Your files never leave your device. Everything runs in your browser. How we know
PDFboat

Your files never leave your device

PDFboat is built so that we can't see your documents, not just so that we promise not to.

1

Opened here

When you pick a file, your browser reads it into memory on your own device. It is not sent anywhere.

2

Processed here

Merging, previewing and unlocking are done by code running in this tab, on your processor.

3

Saved here

The result is handed straight to your downloads folder. When you close the tab, it is gone from memory.

Don't trust us. Check.

Any of these takes under a minute.

  1. Watch the network. Open your browser's developer tools (F12, or Cmd+Option+I on Mac), go to the Network tab, then add files and merge. You will see no request carrying your files.
  2. Go offline. Add your files, then switch off your internet. Merging and downloading still work, because nothing needs a server.
  3. Read the lock. This site sets a browser rule (a Content Security Policy) that only lets its own scripts connect back to pdfboat.com. Your browser blocks them from sending data to any other site. You can see it in the page's source under Content-Security-Policy. The one exception is the GitHub tool, which may also talk to api.github.com and raw.githubusercontent.com so it can download the files you choose, and nothing else.
  4. Passwords too. If you unlock a protected PDF or protect the result, the password is used in your browser's memory only and is never stored or sent.

What we collect

Right now: nothing about you or your files. There is no account, no sign-in and no file upload feature, because there is no server that accepts files.

The GitHub tool is different in one way: when you paste a repository link, your browser asks GitHub directly for the file list and the files you pick, exactly as if you opened them yourself. GitHub sees those requests; PDFboat never does. If you add an access token, it is sent only to GitHub, kept in memory and never stored.

If we later add anonymous page-view statistics or ads to help pay for hosting, they will never have access to your files, and we will update this page first.

Try it: merge PDFs