. DOC and DOCX. The latter is newer and is praised for having smaller file sizes than the DOC format does, as well as being less susceptible to file corruption. This can make people prefer DOCX and due to this popularity, having a DOCX to PDF converter can come in handy.

Best Offline DOCX to PDF Converters

There are two groups of converters. online and offline. In this first section we’ll dive into the best offline solutions you can use.

Best Free Offline DOCX to PDF Converter – StarzSoft PDF WIZ

StarzSoft PDF WIZ is undoubtedly the best free DOCX to PDF converter offline. A more accurate description of this software would be a PDF toolkit that gives users many simple yet useful tools to handle PDFs.

Jumping right into PDF WIZ and using it for converting DOCX to PDF, or even to convert images to PDF, couldn’t be easier. Make sure you go ahead and download a free copy of PDF WIZ and afterwards, follow the steps below to understand how it works as a DOCX to PDF converter.

Step 1. Launch PDF WIZ and click on “Word to PDF” on the main menu.

Step 2. Drag and drop the DOCX file into the screen or click the centre (or the “Add File” button) to select the file manually.

• 1. After the file has been added, you can choose specific pages to convert. Click on the “All” button next to the DOCX and enter page numbers accordingly.
• 2. Specify a directory to save the converted file by changing the “Saved in: Original Directory” option below.

Step 3. Click on “Convert Now” and after a moment, a new PDF will be created.

Another great feature of PDF WIZ is that you aren’t bound to converting the whole file. If there are only a few pages that need to be converted from DOCX to PDF then this can be done easily too. As you can tell from the steps above, it’s not a difficult program to use.

PrimoPDF

Alternatively to PDF WIZ as a DOCX to PDF converter offline is PrimoPDF which also has a lot of great features to offer.

• ● Converts images with little quality loss
• ● Converts and processes PDF files very quickly
• ● Capable of converting PDF to Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel

PrimoPDF also offers Nitro Pro, which is more of a PDF editor than it is a converter. Back to PrimoPDF. it’s still more than capable of converting DOCX to PDF. So far it sounds like a great solution, but let’s take a quick look at the negatives.

Cons

• 1. Some images are not formatted properly when converted
• 2. The user interface is old, and some features don’t work as they should
• 3. Even though PrimoPDF is free, there are ads covering a lot of the interface
• 4. Although there is an extensive official guide, much of it is outdated

Best Online DOCX to PDF Converter

Perhaps an offline converter doesn’t suit what you’re interested in. Online converters are another solution that we can consider, although let it be known there is a list of cons to online tools.

1. Zamzar

Zamzar isn’t just a DOCX to PDF converter, it’s a general converting solution. Hundreds upon hundreds of formats are supported on top of documents. Images, audio files, videos, and eBooks can be converted to a lengthy list of other formats.

Something that makes Zamzar less exciting is that it’s not free. You choose from one of three pricing options which have varying upload limits, cloud storage, and max file sizes. On the other hand, these pricing packages are reasonable, starting at $9 and maxing at $25.

2. FreePDFConverter

Compared to Zamzar, FreePDFConverter isn’t as widely spread regarding the types of conversions it provides. Instead, this site is purely for PDF conversions and can convert JPG, eBooks, Excel, PowerPoint, and of course, Word documents to PDF. This conversion goes both ways and you can also convert PDF to those other formats too.

Not only that, but you can merge and split PDFs, edit the PDF protection, compress files, and make simple tweaks (e.g. rotating and deleting pages). FreePDFConverter does get the leg up on Zamzar since it’s free to use without a subscription, even if you do have to register an account first.

Cons of Online Converters

Before we wrap up this article, we previously mentioned that there were some cons of using a DOCX to PDF converter online instead of the offline option. Here are the main concerns of online tools:

• 1. Safety and privacy are the biggest issues of online converting. If a website is hacked and has a privacy leak, documents that you uploaded are at a high risk of leaking.
• 2. Online tools have to take into consideration bandwidth, whereas offline tools don’t. This means that online tools have file limits and in addition, the conversion quality is worse.
• 3. In terms of the features that both online and offline tools provide, online tools don’t have as many abilities.

The gist of this is that when comparing offline and online tools, offline is more beneficial for these (and a lot of other) reasons.

Conclusion

One thing’s certain and that’s that an offline converter is a superior solution instead of an online tool which has a handful of negative associations. Narrowing down the choice of DOCX to PDF converter even more, StarzSoft PDF WIZ is the best of the best and if you need a reliable toolkit that’s exactly what you need.