Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Smallpdf VS Compresto

Compare Smallpdf VS Compresto and see what are their differences

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Smallpdf logo Smallpdf

PDF document management and conversion suite

Compresto logo Compresto

Offline file compression with up to 90% file size reduction without scarifying quality
  • Smallpdf Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-21
  • Compresto
    Image date //
    2025-05-12
  • Compresto
    Image date //
    2025-05-12
  • Compresto
    Image date //
    2025-05-12
  • Compresto
    Image date //
    2025-05-12

Compresto, previously known as CompressX, is a highly efficient software tool designed to streamline file compression across various formats, including videos, images, GIFs, and PDFs. By significantly reducing file sizes while preserving their quality, Compresto enhances productivity for individuals and businesses by optimizing storage and improving data transfer speeds. The product is tailored for macOS users, supporting both Intel and Apple Silicon architectures with macOS 13+. Notable features like folder monitoring, a drop zone for easy file management, video-to-GIF conversion, and a Raycast extension make it indispensable for efficient workflow integration. With endorsements from top industry leaders like Guillermo Rauch, CEO of Vercel, Compresto boasts a strong community of over 11,000 users who benefit from its capacity to save substantial storage space and boost productivity. The company ensures continuous support through thorough documentation, changelogs, FAQs, and a developer community on platforms like GitHub.

Smallpdf

$ Details
-
Platforms
-
Release Date
-

Compresto

$ Details
paid Free Trial $7.0 / Annually (3 devices)
Platforms
MacOS Mac Mac OSX
Release Date
2024 January
Startup details
Country
Vietnam
Founder(s)
Hieu Dinh
Employees
1 - 9

Smallpdf features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Smallpdf provides a clean, intuitive, and easy-to-navigate interface, making it accessible for users of all technical levels.
  • Wide Range of Tools
    Offers a variety of tools for PDF editing, including compressing, merging, splitting, and converting PDFs to other formats.
  • Cloud Integration
    Seamlessly integrates with cloud storage services like Google Drive and Dropbox, allowing users to work directly with their files stored online.
  • Security
    Utilizes strong encryption and deletes files from their servers after one hour, ensuring user data is kept secure and private.
  • Cross-Platform Availability
    Accessible from various devices including desktops, tablets, and smartphones with responsive web design.
  • Free Tier
    Provides a free tier with limited features, which is suitable for occasional or basic users.

Possible disadvantages of Smallpdf

  • Limited Free Features
    The free version only allows for two tasks per day and places restrictions on larger files and advanced features, leading to potential inconvenience for frequent users.
  • Subscription Cost
    The premium subscription can be considered expensive for some users, particularly those who only need occasional PDF edits.
  • File Size Limit
    Even with a premium subscription, there are restrictions on the maximum file size that can be uploaded and processed.
  • Internet Dependence
    Requires an active internet connection to use most of its features, which can be a limitation for users with unreliable or slow connectivity.
  • Privacy Concerns
    Despite strong encryption, some users may still have reservations about uploading sensitive documents to an online service.
  • Limited Customization
    The range of customization options for certain tools may be limited compared to more specialized PDF software.

Compresto features and specs

  • Up to 90% file size reduction
    Compress your videos and images without significantly losing quality, powered by FFmpeg and pngquant
  • Monitor folder for automatic compression
    Automatically compress new files in monitored folders
  • Support 5 quality options
    Further reduce video size to better suit your requirements
  • Gif conversion
    Just drop a video, select quality, FPS, and voilร 
  • Compatible with transparent video
    Compress video with transparent background with the most powerful Apple APIs
  • Export to MP4 or WebM
    Export the compressed video in various formats, such as MP4 and WebM
  • Multiple files at once
    Increase your productivity by compressing multiple files simultaneously
  • Raycast extension
    Speed up your workflow by sending your file to Raycast
  • Work 100% offline
    Your files never leave your computer

Analysis of Smallpdf

Overall verdict

  • Smallpdf is a reliable and efficient tool for managing PDF documents, suitable for both casual users and professionals. Its combination of versatility, ease of use, and security features makes it a strong contender in the realm of online PDF services.

Why this product is good

  • Smallpdf is considered good because it offers a wide range of PDF tools that are easy to use and accessible online. It provides functionalities such as PDF conversion, compression, editing, and signing, all within a user-friendly interface. This makes it an ideal choice for both individuals and businesses looking for efficient document management solutions. Additionally, it emphasizes security by ensuring encrypted file transfers, which is crucial for handling sensitive information.

Recommended for

  • Individuals who frequently work with PDFs and need a straightforward tool for conversions, compressions, or edits.
  • Students who need to annotate and organize their study materials in a PDF format.
  • Professionals who require a reliable tool for signing documents and collaborating with team members remotely.
  • Businesses looking for secure document management solutions with the flexibility of online access.

Smallpdf videos

smallpdf tutorial video

More videos:

  • Review - Smallpdf Review
  • Tutorial - Smallpdf | How to do Unlimited Free Conversions ? | Hack for Smallpdf | Bypass limit of 2 conversion

Compresto videos

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

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Smallpdf and Compresto)
PDF Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Video Compression
0 0%
100% 100
PDF Converter
100 100%
0% 0
Photo & Video
0 0%
100% 100

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing Smallpdf and Compresto.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

Compresto's answer:

Choosing CompressX over its competitors comes down to several key advantages that may cater to a user's specific needs in video and image compression. Here are compelling reasons why a person might opt for CompressX:

  1. High-Efficiency Compression without Quality Loss: One of the most significant selling points of CompressX is its promise to compress files by up to 90% without a noticeable loss in quality. This is particularly crucial for professionals and content creators who cannot compromise on the visual integrity of their work but still need to manage file sizes for online distribution, email attachments, or storage limitations.

  2. User-Friendly Experience: CompressX is designed with all users in mind, not just tech-savvy individuals. Its intuitive interface allows even those with minimal technical expertise to easily navigate and use the tool for their compression needs. This accessibility makes it an attractive option for a broad audience range.

  3. Broad Format Compatibility: CompressX supports a wide array of video and image formats, including advanced codecs like H.264 and H.265. This versatility ensures users can work with various file types without needing multiple tools, making it a more comprehensive solution.

  4. Cost-Effectiveness: Offering a one-time purchase with lifetime access is a unique proposition in a market where subscription models are common. This makes CompressX a cost-effective investment in the long run, especially with the inclusion of one year of updates. For individuals and businesses mindful of ongoing costs, this is a significant incentive.

  5. 7-Day Money-Back Guarantee: This policy underlines the confidence the developers have in CompressX's performance and customer satisfaction. It lowers the risk for new users, giving them the peace of mind to try the tool and see if it meets their expectations without financial commitment.

  6. Speed and Efficiency: For those working with large media files regularly, CompressX's capability to quickly compress files without sacrificing quality is a vital time-saver. This efficiency can streamline workflows, reduce waiting times, and facilitate faster project completions.

  7. Regular Updates and Improvements: The inclusion of regular updates for a year ensures that users benefit from ongoing product enhancements, security patches, and feature additions. This commitment to product evolution keeps CompressX competitive and relevant in a fast-paced tech landscape.

  8. Integrated Solutions: The tool's potential integration with other software and applications, like Raycast, suggests a forward-thinking approach to user experience. This can further streamline users' workflows by allowing them to compress files within their preferred ecosystem of tools.

In summary, the combination of these features makes CompressX a compelling option for anyone looking to manage digital media files efficiently. Its balance of high-quality compression, user accessibility, broad format support, and cost-effective pricing model stands out in a crowded market of compression tools.

What makes your product unique?

Compresto's answer:

Several features and qualities make CompressX stand out as a unique tool in the realm of video and image compression:

  1. High-Efficiency Compression: CompressX's ability to reduce file sizes by up to 90% without significant loss of quality is impressive. This high level of efficiency is paramount for users looking to optimize their content for web use, storage, or sharing without compromising visual integrity.

  2. Quality Retention: Unlike many compression tools that significantly degrade quality to achieve smaller file sizes, CompressX maintains a balance between compression and quality retention. This ensures that videos and images retain their clarity and detail, making it ideal for professionals and content creators who cannot afford to lose quality.

  3. User-Friendly Interface: The application's design emphasizes ease of use, making complex compression tasks accessible to users with varying levels of technical expertise. This user-centric approach broadens its appeal and utility across a diverse user base.

  4. Versatile Format Support: Supporting a wide range of video and image formats, including but not limited to H.264 and H.265 codecs, CompressX offers flexibility that can meet the needs of various projects and platforms.

  5. One-time Purchase with Lifetime Access: In an era where subscription models dominate, CompressX's one-time purchase option with lifetime access is a refreshing and cost-effective alternative for users. This includes one year of updates, enhancing its value proposition.

  6. 7-Day Money Back Guarantee: This policy demonstrates confidence in CompressX's capabilities and commitment to user satisfaction, reducing the risk for new users and encouraging them to try the tool.

  7. Speed and Efficiency: CompressX's optimization for quick compression and conversion processes addresses one of the core needs of users working with large filesโ€”speed. This efficiency can significantly streamline workflows and project timelines.

  8. Integration and Compatibility: The mention of integration with services like Raycast and its emphasis on being useful for a wide range of applications, from personal use to professional content creation, highlight CompressX's adaptability and relevance in various contexts.

These features combined make CompressX a compelling choice for anyone looking to compress their media files. Its balance of efficiency, quality, and user accessibility, paired with favorable purchase terms, positions CompressX as a powerful tool in digital content optimization.

How would you describe the primary audience of your product?

Compresto's answer:

CompressX's primary audience can be broadly categorized into several key groups, each with distinct needs and expectations from a compression tool. These groups include:

Content Creators and Multimedia Professionals

This includes videographers, photographers, graphic designers, and digital artists who regularly work with high-resolution images and video files. They need an efficient way to reduce file sizes without losing the visual quality of their work, ensuring their creations can be easily shared, uploaded, or stored.

Digital Marketers and Social Media Managers

Professionals in digital marketing and social media management often deal with a high volume of multimedia content that needs to be optimized for web use. CompressX helps them maintain the balance between visual quality and fast load times, crucial for user engagement and SEO.

Web Developers and Designers

For web professionals, website performance is paramount. CompressX offers a solution to optimize images and videos, resulting in faster page load times without compromising the aesthetic element of web projects. This is particularly valuable for portfolio sites, e-commerce platforms, and any website where user experience is key.

Educators and Online Course Creators

With the rise of e-learning, educators and course creators seek effective ways to deliver high-quality video content without the burden of large file sizes that might hinder learners' access. CompressX allows them to compress educational videos, making them more accessible to students with varying internet bandwidths.

Small Business Owners

Small businesses often manage their digital assets internally without a dedicated IT team. CompressX serves as a user-friendly tool for these businesses to optimize product images, promotional videos, and other digital content for their websites and social media, enhancing online presence.

Tech Enthusiasts and Home Users

This group includes technology enthusiasts and general home users who enjoy creating and sharing videos and images, whether it's for personal blogs, YouTube channels, or family photo albums. CompressX provides them with a professional-grade tool to manage file sizes easily, facilitating sharing and storage.

Non-Profit Organizations

Non-profits and charities often operate with limited resources and need to communicate effectively online. CompressX can help these organizations optimize their visual content for fundraising campaigns, awareness videos, and other digital materials, ensuring they can reach their audience effectively.

Overall, CompressX's primary audience is diverse, spanning various professions and interests. Yet, they share common needs: efficient file size management, quality retention, and usability. By offering a balance of these elements, CompressX appeals to a broad spectrum of users seeking to optimize their digital media workflow.

What's the story behind your product?

Compresto's answer:

In my team, we have a practice of including a screen record demo with each pull/merge request, which helps code reviewers quickly understand the changes being made. This is an excellent practice to improve code quality in our team.

However, due to GitLab limitations, the video file must be under 10 MB for upload. While my team typically uses FFmpeg to compress videos, which is quite effective, I find the workflow โ€“ adjusting commands for each video or running scripts โ€“ a bit cumbersome, as I'm not particularly inclined towards terminal-based tasks. To streamline this process, I made CompressX which helped simplify video compression.

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

Compresto's answer:

For the app: SwiftUI For the web: NextJS + Tailwind CSS, hosting on Vercel

Who are some of the biggest customers of your product?

Compresto's answer:

  • Vercel's CEO: Guillermo Rauch
  • Folks from Apple and Google
  • Design studios

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Smallpdf and Compresto

Smallpdf Reviews

Best Free Alternatives to Adobe Acrobat in 2026
Smallpdf is a well-known online PDF platform with a clean interface. It works entirely in the browser and integrates with Google Drive and Dropbox, making it convenient if you store files in the cloud. The free tier limits you to two tasks per hour and adds a watermark on some output files. Files are uploaded to Smallpdf's servers for processing.
Best Online Image Converters in 2026: Docpose.cloud Leads the Pack
Users highlight Docpose.cloudโ€™s reliabilityโ€”no failed conversions even on rare formats. CloudConvert gets praise for quality tweaks but frustrates with daily resets. iLoveIMG is loved for extras like AI, but free limits irk. Smallpdf suits PDF-image hybrids, less pure images. Convertio is straightforward but caps freebies quick.
Source: fileproinfo.com
Ever wondered why bank statements are always in PDF?
Platforms like iLovePDF and Smallpdf are among the most popular choices. They do a decent job for simple PDFs, but I quickly realized a few issues:
Source: medium.com
Top 10 PDF Converters for converting to or from PDF effortlessly
Smallpdf is one of the most well-known PDF converter tools online. Offering a simple, user-friendly interface, it allows users to convert files to and from PDF without any hassle. Smallpdf supports over 18 file types and integrates with Google Drive and Dropbox for easy cloud storage access.
The 13 Best Free PDF Editors (February 2024)
One of the quickest ways to add images, text, shapes, or your signature to a PDF is with Smallpdf. I find it extremely easy to use for those things, but I opt for one of the editors that top this list if I need to edit the text because this one won't do it for free.

Compresto Reviews

We have no reviews of Compresto yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Smallpdf seems to be a lot more popular than Compresto. While we know about 38 links to Smallpdf, we've tracked only 1 mention of Compresto. 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.

Smallpdf mentions (38)

  • OpenDataLoader: Safe, Open, High-Performance โ€” PDF for AI
    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 / 7 months ago
  • Stirling-PDF: local web application to perform various operations on PDFs
    Smallpdf [1] probably deserves a mention here. Not OSS and not self-hosted, but Iโ€˜ve used it occasionally and it has always worked really well. When I was running an agency, we inherited their first office โ€“ very cool folks. [1] https://smallpdf.com/. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Looking fore college ruled template to print
    And use this one to merge two single-page pdf to make a double side page. Source: over 2 years ago
  • PDF to Excel without O365/Adobe Acrobat?
    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: about 3 years ago
  • 5 tips to improve your SaaS user onboarding
    Examples of companies doing this well: - SmallPDF users can convert or compress a limited number of files without an account โ€” 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
View more

Compresto mentions (1)

  • Weekly Indie Log #7
    Another one of my experiments after I found out about it from Twitter is the pulsing dot on the Pricing link in the header experiment. Hieu Dinh, developer of CompressX posted about it initially here:. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Smallpdf and Compresto, you can also consider the following products

iLovePDF - Premium online PDF tool set

HandBrake - HandBrake allows users to easily convert video files into a wide variety of different formats.

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.

Video Compress - Compress Videos for Free. Forever. Say goodbye to bulky files! Crush video sizes by 90% with no quality loss, even offline. And the best part? It's free!

Sejda - Split, merge and other powerful PDF tools.

Clop - Image, video, PDF and clipboard optimiser