Solid PDF Compressor
100% private – No uploads. Everything runs on your machine.
I just launched Solid PDF Compressor, a Windows app for PDF compression. Deliberate choice to go perpetual license over subscription — I wanted to build something people actually own.
The product: A PDF compressor with its own built-in engine, plus optional support for Ghostscript if the user has it installed (which pushes compression ratios significantly higher). Everything runs locally — no cloud, no uploads, no account required.
Real compression numbers:
387 MB magazine → 4.4 MB
28.6 MB presentation → 2.87 MB
Both beat iLovePDF on the same files.
Pricing:
Free trial: 3 compressions
Early Adopter: $14.99 perpetual (100 units, then goes to $19.99)
Standard: $19.99 perpetual
Honest early-stage numbers:
Launched ~1 week ago
0 paying customers so far
No Gumroad Discovery yet (need $100 in sales to unlock it — classic catch-22)
Distribution almost entirely organic: Reddit posts, a blog article, zero ad spend
Why perpetual and not SaaS? PDF compression is a utility. People don't want to subscribe to a tool they use occasionally. I'd rather charge a fair one-time price and build trust than optimize for LTV on something this simple.
The challenge right now is the same as any desktop utility at zero: discoverability without a marketing budget. Curious if anyone here has shipped something similar and found channels that actually worked.
👉 https://ultimogrado.gumroad.com/l/SolidPDFCompressor / https://ultimogrado.com
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