Zamzar hits 20 years bootstrapped: 550M users, 766M files, no VC
Two brothers mark two decades running the file-conversion SaaS independently, spurning venture capital while processing a million API requests daily.
What to know
- Zamzar marks 20 years of bootstrapped operation, serving 550 million users and converting 766 million files while remaining independent and VC-free.
- The company explicitly rejected venture capital, unicorn valuations, and trend-chasing pivots (including AI-powered reinventions), maintaining focus on solving a single core problem across evolving tech eras.
- Hacker News commenters praised the business model as a blueprint for sustainable, independent SaaS; some users requested pay-as-you-go pricing options alongside existing subscriptions.
The dispute Whether coding agents and AI tools have materially affected Zamzar's revenue and user growth remains unanswered in the coverage; one commenter asked directly about this but received no response. · positions read across 11 posts and comments
The bootstrapped, independent model is aspirational and should be celebrated as a path many entrepreneurs wish to follow.
-
“Really happy for you. It's my dream to run such a business for so long, as a side, with a real user base, and not for money.”
theanonymousone · Hacker News ↗
Zamzar delivers reliable, niche utility that open-source and coding agent alternatives don't fully replicate; the service fills a persistent gap.
-
“I use this all the time, especially for epub to pdf. Tried doing it with pandoc and the result was similar but less good.”
andai · Hacker News ↗
Zamzar should offer flexible pay-per-conversion pricing models (e.g., with deposits or pre-paid options) to capture users unwilling to commit to monthly subscriptions.
-
“Would you consider a pay-as-you go option, perhaps with a deposit? Right now, I won't subscribe for $12 per month (or $25 for API).”
ano-ther · Hacker News ↗
Zamzar founders (two brothers) Co-founders and operatorsVint Cerf Internet pioneer
How it unfolded 2 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump postscomments
-
2
Hacker News users celebrate milestone and share personal usage stories
Comments on the Hacker News submission expressed gratitude, shared personal experiences using the service, and praised the bootstrapped business model. Users highlighted Zamzar's reliability for specific tasks like epub-to-pdf conversion.
“Really happy for you. It's my dream to run such a business for so long, as a side, with a real user base, and not for money.”
— theanonymousone -
Is it bad that taking a look at the homepage: https://www.zamzar.com/My first thought was "imagine the astonishing amount of private documents and PII you could collect and store if you ran something like this for free as a honeypot". People just blithely uploading any document from their personal data to convert to another format.And if I would…
2 more of the top 3 · 11 posts in this stretch
-
I use this all the time, especially for epub to pdf.Tried doing it with pandoc and the result was similar but less good. (I like it when the result is more good.)It's amazing how many formats they support. It's kind of strange that this isn't built into the computer, though. Without Zamzar, the computer still lives in the pre-Babelfish era...
-
Congrats!Would you consider a pay-as-you go option, perhaps with a deposit?Right now, I won't subscribe for $12 per month (or $25 for API). But I have some use for both the interactive and API conversions and am happy to pay per conversion, so a pre-paid version (like OpenRouter) would be great.
-
- 1 day quiet
-
1
Zamzar publishes 20-year milestone retrospective
The company announced it has served 550 million users, converted 766 million files, and now supports 2,128 conversion types with 1 million API requests daily. The post emphasized independence, rejected AI-powered pivots, and detailed notable uses including helping the PowerPoint inventor recover presentations and partnering with Vint Cerf on digital preservation.
“Twenty years on, we're still a small, proudly independent UK company. No venture capital, no unicorn valuations, and no plans to pivot to an AI-powered blockchain for converting your Gran's Word documents.”
— Zamzar founders -
background
Two brothers launch Zamzar file-conversion website — Using dial-up modems and a book on HTML4, the founders launched Zamzar with 150 conversion types. The name derives from a Kafka character.
What people are saying 7 voices from 1 site · best of 11 · verbatim
- How has AI and coding agents like Claude affected Zamzar's business during the recent period?
- What is the revenue model, and how has it evolved over 20 years?
- Nov 2
-
Thanks for your comments - PAYG is something that we can offer - feel free to drop me a message at chris [at] the domain and I can provide some more details.
-
It’s a beautiful story. Having a business like this in the AI era is VERY inspiring. I see you as a small business, like the butcher or the fishmonger, selling good products to the public. Congratulations, and keep it up.
- Nov 1
-
try .scn files from SoftImage XSI. Need a way to convert them to a format that can be used in Blender or Maya/FBX without losing any of the structure. Autodesk basically told the old users to bugger off leaving them with Gigs of files they can't use anymore.
-
Are you noticing much of a hit from people using claude code/ desktop etc to do conversions?
-
Wow I have used this a long time ago and happy to find the origin story on HN.Great job and thanks!
-
How has revenue changed during the AI period? Are you guys able to maintain or grow with the rise of coding agents?[edit: what’s with the downvotes? I love the story and am curious if Claude etc have affected their business.]
-
Hi. Congratulations and thanks; it just happened that today I needed an .mp3 to .txt conversion and used your site. Nice to see it here now. All the best!