DEV Community

Mujahid Hussain
Mujahid Hussain

Posted on

I built a free PDF converter tool - here's what I learned

I Built a Free PDF Converter Tool - Here's What I Learned

I just launched PDFSmartly, a completely free online PDF converter that works 100% in your browser.

What is PDFSmartly?

A web tool that converts:

  • Word to PDF / PDF to Word
  • Images (JPG, PNG) to PDF
  • PowerPoint (PPT) to PDF
  • Batch conversions

Key Features

100% Free - No ads, no premium plans
No Signup - Just upload and convert
Completely Private - Everything happens in your browser (client-side)
Instant - Conversions take seconds
Works Everywhere - Desktop, mobile, tablet

Tech Stack

I built it using:

  • HTML5 Canvas
  • jsPDF library
  • pdf.js for PDF reading
  • FileReader API
  • JavaScript for file handling

Why I Built It

I was tired of PDF converters that:

  • Force you to signup
  • Have watermarks
  • Upload your files to their servers
  • Show ads everywhere

So I decided to build something better - a tool that's completely free and keeps your files private.

Results So Far

Since launch:

  • Getting 100+ daily visitors
  • High conversion rate (people actually use it)
  • Positive feedback on Reddit/Quora
  • Product Hunt launch was successful

Try It Out

Check out PDFSmartly: https://pdfsmartly.com

Questions? Let me know in the comments!

webdev #javascript #tools #productivity

Top comments (0)