ToolHub — Free Online Tools
45+ free tools. No uploads, no sign-up
Added PDF compression to ToolHub, and wanted to write up the actual approach since it wasn't as simple as "just use an API."
The obvious easy path was a third-party compression API — but that would mean uploading the user's PDF to someone else's server, which directly contradicts the "nothing leaves your browser" thing the rest of the site is built around. So instead: each page gets rendered to an image (reusing the same pdf.js pipeline from an earlier PDF→PowerPoint feature), recompressed with a quality slider using the same canvas technique the Image Compressor already uses, then rebuilt into a new PDF with pdf-lib. Entirely client-side, zero uploads.
Before touching the real browser code, I tested the whole pipeline in a Node harness — generated a 4.7MB image-heavy test PDF, ran it through the compression logic, got a genuine 72% size reduction, then independently verified the output with pypdf (extracted the actual embedded image and visually confirmed it wasn't corrupted, not just "the script ran without erroring").
One honest tradeoff worth mentioning: since each page becomes a compressed image, text in the output isn't selectable anymore. Stated plainly in the tool itself rather than hidden — the right fit for image-heavy PDFs (scans, photo-heavy docs), not for anything where staying searchable matters.
After shipping ToolHub (a tools SaaS), I built a second, smaller product: Foundry & Flame — a restaurant website template that comes with a real admin panel, so owners can update menus/content themselves without touching code.
It's live on Gumroad now. Honestly still very early — no real sales yet, mostly validating whether this is something restaurants/agencies actually want to pay for vs. just another template flooding the market.
Demo: Foundry&Flame
Curious what indie hackers here think about pricing templates like this, and whether direct outreach to local restaurants/agencies beats marketplace listings for something like this.
A while back I posted here about ToolHub (free browser-based tools) and got a genuinely sharp comment: getting people to see the site isn't the same as giving them a reason to choose it over Smallpdf/TinyPNG/whatever they already use. Privacy-first is real, but it won't win over someone who just wants to compress a jpg fast.
Sat with that for a bit, then got an almost identical point from someone else entirely, on a different platform - except they named the audience specifically: people handling client contracts, financial statements, anything they wouldn't want touching a random server, even briefly.
That's concrete enough to actually act on, so I did:
Added a section right on the homepage specifically calling out "handling something sensitive?" instead of burying privacy as one bullet in a features list
Wrote a real blog post on it - not just "we're private," but what "upload-first" tools actually do, and a two-minute way to verify any tool's behavior yourself via browser dev tools
Added a targeted note directly on the PDF/Word/Excel tool pages specifically, since that's where someone with an actual contract or financial doc would land
No results yet - this went live within the last day or two, so I don't have real data to share. Mostly wanted to close the loop and say the feedback actually went somewhere instead of just sitting in a comment thread. Will follow up with real numbers once there's something to show.
Hey IH 👋
I've been building ToolHub (trytoolhub) — a site with 45+ free tools that actually run in your browser instead of uploading your files to a server.
Why "runs in the browser" matters to me: most free tool sites (compress an image, convert a PDF, whatever) work by uploading your file to their server, processing it, then sending it back. That's a real privacy tradeoff most people don't think about — your files are sitting on someone else's server, even briefly. ToolHub processes almost everything client-side, so the file never actually leaves your device for most tools. No sign-up required either — you can just open a tool and use it.
What's actually on there right now:
Image tools — compression, format conversion (JPG/PNG/WebP), resizing, cropping
PDF tools — merge, split, compress, and conversion to/from Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
Developer tools — JSON formatter, regex tester, hash generator, Base64, UUID generator
Text tools — word counter, case converter
Color tools, security tools (password generator), a couple of social media tools (YouTube thumbnail downloader, Instagram image resizer)
Full account system if you want one — favorites, history, download management — but nothing's gated behind it.
Where I'm actually at: the product itself I'm genuinely happy with — it's solid, it works, the UI's had a lot of care put into it. The hard part right now is the classic one: nobody knows it exists yet. New domain, zero backlinks, competing against sites like Smallpdf and TinyPNG that have years of SEO authority. I'm working through it — directories, community posts like this one, content — but if anyone here has been through this specific "good product, zero distribution" phase, I'd genuinely like to hear what actually moved the needle for you.
Happy to answer anything about how it's built (React/Vite frontend, Node/Express backend) or the privacy-first approach specifically.
-
1
The privacy-first angle is strong, but the harder question is distribution. When the product is competing with entrenched SEO players, the real strategic challenge becomes earning a reason to choose ToolHub rather than simply offering another set of free utilities.
-
1
You're right, and honestly that's the sharper way to frame it than how I'd been thinking about it. I've been heads-down on distribution — getting people to see it at all — but you're right that getting a click doesn't automatically answer "why this one, not the other five tabs I already have bookmarked."
I think you're also right that privacy-first probably isn't the thing that wins over someone who just wants to compress a jpg fast. It's real — most tools actually process client-side, nothing's getting uploaded to a server for most operations — but I think that story lands hardest with a narrower audience: people handling sensitive files, developers, folks who actually care why a "free" tool doesn't need their file. Trying to win on that message broadly, against sites with years of SEO trust already built up, is probably a losing fight.
Still figuring out exactly what the sharper wedge looks like beyond that. If you've seen other small tools/products actually pull this off — carve out a real reason to switch instead of just being "another option" — I'd genuinely like to hear examples.
-
1
That’s a useful distinction, especially the idea of finding a narrower audience with a stronger reason to switch. I’d be interested in continuing that conversation — would you be open to sharing the best email to reach you on?
-
-
Comment