About FileFormatLab

A free file converter built to be quick, honest and unremarkable to use. No account, no watermark, and no games with your files.

What we are trying to build

Converting a file is a small job that the web has made needlessly unpleasant. The usual free converter puts a queue in front of you, asks for an email address once the upload has already finished, and stamps a watermark on the result. FileFormatLab is an attempt to do the same work without any of that: the upload panel is the first thing on the page, the conversion starts when you press the button, and the download appears the moment it is done.

The catalogue lists 27 converters. 23 browser tools are available now, and 4 server tools are not available yet. Available tools are free, require no account and add no watermark. The interface is deliberately plain, because a tool you use for forty seconds should not need to be learned.

How processing works

This is the part most converters are vague about, so here it is plainly. FileFormatLab has two kinds of tool, and every tool page says which kind it is.

Tools that run in your browser

23 of the 27 tools convert entirely on your own device, using the image, compression and text features already built into your browser. That covers every image conversion, JPG and PNG to PDF, creating and unpacking ZIP archives, and the CSV and JSON converters. For these there is no upload, no progress bar waiting on a network, and no copy of your file anywhere but on your own machine. Conversion libraries load on first use, so keep the page connected until they have loaded. The file itself stays on your device.

Tools that run on our conversion server

The remaining 4 tools, including PDF to Word and Word to PDF, are not connected yet. They are marked Not available yet and upload nothing. Video, audio, Excel conversion, PDF rendering, text extraction, merging and splitting run in your browser.

We would rather tell you which is which than claim everything is local, because that claim is what most converters get wrong. If privacy is the deciding factor for a particular file, the browser based tools are the ones to reach for.

What we will not do

No third party analytics, no tracking pixels, and no upsell that appears once your file is already in the queue. There is no account system, which means there is no password to leak and no profile to build. A page loads one stylesheet and a handful of small scripts, all from this domain, which is also why it opens quickly on a slow connection.

Google Drive import is not available yet. Use Choose Files to select a file already on your device. No Google code loads for this feature.

Where it is going

The plan is more formats rather than more features: the tools that exist should stay obvious and quick. Anything that would make the flow longer, such as an account to save your history, is not going to be added. If a converter you need is missing, the fastest way to get it built is to ask.

Four promises

The same for every tool

  • Free, with no catch

    Every tool is free to use. No trial that expires, no watermark on the result, and no daily limit that appears once you are halfway through.

  • Secure processing

    Traffic runs over HTTPS. Many tools convert entirely in your browser, so those files are never transmitted at all.

  • No account required

    No email address, no password, no newsletter. Open the tool, convert the file, close the tab.

  • Files stay on your device

    Available converters process files in your browser. Server conversions are not connected and upload nothing.

Frequently asked questions

Who is behind FileFormatLab?

A small independent team that got tired of free converters wrapped in sign-up walls and watermarks. There is no venture funding to justify and no growth target that would explain why a converter needs your email address.

How is a free service paid for?

Running costs are low because most of the work happens in your browser rather than on our machines. Where a hosted converter costs money to run we keep the limits honest rather than quietly degrading the output.

Do you sell or look at my files?

No. Available conversions happen inside your browser. Server conversions are not available yet, and no files are uploaded for conversion.

Can you add a format that is missing?

Often, yes. Tell us the format and what you were trying to do with it. Requests that come up repeatedly are the ones that get built first.

Ask us something