Terms of Use
The rules, responsibilities and important limitations that apply when you use FreePDF.
1. About these Terms
These Terms of Use govern your access to and use of FreePDF.co.za and its document tools. FreePDF is operated by Webtastix Web Designs].
By using the website or any FreePDF tool, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the service.
2. What FreePDF provides
FreePDF provides browser-based tools for supported document tasks such as merging, splitting, organising, rotating, extracting, converting, compressing, filling, signing, watermarking, numbering, protecting and unlocking PDFs, as well as generating certain business documents.
Features may differ between browsers and devices, and some PDFs may not be compatible with a particular tool.
3. Your documents remain your responsibility
You remain responsible for your documents, information and output. You must:
- keep backups of important originals;
- check the finished document before relying on, signing, submitting, printing or distributing it;
- ensure that information you enter is accurate;
- ensure that you have the legal right or permission to use, edit, convert, sign, protect or unlock the document; and
- comply with applicable laws, contractual duties and third-party rights.
4. Prohibited use
You may not use FreePDF to:
- commit or facilitate fraud, forgery, identity theft or deception;
- access, remove security from or alter a document without authority;
- infringe copyright, confidentiality, privacy or other rights;
- create or distribute malware or malicious content;
- attack, probe, overload, scrape abusively, reverse engineer or interfere with FreePDF’s systems except where the law expressly permits such activity; or
- use the service for any unlawful purpose.
We may restrict or block abusive traffic where reasonably necessary to protect the service and its users.
5. Important tool-specific limitations
5.1 Fill & Sign
FreePDF can place visible text, initials, marks and signatures onto a PDF. This does not automatically create an accredited advanced electronic signature or guarantee that a signature will satisfy every legal, contractual, evidential or regulatory requirement. You are responsible for confirming the required form of signature for the document concerned.
5.2 Invoice Generator
The Invoice Generator creates a document from information you provide. It is not accounting, tax or legal advice. You are responsible for ensuring that an invoice or tax invoice contains the information required for your circumstances and for verifying VAT treatment, calculations and business details.
5.3 Payslip Generator
The Payslip Generator is a document-generation tool, not a payroll, tax-filing or SARS submission system. PAYE and other payroll inputs must be verified by the employer or an appropriately qualified payroll, accounting or tax professional. FreePDF does not submit EMP201, EMP501, IRP5 or other returns on your behalf.
5.4 Unlock PDF
You may use the Unlock PDF tool only on a document that you own or are authorised to modify. The tool is intended to remove a known opening password or permitted restriction; it does not promise to guess, recover or crack an unknown password.
5.5 Protect PDF
Keep your password safely. FreePDF does not provide a password-recovery service for protected documents. PDF-reader applications may differ in how they enforce optional permissions such as printing, copying or editing restrictions.
5.6 Compress PDF
Compression may rebuild or rasterise pages. Depending on the selected settings and source PDF, selectable text, hyperlinks, form fields, accessibility information or some document structure may be lost. Always inspect the output before replacing an original.
5.7 PDF to Text
The PDF to Text tool extracts text that already exists as selectable text in the PDF. It is not an OCR service and may not extract useful text from image-only scanned documents.
6. No professional advice
FreePDF provides document tools, not legal, tax, accounting, payroll, financial or professional advice. Information on the website is general information and should not replace advice from an appropriately qualified professional where your circumstances require it.
7. Availability and changes
We may add, remove, update, limit or discontinue tools or features. We do not guarantee uninterrupted availability, compatibility with every PDF, browser or device, or that every output will be suitable for a particular purpose.
8. Intellectual property
Unless otherwise stated, the FreePDF brand, website design, original text, original graphics and original software components created for FreePDF are owned by or licensed to [LEGAL ENTITY NAME].
Third-party open-source components remain subject to their respective licences. See our Open-Source Licences page.
You do not transfer ownership of your documents to FreePDF merely by processing them in your browser.
9. Third-party services and links
The website may link to third-party websites or use third-party infrastructure. We are not responsible for the content, availability or independent privacy practices of third parties. Their own terms and policies apply to their services.
10. Warranties and liability
FreePDF is provided on an “as available” basis. To the extent permitted by law, we do not warrant that the service will be error-free, uninterrupted, compatible with every document, or that generated output will meet every legal, business or technical requirement.
To the extent permitted by applicable law, [LEGAL ENTITY NAME] will not be liable for indirect or consequential loss arising solely from use of, inability to use, or reliance on FreePDF, including loss caused by unsupported files, browser or device failure, user error, loss of formatting or failure to keep a backup.
Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits rights or liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited under South African law.
11. Privacy
Our handling of personal information is described in our Privacy Policy / POPIA Notice and Cookie & Local Storage Policy.
12. Governing law
These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Any dispute will be subject to the jurisdiction of the South African courts having lawful jurisdiction, unless applicable law requires otherwise.
13. Contact
Questions about these Terms may be sent to hello@freepdf.co.za.
14. Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms to reflect changes to the service, technology or applicable law. The current version will be published on this page with its effective date.