
DocuSmartly
iLovePDF
Sejda
PDF24
Stirling PDF
Adobe PDF Editor
Smallpdf
iLovePDF
Adobe Acrobat DC
Sejda
PDF24
CloudConvert
PDF24 PDF Creator
TinyWow
DocuSmartly is a browser-based document toolkit with 20+ tools: e-signatures, split and merge, page extraction, compression, OCR, images-to-PDF, PDF form auto-fill, CV building and AI data extraction.
Most tools — sign, split/merge, compress, page extract and images-to-PDF — run entirely in your browser using client-side JavaScript, so those files are never uploaded to a server. Conversions that need a document engine (Word/Excel/PowerPoint to PDF, PDF to Word) and AI extraction are processed server-side over HTTPS and discarded immediately after conversion.
No account is needed for the browser-based tools. They are free to use within a daily usage limit. Premium CV templates are available as one-time purchases.
DocuSmartly
SmallpdfNo DocuSmartly videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.
DocuSmartly's answer
Most online PDF tools upload your file to a server to do the work. DocuSmartly does the opposite wherever it can: signing, splitting, merging, compressing, extracting pages and images-to-PDF all run inside your browser using client-side JavaScript, so the file never leaves your computer. Only conversions that genuinely need a document engine — Word/Excel/PowerPoint to PDF, PDF to Word — and AI extraction go to a server, and we say so plainly instead of hiding it.
The second difference is focus. Alongside the usual PDF tools there are workflows built for real Indian paperwork: compressing to an exact size limit for exam portals, self-attesting documents, and a form auto-fill that remembers your details once and completes any PDF form.
DocuSmartly's answer
Three practical reasons.
No account, no watermark, no daily task limit on the browser-based tools. You open the page and use it.
Privacy you can verify. For the client-side tools you can open your browser's network tab and watch that nothing is uploaded. That is a stronger guarantee than a privacy policy promising files are "deleted after an hour".
Tools the others do not have: a PDF form auto-fill that stores your details once and matches them to any form's fields, compression to an exact target size for portal upload limits, and a Smart Auto-Split that finds document boundaries in a scanned stack automatically.
DocuSmartly's answer
Primarily India. Students and job applicants dealing with exam-portal and government-form uploads that reject files over a fixed size, people who need documents self-attested or signed without a printer, and small business owners and freelancers handling invoices, rent agreements and vendor forms.
Beyond that, anyone who does not want to upload a personal document — an ID, a contract, a bank statement — to someone else's server just to sign or split it.
DocuSmartly's answer
Frontend: vanilla JavaScript, no framework. pdf-lib for all client-side PDF manipulation, Tesseract compiled to WebAssembly for in-browser OCR, JSZip for multi-file output.
Backend: Python 3.11 and Flask, with PyMuPDF and pdf2docx for high-fidelity PDF-to-Word, python-docx and openpyxl for document generation, OCRmyPDF and Ghostscript for scanned PDFs, LibreOffice for Office-to-PDF conversion, and qpdf for encryption.
Infrastructure: Docker on Railway, PostgreSQL, Razorpay for payments, Google Sign-In for auth.
DocuSmartly's answer
For nine years I worked a corporate job — long hours, and by 2025 I wasn't happy in it. A difficult stretch at work became the push I needed, and I started teaching myself to code.
DocuSmartly was meant to be a practice project. Nothing more. But as I built it I kept running into how much friction sits inside ordinary paperwork — a portal that rejects your form because the file is 40 KB too large, a document that needs signing when you don't own a printer. Somewhere along the way it stopped being an exercise and started being something that could genuinely make someone's day easier.
That is why there is a feedback button on every page. I am one person building this, and what users report actually changes the product — one bug report revealed that PowerPoint and Excel conversions had been silently broken in production, and it was fixed because someone took the time to tell me.
I would like DocuSmartly to become the PDF tool people reach for first. If you use it and something annoys you, tell me. That is how it gets there.
DocuSmartly's answer
DocuSmartly is used by individuals, not sold to organisations, so there is no customer list to publish here.
Most of the tools work without an account at all — no sign-up, no email. That is deliberate, and it means there is no name attached to the work someone does on the site. A list of "biggest customers" would run against the whole point of building it this way.
Based on our record, Smallpdf seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 38 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.
According to statistics from smallpdf.com, by 2025, there will be a massive 2.5 trillion PDF documents stored worldwide, and 290 billion new PDF documents will be created every year. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
Smallpdf [1] probably deserves a mention here. Not OSS and not self-hosted, but I‘ve used it occasionally and it has always worked really well. When I was running an agency, we inherited their first office – very cool folks. [1] https://smallpdf.com/. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
And use this one to merge two single-page pdf to make a double side page. Source: almost 3 years ago
I don't have Office 365 for the "Get Data" option, nor do I have Adobe Acrobat. I've tried the smallpdf website but it came out a mess, possibly because my original spreadsheet had highlighted rows and lots of text in some of the cells. Source: over 3 years ago
Examples of companies doing this well: - SmallPDF users can convert or compress a limited number of files without an account — turning users into advocates and customers once paid use cases comes along; - Freshline uses interactive product demos to help users self-educate and understand the value of their features, without a paywall or registration;. Source: over 3 years ago
iLovePDF - Premium online PDF tool set
Sejda - Split, merge and other powerful PDF tools.
Adobe Acrobat DC - Make your job easier with Adobe Acrobat DC, the trusted PDF creator. Use Acrobat to convert, edit and sign PDF files at your desk or on the go.
PDF24 - PDF24 is a free to use PDF creator, converter, and virtual printer.
Stirling PDF - locally hosted web application that allows you to perform various operations on PDF files.
Adobe PDF Editor - Learn how to edit PDF files using Adobe Acrobat DC and change text and images quickly and easily in PDF documents. Start your free trial and try the PDF editor.