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BentoPDF

Privacy-first client-side PDF toolkit — edit, merge, and process in the browser

Replaces
Notion
14k Nodejs AGPL-3.0 yesterday

Overview

BentoPDF is a client-side PDF toolkit that runs entirely in the browser using WebAssembly, meaning uploaded files never leave the user's device. It supports merging, splitting, rotating, compressing, reordering pages, adding watermarks, and basic form filling. The interface is a bento-grid-style layout where users drag and drop PDF operations. It can be self-hosted as a static Node.js web application with no server-side processing required.

Where it falls short of Notion

  • Client-side WASM processing is slower than server-side tools for very large PDFs.
  • No OCR or text extraction capabilities.
  • No user accounts, history, or saved workflows between sessions.
  • Feature set is narrower than server-side tools like Stirling-PDF for batch or automated use.

We list the gaps honestly so you can decide if the trade-off is worth owning your data.

Tags

pdf
browser
privacy
wasm
document
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