Privacy-first PDF tools
QuillPDF vs Smallpdf vs iLovePDF —
your file never leaves your browser
Most online PDF tools work the same way: you upload your file to a server, they process it, you download the result. That means your document travels to and is processed on someone else's infrastructure. QuillPDF is architecturally different — every tool runs entirely in your browser tab, on your own hardware, using your own CPU and memory.
Side-by-side comparison
| Feature | QuillPDF | Smallpdf | iLovePDF |
|---|---|---|---|
Files uploaded to a server? Whether your PDF bytes leave your device and travel to a third-party server during processing. | No | Yes | Yes |
Works offline after page loads? Once the page has loaded, can you disconnect from the internet and keep working? | Yes | No | No |
OCR location Where the OCR engine runs — in your browser tab or on a remote server. | Browser (Tesseract.js, bundled from our origin) | Server-side | Server-side |
True redaction (content permanently removed)? Whether redacted content is gone from the PDF stream or just visually covered. QuillPDF rasterizes the page — the original text layer is replaced by an image, so the content cannot be recovered. | Yes | Varies by plan / tool | Varies by plan / tool |
Account required? Whether you must create an account to use the core tools. | No | Required for some features | Required for some features |
Tracking cookies? Whether the service sets advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. | No | Yes | Yes |
Price Current pricing model. | Free — every tool, no paid tier | Freemium — limits on free tier; paid plans from ~$9/mo | Freemium — limits on free tier; paid plans from ~$4/mo |
Competitor information reflects publicly documented architecture (server-side processing, account models, pricing) as of June 2026. Pricing for Smallpdf and iLovePDF is indicative — check their sites for current plans.
Why the architecture difference matters
Your file, your hardware
The PDF is processed by JavaScript running in your browser tab — on your CPU, in your RAM. No bytes cross the network after the page loads. Open DevTools → Network tab and run any tool: zero requests.
Offline after first load
Once the page and its engines have loaded, disconnect your network — the tools keep working. Merge, split, OCR, redact, compress: all continue without a server connection. The OCR engine (Tesseract.js) is bundled from our own origin, not a CDN.
True redaction
QuillPDF's Redact tool rasterizes each affected page — the original text layer is replaced by an image. The redacted content is gone from the PDF stream, not just visually covered. What you black out cannot be copy-pasted or searched.
All 11 tools — all client-side
Every tool below runs entirely in your browser. No upload required for any of them.
- Merge PDF
- Split PDF
- Compress PDF (true image re-encoding)
- Clean Metadata
- Redact PDF (rasterize-on-redact)
- PDF to Image
- Image to PDF
- Rotate PDF
- Watermark PDF
- Bates Numbering
- OCR PDF (Tesseract.js, runs offline)
Honest limits
Cloudflare edge. The site is fronted by Cloudflare as a DNS proxy. Their edge captures standard request metadata (timestamp, IP, status code) under their own policy. We run no application-level logging beyond a first-party path-only page counter that honours Do Not Track. Your file bytes never reach either layer.
Not HIPAA/BAA. QuillPDF does not operate under a Business Associate Agreement. Do not use it for Protected Health Information or regulated clinical workflows.
50 MB file limit. Your browser's memory is the processing environment. Very large PDFs may run slowly or hit browser memory limits.
Free — no paid tier. Every QuillPDF tool is free for everyone, with no account and no usage gate. Optional donations are on the support page.
QuillPDF is built by the team behind Nexrial, clinical-trial management software — a context where document privacy is not a marketing line but a daily operational reality.