Stax

Alternativa a Smallpdf

Smallpdf vs Stax PDF Tools — 8 utilidades PDF en tu navegador. Sin límite diario, sin subir archivos, sin registro.

FeatureSmallpdfiLovePDFStaxFree
Compress PDF✅✅✅
Merge PDFs✅✅✅
Split PDF✅✅✅
Rotate / reorder✅✅✅
Watermark✅✅✅
Page numbers✅✅✅
Image → PDF✅✅✅
PDF → Word✅✅❌
OCR scanned text✅✅❌
100% client-side (no upload)❌❌✅
Daily task limit2 free, then $9/mo1 free, then $7/moUnlimited
Signup required for free use⚠️✅❌
Multilingual UI20+20+5 locales
→ PDF Compressor

Reduce file size, in your browser.

PDF Merger →

Combine multiple PDFs into one.

PDF Splitter →

Split PDF by page ranges.

Why people switch from Smallpdf

Smallpdf is a great product — they pioneered the "simple PDF tool on the web" category. But the model is: free up to 2 tasks/day, then $9/month for unlimited. And every task uploads your PDF to their backend. For most users that's fine. For anyone handling personal records, contracts, or company internals — a browser-based alternative is meaningfully safer.

The privacy difference, illustrated

Open Chrome DevTools → Network tab. Compress a PDF on Smallpdf — you'll see a multi-MB POST request carrying your file. Compress the same PDF on Stax — only static assets load. The PDF never touches a server. This is verifiable in 30 seconds and applies to every Stax PDF tool.

What Smallpdf does that Stax doesn't (yet)

OCR scanned PDFs, true PDF↔Word conversion (with editable text reflow), e-signature workflows, multi-user document sharing, and team accounts. These need server-side or AI infrastructure that's on our roadmap but not currently shipped. If you need those today, Smallpdf or Adobe Acrobat are right tools.

Preguntas frecuentes

Why look for a Smallpdf alternative?
The two most common reasons: privacy (Smallpdf processes PDFs on its servers — your tax returns, contracts, IDs travel through their backend), and the free-tier limit (2 tasks per day after which they push you to a $9/month subscription). Stax PDF tools run entirely in your browser using pdf-lib, with no uploads, no daily limits, and no paywall.
Are browser-based PDF tools as fast as Smallpdf?
For files under 50 MB, yes — modern browsers compress and merge as fast as Smallpdf's servers. For very large files (100 MB+) Smallpdf may be slightly faster due to dedicated infrastructure, but Stax still works without any cloud dependency. Most tax docs, contracts, and reports are well under 50 MB.
Which PDF tools does Stax cover?
Eight: PDF Compressor, PDF Merger, PDF Splitter, PDF Rotate, PDF Watermark, PDF Page Numbers, PDF Page Info, and Image-to-PDF. Smallpdf covers more (PDF↔Word, OCR, e-signature) but those require server-side processing — adding them as client-side tools is on the long-term roadmap.
What's the catch?
No catch. PDF processing in the browser is well-supported via pdf-lib and PDF.js — Mozilla's open-source PDF engine. The same code that powers PDF previews in Firefox powers our viewer. Some advanced features (OCR, AI summarization) need a backend; we don't pretend to offer those yet.
Does Stax support PDF/A archival format?
Output PDFs are PDF 1.7-compliant, which most archival systems accept. Strict PDF/A-2 (with embedded fonts and ICC profiles) requires additional libraries we haven't shipped yet — for archival-grade exports use Adobe Acrobat or LibreOffice.

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