Adobe Acrobat vs. PDFsam Basic
Side by side, with sources. Checked Oct 3, 2026.
Adobe Acrobat
Paid
PDFsam Basic
Open sourcePrice
Acrobat Standard is US$14.99 a month and Acrobat Pro US$19.99 a month on an annual plan billed monthly (US prices before tax); month to month they are US$24.99 and US$29.99.from $14.99/monthSource: adobe.com
Completely free, at home or at work. The same company sells separate paid editions (PDFsam Visual and Enhanced).Source: pdfsam.org
Pricing model
Paid · No free plan
Open source · Free plan available
License
ProprietaryProprietary Adobe software licensed by subscription.
Open source · AGPL-3.0-or-laterGNU Affero GPL v3 or later.
Works on
- ✓ Windows
- ✓ Mac
- – Linux
- ✓ iPhone & iPad
- ✓ Android
- ✓ Web browser
- ✓ Windows
- ✓ Mac
- ✓ Linux
- – iPhone & iPad
- – Android
- – Web browser
Where your data lives
Files stay on your computer when you use the desktop app; paid plans add Adobe cloud storage and online tools.
Entirely on your computer; files are never uploaded and no internet connection is needed.
Getting started
—
Difficulty: Easy Official installers for Windows, Mac and Linux with Java bundled; no account or internet needed.
Hosted version
—
NoneThere is no browser version; it is a desktop app.
Our take
If you mostly rearrange pages, this is the simplest free option. It does not edit text, so pair it with another tool if you need that.
Best for
Page clean-up
Anyone who merges reports, splits scans or extracts pages, at home or at work.
Check first
Text editing
Basic cannot change the text or images inside a PDF.