PDF-XChange Editor vs. PDFsam Basic
Side by side, with sources. Checked Oct 3, 2026.
PDF-XChange Editor
Pay once
PDFsam Basic
Open sourcePrice
Free mode adds watermarks to licensed features. A perpetual single-user licence is US$62 (Editor Plus US$79) and includes 12 months of updates.from $62 (one-time)Source: pdf-xchange.com
Completely free, at home or at work. The same company sells separate paid editions (PDFsam Visual and Enhanced).Source: pdfsam.org
Pricing model
Pay once · Free plan available
Open source · Free plan available
License
ProprietaryProprietary licence. Paid licences are perpetual; the free version may be used at no charge, including at work.
Open source · AGPL-3.0-or-laterGNU Affero GPL v3 or later.
Works on
- ✓ Windows
- – Mac
- – Linux
- ✓ Windows
- ✓ Mac
- ✓ Linux
Where your data lives
On your Windows PC. Cloud connectors and the AI assistant are optional (the assistant only runs with your own API key).
Entirely on your computer; files are never uploaded and no internet connection is needed.
Getting started
Difficulty: Easy A normal Windows installer from the official site; nothing else to set up.
Difficulty: Easy Official installers for Windows, Mac and Linux with Java bundled; no account or internet needed.
Hosted version
NoneThere is no browser or Mac version.
NoneThere is no browser version; it is a desktop app.