Alternatives to PDFsam
Open source split and merge
PDFsam ranks #11 of 13 in PDF tools, with an Alt Score of 60. It is licensed under AGPL-3.0, freemium from $69/year and available on Windows, macOS and Linux. 10 of 10 checklist rows are verified against a public source.
Anyone who needs to merge, split, or otherwise rearrange PDF files on their own computer — from casual users doing a one-off task to professionals who need advanced editing, form-filling, OCR, or e-signature workflows.
PDFsam Basic is a free, open-source desktop app (Windows/Mac/Linux, since 2006) for merging, splitting, extracting, rotating, and mixing PDF pages, with all processing done locally rather than uploaded to a server. The paid Enhanced and Visual editions add professional features like a full PDF editor, form creation and filling, digital signatures, AES-256 encryption, OCR text extraction, and drag-and-drop visual page reorganization.
You load one or more PDF files into the desktop app, pick a tool (merge, split, extract, rotate, etc.), configure the options for that operation, and run it to produce the output file on your machine.
Why people leave PDFsam
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Ranked alternatives
Ordered by Alt Score. Click any score to see the breakdown.
Feature comparison
Rows come from the PDF tools checklist (14 rows). Human-verified cells only. ? means the value has not been verified.
| PDF tools checklist | PDFsam | Foxit PDF Editor | Nitro PDF | UPDF | PDF-XChange | Adobe Acrobat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | ||||||
| Starts at | ||||||
| License | ||||||
| Platforms | ||||||
| Edit text & images | ||||||
| Annotate & comment | ||||||
| Fill & sign forms | ||||||
| OCR | ||||||
| Merge / split / compress | ||||||
| Redaction | ||||||
| Batch processing | ||||||
| One-time purchase option | ||||||
| Runs offline | ||||||
| Self-hostable |
Every fact and feature listed for PDFsam is verified against its own pages. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.
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Pricing model Freemium verified 2026-07-11
$69 per user / per year
https://pdfsam.org/download-pdfsam-enhanced/ -
License AGPL-3.0 verified 2026-07-11
Since version 3 PDFsam Basic is open source under the GNU Affero General Public License, previous versions are released under GPLv2.
https://github.com/torakiki/pdfsam -
Starts at $69/year verified 2026-07-11
$69 per user / per year
https://pdfsam.org/download-pdfsam-enhanced/ -
Platforms Windows, macOS, Linux verified 2026-07-11
Windows 10 or above 32-bit or 64-bit, MacOS 11 (Big Sur) 64-bit, Linux 64-bit
https://pdfsam.org/download-pdfsam-basic/ -
Status active verified 2026-07-11
©2026 Sober Lemur S.r.l.
https://pdfsam.org/pdfsam-enhanced-v7/ -
Edit text & images Partial verified 2026-07-11
Add, cut, copy and paste text within your PDF file, change the type, size and style of your fonts, extract pages and images
https://pdfsam.org/pdfsam-enhanced/ -
Annotate & comment Partial verified 2026-07-11
Annotate PDF files with sticky notes, insert existing or custom made stamps, highlight, underline and strikethrough text, compare two PDF files and quickly spot differences
https://pdfsam.org/pdfsam-enhanced/ -
Fill & sign forms Partial verified 2026-07-11
Create fillable forms such as invoices and tax forms, add form fields, check boxes, radio buttons, combo boxes and list boxes
https://pdfsam.org/pdfsam-enhanced/ -
OCR Partial verified 2026-07-11
Recognize text within images and scanned documents transforming them into editable PDF files. Batch recognize the text within multiple files
https://pdfsam.org/pdfsam-enhanced/ -
Merge / split / compress Yes verified 2026-07-11
split, merge, extract pages, mix and rotate PDF files
https://pdfsam.org/pdfsam-basic/ -
Redaction Partial verified 2026-07-11
Safely redact and remove sensitive text and data from PDF files, ensuring confidentiality and privacy.
https://pdfsam.org/pdf-editor/ -
Batch processing Yes verified 2026-07-11
Batch recognize the text within multiple files
https://pdfsam.org/pdfsam-enhanced/ -
One-time purchase option No verified 2026-07-11
$69 per user / per year
https://pdfsam.org/download-pdfsam-enhanced/ -
Runs offline Yes verified 2026-07-11
Your PDF documents stay private on your computer, no need to upload them to a third party service.
https://pdfsam.org/download-pdfsam-basic/ -
Self-hostable No verified 2026-07-11
Windows 10 or above 32-bit or 64-bit, MacOS 11 (Big Sur) 64-bit, Linux 64-bit
https://pdfsam.org/download-pdfsam-basic/
FAQ
Yes. PDFgear, Smallpdf and iLovePDF have a free tier or are fully free. Free-tier limits in the comparison table are verified and dated.
Stirling PDF, Sumatra PDF and Okular — every license claim links its source.