PDFsam review

PDFsam, short for PDF Split and Merge, has offered a free desktop tool since 2006. PDFsam Basic is open source and works fully offline, with no sign-up, watermarks or file size limits. It merges PDFs while keeping bookmarks and interactive forms, splits at page numbers, bookmark levels or file size, extracts and rotates pages, and mixes two files page by page, which helps with single-sided scanners. PDFsam Visual is the paid step up on Linux, shipped as a .deb package and a portable archive. It adds more than 25 tools, including visual page organizing, compression, cropping, metadata cleaning, flattening, splitting when text changes and AES 256 encryption, and offers a 14-day trial; its merge and some split tools stay free after the trial. The full editor, PDFsam Enhanced, is Windows only, so Linux users should treat PDFsam as a page tool rather than a text editor.

Who it is for

Linux users who mostly merge, split, extract and rotate pages.

Price

PDFsam Basic free; PDFsam Visual paid, one-time or subscription (USD price not shown on the page we fetched).

The free app to split, merge, extract, rotate and mix PDF files.
Quoted from the vendor pricing page on November 10, 2026.

Key features

• Merge PDFs while keeping bookmarks and interactive forms
• Split at page numbers, bookmark levels or file size
• Extract, rotate and alternately mix pages from two files
• PDFsam Visual adds 25+ tools such as compress, crop, flatten and AES 256 encryption
• Works offline with no uploads, watermarks or file size limit

Strengths and weaknesses

• Strength: PDFsam Basic is free, open source and has no watermarks or limits
• Strength: Runs entirely offline on Linux
• Strength: Visual's .deb package and 14-day trial for more tools
• Weakness: Basic does not edit text or annotate
• Weakness: PDFsam Enhanced, the full editor, is Windows only
• Weakness: Visual's price was not shown in our fetch of the site

Key facts

• Free version: PDFsam Basic, open source, since 2006
• Paid Linux version: PDFsam Visual v7.2.0, 14-day free trial
• Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux (Basic and Visual)

Where it ranks

PDFsam is No. 8 in our Best PDF Editors for Linux verdict.