Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

PDF24 VS LightUtils

Compare PDF24 VS LightUtils and see what are their differences

PDF24 logo PDF24

PDF24 is a free to use PDF creator, converter, and virtual printer.

LightUtils logo LightUtils

50 tools that run inside your browser and upload nothing. Not a promise: the page is blocked from making network requests at all. Compress and merge PDFs, reorder pages, trim video, convert images, fix CSV files Excel opens as garbled Thai.
  • PDF24 Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-17
  • LightUtils Landing page
    Landing page //
    2026-08-02

LightUtils is 50 file and text tools that run entirely inside your browser. Nothing is uploaded, and that is enforced rather than promised: every page is served with a Content-Security-Policy of connect-src 'none', which means the browser itself refuses to let the page make a network request.

That one decision changes what the tools are for. A scanned contract, a payslip, a customer list โ€” the documents most worth working on are the ones nobody should be dropping on a stranger's server. Here they never leave the machine, so there is also no queue, no upload wait and no file size limit imposed by one.

What is in it

  • PDF (9) โ€” merge, split, reorder pages by dragging, compress, watermark, password-protect, extract images, combine any files into one PDF. Encrypted PDFs that open without a prompt are handled, which most free tools refuse.
  • Video and audio (7) โ€” compress, trim without re-encoding, video to GIF, remove or extract audio, reduce background noise, convert subtitles.
  • Images (3) โ€” convert and compress, crop, remove a plain background.
  • Data (5) โ€” fix CSV files that Excel opens as garbled Thai, CSV to real Excel, mask personal data in a CSV, JSON and XML both ways, JSON formatter.
  • Accessibility (5) โ€” WCAG contrast checker, colour blindness checker, readability checker that handles Thai, PDF accessibility checker, and a WCAG 2.3.1 flashing content checker that never plays the video back at you.
  • Random and prize draws (3) โ€” a spinning wheel, a name picker, a number generator. Every draw is seeded, so a prize draw can be verified by the people it affects instead of taken on trust.
  • Text and developer tools (18) โ€” diff, word count, case, sort, encrypt, ciphers, Enigma, morse, QR, passwords, UUID, hashes, Base64, timestamps, number bases.

Free forever. No account, no email, no watermark, no daily limit. Fully bilingual in English and Thai, with Thai written as Thai rather than translated.

PDF24

$ Details
-
Platforms
-
Release Date
-

LightUtils

$ Details
free
Platforms
Web
Release Date
2026 July
Startup details
Country
Thailand
State
Samut Prakan
Founder(s)
Limpornchai Limkittikul
Employees
1 - 9

PDF24 features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    PDF24 offers an intuitive and easy-to-navigate interface, making it accessible for users with varying levels of technical expertise.
  • Free to Use
    The software is available for free, providing a comprehensive set of tools for PDF manipulation without the need for a paid subscription.
  • Wide Range of Features
    PDF24 provides features such as PDF creation, conversion, editing, merging, splitting, and compression, offering versatile functionality in one tool.
  • Offline Capability
    Users can download PDF24 as a desktop application, allowing them to work on PDFs without an internet connection.
  • Regular Updates
    PDF24 is regularly updated, ensuring new features, improvements, and security patches are consistently rolled out.

Possible disadvantages of PDF24

  • Limited Advanced Features
    While PDF24 offers a broad set of basic features, it may lack some advanced functionalities required by professional users.
  • Desktop Application Size
    The desktop application can be relatively large, taking up significant disk space, which might be a concern for users with limited storage.
  • Windows Only
    As a desktop application, PDF24 is primarily designed for Windows users, which limits accessibility for those using other operating systems.
  • Web-Based Performance
    Some users might experience performance issues or slower processing speeds when using the online version of PDF24 compared to the desktop application.
  • Dependency on Internet for Web Tools
    The online tools offered by PDF24 require an internet connection, limiting offline usability.

LightUtils features and specs

  • File upload
    Never. Enforced by connect-src 'none' in the Content-Security-Policy, not by policy text
  • Number of Tools
    50
  • Price
    Free forever. No paid tier exists
  • Account Required
    No. There is no login, because there is no server
  • Daily limits
    None
  • Watermark
    Never
  • File Size Limit
    100 MB for PDF, 500 MB for video. Set by your own memory, not by an upload
  • Batch Processing
    Yes, up to 20 PDFs at once, output as a ZIP
  • Languages
    English and Thai, fully separate content rather than machine translation
  • Encrypted PDF support
    Yes. Files that open without a password prompt are read and written normally
  • Accessibility Tools
    5 - WCAG contrast, colour blindness, PDF accessibility, readability, WCAG 2.3.1 flashing content
  • Cookies
    None on any tool. A consent banner appears only because ads may be added later
  • Analytics
    No third-party analytics, no tracking scripts
  • Open Source
    No. Source is private
  • Runtime dependencies
    Zero. No framework, no library, no WebAssembly
  • Works Offline
    No. A service worker would require loosening the security policy

PDF24 videos

PDF24 Creator video tutorial

More videos:

  • Tutorial - How to Download, Install PDF24 Creater In Windows 10/8/7 | Latest Version [Full Tutorial]
  • Tutorial - How to create PDF files by using pdf24.com

LightUtils videos

No LightUtils videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to PDF24 and LightUtils)
PDF Tools
99 99%
1% 1
Privacy
0 0%
100% 100
PDF Editor
100 100%
0% 0
Image Editing
0 0%
100% 100

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing PDF24 and LightUtils.

What makes your product unique?

LightUtils's answer:

The no-upload promise is enforced by the browser, not by our word for it.

Every page is served with a Content-Security-Policy containing connect-src 'none'. That directive means the browser refuses to let the page make any network request. Our own code could not send your file anywhere if it tried, and anyone can check it in about ten seconds:

  1. Open the network tab
  2. Use any tool on the site
  3. Watch nothing leave

Almost every "private, client-side" tool on the web is a claim in a marketing paragraph. This one is a header you can read.

Two things follow from it. There is nothing to upload, so no queue, no round trip, and no file size limit that exists only because someone is paying for bandwidth. And there is no account, because there is no server to hold one.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

LightUtils's answer:

Because the documents most worth working on are the ones you should not hand to a stranger's server: a signed contract, a payslip, a bank statement, a customer list. On Smallpdf or iLovePDF those files are uploaded, processed remotely, and deleted on a schedule you have to trust. Here they never leave the machine.

LightUtils Typical online tool
Your file Never leaves the browser Uploaded to a server
Daily limit None Usually 2 free tasks
Watermark Never Common on free tiers
Account None, ever Required past the free tier
Upload wait None Scales with your file

Beyond that:

  • Encrypted PDFs work. Files that open without a password prompt are handled. Most free tools refuse them, which quietly excludes bank statements, invoices and government forms.
  • Five accessibility checkers almost nothing free offers: WCAG contrast, colour blindness, PDF accessibility, readability, and WCAG 2.3.1 flashing content.
  • Genuinely bilingual. The Thai is written as Thai, not machine-translated, and Thai-specific problems are solved: CSV files that Excel opens as garbled Thai, and a readability checker that segments Thai words, which have no spaces between them.

How would you describe the primary audience of your product?

LightUtils's answer:

Two groups, and the second is the reason the site exists.

Anyone with a file and a task. Compress a PDF to fit an email limit, merge scans, trim a video, crop an image. They arrive from a search for that exact task and want it done in one screen.

People who are not allowed to upload the file. Lawyers, accountants, HR staff, clinics, and anyone working under Thailand's PDPA or the GDPR, where sending a document containing personal data to a third-party processor needs a legal basis rather than a convenience. For them "runs in your browser" is not a feature, it is the only way the task is permitted at all.

Geographically it is built for Thailand and the English-speaking world equally, which is unusual: most tool sites are English with a machine-translated Thai page bolted on.

What's the story behind your product?

LightUtils's answer:

It started with a CSV file that Excel kept opening as garbled Thai. The fix is well known to developers and invisible to everybody else, and every free tool offering it wanted the file uploaded first. Sending a customer export to an unknown server to correct a text encoding is an absurd trade, and it is the trade almost every online tool asks for.

So the first tool was written to run in the browser. Then the harder question: how do you prove it? A promise in a privacy policy proves nothing. connect-src 'none' does, because the browser enforces it and anyone can read the header.

Once that constraint was fixed, the rest followed from it. No accounts, no server, no framework, no runtime dependencies. Fifty tools later the constraint has never been relaxed, and every claim on the site is checked by an automated test before it can ship, including the security header itself.

Built and maintained by CODENIVERSE, a software studio in Thailand.

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

LightUtils's answer:

Deliberately almost none.

  • Hand-written HTML, CSS and ES modules. No React, no framework, no bundler, no build step for the JavaScript.
  • Zero runtime dependencies. The package manifest lists none at all. The only dev dependency is a property-testing library.
  • Browser platform APIs do the work โ€” WebCodecs for video and audio, WebCrypto for encryption and hashing, Canvas and OffscreenCanvas for images, Web Workers, and Intl.Segmenter for Thai word segmentation.
  • No WebAssembly, by decision. It would have meant megabytes of download and a looser security policy.
  • Written from the specifications, not pulled in as libraries โ€” the PDF reader, PDF writer, PDF decryptor, ZIP writer, XLSX writer and MP4 remuxer are all ours. That is what keeps a tool page under 100 KB.
  • Static assets on Cloudflare Workers. There is no application server.

Who are some of the biggest customers of your product?

LightUtils's answer:

None, and it would be easy to invent some.

LightUtils has no accounts, collects no personal data and sets no analytics cookies, so we genuinely do not know who uses it โ€” there is nothing on the site capable of telling us. That is the same decision as everything else here, and naming customers we cannot verify would undercut the one thing the product is for.

User comments

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What are some alternatives?

When comparing PDF24 and LightUtils, you can also consider the following products

iLovePDF - Premium online PDF tool set

Smallpdf - PDF document management and conversion suite

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 - Online PDF Tools - The Swiss Army Knife for PDFs - Merge PDF - Compress PDF - Edit PDF - Convert to PDF

Sejda - Split, merge and other powerful PDF tools.

CloudConvert - convert anything to anything - more than 200 different audio, video, document, ebook, archive, image, spreadsheet and presentation formats supported.