IXPDF vs Smallpdf: Free Forever, No Upload

Smallpdf uploads your PDF to its servers, processes it there, and returns the result. IXPDF processes the file in your browser — the file never leaves your device. This is the single biggest difference and it drives most of the others.

• IXPDF: File stays on your device. No upload, no server roundtrip, no copy on someone else's disk.
• Smallpdf: File is uploaded to Smallpdf servers, processed, and deleted after a short window per their policy. The server sees the decrypted content during processing.

For non-sensitive files the difference is academic. For sensitive files — contracts, medical records, tax forms, unpublished work — the difference is the whole decision.

As of 2026-09-06, Smallpdf offers around 20 tools including PDF to Word, PDF to PowerPoint, PDF to Excel, OCR, e-signing, and a desktop app. IXPDF offers 15 tools focused on the operations a browser can do well. IXPDF does not offer OCR, AI, or Office-format conversion because those features need a backend and would require uploading the file.

• Both: Merge, Split, Compress, Rotate, Delete pages, Extract pages, Reorder, Watermark, Edit metadata, PDF to JPG, PDF to PNG, JPG to PDF, PNG to PDF.
• Smallpdf only: OCR, PDF to Word/Excel/PowerPoint, e-sign, PDF/A conversion, Unlock (remove password), Protect (add password), desktop app, API.
• IXPDF only: None that Smallpdf lacks — IXPDF's differentiator is the local-first model.
• IXPDF Research Required: Protect PDF and Unlock PDF — honest limits of the current browser PDF library.

Smallpdf's free tier allows 2 tasks per day as of 2026-09-06. The Pro plan ($12/month billed yearly) removes the daily limit, raises the file size cap, and unlocks all features. Smallpdf requires an account for Pro and offers a desktop app and a REST API for Business customers.

IXPDF has no per-day task limit, no file-size cap imposed by the tool (the bound is your device's memory), no account, and no Pro tier. The trade-off is that very large files on a slow device take longer than they would on Smallpdf's servers, and IXPDF does not offer a desktop app or API because it does not need one — the browser is the app.

• IXPDF file size: Bounded by your device's RAM.
• Smallpdf file size: 5 MB free, 50 MB Pro, larger on Business.
• IXPDF account: None.
• Smallpdf account: Required for Pro; optional for free.
• IXPDF cost: Free.
• Smallpdf cost: Free tier (2 tasks/day) + Pro ($12/mo) + Business.
• IXPDF API: None — the browser is the runtime.
• Smallpdf API: Available on Business.

IXPDF sees nothing about your file. No content, no file name, no metadata, no extracted text is sent anywhere. Analytics events (if enabled) carry only the tool name and aggregate success/size buckets.

Smallpdf sees the full file during processing. Their privacy policy commits to deleting files after a short window, but during processing the file is on their infrastructure in decrypted form. Smallpdf is GDPR-compliant and based in Switzerland, which is a meaningful jurisdictional property, but it does not change the fact that the file is on their servers during processing.

Use IXPDF when the file is sensitive, when you do more than 2 PDF tasks a day and do not want to pay, when you do not want to create an account, or when you are offline. Use Smallpdf when you need a feature IXPDF does not have (OCR, PDF to Word, e-sign) and the file is not sensitive, or when you want a desktop app or a REST API for batch processing. If the file is sensitive and you need a server-side feature, run it on your own machine with a local tool (qpdf, ghostscript, Tesseract OCR) rather than a third-party website.