PDFsam

Active

Country: Italy (IT)
Founded: 2006
Developer: LULU Software
Pricing: Freemium (free Basic, paid Enhanced and Visual)
Open source: Yes
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux

Indexes

PDF Tools

Overview

PDFsam Basic is a free, open source desktop application for splitting, merging, extracting pages, mixing, and rotating PDF files. It processes documents locally to maintain privacy, without uploading to third-party services. PDFsam Enhanced and Visual are commercial versions offering additional features like editing, signing, converting, filling forms, visual combining, and page organization for professional users.¹²⁴

Key Features

Merge PDFs - Combine multiple PDF files into one.
Split PDFs - Divide PDF files by pages, size, or content changes.
Extract pages - Select and save specific pages from PDF files.
Rotate pages - Adjust page orientation in PDF files.
Mix PDFs - Alternate pages from multiple PDF files.
Compress PDFs - Reduce file size (in workspaces or Enhanced).
Crop PDFs - Trim page margins.
Delete pages - Remove unwanted pages from PDFs.
Visual combine - Drag-and-drop page reordering (in Visual).
Sign PDFs - Add digital signatures (in Enhanced).

Pricing

Plan	Price	Includes
PDFsam Basic	Free	Split, merge, extract, rotate, mix; open source; multi-platform.
PDFsam Enhanced	Paid (license key; volume discounts for 5+ licenses)	Edit, sign, convert, fill forms; account login required; 14-day trial.
PDFsam Visual	Paid (14-day trial)	Visual PDF combine, organize, delete, compress, crop, split by text; professional tools.

Platforms & Requirements

Available for Windows 10+ (32/64-bit), macOS 11+ (64-bit), Linux (64-bit). Requires 256MB RAM and 70MB disk space. No mobile or web versions; desktop-only.²⁴

Integrations & Ecosystem

Local file import/export (PDF, images to PDF)
PDF to grayscale conversion
Content-based splitting (e.g., invoice numbers)
Page compression and cropping
Error reporting to developer
Account login for Enhanced (email/Facebook/Google/Microsoft)
Volume licensing for businesses

Alternatives

App	Difference
PDFtk	Command-line focused, free, lacks GUI but highly scriptable.
Adobe Acrobat	Full-featured commercial suite with cloud integration, higher cost.
Sejda PDF	Web and desktop options, freemium with online processing.
Smallpdf	Primarily web-based, convenient but requires uploads.

Reputation

PDFsam Basic is regarded as a reliable free tool for basic PDF operations, praised for privacy via local processing and open source nature since 2006. Commercial versions like Enhanced and Visual target professionals with advanced editing. Isolated malware flags on download pages exist but likely false positives given official site legitimacy; no widespread security issues reported.¹²⁹

Sources (10)