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> We modify your PDF files in your browser, no upload required.

I can do all of this offline for free already with Acrobat or Preview.app on macOS.

> We try to make up some of the cost that we pay for hosting this service by employing a small amount of ads on our website.

Why?

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The free version of Acrobat is bloated, full of spam, and can’t actually do all of this (eg splitting and merging)

I've found that "PDF-XChange Editor" does everything i wanted for free. At least in the version I nabbed a few years ago, not sure if they have removed options from the free version since.

Reordering pages, splitting, joining all worked in the free version, and it's not bloated. Windows only though. I think they might watermark the output when using the Save option directly, but you can get round that using Print to PDF.

Their site looks a bit "scammy", but it's actually decent software.

The question of why they would use ads is answered literally in the statement about it. You can disagree with it, but it is already explained and isn't a surprising answer.

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