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Fair Go PDF vs PDFCheck

How the two compare on license, platforms and what the community thinks.

Key differences

  • Fair Go PDF is free; PDFCheck is freemium.
  • Only Fair Go PDF is available on Windows, macOS, Android, Self-hosted, iOS.
Feature Fair Go PDF PDFCheck
What it isFree, open-source PDF and image tools that run entirely in your browser. Files are never uploaded, and no account is neeInspect PDF metadata and complete everyday PDF tasks online.
LicenseFreeFreemium
Web
Windows
macOS
Linux
iOS
Android
Self-hosted
Rating5.0 / 5 (2)No reviews yet
Alternatives listed11
Page views3025

About Fair Go PDF

Fair Go PDF is a free, open-source collection of PDF, image and everyday utility tools that runs entirely in the web browser. Every file is processed on the user's own device with client-side JavaScript. Nothing is uploaded to a server, so documents stay private. After the page loads, the tools keep working without an internet connection. There is no sign-up, no paywall, no file-size upsell and no watermark on the output. Files are never used to train AI models. PDF tools (40+): Merge, split, compress, organise and rotate pages, plus crop, resize, divide, N-up, booklet, posterise and combine-pages layouts. Editing tools cover text, stamps, watermarks, page numbers, headers and footers, links, background colour and colour filters. You can fill and sign forms or build new ones, and flatten, redact, sanitise, remove annotations, and password-protect or unlock files. The suite also converts images to PDF, PDF to images, text to PDF and Markdown to PDF. It can extract text and embedded images, edit metadata, compare two PDFs, remove blank pages and repair damaged files. Image tools: Compress, convert format, resize, crop and rotate, add borders, round corners, colour filters, watermark, a social media cropper, collage maker, background remover, metadata remover and colour palette generator. Utilities: Convert documents to Markdown, AI writing checker, password generator, QR code generator, UUID generator, hash/checksum generator, JSON formatter, case converter, colour picker, word counter, read aloud, handwriting worksheets and calendar generator. Open and self-hostable: The project is MIT-licensed and built with plain HTML, CSS and vanilla JavaScript: no framework and no build step. It uses pdf-lib, pdf.js and the Canvas API. Anyone can read the code, check the privacy claims or host their own copy. Made in Australia.

About PDFCheck

PDFCheck is an online PDF metadata checker and document utility suite. Inspect author fields, recorded creation and modification dates, creating software, PDF version and page count. Related tools support text and image extraction, PNG/JPG conversion, compression, merging, splitting and metadata editing or removal. Developers can integrate PDF metadata analysis through an API and hosted MCP server. The free metadata workflow requires no signup. Paid plans provide expanded limits and virus scanning; the AI plan includes document chat. Metadata and generator indicators are clues, not proof of authorship, authenticity or standards compliance.