Stax

iLovePDF Alternative

Free PDF tools online — merge, compress, split, and more. No file uploads, works in your browser.

FeatureiLovePDFSmallpdfStaxFree
100% client-side (no upload)❌❌✅
No signup required✅⚠️✅
Daily / size limits (free)200 MB / caps2 tasks/dayNone
PDF merge✅✅✅
PDF split✅✅✅
PDF compress✅✅✅
PDF rotate✅✅✅
Watermark PDF✅✅✅
Add page numbers✅❌✅
Image to PDF✅✅✅
PDF to Word / Excel✅✅❌
OCR (scanned PDFs)✅✅❌
e-Signature✅✅❌
Works offline (cached)❌❌✅
PriceFree / €4/moFree / $12/moFree

iLovePDF vs browser-based PDF tools

iLovePDF is one of the most popular online PDF platforms — 20+ tools, clean UI, widely recommended. Its limitation is the same as all cloud PDF tools: your files travel to their servers, get processed, and are temporarily stored there. For anything you'd be uncomfortable emailing, that's a meaningful risk. iLovePDF's free tier also enforces a 200 MB file limit and daily conversion caps.

What Stax does differently

Stax PDF tools use PDF-lib for manipulation (merge, split, watermark, page numbers, rotate) and a client-side compression pipeline for file size reduction. Zero network requests are made with your file data — you can verify this yourself by opening DevTools → Network tab and watching for XHR/Fetch calls when you click Process. You'll see none. There are also no daily limits, no file count caps, and no login prompts.

Where iLovePDF still wins

iLovePDF offers PDF-to-Word, PDF-to-Excel, PDF-to-PowerPoint conversion, PDF form filling, e-signatures, and OCR — all server-side operations that can't run meaningfully in a browser today. If you need to extract a spreadsheet from a PDF or make a scanned document searchable, iLovePDF (or Adobe Acrobat) is still the right choice.

الأسئلة الشائعة

Is Stax a real iLovePDF alternative?
For the core PDF operations — yes. Stax covers PDF compression, merging, splitting, page rotation, watermarking, adding page numbers, and image-to-PDF conversion. All run entirely in your browser with no file upload. iLovePDF processes files on its servers and has a 200 MB limit on the free tier. Stax has no server-side limit because no server is involved.
Why does it matter that Stax doesn't upload PDFs?
PDFs often contain sensitive content: contracts, tax documents, medical records, financial statements, NDA materials. When you upload to iLovePDF (or any cloud tool), your file is stored on their servers temporarily — creating a window of exposure. Stax processes everything in your browser using PDF-lib and PDF.js. The file never leaves your device.
What's the file size limit on Stax PDF tools?
There's no server-side limit. The practical limit is your browser's available RAM. Modern browsers handle PDF files up to several hundred MB comfortably on desktop. For very large PDFs (500 MB+), a desktop app like Adobe Acrobat or Foxit is more appropriate.
Does Stax support OCR (making scanned PDFs searchable)?
Not currently. OCR is a computationally intensive task that's difficult to run in-browser at acceptable speed. iLovePDF has OCR via server-side Tesseract. If you need to make a scanned PDF searchable, Adobe Acrobat or iLovePDF's OCR feature is the right tool for that specific task.
Can I use Stax PDF tools on my phone?
Yes. All Stax PDF tools work on Android and iOS browsers. Mobile RAM is the limiting factor for very large files — most standard-size PDFs (under 50 MB) process without issues on modern smartphones.

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