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Which PDF tools keep your file on your machine

Of the 155 tools in this index, 83 keep your file away from somebody else's server: 78 have no server anywhere in the path, and 5 we supplied a document to and watched keep it on the device. A further 3 are software you run yourself, which is a different thing again. 7 say they process locally and we have not checked.

Why the distinction is the whole point

"Your files never leave your device" is one of the most repeated sentences in this category and one of the least checked. A vendor can write it, a marketing page can repeat it, and nothing in the file you download will contradict it.

So this index keeps three separate things apart. Observed means we supplied a document and watched where it went. No server means the tool is a program or a library with no vendor service in the path, which is a fact about its architecture rather than a promise. Claimed means the vendor says so and we have not tested it, which is recorded as a claim and never as a finding.

The order below follows that: the things we know first, the things we have been told last, and the ones we have not established at all named rather than dropped.

No vendor service in the path - 78

An architectural finding, not a test: the vendor operates no service for a file to reach. It does not cover cloud features, remote resources or a server you or a developer run yourself.

We watched it keep the file on the device - 5

We supplied a document and observed where it went. This is a test result, not a reading.

Software you run yourself - 3

The file goes to a server, and the server is yours. That is a real difference and not the same claim as the two above.

Reported to stay on your device, and not verified - 7

These are the tools a reader is most likely to pick on the strength of one sentence. The vendor says the file stays on your device. We have not tested it, so it is recorded as a claim, and it is deliberately not in the count at the top of this page.

The rest, and what we do not know

28 tools upload your file to a server, either because the vendor documents it or because we observed the upload. They are not worse tools for that; the point is that you can tell before you send a document rather than after. Each one's own page says which it is.

1 we have not established. The honest reading of that number is that this index is a work in progress: where we do not know, the record says so rather than defaulting to the vendor's wording, and the count is printed here so it cannot quietly grow.

Every tool's own page carries its verdict in its own words, with the date and the method. If you want to check one yourself, the method page explains how, and what the hash does and does not prove.

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