About Benchfile

Benchfile is a workbench of small, single-purpose file tools — convert this to that, shrink it, crop it, merge it, sign it — with one rule that every tool follows: your files never leave your device. Each tool does its work inside your browser and hands the result straight back to you.

Why it works this way

Most online file tools upload your document to a server, process it there, and let you download the result. That means a copy of your contract, your ID, your photos sits on someone else's machine, for a while at least, and you have to take their word for what happens to it. It also means the tool stops working the moment you are offline, and that every conversion costs the operator money — which is why those sites push accounts, limits and watermarks.

Modern browsers can do all of this work themselves. Decoding an image, re-encoding it, rearranging PDF pages, even recognising text in a scan — none of it needs a server any more. Doing it on your device is more private, usually faster, and free to run, so there is no reason to charge for it or to cap how many files you process.

What that means in practice

No upload, so nothing to leak and nothing to delete afterwards. No account, because there is nothing to keep track of. No watermarks and no daily limit, because each extra file costs nothing. Batch as many files as your device can hold in memory — the only real limit is that a phone has less of it than a laptop, so file sizes are capped at 100 MB on desktop and 30 MB on mobile.

The trade-off is that the work happens on your hardware. A large scan takes as long as your computer needs to process it, and some tools download a chunk of code — a decoder, a renderer — the first time you use them.

Who runs it

Benchfile is an independent project. It is paid for by unobtrusive advertising, kept well away from the buttons you actually use. If a tool does something wrong, or you want one that is not here yet, say so on the contact page.