A CloudConvert alternative for the formats you actually convert

CloudConvert converts hundreds of formats into hundreds of others, and there is no browser on earth that can match that list. Almost nobody needs that list. The overwhelming majority of image conversions are between three formats, and those three are ones your browser already has encoders for.

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CloudConvert and Softland, side by side

 CloudConvertSoftland
FormatsHundreds, including RAW, HEIC, PSD and TIFFPNG, JPEG and WebP - in and out
Where the conversion happensOn their servers - the file is uploadedIn your browser - the file is never transmitted
WaitingUpload, queue, convert, downloadImmediate, and offline once the page has loaded
Several files at onceYesYes, converted locally in one pass
API and automationComprehensiveNone - it is a page

Three formats cover nearly every real conversion

PNG when transparency or crisp edges matter - logos, icons, screenshots, diagrams. JPEG when it is a photograph and universal support matters more than anything else. WebP when it is going on a website and you want the same picture at a fraction of the weight. Conversions between those three are the overwhelming majority of what anyone actually does, and every one of them is something your browser can already encode.

The honest boundary is the input side. Your browser decodes what it decodes: an iPhone HEIC, a camera RAW file or a layered PSD may not open here at all, and when that happens the page says which format it found rather than failing vaguely. Those are precisely the cases where a server with a hundred decoders installed is the right answer.

The upload is not just a privacy question, it is the slow part

Converting a five megabyte PNG takes a browser a moment. Uploading it, waiting in a queue, and downloading the result takes considerably longer than that on any normal connection, and repeats in full every time you decide the quality was wrong and want to try again.

Local conversion changes the rhythm of the work. Change the quality, look at the size, change it again - each iteration costs nothing, so you converge on the right setting rather than accepting the first acceptable result because another round trip is not worth it. The same applies to converting a folder of forty images, where forty uploads is the entire cost of the task.

Why the converted file is sometimes bigger

Converting a JPEG to PNG almost always produces a larger file, and people reasonably assume something has gone wrong. Nothing has. PNG is lossless, so it faithfully records every compression artefact the JPEG introduced, and it is designed for flat colour and sharp edges rather than the continuous gradients a photograph is made of.

The other direction has a worse trap. JPEG to PNG does not recover quality - the detail was discarded when the JPEG was made and no later format can bring it back. A JPEG converted to PNG is a bigger file containing exactly the same information, which is why converting to PNG for quality is a step that costs bytes and gains nothing.

When CloudConvert is the better choice

  • Your input is HEIC, RAW, PSD, TIFF or anything else a browser has no decoder for.
  • The output needs to be a format browsers cannot write - a PDF, an ICO, an animated format.
  • You need conversion inside a build or a backend, which is what an API is for.
  • You are converting hundreds of large files and would rather a server did the work than your laptop.

Frequently asked questions

Are my images uploaded anywhere?
No. Decoding and encoding use the image support built into your browser. Open the network tab during a conversion and no request carrying the file is made.
Can I convert several images at once?
Yes. Add them all and they are converted in one pass with the same settings, locally, so the number of files affects how long your machine works rather than how long you wait on a queue.
Why is my converted file larger than the original?
Usually because the target is PNG. PNG is lossless and stores every JPEG artefact faithfully, and it is optimised for flat colour rather than photographic gradients. Converting a photograph to PNG reliably makes it bigger.
Which formats are supported?
PNG, JPEG and WebP for output. Input is whatever your browser can decode, which covers those three and several more but generally not HEIC, RAW or PSD.

Try it yourself

Convert between JPG, PNG, WebP and SVG in your browser.

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CloudConvert is a trademark of its respective owner. Softland is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by CloudConvert. This comparison reflects how each product works rather than what either costs, because pricing and plan limits change; check CloudConvert’s own site for its current terms.