10 Python Tools That Replace Paid Apps

If you’ve ever paid a monthly fee for a single feature (PDF tweaks, automated uploads, quick video edits, fancy terminal dashboards), stop. Python has the glue and the engines. These picks skew toward tools people don’t mention in every “top X” list — and I use them in production. Read the snippet, steal the idea, ship it.

1) pikepdf — full-power PDF ops (replace Acrobat Pro for merging, metadata, light editing) Why pay for a GUI to merge, split or edit PDF metadata? pikepdf works on top of QPDF and is reliable for production batch jobs.

import pikepdf

# Merge PDFs
with pikepdf.Pdf.open("a.pdf") as a, pikepdf.Pdf.open("b.pdf") as b:
    a.pages.extend(b.pages)
    a.save("merged.pdf")

# Edit metadata
with pikepdf.Pdf.open("merged.pdf") as pdf:
    info = pdf.docinfo
    info["/Title"] = "Quarterly Report"
    info["/Author"] = "Your Name"
    pdf.save("merged_with_meta.pdf")

Pro tip: Use pikepdf to strip embedded fonts/images for privacy or to shrink files (use QPDF options through pikepdf).

2) playwright (sync API) — replace browser automation SaaS / Zapier browser automations Playwright is headless and rock-solid across browsers. When you need reliable scraping, automated forms, or end-to-end checks without a SaaS, this is the tool.

from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright

with sync_playwright() as p:
    browser = p.chromium.launch(headless=True)
    page = browser.new_page()
    page.goto("https://example.com/login")
    page.fill("input[name='email']", "[email protected]")
    page.fill("input[name='password']", "S3cret")
    page.click("button[type='submit']")
    page.wait_for_selector("#dashboard")
    page.screenshot(path="dashboard.png")
    browser.close()

Pro tip: Schedule Playwright scripts on CI or a tiny VPS and replace 90% of Zapier-style flows that rely on UI automation.

3) pdf2image + pytesseract — replace OCR SaaS (convert PDF→searchable text cheaply and privately)

Cloud OCR is convenient — but for sensitive docs, local OCR is priceless. pdf2image converts pages to images; pytesseract extracts text.

from pdf2image import convert_from_path
import pytesseract

pages = convert_from_path("scanned.pdf", dpi=300)
text_pages = [pytesseract.image_to_string(page, lang='eng') for page in pages]
full_text = "\n\n".join(text_pages)
print(full_text[:1000])

Pro tip: Preprocess images (binarize, deskew) with Pillow/OpenCV before OCR to massively improve accuracy.

4) moviepy — replace basic paid video editors (trim, watermark, concatenate, transcode) Need to cut interviews, slap on a watermark, or stitch clips for social media? moviepy is small and scriptable.

from moviepy.editor import VideoFileClip, concatenate_videoclips, TextClip, CompositeVideoClip

a = VideoFileClip("a.mp4").subclip(10, 40)
b = VideoFileClip("b.mp4").subclip(0, 20)
watermark = TextClip("MyBrand", fontsize=24).set_pos(("right","bottom")).set_duration(a.duration + b.duration)
final = concatenate_videoclips([a, b])
out = CompositeVideoClip([final, watermark])
out.write_videofile("output.mp4", codec="libx264", audio_codec="aac")

Pro tip: For longer pipelines, combine moviepy for edit logic and ffmpeg for final encoding flags — gives both scriptability and performance.

5) pydub + ffmpeg — replace audio editors / simple DAW workflows Batch-normalize, trim silence, convert formats, or generate previews programmatically.

from pydub import AudioSegment, effects

audio = AudioSegment.from_file("meeting.wav")
# Trim silence from ends (very simple)
trimmed = audio.strip_silence(silence_len=1000, silence_thresh=-40)
normalized = effects.normalize(trimmed)
normalized.export("meeting_processed.mp3", format="mp3", bitrate="192k")

Pro tip: Use sox or ffmpeg filters for heavy lifting, call them via subprocess when you need specialized filters; pydub is great for glue logic.

Quick Pause If you’re ready to sharpen your skills and save hours of frustration,
99 PYTHON DEBUGGING TIPS is your go-to guide. Packed with practical techniques and real examples, it’s the fastest way to turn debugging from a headache into a superpower. 99 Python Debugging Tips — A Practical Guide for Developers Debug Smarter, Not Harder. Bugs are inevitable, wasted hours chasing them don’t have to be… abdurrahman12.gumroad.com

6) reportlab — generate PDFs (invoices, reports, receipts) — replace online invoicing templates / SaaS

Write invoices or receipts programmatically. Good when you need templated PDFs and absolute control.

from reportlab.lib.pagesizes import A4
from reportlab.pdfgen import canvas

c = canvas.Canvas("invoice.pdf", pagesize=A4)
c.setFont("Helvetica-Bold", 16)
c.drawString(50, 800, "INVOICE")
c.setFont("Helvetica", 10)
c.drawString(50, 770, "Bill to: ACME Corp.")
c.drawString(50, 750, "Item: Consulting - $1200")
c.drawString(50, 720, "Total: $1200")
c.save()

Pro tip: Use a templating system to fill JSON→PDF so you can replace SaaS invoicing with a one-liner in your billing script.

7) yt-dlp — replace paid video grabbers / content archivers Download video + audio with precise options — playlists, filtering, post-processing.

import yt_dlp

opts = {
    "format": "bestvideo+bestaudio",
    "outtmpl": "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s",
    "merge_output_format": "mp4",
}
with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(opts) as ydl:
    ydl.download(["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"])

Pro tip: yt-dlp supports postprocessors (e.g., embedding subtitles) — great for building your own offline content library.

8) watchdog — replace paid “folder watcher” automation apps (auto-uploads, conversions) Trigger scripts when files appear. Build tiny automation services that run on any machine.

import time
from watchdog.observers import Observer
from watchdog.events import FileSystemEventHandler
import subprocess

class UploadHandler(FileSystemEventHandler):
    def on_created(self, event):
        if event.src_path.endswith(".mp4"):
            subprocess.Popen(["python", "process_video.py", event.src_path])

observer = Observer()
observer.schedule(UploadHandler(), "/path/to/incoming", recursive=False)
observer.start()
try:
    while True:
        time.sleep(1)
except KeyboardInterrupt:
    observer.stop()
observer.join()

Pro tip: Combine watchdog + playwright or yt-dlp to build full automation flows (watch → convert → upload).

9) pyvirtualcam — replace paid webcam virtualizer / overlays Want a virtual camera feed (for streaming, presentations, or automated demos) without buying commercial software? pyvirtualcam lets you send frames to a virtual camera device.

import numpy as np
import pyvirtualcam
from PIL import Image

img = Image.open("slide.png").convert("RGB")
frame = np.array(img)

with pyvirtualcam.Camera(width=frame.shape[1], height=frame.shape[0], fps=20) as cam:
    for _ in range(100):  # stream the same frame 100 times
        cam.send(frame)
        cam.sleep_until_next_frame()

Pro tip: Render dynamic overlays (RTT, status, webcam frames) into numpy frames and push to pyvirtualcam — good for automated demo recordings.

10) rich + textual — replace light monitoring dashboards and paid terminal UIs Replace clunky desktop utilities with a single-console interactive dashboard. rich for gorgeous output; textual for interactive TUI apps. rich quick example (pretty table):

from rich.table import Table
from rich.console import Console

table = Table(title="Jobs")
table.add_column("id")
table.add_column("status")
table.add_row("42", "[green]done")
table.add_row("43", "[yellow]running")
Console().print(table)

textual (very short idea): build clickable, keyboard-driven dashboards that run on a server or in your terminal and replace small paid monitoring tools. Pro tip: Make a lightweight dashboard using textual + playwright hooks to run checks and display results in the terminal — fast to build and ridiculously lower overhead compared to a SaaS dashboard.

Debug Smarter, Faster! 🐍 Grab your Python Debugging Guide — Click here to download! 99 Python Debugging Tips — A Practical Guide for Developers Debug Smarter, Not Harder. Bugs are inevitable, wasted hours chasing them don’t have to be… abdurrahman12.gumroad.com

If you enjoyed reading, be sure to give it 50 CLAPS! Follow and don’t miss out on any of my future posts — subscribe to my profile for must-read blog updates! Thanks for reading!

Read the full article here: https://medium.com/@abdur.rahman12/10-python-tools-that-replace-paid-apps-b3c153e5ef19