A Convertio alternative for converting images and HEIC photos
Filezaar converts images inside the browser tab you already have open — 0 bytes uploaded, so your photo is never sitting on somebody else's disk.
Where your file sits for 24 hours
Convertio is a good service and it says what it does plainly. Its homepage states: "All conversions take place in the cloud and will not consume any capacity from your computer." Its privacy policy goes further on retention — input files are deleted instantly after conversion, and output files "are deleted after 24 hours automatically."
Read that carefully, because the two halves are not equally reassuring.
The file you uploaded is deleted right away. Fine. The file you get back — the one containing your photograph, your scan, your screenshot — stays on their servers for 24 hours. Convertio's own page says so, and it also says you can delete it yourself sooner. That's a reasonable policy and a lot better than keeping it indefinitely.
But 24 hours is a day. In that day the file exists in a place you don't control: on a disk in the European Union, behind an account system you didn't create, reachable by whoever holds the keys. The question isn't whether Convertio is careful. It probably is. The question is whether the file needed to be there at all.
On Filezaar the answer is that it never is. 0 bytes uploaded means there is no retention window, no delete button to remember to press, and no distinction between the input file and the output file. The only copy of your image is the one on your machine and the one you choose to download. More detail sits on our privacy page.
What Convertio's own pages say, in their words
It's worth reading the source rather than a summary of it, because the specifics are more favourable to them than you'd expect:
"All conversions take place in the cloud and will not consume any capacity from your computer."
"We delete uploaded files instantly and converted ones after 24 hours."
"We keep your files in the European Union."
"We do not read, look into or copy your files."
Free use runs up to "1 GB maximum file size," with sign-up offered beyond that.
"More than 25600 different conversions between more than 300 different file formats."
"We aim to do all our conversions in under 1-2 minutes."
That last pair is the honest case for Convertio, and it's a strong one. Three hundred formats is a coverage Filezaar does not match, and 1 GB without an account is generous. If you need to convert something unusual — a niche CAD drawing, an obscure e-book format, a legacy document type — a cloud converter with a huge format library is the sensible tool, and this page isn't going to pretend otherwise.
What it doesn't change is the first line on that list. The conversion happens on their computer, not yours. Everything else is policy layered on top of that fact.
Why images are the awkward case
Nobody worries much about uploading a blank form. Photos are different, and for a specific reason: they carry data you didn't put there on purpose.
A photo from a phone usually has the location it was taken embedded in it, plus the camera model, the time, and sometimes the device's serial number. Screenshot a bank statement on your phone and you've got a picture of your account sitting in someone else's storage. Photograph a passport page for a visa application and it's on a server in another jurisdiction for a day.
This is why HEIC causes so much trouble. Since 2017 iPhones have saved photos as HEIC — half the size of the same JPG, which is why Apple switched — and a lot of Windows PCs, submission portals and older apps still can't open them. So people go looking for a converter at exactly the moment they have something private in their hands: a photo of a document, a picture of a child, a scan of a contract.
That combination — sensitive file, unfamiliar format, deadline — is precisely when uploading is least attractive and most common. If the photo carries location data you didn't mean to share, strip the metadata before it goes anywhere.
What an image converter actually does to your photo
Worth knowing before you pick a tool, whichever one you pick.
HEIC to JPG changes the container and re-encodes the picture. JPG throws away a little detail every time it saves. Do it once at a good setting and you won't see it on screen. Run the same photo through three times and you will.
Transparency only survives in some formats. JPG has no transparency — see-through areas get filled, usually with white. PNG and WebP keep it. If you're converting a logo, this is the thing that will bite you.
PNG is lossless, JPG is not. Screenshots with text stay crisp as PNG and smear slightly as JPG. Photos are the reverse: JPG is far smaller for very little visible cost.
WebP is typically 25–35% smaller than JPG at the same visual quality, and unlike JPG it can handle transparency. It's the safer modern choice for general use; it's also slower to produce than a JPG.
Metadata travels with the file unless something removes it. Changing the format doesn't strip the location data. If you need it gone, use a tool that removes it deliberately.
What Filezaar does instead
The image tools run locally, one file at a time:
- HEIC to JPG — the iPhone photo problem, solved on your own machine. Takes HEIC and HEIF.
- Image converter — JPG, PNG, WebP, BMP and GIF. Pick any one as the source and any other as the output.
- Image compressor — shrink a photo that a form won't accept.
- Metadata stripper — remove the location and device data before you send a photo anywhere.
There's no account and no daily allowance. Convert forty photos one after another and nothing charges you, slows down or starts asking questions, because there's no server doing work on your behalf. The how it works page covers what runs where.
No account, no queue, no daily allowance
The three things people actually complain about with upload converters are the three things that follow mechanically from uploading.
A queue exists because a server is shared. A file-size ceiling exists because bandwidth and storage cost money. An account exists because someone has to be rate-limited, and a login is the easiest way to do it. Remove the upload and all three disappear together — not as a policy decision but as a consequence.
Concretely, on Filezaar: nothing waits behind you, we set no cap on file size, and there's nothing to sign in to. What limits you is your own device's memory, which mostly means that a phone will handle less than a laptop.
Where Convertio is plainly better
Three places, and they're not small.
Format coverage. More than 300 formats against the handful we cover. If your file type is unusual, we probably don't handle it.
Machine headroom. A 900 MB scan from a drum scanner will convert on their hardware and may fail in your browser tab, because their server has more memory than your laptop. If you routinely work with very large images, that's a real advantage.
Nothing to install and nothing to cache. The first visit to a Filezaar tool downloads the engine your browser needs. On a very slow connection that's a one-time wait Convertio doesn't have.
Which tool for which job
iPhone photos that won't open on a PC. HEIC to JPG — drop the photo in, get a JPG back that opens anywhere.
A format a form rejects. The image converter handles the pair you need. Most portals want JPG or PNG.
A photo that's too big to attach. Compress it first. If the portal has a limit, aim at the limit rather than at the smallest file you can make.
A photo you're about to send to a stranger. Strip the metadata first. The location data is in there whether you meant to include it or not. The rest of the image tools are listed by category.
Side by side
You can verify this yourself in 30 seconds using your browser's DevTools network panel — see our step-by-step verification guide.
| Convertio | Filezaar | |
|---|---|---|
| Upload location | Their servers, in the EU — "All conversions take place in the cloud" | Your browser, on your device. 0 bytes uploaded |
| Network requirement | Needed for the upload and the download | Needed for the first visit only; cached after that |
| File size ceiling | 1 GB without an account; sign-up beyond that | No cap we set — your device's memory is the practical limit |
| Queue delay | Their page aims for conversion "in under 1-2 minutes" | No queue. Work starts when you press the button |
| Price | Free tier with limits; paid plans available | Free. No account, no daily allowance |
Filezaar is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Convertio. Convertio is a trademark of its respective owner.
Competitor details above are quoted from convertio.co's own homepage and privacy policy and were checked on 20 September 2026; they may change.
Questions
Is a browser converter slower than a server one?
For ordinary photos, no — a local conversion finishes in a second or two and there's no transfer time at all. The crossover is size. Past a few hundred megabytes, or with very large images, a server with more memory will beat your laptop, and it won't stop if your browser tab crashes.
What if the page freezes on a big photo?
Close other tabs and try again; a single tab has a finite amount of memory and other tabs compete for it. Very large images — tens of thousands of pixels across — will sometimes fail on a phone for this reason and succeed on a laptop. Your file on disk is never modified, so retrying costs you nothing.
Do I lose quality converting HEIC to JPG?
A small amount, once. JPG discards some detail on every save, which is invisible at a good setting and visible after repeated conversions. Always convert from the original HEIC, never from a JPG you already made. If you need every pixel untouched, choose PNG.
Can I convert a whole folder at once?
No. Each tool takes one file and returns one file. There's no queue and no daily allowance, so you can work through a folder as fast as you can add files, but it is one at a time. This is the most common complaint and it's a fair one.
Does it work with the wifi off?
Yes, after the first visit. The first time you open a tool your browser downloads the engine and keeps it. After that you can convert with no connection at all — which is also the quickest way to prove to yourself that nothing is being uploaded.
Who can see my photos?
Nobody but you. There is no transfer, so there's no third party in a position to see the image, and no account tying it to an identity. The only copy is the one on your device. That's a structural fact rather than a promise in a policy document — the difference being that you can verify it yourself by disconnecting from the network and watching it still work.