A friend was about to pay PDFCandy $6/month so he could compress 5 PDFs in a row without hitting a wait timer. I told him to try ConvertKr first because it’s free, then decide.
He came back the next day: “Why was I about to pay for this?”
I’d been using both for a while. Both are decent. They’re not identical though. Here’s the honest breakdown — what each does well, and where they differ.
TL;DR — quick comparison
| What you care about | ConvertKr | PDFCandy |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier limits | None — unlimited tasks | 1 file per hour (60-min wait) |
| Where files are processed | In your browser (never uploaded) | On their servers (deleted after 1 hour) |
| Sign-up required | No | No (free), yes for premium |
| Best for | Daily / high-volume work, privacy | Tough OCR jobs, PDF/A archiving |
| Premium price | $0 | $6/month or $36/year |
The free-tier limits
This is where most people get tripped up.
| Limit | ConvertKr | PDFCandy free | PDFCandy premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Files per hour | Unlimited | 1 | Unlimited |
| Files per day | Unlimited | ~24 (one per hour) | Unlimited |
| File size cap | None (browser limit) | 500MB | 500MB |
| OCR access | Included | Limited | Full |
| Wait timer between files | None | 60 minutes | None |
If you have 10 PDFs to compress for an expense report on PDFCandy’s free tier, you’re either waiting all day or opening it in incognito to bypass the limiter. My friend’s stack of invoices for his accountant would have taken him hours of waiting on PDFCandy. ConvertKr just did them in a row.
Where the processing happens
PDFCandy uploads your files to their servers, processes them, and sends them back. They promise to delete files after 1 hour. That’s a promise — you can’t verify it.
ConvertKr processes everything in your browser. The file never leaves your device. There’s no server-side upload to delete in the first place.
For bank statements, salary slips, contracts, medical records — this matters. PDFCandy probably won’t do anything bad with your file. But “won’t” and “can’t” are different. With ConvertKr, they literally can’t because they never have the file.
Tool coverage
| Tool | ConvertKr | PDFCandy |
|---|---|---|
| Compress PDF | ✓ | ✓ |
| Merge / Split / Rotate | ✓ | ✓ |
| PDF ↔ Word / Excel / PowerPoint | ✓ | ✓ |
| PDF ↔ Image (JPG / PNG / WEBP) | ✓ (combined tool) | ✓ (separate tools per format) |
| Add watermark | ✓ (incl. Getty-style preset) | ✓ |
| OCR (scanned → searchable) | ✓ (browser-based) | ✓ (server-based, more accurate) |
| Draw-a-box eraser (QR / watermark / barcode) | ✓ | ✗ |
| Visual PDF editor | ✓ | Limited |
| PDF/A archiving | ✗ | ✓ |
| Remove password | ✓ | ✓ |
Speed
Browser-based (ConvertKr) feels instantaneous on smaller files because there’s no upload step. A 5MB PDF compresses in maybe 2 seconds.
Server-based (PDFCandy) has more consistent performance on large files. A 100MB PDF on a slow connection takes longer to upload to PDFCandy than to process locally. But once it’s uploaded, their server does it quickly.
| File size | ConvertKr | PDFCandy |
|---|---|---|
| 5MB PDF (typical invoice) | ~2 seconds | ~6 seconds (upload + process + download) |
| 30MB PDF (scan) | ~5 seconds | ~20 seconds on average broadband |
| 100MB PDF (heavy) | ~15 seconds | ~60+ seconds on average broadband |
For 95% of documents — invoices, contracts, statements, scans under 20MB — ConvertKr feels faster because zero upload time.
What PDFCandy is genuinely better at
I’m not going to pretend ConvertKr wins everything. Two things PDFCandy does better:
OCR. PDFCandy has solid OCR (turning scanned PDFs into searchable text). Browser-based OCR is harder to do well — it works in ConvertKr but with smaller language model files. If you’re OCRing handwritten or stylized text, PDFCandy’s server-side model handles it better.
Word-to-PDF formatting on extreme files. If your Word doc has unusual fonts, embedded objects, or complex tables, PDFCandy’s server can render it slightly more accurately. ConvertKr handles 95% of Word docs perfectly but breaks on extreme cases. (ConvertKr is moving its Word/Excel/PPT conversions to a real Office server which closes this gap — but that’s not deployed everywhere yet.)
Pricing
| Tier | ConvertKr | PDFCandy |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Unlimited use, all main tools | 1 file/hour, ad-supported |
| Monthly | — | $6/month |
| Annual | — | $36/year ($3/month effective) |
| Lifetime | — | ~$99 one-time |
If you’re a power user (compressing 20+ files a day), PDFCandy’s free tier is unusable and you’d be paying $36/year minimum. ConvertKr just does it.
The interface
Personal preference but I find ConvertKr cleaner. Single column, big upload zone, controls below, preview on the side. PDFCandy is more crowded with ads and “Try premium” prompts.
PDFCandy’s redesign is decent though. They’ve toned down the upsells in the last year. Both look professional now.
When to use which — the verdict
| Your situation | Use this |
|---|---|
| Daily PDF tasks, want it free | ConvertKr |
| Privacy-sensitive documents (bank, medical, legal) | ConvertKr |
| Need to compress / merge / split a stack of files | ConvertKr |
| Remove QR codes, watermarks, or stamps from PDFs | ConvertKr |
| Heavy OCR on poor-quality scans | PDFCandy |
| Complex Word docs with unusual fonts / objects | PDFCandy |
| Need PDF/A for legal archiving | PDFCandy |
Honestly, 90% of people will be fine using just ConvertKr. The cases where PDFCandy is necessary are narrow.
FAQ
Will my files be safe on PDFCandy?
Probably yes. They have a privacy policy and are based in Cyprus. But “probably” and “definitely” are different. ConvertKr removes the question entirely because nothing leaves your browser.
Can I use both?
Sure. I do. ConvertKr for daily PDF tasks, PDFCandy when I have a tough OCR job. No reason to commit to one.
What about PDFCandy’s desktop app?
It exists, costs more, and is basically the same as the website but offline. If you want offline, ConvertKr’s browser tools also work offline once loaded — pull up the page on home wifi, then disconnect, the tools still run.
Does PDFCandy have anything ConvertKr doesn’t?
PDF/A archiving and arguably better OCR. That’s about it for mainstream use.
Need to convert, compress, or edit a PDF without rate limits? Try ConvertKr — free, no signup, in your browser.