BentoPDF is a self hostable, privacy first PDF Toolkit
Hi folks!
I’m the creator of BentoPDF. It is an open source PDF toolkit that runs entirely in your browser. Your documents stay private, by design.
BentoPDF started as a small side project, but over time it has grown into something much bigger. With our latest major update, BentoPDF now includes 100+ tools, all running fully client-side.
You can do the basics like merge PDFs(while preserving bookmarks), split documents, extract or delete pages, reorder files, rotate pages, and compress PDFs. Thee are also some advanced tools.
You can edit and annotate PDFs directly in the browser: highlight text, add comments, draw shapes, insert images, fill(including XFA) and create forms, manage bookmarks, generate tables of contents, redact, add headers, footers, watermarks, and page numbers.
BentoPDF also supports an extensive range of file conversions. You can convert Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OpenOffice, Pages, CSV, RTF, EPUB, MOBI, comic book formats, and many more into PDFs, and also convert PDFs back into Word, Excel, images, Markdown, CSV, JSON, and plain text.
For images, BentoPDF supports a massive variety of formats, including HEIC, WebP, SVG, PSD, JP2, and and aalso other formats such as EPUB, CBR/CBZ. You can convert images to PDFs, extract images from PDFs in their original format, or rasterize PDFs with full DPI control.
There are also organization and optimization tools: OCR, PDF/A conversion, booklet creation, N-up layouts, page division, attachment management, layer (OCG) editing, metadata inspection and editing, repair tools, and advanced compression algorithms that rival commercial solutions.
The latest update also includes AI ready extraction tools to export PDFs to structured JSON, extract tables as CSV/Markdown/JSON, and prepare PDFs for RAG and LLM workflows.
All of this works entirely in the browser, without accounts, uploads, or tracking.
This is my first post here and I hope you like it. Any feedback or feature requests are appreciated. Thank you.
Github Link: https://github.com/alam00000/bentopdf
Can it also redact text from documents without allowing you to just copy and paste it back out again?
Asking for a friend.
Yes! It performs true redaction. You can find it in the editor tool
It is a civic duty to redact certain papers incorrectly.
Certain files, involving a certain island.
@[email protected] works for the NCA. LOL
lol
Great project. I like the 1-star reviews complaining about the lack of advertising and tracking.
haha thanks
Lol wait seriously? Surely those are a joke.
I use this already. Works great. Thanks for your hard work on this.
Glad it helped!
Same.
(:
You're doing the lords work my dude. There are not enough ways to thank you for your work
(:
Thank you so much. Why did you start this project, which certainly involves a lot of work? ( aka why are you so cool?)
Thank you! It started off as a simple tool as I wanted to merge PDFs visually by applying page ranges and I couldn't find any offline tool for that. I happened to then post it on reddit, and people asked me to open source it. After which I kept adding features on request and here we are 😂
You're great for making this so everyone can use it. Thank you
(:
Been using this for a while now, wife and kids are also very pleased with it. Easy to use and great layout, thank you so much!
wow, that's great to know
Does each user have their own account? Or can anyone and everyone see all the pdfs? Or are the pdfs only stored for the duration of the browser session?
There are no accounts or signup. All the processing happens locally in your browser. In fact, you can even use it offline once the page is loaded, and only you have access to the PDFs
Everything local, I assume, means no upload? My dad does house inspections and so there's like 4 or 5 pdf forms he fills out all the time. If he were using this, would he upload the template every time, or could he upload it once and then fill it out multiple times?
I assume also that it wouldn't keep a history of each finished file, and it's all ephemeral?
It never keeps any history, the TTL for the document is only as long as you are not done with the processing. There is no template system now. However I am planning to include a JSON based templating system which you can upload once and save and can be reused to auto fill forms
The day I can digitally sign PDFs from this, it'd be the PDF editor. You're doing the Lord's work, thank you very much for this!
It's actually coming up in next release (: You will be able to sign with PKCS12, PFX and PEM certificates. And also validate them
Oh, wow, thank you very much for this!!
What about PGP ?
yes that too
Well now I am even more interested in it.
Thank you so much for this. We just started using it at our school. We were using StirlingPDF, but they went open core 🫤. Personally, I like that there is no auth, it keeps it simple.
That's great to know. Thank you!
I've used it before for a job application! I needed to send them sensitive data. Tysm!
Great intuitive UI, does what it says, and it's fast. 5/5
Thanks!
I've used Stirling pdf in the past. How does it compare?
Not sure, as I haven't used Stirling and at the same time I didn't make it to compete with other tools. Hence I never mention its better than xyz tool either on our github or website. Users would have to do their own due diligence in this case. However it does have the best bookmark tool in the market(yes, better than adobe acrobat) and also a form creator tool, among others, which you can't find in other OS tools.
I understand and I wasn't looking for a "better or worst"assessment. I'll give it a try even if I haven't needed to manipulate pdfs. Always nice to add to the toolset.
Thank you!
No man, thank you!
Honestly, I think this is just one where you try it for yourself. The compose file is about 4 lines long, I had the whole thing up and running in about 30 seconds (OK, 45; I forgot a port was already in use and had to redeploy).
So far my one big complaint would be that the self-hosted version replicates the entire website, including all of the "Why choose Bento PDF" and "Try now" and so on. It'd be nice to just have the tools right there when I load it up. Other than that, well, it looks cool, I'll know more once I actually try out the available options.
Just try the simple image, see https://github.com/alam00000/bentopdf?tab=readme-ov-file#-simple-mode-for-internal-use :)
Oh, perfect. Thank you.
Uses much less memory than Stirling.
As someone who have been using both, you don't need an account to use bentopdf. All the data is processed locally, making it excellent for a single user scenario. I drink Sterling has a very handy omni-tool, but I dare say it's a matter of preference.
I go with bento where I can, and use sterling as a fallback.
No account need for Stirling either. I will try to give it a go soon.
I was not very clear, sorry about that: sterling supports accounts and oicd logins.
What I would love to see is batch processing of mapped form fields from a PDF template, e.g. to fill out training certificate template pdfs with name, date, company, and instructor from a given CSV file, add a signature and print it. Is something like that possible? 🙂
We currently use nodered, python and reportlab and I‘m looking to somewht simplify the process :)
That's interesting. I will see what I can do
Awesome, thanks :)
Are there ways to use it via an API? In particular I'd love to be able to programmatically submit a Word or Excel document and receive a PDF back
As its fully client side, it doesn't expose any APIS. HOwever, I am writing an API only version of bentopdf on Rust
Agreed. I spent a bit of time writing out a script for similar functionality for one of our business units, but I never was able to figure out how to convert excel sheets to a PDF to be able to merge them in the allotted time, so it just doesn't support them lol.
But I can see why it wouldn't have an API, since the whole deal is it stays in your browser, and an API would mean sending the files to the server.
Maybe there's some way to use selenium or something like that so that it stays local.
My work processes PDFs from government sites, filling them out for end users automatically. Would be cool if the API could do this somehow. Parse fields, and let you put text into them.
Unsure it fits your scenario but you could use VBA. In my case, we collect data via Excel then they get populated into a Word report template, and finally export to PDF for project delivery purposes, all automated using VBA.
From just a quick look so far, it seems really versatile. Thanks for the work you’ve put into this!
Thanks! Hope you like it
I had no clue this existed!!! Thanks for sharing.
Would you say that BentoPDF is an alternative to Adobe Acrobat and/or Bluebeam Revu?
I use those for my job, but it'd be nice to have a FLOSS alternative as a backup
It has almost all the features of Acrobat except for the text editing, which i will be adding soon
Awesome! Thanks for taking the time to answer.
I will definitely give this a try next weekend
From what I've seen in BlueBeam, I don't think most PDF editors are going to include any tools to compete with it. Its in a different category for construction markups.
That's ultimately what I'm looking for, but a Revu Lite is a good step in that direction
Thank you so much for your amazing work! I had to sign something a few weeks ago on a new PC and Bento is so easy
Thank you!
love it been hosting mine for close to a month now
wow you are an early user, thank you
Looks great
Thank you!
Will try it, looks handy. Thanks!
Thanks! Let me know how it goes
It’s great. I added it to my self hosting stack, will be relying on it from now on. I can’t wait to need some pdf tweaking in the future!
People like you keep my world spinning. Kudos!
The logo: all i see us the head between open legs
It's supposed to look like a B 🥀
Too bad, now you are cursed with this knowledge
Or a B-2.
I use this at home and I’m thinking of setting this up at work, to prevent my colleagues from using shady PDF-sites, for merging or splitting PDF-files.
How does the license work for internal use at a company, by it employees?
Hello and thank you. There is a one time life time commercial licence that comes for $49 and can be used by unlimited number of users (:
Nice, and thanks for posting here! We have a lot of discussion about projects, and it's helpful when the creator/developer is around to respond to comments directly 😄
I saw the update on GitHub about the goal of working on it full time. I also swapped over from StirlingPDF and I'm excited to see where this project goes. Best of luck :)
Thank you! 😊
if you dont mind, how does this compare with stirling pdf? Ive never used any of these
I only used Stirling briefly before I learned about BentoPDF, so I don't think I can give a fair comparison. I picked Bento because it felt faster and "simpler", and I prefer not having to worry about accounts/upload/storage.
Other concerns with Stirling:
It's not important but I guess it doesn't support auth? I've only got time to do a quick glance right now so I might have missed something.
I think a lot of people's use cases might be to integrate with other tools in their self-host stack like Authentik (could be solved by adding proxy auth if nothing exists natively) and Nextcloud or other filesharing/storing solutions.
If there aren't any capabilities like that then it could be food for thought for expansion. Otherwise great job! Right now it's still an upgrade from various shady PDF tool websites where you still have to download the PDF from your server to upload and process the files.
auth is out of the scope of this project currently. but yes it will be a good addition which i am thinking to add in future updates
You can just have things be out of scope. It's really okay!
Thanks for the work you've put into this.
Thank you!
How does this compare tp stirling pdf?
8k Stars in 2 months. Wild...
PS: Your git is misconfigured and doesn't line up with your GH account...
Thanks! Yes, I always forget to fix it xD
a small question, if I may.
When I worked in technical support for a popular phone brand a lifetime ago, I had to make clickable “navigatable” pdfs. Create empty objects around apps and settings so that technicians could help clients without having access to their phone or device with current OS update. I would update mine and take screen shots then convert those with clickable objects to switch to the correct page to act as a sudo phone/tablet. Is this something that BentoPDF can do?
Currently there's no such feature
what is the reason to put that tool into a browser? if i use the thing on my private computer, it increases complexity compared to a local installation (not an issue for many ppl here, but for my grandma surely). if i use it on a corporate environment, wouldn't more employees use it if it was the default PDF viewer on their managed device?
what did i miss?
Yes, as arthor mentioned it is supposed to be a self hosted tool. But since it's client side and just a bunch of static files in the end, I will soon be porting it for all major platforms as an installable using Tauri
That's excellent news! Is the github page linked above the best place to find out about that as soon as it's ready?
Yes!
this is meant to be self hosted on a server.. in my case its a home server, so my wife and i can access/use this at home and on the road, having the documents synced in one place, which is also self-hosted
How about email conversion functionality? I get lots of law offices in the USA looking to push an outlook data file in and receive an organized lot PDF back out. On the roadmap?
This is actually coming up in next release
Heck yeah, appreciate your efforts, you're creating a product to compete with software suites that are incredibly expensive to buy per user per year, you're doing the needful
I have it on my laptop. Thank you for your efforts.
glad it helped!
This is amazing, well done.
thank you!
This looks great!
Can you use it to overlay text fields and fill them?
Most of my uses are basic. Like filling out a PDF form that doesn't have proper form entry fields. These are usually older government or bureaucratic/healthcare/school forms.
I end up adding text boxes and entering values, or adding an X on top of a checkbox, adding a signature PNG file and scaling it to fit the size. Sometimes I have to add a highlight overlay. Then I save it all as a single flattened PDF file.
Amazingly, this is hard to do in Acrobat and a lot of apps. I end up using a janky, 10-yo desktop app that is no longer supported.
You mean XFA forms? Then yes it supports it
Went to look up what XFA forms were (https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/experience-manager-learn/forms/document-services/pdf-forms-and-documents).
Most of the non-fillable forms I encounter are what that document lists as "Traditional" PDF forms, likely generated using older tools from print streams. For example, a school athletics release form, or a membership application for a small organization. None of them have any fillable PDF fields. The original expectation might have been to download and print out the PDF, hand-fill it, then fax the result back.
I'll dig up a form like that I had to fill a few weeks ago and give it a try.
OK, just tried it with one of those old forms. Added a text field overlay and a signature. Even flattens before saving. Works great. Awesome, thanks!
Awesome!
Is there a function to create a booklet or brochure?
This was a very useful feature to print a number of pages and have them in an easy format to read.
However, at least my Ubuntu print driver doesn't have this feature, and I would need an extra tool to achive this goal.
Yes there is a booklet feature along with NUP tool
Some features seem to limit the working area to only the middle part of the browser. For example, the Multi Tool use 100% width but the Editor uses 33% only. Would love to see all features making full use of the screen size.
There is a use full width toggle which you can find under preferences in setting button in the search bar. I will make this the defult in next release
Perfect! Honestly though, I would expect the gears icon to appear in the top right corner, not in the search bar😅
Yeah I couldn't find a good place to put it lol
Thank you so much! This could be a great replacement to ilovepdf, that website has so much data and no one knows what they are dong with it.
I'm stoked to give it a try. I left my last PDF application because they injected AI into it. So I've been shopping around a little. I've been using Okular, but it's really limited, even as a viewer. This looks awesome. Nicely done! I hope you keep at it!
Thank you. You can also use the editor has a viewer
I don't suppose you're able to sign PDFs with something like a CAC card right? Is that still wholly in the realm of acrobat?
Literally the only thing I need another software to do so I can finally uninstall the last Adobe product from my VM. I'm running Linux so getting this functionality in Linux would be ideal. But since no one else has done it, I assume Adobe has some kind of stranglehold on that process?
sorry but this is the first time I am hearing of a CAC card. Can you give me more details. I can check it out then
No problem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Access_Card
Essentially it's a physical token containing a certificate. I can then put that card into a CAC card reader and authenticate with it and a PIN that I setup on my card.
I can then also sign PDF signature blocks with the cert on the card. I have only found this ability in Adobe Acrobat. The signature block in Adobe is different from just their regular sign location for digital ink. I've never made a PDF with one of those blocks, I've only just signed them so I'm not sure what exactly that kind of signing block is called.
So bottom line, it's a physical card with a certificate loaded on it. Adobe can read that cert and use it to sign signature blocks inside a PDF.
You just made my life easier, Thank You.
Thanks for this! I saw this post yesterday, and decided to check it out. I installed it locally on my laptop, and am evaluating it for work. If I recommend it for use, we'll get a license :).
Since the idea would be to replace Adobe for non-Pro (and maybe some Pro accounts), ease of use for low-tech users is at the front of my mind. Not being able to "set as default" for PDFs is not ideal, but I understand the limitation comes from running in the browser. Is there some way to open the PDF, and then choose which tool to use? Rather than how it seems now: choose the tool/function, then upload the PDF.
In next week we are going to be releasing Desktop apps, so you can download it and then set as default viewer
I could really use this, so I will definitely set this up. I saw there is an issue open for adding hyperlinks. Any word on how that is progressing (or not)?
Interesting!
Can this work server side as well? I'd love a good PDF toolkit to integrate as a backend into my open source system
Most important missing detail though: reliable conversion from HTML to PDF
I'm currently using wkhtnltopdf and it gets unreliable results at best, especially with layout (CSS)
Any suggestions on what tool could do that best?
Nope. But an API version will be released soon
This is a wild coincidence. I was just looking for something like this. Time to go tinker.
🙌🏻
I just installed this via Docker Compose and it looks good! Very similar to PDF24 but open source and more polished.
Only a couple comments - first, bentopdf/bentopdf-simple is definitely the image you want since the other has marketing for companies.
And then a tiny nitpick, but why isn't "Full Width Mode" the default? It comes disabled which displays PDFs in narrow little boxes where you can't see the full page width at a readable size.
Anyway, thank you! Very useful and super easy to setup.
I have been looking for something like this for ages. I could kiss you rn 😘
lol thank you
yes please that'd be helpful
This would be fantastic for at work. I saw in another comment that it's a one time fee commercial use license. That's fantastic. How it with merging PDFs with different page sizes and orientations? I would use it for merging drawing packages together, and there's a mix of like, A0, A1, and A3.
It can merge any type of pages. Also, if there is bookmarks in your PDFs, then it also preserves it. There's also an alternate merge feature in case you want (:
Love this idea!
Apologies if you've written this elsewhere, but do you have a write up of what inspired this project? Particularly why a selfhosted solution vs. client software?
My guess is:
Thanks!
I have a bad habit of never writing blogs haha. I will post one very soon (:
This is right up my street, thanks!!