PDFsam
Free, open-source desktop app for splitting, merging, rotating and extracting PDF pages.
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- 4 of 4
- Alternatives ranked
- 6
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About PDFsam
PDFsam, short for PDF Split and Merge, is a long-standing desktop app for reorganising PDF files on your own computer. The free and open-source PDFsam Basic splits documents by page, size or bookmarks, merges files with options for bookmarks and tables of contents, rotates pages, extracts ranges and mixes pages from several files. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, needs no internet connection or account, and adds no watermarks or limits. The same developers sell two paid products: PDFsam Visual, which adds drag-and-drop page organising, compression, cropping and metadata tools, and PDFsam Enhanced, a full Windows editor with OCR and conversion. The Windows installer offers to try those paid products, which some users find annoying. Basic does nothing beyond page operations, so you will need another tool for editing or signing. For anyone who regularly combines or splits PDFs and does not want to upload them, it is a dependable free choice.
Best for: Anyone who regularly splits and merges PDFs offline and wants it free.
Pros and cons
What works
- Free and open source with no watermarks or limits
- Works offline on Windows, macOS and Linux
- Flexible split and merge options
Why people leave
- Basic only reorganises pages, no editing
- Installer promotes the paid editions
- Plain, utilitarian interface
Top PDFsam alternatives
See all 6- 1
PDF24 Tools66.5Free Windows toolkit that also compresses, converts and runs OCR.
- 2
Stirling PDF62.6Open-source toolkit with far more operations, run in a browser or on a server.
- 3
iLovePDF59.6Online merge and split tools if you prefer not to install anything.
- 4
Sejda57.2Desktop and web app that adds editing to page organising.
- 5
Okular55.3Free open-source viewer for annotating the files once they are arranged.
Why people left PDFsam
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Reviews
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PDFsam: common questions
Is PDFsam free?
Yes. PDFsam is free, open-source software.
Is PDFsam open source?
Yes.
What platforms does PDFsam run on?
PDFsam is available for Windows, macOS and Linux.
What are the best alternatives to PDFsam?
The highest-ranked PDFsam alternatives right now are PDF24 Tools, Stirling PDF and iLovePDF. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.