I didn’t set out to build a PDF tool.
It started with a simple thought: modern browsers can edit video, run serious WebAssembly apps, and render 3D worlds. So why is “merge two PDFs” still treated like something that needs to happen on a server somewhere?
Around Black Friday I finally cancelled my Adobe subscription. It was pushing about $100/month, and year over year Adobe has been getting more aggressive with policies and product decisions I didn’t love. At a certain point, it stopped feeling like software and started feeling like a toll.
And the alternatives weren’t much better.
If I needed to do a quick task – merge, compress, split, sign – uploading a document to some random website was almost always a non-starter. Not because I had a specific horror story, but because the questions are obvious:
Who owns that server? What country is it in? What’s the retention policy really mean? Who has access? What happens when a “free tool” changes hands?
Plenty of people have had company data exploited or hijacked. You don’t need a personal disaster to recognize a bad default.
So I built a different default.
PDF Pony
PDF Pony is a suite of 140+ PDF tools that runs entirely in your browser.
No uploads. No backend processing. No accounts. No “trust us.” Your files never leave your device because there’s nowhere to send them.
If you want proof, open Chrome DevTools and go to the network tab. You’ll see the site load like any other website, but when you run a tool, you won’t see your PDF being posted to a server. There isn’t one. It’s just a website you download and run.
The promise is simple:
100% privacy and security. I don’t want your documents – you don’t need to send them to me.
This is possible
What I love about the current era of web software is that the ceiling keeps moving. Browsers are real computing environments now. With WebAssembly, Web Workers, and modern JS PDF libraries, local PDF processing is 100% possible.
And honestly, tools like Claude Code (Anthropic doubled my tokens over Christmas – thanks!) have made it easier than ever to explore.
“wait… we can just do this now?”
Turns out, yes.
A feature I thought I’d miss (but didn’t)
The Adobe app I expected to miss most was Adobe Scan.
So I built a PDF camera scanner inside PDF Pony and I think it works better. More importantly, it’s 100% local. No “scan to the cloud,” no account, no silent upload. Just scan then have the PDF on your device.
That one discovery that validated the whole idea for me: the web can deliver “native app” capability without handing your data to someone else.
Some other great tools:
Merge PDFs, Split PDFs, Insert a PDF into a PDF, Flatten a PDF, convert an EPUB into a PDF, compress a PDF, add a QR code to every page of your PDF, add custom stamps to your PDFs, redact text from your PDFs, password protect your PDFs, add a table of contents to your PDF, sign your PDFs, create PDF forms and more!
Speed without servers
Local doesn’t mean slow. I’m sure you’ve got a fast modern computer whose power you underuse 99% of the time.
PDF Pony uses parallel Web Worker processing so heavy operations don’t freeze your browser and it runs faster than you’d expect. Modern machines are powerful. That macbook is powerful. Heck even that Chromebook is. The browser can use that power. The result is a tool that feels instant without relying on infrastructure you can’t see (or don’t own!)
Who it’s for
Anyone who uses PDFs, every day or on occasion.
If you’re a student, a small business owner, an HR person, a lawyer, a political staffer, or just someone trying to get a form done, PDF Pony helps you out. It’s the same set of problems across every profession: “I have a document, I need it slightly different, and I need it done right now.”
A lot of online tools are good products wrapped in a trust problem. PDF Pony is the opposite: the safest workflow is also the easiest workflow. You don’t have to wonder where your file went because it never goes anywhere.
How do I keep the lights on and what’s next?
Right now, hosting is cheap enough that PDF Pony is ad-free, and it’ll stay that way unless traffic becomes overwhelming and I have to start paying some real bills. If I ever add ads, it’ll be because the site is being used so much that it needs the support to keep running.
Next up: more languages, (PDF Pony is now also fully fluent in French, Spanish, German, and Portuguese!) better mobile tooling, and whatever users keep asking for.
Try it and tell me what you think
I want the website to save you money and make less annoyed. That’ll make me happy! If it saves you from paying Adobe for Acrobat or uploading your data to dodgy unknown cloud services, even better.
Use it however you use PDFs, and tell me what you need next.
Email me feature requests at [email protected]
