files.co vs iLovePDF: which one actually keeps your files private?

If you’ve searched for a PDF tool in the last decade, you’ve landed on iLovePDF. It’s one of the most recognizable names in the space, it’s been around since 2010, and it does pretty much everything. So why would you pick anything else?

This is a fair comparison, not a hit piece. iLovePDF is a real tool made by a real company in Barcelona, and for a lot of people it’s a good fit. But files.co works in a fundamentally different way, and that difference matters more for some files than others. Here’s how to tell which one you actually want.

Two different machines

The thing to understand first is where the work happens.

iLovePDF is a cloud service. When you merge or compress a PDF there, your file is uploaded to their servers, processed on their infrastructure, and the result is sent back to you. That’s the whole model. Their public policy says free-tier files are deleted after two hours, and they use TLS in transit and encryption at rest. During processing, though, the file sits on a machine they control and can read.

files.co runs the PDF engine inside your browser. You pick a file, the engine that’s already loaded in the page does the work right there on your device, and you download the result. Nothing gets sent to a server, because there’s no server in the middle doing the processing. The page loads once, and after that the work is local.

Same end result, completely different path to get there.

Privacy: a promise vs. a property

This is the part that actually separates the two, so it’s worth being precise.

iLovePDF protects your file with a policy. They receive your document, then promise to delete it after a couple of hours and not misuse it in the meantime. That promise might be kept perfectly every single time. But it’s still a promise about behavior, and the file genuinely lands on their servers for it to be processed. Logs, IP addresses, filenames, and timestamps tend to outlive the file itself. If you’re merging a meme or a flyer, none of this matters.

files.co protects your file with architecture. The document never reaches us, so there’s nothing for us to delete, log, leak, or hand over. We can’t retain a file we never received. You don’t have to trust a retention timer you can’t see, because there’s no upload in the first place.

And you can check this yourself. Open files.co, press F12 to open DevTools, go to the Network tab, tick Preserve log, then run a real task like a merge. You’ll watch the page assets load and then… nothing. No request carrying your PDF up to a server. For an even blunter test, turn off your Wi-Fi after the page loads and run it again. It still works, because everything it needs is already on your machine. A cloud tool would simply stop.

So the question isn’t “do you trust iLovePDF?” It’s whether you’d rather rely on a good policy or on a tool that’s structurally unable to see your file. For a signed contract, an invoice, a medical record, or anything with personal data, that distinction is the whole ballgame.

Price and limits

iLovePDF has a free tier, and it’s genuinely useful. But it’s the front door to a paid product. Free files are capped at around 25 MB for most tools, you’ll hit queue throttling and ads, and Premium upsells show up after a few operations. Premium runs about $7/month for higher limits and no ads, and there are Business team plans on top of that. OCR, for example, sits behind the paid tier.

files.co has no paid tier, because there’s nothing to upsell when the processing is local. All 20 tools are free, with no daily task limit, no account, and no sign-up. File size is capped by your device’s memory rather than a billing rule (around 50 MB per file in practice). There’s no “free for 2 tasks then pay” wall, because there’s no server counting your tasks.

Tools and platforms: where iLovePDF is genuinely strong

Now the honest part in the other direction.

iLovePDF has a deeper catalog and a longer history. It offers desktop apps for Windows and Mac and mobile apps for iOS and Android, so it lives outside the browser in a way files.co doesn’t. If you want a native app on your phone, an API for automation, or team features like SSO and admin controls, that’s iLovePDF’s territory, and it’s a real advantage. The brand recognition also means there’s a huge amount of documentation and community help out there.

files.co covers the 20 tools most people actually reach for: merge, split, compress, rotate, watermark, protect, sign, images-to-PDF, page numbers, and the rest. It’s a web app (installable as a PWA), so there’s no native mobile app today. If your workflow needs an API or enterprise admin tooling, files.co isn’t built for that.

So which one?

Pick iLovePDF if you want native desktop or mobile apps, need an API or team/SSO features, or you’re working with files where privacy genuinely doesn’t matter and you just want the deepest tool catalog with a familiar brand.

Pick files.co if your files are sensitive, you’d rather not upload them at all, and you want every tool free with no account and no limits. Contracts, invoices, tax paperwork, anything with a name and address on it: those don’t need to take a trip to a server just to get stapled together or shrunk for email.

Both tools work. They just disagree about where your file should be while the work happens. files.co keeps it on your machine, and you can verify that in under a minute. That’s the call to make.