PDFsam Alternatives: Top 5 Choices for Efficient PDF Editing in 2023

In the office & productivity category, PDFsam is characterized as a 'free and open source desktop program to split, merge, extract pages, rotate and mix PDF files.' To PDFsam, there are more than a hundred alternatives available for a wide range of operating systems and browsers. However, we will only review the top 5 PDFsam alternatives in this article.

Part 1. Top 5 PDFsam Alternative

The following are the top 5 PDFsam alternatives:

1. UPDF

UPDF is an excellent PDF editor if you want the same functionality as PDFsam. In UPDF, you'll be able to access all of the advanced features of premium tools.

UPDF offers a variety of useful features, including the ability to read PDF files, edit PDF text and images, convert scanned PDF documents to searchable and editable PDF files, organize PDF pages, add notes, and more.

Features

• Multiple markup tools allow for quick annotations. You can use it to add notes, text boxes, highlights, stamps, signatures, etc.
• As a PDF editor, you can change all of the texts in PDF documents. The images in PDF documents may be rotated, extracted, replaced, and cropped quickly too.
• UPDF is also a PDF converter, and you can use it to help you convert your PDF documents to other formats as you want.
• Adding passwords to PDFs is easy and you can protect your files with an open password or permissions password.

Pros

• Reading is a simple task because of UPDF's fast-processing speed.
• In contrast to other productivity programs, features a stunning, refined, and approachable user interface requires no learning curve.
• Quick and accurate processing which saves you a lot of time.

Supporting Systems

Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.

Price

Free and paid to start from US$39.99.

Video Tutorial on How to Edit a PDF File on Windows

2. PDF Studio Pro

PDF Studio Pro is a good alternative to PDFsam, but it lacks some of the more advanced features of UPDF. Many PDF-related capabilities are available to aid in the preparation of business documents, though.

This PDF editor is great since it is also compatible with Linux. That's correct, as you may have guessed. As far as we know, this is the only PDF editor available for Linux. It is possible to edit and convert PDF files for a reasonable price using PDF Studio, which offers a wide range of useful capabilities.

Features

• Interactive Form Designer
• OCR (Text Recognition)
• Inline text content editing with reflow
• Permanent Redaction
• Compare PDFs
• Optimize PDFs
• Digitally Sign PDFs

Pros

• PDF Studio has all the professional features you need.
• Excellent response from the company's side
• An easy-to-use user interface

Cons

• Even while PDF Studio's user interface is straightforward, it lacks aesthetic appeal. That's an old software design.

Supporting Systems

• Windows, macOS, and Linux

Price

• US$139.00 USD

3. CutePDF

We've also included CutePDF, a cloud-based PDF editor that's easy to use. Don't go by the name of it! It's more than just adorable. It offers all the features that a high-end piece of PDF software should have. However, using it comes at a cost.

Because of its newest features, CutePDF is putting up a solid fight against its rivals. Despite PDFsam dominance, there are other less expensive alternatives. One of these is CutePDF.

Features

• Worked well with either my personal PDF reader or the system's.
• The content of a page can be changed.
• Combine many interactive PDF Forms into a single PDF Form.
• Add a tool to reduce the size of files (in the "File" menu).
• Add a PDF Document with "Hierarchical Bookmarks".
• Type text anywhere on a PDF document with the typewriter tool.

Pros

• It gives you the option to view your files online at any time and from any location.
• Adding and rotating pages is simple.
• At the same time, you can manage many PDFs.

Cons

• After conversion, the layout is inadequate.

Supporting Systems

• Windows

Price

• Free and paid to start from US$49.95

4. Icecream PDF Editor

Icecream PDF Editor is a lightweight yet highly effective piece of software for producing and modifying PDF documents. Editing modes, annotating, managing, and filling are its core focus. In addition, Icecream PDF is a full-featured office suite that lets you edit, make comments, and safeguard your documents. It is one of the best choices for replacing PDFsam.

Features

• Edit any text in a PDF document with ease.
• Visually combine and reorder PDF pages, and split and merge PDF files.
• Edit PDF objects: move, resize, rotate, etc.
• Easily create PDF documents from scratch.
• Set password or limit editing/copying rights for document protection purposes.
• Complete in-built forms in your PDF documents.

Pros

• An easy-to-use interface.
• Flexibility in a fast-paced environment.
• For personal usage, this is the best option.

Cons

• A lot of work has to be done in the format part.

Supporting Systems

• Windows

Price

• Free and paid (US$49.95)

5. SodaPDF

There are several features and advantages of using SodaPDF instead of PDFsam. It makes it simple to generate, modify, sign, and distribute PDF files. It also has an OCR tool built-in, so you can create PDFs from scanned documents.

The SodaPDF free trial allows you to test out the program's capabilities before deciding whether or not you want to purchase it.

Features

• Merge
• Split
• Convert
• Create PDF Documents
• Edit
• Spellcheck
• Bookmarks
• Format Painter

Pros

• Gain full editing control over any PDF document.
• Reduce the size of any PDF without affecting file quality.
• Safe and secure.

Cons

• Limited features.

Supporting Systems

• Windows, Online

Price

• Free and paid (US$48/year)

Part 2. PDFsam Features, Pricings, and Comparison

There are three versions of PDFsam:

• PDFsam Basic
• PDFsam Enhanced
• PDFsam Visual

The three PDFsam versions have different features, and here we will introduce each of them. Rather than one cohesive application, PDFsam appears to be a smattering of discrete tools connected by a similar user interface. This may appear to be a drawback, but it really serves as a benefit since it keeps the software's many components concentrated and free of unnecessary alternatives.

No matter the tool you choose, it should be evident how to perform the work at hand due to the user-friendly design.

Pros of PDFsam

• It's an intuitive software that offers many features to help you create, edit, encrypt, decrypt, rotate or sign PDF documents easily.
• You can choose from 3 versions – Basic/Visual/Enhanced experience which will satisfy your unique requirements.
• Offers a Basic free version and supports Windows, macOS, Linux, etc.

Cons of PDFsam

• PDFsam Enhanced is not available for Mac and Linux. You will have to go for PDFsam Visual.

Part 3. FAQs about PDFsam

What is PDFsam Used for?

It can combine, split, extract pages, or rotate PDF documents. PDFsam makes it simple to achieve the precise results you want from your PDF files with a range of configuration choices.

However, there is a cost-effective alternative of PDFsam which is UPDF, with all the features PDFsam has, but 1/2 of its price. It can combine PDF files, for example, you may pick documents to combine them together. Edit text, images and links, converting scanned PDF into searchable and editable are all options. PDF files may be split in a variety of ways using UPDF.

Is PDFsam Really Free?

No. PDFsam Basic is free and open source and works on Windows, Mac, and Linux with very limited functions. But PDFsam Enhanced and PDFsam Visual are not free and you need to purchase them to use. So we would recommend UPDF as the best choice for you, not only with reasonable price, but also has advanced features that surprised you, such as add electronic signatures, watermarks, stamps and stickers, etc.

Does PDFsam Work Offline?

Yes. PDFsam works offline, and you need to download it to use.

Conclusion

Compared all these 6 PDF editors above, even though PDFsam editor can help you in some way, however, UPDF is absolute your best choice in terms of its price, interface, functions that supports. It also enables users to read, annotate, convert, edit, and protect PDF documents. Download it today, enjoy your time with UPDF!