OnyxPDF vs iLovePDF

iLovePDF is the biggest name in online PDF tools, and it is genuinely good at what it does. The difference is architecture: iLovePDF processes your files on its servers, which is why it can meter, cap and charge for them. OnyxPDF runs entirely in your browser, so there is nothing to upload, nothing to cap, and nothing to sell back to you. Here is the full comparison — including the rows where iLovePDF honestly wins.

The upload question

Every iLovePDF task starts by sending your document to a server. Their policy deletes files within about two hours, and there is no reason to doubt they try — but the file still sat on third-party hardware, was processed there, and passed over networks to get there. For a birthday invitation that is fine. For a contract, a payslip, an ID scan or an unreleased manuscript, “we delete it afterwards” is a promise you have to trust. OnyxPDF makes the opposite guarantee structurally: there is no upload server at all, so there is nothing to trust. You can verify it in your browser’s Network tab.

Caps vs no caps

Because server time costs money, iLovePDF’s free tier meters it: batch caps per tool, file-size ceilings that drop to 15 MB on the Office and OCR tools, and the most-wanted tools (editor, OCR conversions, Compare, Redact) reserved for Premium. OnyxPDF’s compute is your own device, which you have already paid for — so there is no counter, no queue and no “2 of your free tasks used”.

Where iLovePDF genuinely wins

Honesty matters more than a clean sweep: iLovePDF’s server converters produce better Office files from complex PDFs than any browser tool can; it offers PDF/A, multi-party e-sign workflows and AI tools that a static page cannot; and it speaks 25+ languages. If you need those, it is a reasonable $5–9/month. If you need the everyday jobs — merge, split, compress, convert, sign, redact, OCR — done privately and without a meter running, that is exactly what OnyxPDF was built for.

Questions

Try the tools

• Merge PDF — Combine any number of PDFs into one file, in the order you choose. No 25-file cap, no size cap.
• Compress PDF — Shrink a PDF for email or upload. Image-based compression with honest before/after sizes — plus a lossless mode.
• Redact PDF (True Removal) — Black out sensitive content so it's actually gone — marked pages are re-rendered as images, so the hidden text can't be copied back out.
• Compare PDFs — Diff the text of two PDFs line by line — see exactly what was added, removed or kept between versions.
• OCR — Image & Scan to Text — Recognise text in photos and scanned PDFs — English, Urdu, Arabic, Hindi, Spanish, French, German. Runs on your device; CamScanner charges for this.
• Edit PDF (Add Content) — Add text, images, shapes and whiteout boxes onto any page, exactly where you drag them. (For changing existing text, whiteout + retype — we won't pretend otherwise.)