Is ToolsBay really free, with no catch?

Yes. No account, no upload limit, no watermark on output, no trial that expires. Advertising pays for the hosting. The one thing that is not free in the usual sense is your attention — there is one ad unit per page.

Do you keep the files I process?

For all but 10 tools we never receive them, so there is nothing to keep. Those 10 server-side PDF conversions stream the file through and discard it once the result is returned — nothing is written to storage — and each is labelled on the tool.

Can I use the calculator results for tax filing or payroll?

Treat them as a well-sourced estimate, not as advice. The statutory calculators show the exact table or band they used and link to the agency that publishes it, which is what makes them checkable — but rates change, individual circumstances vary, and the terms of use say plainly that this is information rather than professional advice.

Who do I contact about an error?

Write to hello@toolsbay.app . Corrections to a rate, threshold or formula are the most useful thing you can send, and how we build and check things explains what happens next.

About ToolsBay

ToolsBay is an independently run collection of 136 free web tools — calculators, image utilities, PDF utilities and QR code generators — built around one constraint: the work happens on your device, not on ours. When you compress a photo or work out your take-home pay here, the file and the numbers stay in your browser. There is no account to create, no upload step, and no copy of your data on a server for us to lose. This page sets out who runs the site, how it pays for itself, and where the honest exceptions to that rule are, because a privacy claim is worth nothing if you cannot check who is making it, and because the honest exceptions are the part most sites leave out.

Who runs it

ToolsBay is built and run by Haris, an independent developer based in Malaysia, publishing under the ToolsBay name. It is not a venture-funded startup, an agency side project, or a content farm — it is a small, deliberately narrow set of tools maintained by one person, which is why the tool list grows slowly and why every calculator carries a link to the statute or agency it is based on.

That independence matters in one specific way. Most free file tools are the free tier of a subscription business, so the product is shaped around the upgrade prompt: watermarks on the output, a two-file daily cap, a "sign in to download" wall. ToolsBay has nothing to upsell, so none of those exist. The trade is that advertising pays for it, which is set out plainly below.

If something here is wrong — a tax rate that changed, a conversion that mangles your file, a broken page — writing to hello@toolsbay.app reaches the person who can fix it, not a support queue. How we build and check things explains what happens to a correction after you send it.

Why the processing happens in your browser

Almost every tool here runs entirely as JavaScript and WebAssembly inside the page. Image compression and format conversion use the browser's own Canvas and codec support. PDF merging, splitting, rotation, page numbering, watermarking and form filling are done by a PDF library loaded into the tab. Calculators are arithmetic — there was never a reason to send those numbers anywhere. Background removal runs a U-2-Net segmentation model that downloads to your browser and executes there.

The practical test is one you can run yourself: open a tool, load the page, disconnect from the internet, and use it. It still works, because after the page loads there is nothing left to talk to. The guide on checking whether an online tool uploads your files walks through how to verify that in your browser's Network tab — on this site or anyone else's.

This is not just a privacy posture. Payslips, bank statements, passport scans, signed contracts and medical forms are exactly the documents people run through free online converters, and every upload is a copy of that document on a machine you do not control, subject to that company's retention policy, breach history and jurisdiction. Not uploading is simply a smaller problem than promising to delete.

The exception, stated plainly

Some conversions genuinely cannot run in a browser. Converting between PDF and Word, Excel or PowerPoint in either direction, running OCR over a scanned document, converting to the PDF/A archival standard, repairing a corrupted PDF, and rendering a live web page to PDF all need a document engine that browsers do not ship. Those 10 tools on pdf.toolsbay.app run on a server, and each one says so on the tool itself, in its description and in its own FAQ, before you use it.

When you use one of them, the file is streamed through the converter, processed in memory, and discarded as soon as the result is returned. It is not written to disk, not kept in a queue, not logged, and not looked at. If that trade is not one you want to make for a particular document, do not use those 10 — the other 126 never leave your device, and nothing on the site quietly falls back to the server path.

How it pays for itself

ToolsBay is funded by advertising. There is no paid tier, no subscription, and nothing behind a login, so the ads are the whole business model and it is better to say so than to leave you guessing. Pages carry one display ad unit; ad networks receive the usual request data for the page you are on, and never the contents of anything you process, because that content never leaves your browser to begin with.

There are no affiliate links in the tool pages, and the comparison pages that mention other products earn nothing from them — they are there because "is this better than the thing I already use" is a fair question, and each competitor claim on those pages links to the competitor's own pricing or documentation with the date it was checked.

The full data handling position, including what Cloudflare logs as the host and what the ad network may set, is in the privacy policy.

What is here

The tools are grouped onto four sites, each with its own name: CalcHub for calculators, ImgSquash for image work, PaperKit for PDFs, and MakeQR for QR codes and barcodes. They are separate names on separate subdomains, but one publisher, one privacy policy and one person to write to.

The calculators are where the most care has gone, particularly the Malaysian statutory ones — EPF/KWSP, SOCSO and EIS contributions, and PCB income tax — plus take-home pay for eight other countries. Each of those carries the contribution table or tax band it uses and a link to the agency that publishes it, so you can check the working rather than trusting the number. The guides cover the parts that do not fit on a tool page.

Last updated: 2026-08-07

Frequently asked questions

Is ToolsBay really free, with no catch?: Yes. No account, no upload limit, no watermark on output, no trial that expires. Advertising pays for the hosting. The one thing that is not free in the usual sense is your attention — there is one ad unit per page.
Do you keep the files I process?: For all but 10 tools we never receive them, so there is nothing to keep. Those 10 server-side PDF conversions stream the file through and discard it once the result is returned — nothing is written to storage — and each is labelled on the tool.
Can I use the calculator results for tax filing or payroll?: Treat them as a well-sourced estimate, not as advice. The statutory calculators show the exact table or band they used and link to the agency that publishes it, which is what makes them checkable — but rates change, individual circumstances vary, and the terms of use say plainly that this is information rather than professional advice.
Who do I contact about an error?: Write to hello@toolsbay.app. Corrections to a rate, threshold or formula are the most useful thing you can send, and how we build and check things explains what happens next.