It’s impossible not to come across PDF files if you do much work with a computer. When working with such files, you often need to edit them.
These include merging two or more PDF files, splitting them, and annotating. Also, you may need to convert PDFs to other document formats like DOCS and XLS.
You can do all these and more with PDFsam. It’s free and open-source software available for Mac and Windows users. The software has a free basic version and a premium enhanced version.
As you’d expect, you get more with the enhanced version, but the price is not the most affordable. For this reason, it’s understandable if you need alternative software.
Or do you need a simple tool you can use on the go via your browser? Whatever you’re looking for, you’ll find a suitable tool in the below list of the 15 best PDFsam Alternatives.
Let’s find out more.
Best PDFsam Alternatives
1. iLovePDF
With iLovePDF, you get all the PDF tools you’ll ever need. The plus is that you don’t pay a single cent to access them, unlike PDFsam.
iLovePDF features twenty-three PDF tools. There are tools to merge, split, and compress PDFs. Also, there are tools to convert PDF files to Word, PowerPoint, JPG, HTML, and Excel files and vice versa.
Furthermore, iLovePDF has simple editing tools to sign, watermark, rotate, organize, repair, paginate, and password-protect PDF files.
Using iLovePDF online is straightforward. You don’t have to register an account or sign in. You only have to select and upload the files you’re working with from your local storage or cloud storage like Google Drive and Dropbox.
iLovePDF has a desktop version for Mac and Windows with free and paid plans. You can pay $7 per month or $48 per year to use the premium version of the desktop software. Whichever you go for, you’ll spend less compared to PDFsam.
Desktop and web are not the only device platforms iLovePDF supports. iLovePDF also has mobile apps for Android and iOS devices. Support for this many platforms gives iLovePDF a significant edge over PDFsam, as PDFsam is only available via desktop.
2. PDF-XChange
Developed by Tracker Software, PDF-XChange is one of the most used PDF editors on the web. It’s an ideal alternative to PDFsam if you need many more features.
In particular, PDF-XChange has 349 features – 123 licenses and 226 free features. This also means that you can do more without paying for a subscription with this software.
You’ll find almost all PDFsam features on PDF-XChange. Features to view, create, convert, edit, comment, insert, and secure PDFs are available. Also, PDF-XChange supports OCR. OCR support in PDF-XChange is more advanced thanks to its dynamic engine.
A unique feature you get with PDF-XChange is support for dynamic stamps. The software allows you to add JavaScript actions as stamps. With this, you can display info like date and document owner.
One PDF-XChange feature you won’t get with PDFsam is the option to compare two PDF files. The PDF-XChange’s comparison tool will highlight differences and similarities between different files.
PDF-XChange is more affordable than PDFsam, with pricing starting at $56 per year. But you need the Editor Plus version to access all the tools, which costs $72 per year.
3. PDF24
Do you need a PDFsam alternative you can use for free? If so, then you should check out PDF24. The software promises a solution to all your PDF problems and is available online or on Windows.
PDF24 and PDFsam are comparable in terms of features. In particular, PDF24 lives up to its name with 24 PDF tools. These include merge, compress, edit, sign, convert, extract, and watermark tools, to name a few.
When you use PDF24 online, you don’t face any limits, and you have multiple upload options. The tool lets you upload PDFs stored on your device or Google Drive and Dropbox platforms.
Aside from the PDF editing tools, PDF24 features a standalone PDF Creator tool. The creator tool is only available on desktop devices. It has advanced features like OCR, overlay, screen capture, and many more format options.
You would expect the PDF Creator tool to have a price tag, but it doesn’t. The desktop software is free without limits as well.
The only paid option PDF24 features is the PDF Fax Service. The service lets you send and receive PDF faxes without a fax machine. It’s affordable, with pricing beginning from $5.
Also Read: Best Free Online PDF Summarizer Tools
4. Master PDF Editor
Described as a “multifunctional PDF editor,” Master PDF Editor is software you’ll appreciate if you love intuitiveness. It’s a premium software like PDFsam, and both platforms have similar pricing plans.
With Master PDF Editor, you can create PDF documents and merge, split, annotate, bookmark, modify, and sign them. You can also add digital signatures to PDF documents. With the Virtual PDF Printer, the software lets you print documents from different applications.
The Master PDF Editor interface is your standard editing software interface. It features a menu bar with two stacked toolbars. There’s also a quick access bar on the left tab while you customize settings on the right.
Master PDF Editor takes the lead over PDFsam when it comes to compatibility. You can only install PDFsam on Windows and Mac computers. But you can install Master PDF Editor on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
With this, it’s safe to say Master PDF Editor is one of the best PDFsam alternatives for Linux users.
Master PDF Editor pricing starts at $69.95.
5. Nitro PDF
Nitro PDF is popular as a PDF viewer software. However, the software works as well for editing PDF files, making it an ideal alternative to PDFsam.
The tools you get with Nitro PDF include a PDF creator, converter, editor, merger, and forms creator. You can also access electronic signature features, including bulk signing, custom branding, multiple signature types, and admin authentication.
Nitro PDF is available for Windows and Mac computers, like PDFsam. However, it goes further to support iPhones and iPads. Among the four major device operating systems, the software is only unavailable for Android.
You can use Nitro PDF to view PDF files for free. But to access the editing features, you must get the Pro version.
Nitro PDF Pro costs $193.49 per year. It provides you with more features than PDFsam such as Nitro Analytics and Control Center.
You can save money on subscriptions when you pay for multiple licenses. Furthermore, if you use Mac, you can get the software cheaper at around $130 per year.
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6. Qoppa Studio
Qoppa Studio is a simple PDF editing software. It supports more operating systems than PDFsam – Windows, Mac, Linux – and is more affordable.
The software is available in two versions. You either go for the Standard version or the Pro version. You need the Pro version to access all the PDF tools, but you can also do much with the Standard version.
With Qoppa Studio, you can create PDFs, scan and convert documents to PDFs, create watermarks, sign, and more.
The advanced features you get with the Pro version include features to sanitize, optimize, overlay, and batch process. In addition, you can work with different PDF version files.
A Qoppa Studio feature you’ll appreciate is the Action Wizard. It allows you to automate PDF tasks, ensuring your edits are faster and more precise.
Qoppa Studio also has premium pricing plans. At $50 per year, the Qoppa Studio Standard version is more affordable than PDFsam. Conversely, the Pro version costs $70 per year.
Nevertheless, one advantage of opting for Qoppa Studio is that you can use one account on two computers.
7. Sejda
Sejda has over 30 PDF tools you can access via the web. It’s an ideal alternative to PDFsam if you don’t want to install software on your computer.
When using Sejda online, you can upload files from your computer or Dropbox, GoogleDrive, and OneDrive. The software also lets you upload files from web addresses.
PDF tools with Sejda include merge, split, edit & sign, compress, convert, and security tools. You still get more tools to repair, resize and paginate PDFs, delete pages, and extract images.
Although Sejda is recommended as an online PDF editing tool, you can still install it on your computer. The software supports Mac, Windows, and Linux, placing itself a step above PDFsam.
You can only use Sejda for free to fill and sign PDFs. To access other features, you must subscribe to either its weekly or monthly pricing plans. The weekly plan costs $5, while the monthly plan costs $7.50. Also, the subscription costs $63 per year to use the software on a desktop device.
8. Wondershare PDFelement
If you need a simple tool to replace PDFsam, Wondershare PDFelement is one of the best options you have. It’s a dependable alternative that you can use on all major platforms.
Wondershare PDFelement has features to edit, convert, organize, annotate, and protect PDF files. These are the standard features you’ll expect from PDFsam and other PDF tools.
But that’s not all you get with Wondershare PDFelement. The software also has features for OCR, allowing you to edit and spot text in scanned PDF files.
Away from the editing tools, Wondershare PDFelement’s intuitive interface is another feature you’ll love. Irrespective of your device, you’ll find the software easy to use without requiring any learning curve.
You can install Wondershare PDFelement on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android devices. As a result, the software supports more platforms than PDFsam, which only supports Windows and macOS.
Wondershare PDFelement is one of the most affordable tools on this list. You can go for the quarterly plan for $29.99 or the yearly plan for $79.99. You can also go for the perpetual plan for a one-time fee.
Furthermore, Wondershare PDFelement has exclusive plans for teams, businesses, and educational institutions.
9. Foxit PDF Editor
Foxit PDF is another PDF software primarily known for its reader tool. Yet, the software boasts one of the best PDF editors you can find.
You can get the Foxit PDF Editor as standalone software or as a part of the PDF Reader. Whichever you opt for, you get features to create, edit, and sign PDFs on the go.
With the Foxit PDF Editor, you have many software versions to go with, unlike with PDFsam.
For example, you can opt for the standard PDF Editor, which costs $80 annually, or the PDF Editor Pro, which costs $100 annually. Also, you can go for the PDF Editor Pro Plus, which costs $150 annually.
The good news is that you don’t have to pay annually. The standard PDF Editor and Editor Pro versions have monthly plans.
Foxit PDF Editor works on Windows and Mac.
10. AlterPDF
AlterPDF is straightforward software. It works as a PDF converter and editor, with a Lite version that you can use for free.
However, AlterPDF is a software you can only use on Windows. If you own a Mac computer, you should check out the other alternatives on this list.
The features you get with AlterPDF are conversion, modification, and security tools. Most notable are the security tools, which allow you to encrypt, decrypt, sign, password protect, and edit metadata of PDF files.
The AlterPDF free Lite version is similar to PDFsam Basic. With the Lite software, you can convert, extract, merge, split, encrypt, and sign PDFs.
In particular, you get almost all AlterPDF features with the Lite version. The downside is that you can only process a limited number of pages at a time. You can remove this limit when you pay for the Pro version.
AlterPDF Pro costs only $29 per year, and you can try it for free for seven days before paying.
11. Smallpdf
Smallpdf has the vital PDF tools you need and won’t require you to install any software.
Most of the tools you get on Smallpdf are PDF converter tools. These include tools to convert PDF files into Word, Excel, PPT, and JPG. Conversely, you can convert these files into PDFs.
Other notable tools on Smallpdf are the PDF compressor and scanner, split, merge, and eSign tools. You can as well unlock PDFs or protect them using passwords.
Smallpdf lets you upload files from your device or Google Drive and Dropbox. A fourth option is the native cloud storage, which you get with a premium account.
You can use Smallpdf for free and access up to twenty PDF tools. You have the Pro plan, which costs $12 monthly if you need more. Notably, you can save $3 every month if you pay annually.
Smallpdf has plans for teams and businesses. The team plan starts from $10 per month per user. But for the business plan, you have to contact the sales team for a quote.
If you’d prefer to install the software, Smallpdf has applications for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. In addition, the software has web extensions for Chrome, Dropbox, and Google Workspace. It supports more platforms than PDFsam.
Also Read: Best PDF Drive Alternatives
12. PDF Expert
A few alternatives on this list were limited to Windows. With PDF Expert, you have an option exclusive to Apple devices – Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
PDF Expert is one of the most highly-rated PDF editing tools in the Apple App store, with a 4.7-star rating from over 145,000 reviews. The thirty million users is also a testament to the software’s popularity.
You can read, edit, annotate, organize, convert, compress, sign, and merge PDFs with PDF Expert. But the features you can access depend on your device. Notably, you get more features with Mac and iPad than with iPhone.
Since the software is optimized for only Apple devices, PDF Expert is relatively faster than PDFsam and easy to use. The interface is one of the most intuitive you’ll ever come across.
PDF Expert pricing costs $79.99 per year. However, you can skip paying annual subscriptions and purchase the software forever for a $139.99 one-time fee.
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13. PDF2Go
If you’re on a budget, you should check out PDF2Go. You can use it for free online.
Notably, PDF2Go comes with tools to improve PDF files, most of which you don’t get with other tools. An example is the Web Optimizer, which optimizes and makes PDF files better shareable across the internet.
You also get other standard tools to convert, compress, protect, split, rotate, and merge PDFs. Using these tools is straightforward. If you don’t use them online, you can download and install the desktop app on Windows. Also, PDF2Go has browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox.
You can use almost all PDF2Go features for free. But subsequently, you may need to upgrade to a premium plan.
The available premium plans include the weekly plan for $5 and the professional plan for $8.50 per month. You can save up to $3 on the professional plan if you pay annually.
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14. PDFescape
PDFescape is available online and on desktop for Windows. For the former, the tool will work with all major browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, and Opera.
Support for web browsers is the main difference between PDFescape and PDFsam. PDFsam doesn’t work on the web and your only option is to install the software on Windows or Mac.
However, you should opt for the PDFescape desktop version if you want to access all the tools available.
The web version only lets you edit, annotate, fill, password-protect, share, and view PDFs. Meanwhile, the desktop version allows you to convert, compress, print, and watermark PDFs, to name a few.
PDFescape is available for free online. But the free version comes with file limits and ads. For example, you can only upload PDF files of less than 10 MB.
Nevertheless, PDFescape has affordable pricing plans. At just $2.99, you can become a premium user and remove all limitations.
15. Adobe Acrobat Reader
Last on this list is a popular software – the most popular PDF software on the internet. You can do everything you can with PDFsam and more with Adobe Acrobat Reader.
You can edit text and images in PDFs using Adobe Acrobat Reader and delete and reorder pages. Also, the software lets you convert scanned PDF files into editable files.
Adobe Acrobat Reader works for converting PDFs to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents. In addition, you can redact, fill, sign, and track PDFs. One of the software’s unique features is the option to compare and contrast two PDF files.
However, to do all these, you must purchase the Pro plan. The plan costs $32.24 per month per user. But you can use the cheaper Standard plan for $24.71 per month.
You can get the software even cheaper when you pay annually. With an annual payment, Acrobat Pro costs $21.49 per month, while the Standard plan costs $13.96 per month.
Bottom Line
There you go – the 15 best alternatives to PDFsam. Among the entries, I will recommend iLovePDF as the overall best PDFsam alternative.
This is because iLovePDF comes with an array of tools and it is free for online use. Also, the platform has desktop and mobile apps with affordable pricing plans.
