We built a site called LuxPDF.com as an Open-Sourced, Free, Private alternative to FreeConvert/ILovePDF/PDFCandy. We offer almost 30 tools, all free, all completely private and open sourced.
We literally built this because one day I was helping my dads with FAFSA papers, and he didnt know how to convert his iPhone images (.HEIC) to PDF files. When he sent them to me I realized I couldn't trust any of these file converter websites with such sensitive files. They were all closed-sourced, paid, had ads written all over it, required logins, and some even stored the images on their servers. So I called a friend and we got to work, and built LuxPDF.com as a way to help students, small businesses, freelancers etc, to securely and freely convert and do basic PDF modifications.
The website is completely free with no logins/signups etc, we only make money through donations (BuyMeACoffee), and maybe sponsorships from bigger companies in the future (not as ads, but as a logo image with a link under the "Support Us" tab).
We really hope you enjoy it. We changed a lot over the past month, adding new tools, a different UI/color scheme to feel more professional, and more :)
I think Stirling PDF is a great product, but there meant for more Enterprise level users. LuxPDF is meant for very quick file conversions or modifications and is geared towards freelancers, students, small business etc.
I think the core audience for Stirling PDF is a lot different from ours. Stirling PDF looks like there built for enterprise users and big business. We built LuxPDF to be more for students, small business owners, freelancers, etc. To be honest we saw our site as an alternative to FreeConvert & PDFCandy, not for Stirling PDF.
No it's a very valid question, yes we did use Kiro IDE running on Claude 4 for some of the more complicated tools like Sort Pages (getting the UI, image preview etc) and some other tools. Developing this PDF WebApp was a lot more complicated than we thought so we had to resort to vibe coding for some functionality. We used Claude mostly for the tools and the "initial generation"/layout of the site.
For sure, we're still very early in development but we didn't know how hard it was going to be to develop it, so we decided to open-source it. Worst case scenario, if we fail, someone could use our repo for motivation, clean it up and maybe launch something better.
Hey guys, we're building LuxPDF.com, an ongoing project to develop the most transparent PDF WebApp in the world. We just launched (so expect some bugs, UI problems etc.), and our site is currently in early-stage development. We offer over 15+ PDF Tools, all completely free, all open-sourced, all client-side, with no registration needed, no file size limits, and no batch processing limits.
We built this because we're students, so we constantly used these PDF WebApps to convert, and compress PDF Files, files that contained very sensitive information like names, financial information, etc. We were so frustrated with current WebApps because they required logins, had restrictions if you were on their free plan, were closed source etc. So we built LuxPDF to try and solve the problem of bad PDF WebApps in 2025.
The only source of funding we seek is just donations through BuyMeACoffee/Sponsors. All we're asking simply is, if you value what we do, we warmly welcome your support, whether it's just recommending our site to a friend or colleague, finding bugs, suggesting new features, or donating through BuyMeACoffee. Any donators/sponsors will have their names/banner and a custom message of their choice listed on the webapp, as a Thank You.
We built a site called LuxPDF.com as an Open-Sourced, Free, Private alternative to FreeConvert/ILovePDF/PDFCandy. We offer almost 30 tools, all free, all completely private and open sourced.
We literally built this because one day I was helping my dads with FAFSA papers, and he didnt know how to convert his iPhone images (.HEIC) to PDF files. When he sent them to me I realized I couldn't trust any of these file converter websites with such sensitive files. They were all closed-sourced, paid, had ads written all over it, required logins, and some even stored the images on their servers. So I called a friend and we got to work, and built LuxPDF.com as a way to help students, small businesses, freelancers etc, to securely and freely convert and do basic PDF modifications.
The website is completely free with no logins/signups etc, we only make money through donations (BuyMeACoffee), and maybe sponsorships from bigger companies in the future (not as ads, but as a logo image with a link under the "Support Us" tab).
We really hope you enjoy it. We changed a lot over the past month, adding new tools, a different UI/color scheme to feel more professional, and more :)