ChangeThisFile vs AnyConv: Which File Converter Should You Use?

AnyConv has been a go-to for quick web conversions for years — clean enough, no fuss, handles the common cases. ChangeThisFile aims at the same casual user but adds two things AnyConv doesn't have: client-side processing that never uploads your file, and a developer API with a genuinely free tier.

This comparison covers where each tool wins, pricing, privacy, and the API difference that matters if you ever want to automate conversions.

Quick verdict

For casual one-off conversions: Both work. AnyConv is familiar; ChangeThisFile is cleaner with fewer ads.

For privacy-sensitive files: ChangeThisFile wins — images, spreadsheets, fonts, and data files convert entirely in your browser with no upload at all.

For developers who need an API: ChangeThisFile only. AnyConv has no API. ChangeThisFile offers 1,000 free calls/month, no credit card required.

For maximum format coverage: ChangeThisFile — 690 routes vs AnyConv's more limited catalog, especially for video, audio, and archive formats.

Pricing comparison

AnyConv is free to use as a web tool with no account required. That's where the comparison ends — there's no API, no programmatic access, and no paid tier. If you need to run conversions in code, AnyConv isn't an option.

Feature comparison

Privacy and data handling

AnyConv uploads all files to its servers for processing. This is standard for web converters — you select a file, it goes to their server, gets converted, you download the result. They don't retain files long-term, but every file does traverse their infrastructure.

ChangeThisFile's client-side routes work differently. For images (JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, GIF, BMP, AVIF, ICO, SVG, TIFF, PSD), data files (CSV, JSON, YAML, TOML, XML, TSV), spreadsheets (XLSX), documents (DOCX→HTML, HTML↔Markdown), fonts (TTF, OTF, WOFF, WOFF2), and image-to-PDF: your file never leaves your device. The conversion happens in JavaScript inside your browser tab.

This isn't a privacy policy difference — it's an architectural one. Client-side conversions are structurally private regardless of what any privacy policy says.

API and developer experience

AnyConv has no API. If you want to automate file conversions using AnyConv, you'd need to scrape the web interface — which is fragile, against their terms, and impractical at any real volume.

ChangeThisFile's API is a single endpoint. No SDK to install, no client library to learn — just curl, fetch, or requests directly:

curl -X POST https://changethisfile.com/v1/convert \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ctf_sk_your_key" \
  -F "file=@document.docx" \
  -F "target=pdf" \
  --output result.pdf

Source format is auto-detected from the filename. You only need file and target. Get a free API key at changethisfile.com/v1/keys/free — no card required, 1,000 calls/month included.

Format coverage

AnyConv handles common image, document, audio, and video conversions. It's reliable for the mainstream formats most users need. Less common formats — RAW photos, PostScript, less common ebook formats, archive cross-conversion — may not be available.

ChangeThisFile covers 690 specific source→target routes across 82 format definitions: images (including HEIC, AVIF, PSD, TIFF, ICO, SVG), documents (PDF, DOCX, ODT, RTF, HTML), spreadsheets, video (MP4, MKV, WebM, AVI, MOV, GIF animations), audio (MP3, WAV, FLAC, AAC, M4A, OGG), ebooks (EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, FB2, CBR, CBZ), archives (ZIP, RAR, 7Z, TAR and all .tar.* variants), and fonts (TTF, OTF, WOFF, WOFF2).

When to choose which

AnyConv is a functional web converter that gets the job done for common formats. But if your files are sensitive, you want an API, or you need broader format coverage — ChangeThisFile is the better fit. Grab a free API key and 1,000 conversions/month to try it without commitment.