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About Utilao

Utilao is a collection of free online tools for everyday tasks — merging PDFs, compressing images, generating QR codes, converting units, and more. No account required. No watermarks. Server-processed files are temporary. Launched in 2026, Utilao is built on a simple principle: the tool should work completely the first time you open it, with nothing asked in return.

Why We Built This

Most online tool sites fall into one of two traps: they're either too simple to be useful, or they make you jump through hoops — create an account, verify your email, choose a plan, decline the upsell — before you can do anything. We built Utilao because we think the right experience is: open the tool, upload your file, get the result. That's it.

The tools that exist today — iLovePDF, Smallpdf, Squoosh — are good. But most of them aggressively monetize through ads, popup CTAs, and artificial limits on the free tier. We wanted to build something that felt genuinely free, genuinely fast, and genuinely private.

What We Offer

  • PDF tools: Merge, compress, split, and password-protect PDF files — up to 20MB free, no watermark
  • Image tools: Compress, resize, and convert images between JPG, PNG, WebP, BMP, and GIF
  • QR codes: Generate QR codes for URLs, plain text, WiFi credentials, email, and phone numbers — download as PNG
  • Unit converters: Length, weight, and temperature — run entirely in your browser, nothing sent to our servers
  • Text tools: Word counter with platform character limits, and JSON formatter with validation and minification

How File Processing Works

When you upload a file for PDF or image processing, here is exactly what happens:

  1. Your file is uploaded over HTTPS (encrypted in transit) to our server
  2. The processing runs server-side using established open-source libraries — pypdf, pikepdf, and Pillow
  3. The output file is made available at a randomly generated URL for download
  4. Temporary input and output files become eligible for automatic cleanup after one hour; actual removal timing can vary with cleanup activity
  5. No file contents are read, indexed, analyzed, or retained beyond this window

Unit converters (length, weight, temperature), the word counter, and the JSON formatter run entirely in your browser. No data from these tools is ever transmitted to our servers.

Privacy Commitments

We make these commitments explicitly because most tool sites are vague about what happens to uploaded files:

  • We do not read or analyze the contents of uploaded files
  • We do not share files with third parties under any circumstances
  • We do not use uploaded files to train machine learning models
  • We do not use Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, or any cross-site tracking service
  • Our analytics system is self-hosted, counts anonymous page views only, sets no cookies, and stores no personal data
  • No account is created, no email is collected, no IP address is retained

The Technical Stack

Utilao is built with FastAPI (Python), Jinja2 templates, and SQLite. PDF processing uses pypdf and pikepdf (built on the QPDF C++ engine). Image processing uses Pillow. QR code generation uses the qrcode library. The site is self-hosted on dedicated hardware — no AWS, no Vercel, no third-party cloud platform dependencies.

PDF password protection uses AES-256 encryption via pikepdf — the same standard used by Adobe Acrobat Pro. We do not use the older RC4 algorithm.

Limitations and Fair Use

All tools are free for personal and commercial use. Current limits: PDF tools accept files up to 20MB; image tools accept files up to 10MB. These limits exist to ensure fair access for all users on shared server resources. We do not offer a paid tier that removes these limits — what you see is the complete product.

Automated scripts that repeatedly upload files at high volume are not permitted. For batch processing needs, the underlying libraries (pypdf, Pillow) are open-source and can be run locally without any limits.

Reporting Issues

If a tool produces incorrect output, fails on a specific file type, or you find a security concern, please report it at [email protected]. We take accuracy and security reports seriously and respond within 48 hours. Bug fixes are deployed as soon as they are verified.

Contact

Questions, tool requests, or feedback: [email protected]

Utilao is an independent site. Last reviewed: June 2026.