A PDFsam Alternative in Your Browser: What Matches and What Is Missing
On October 29, 2026, we matched PDFsam's three desktop programs against PulsarKit. Of the 8 modules in PDFsam Basic, 4 had a counterpart, 3 matched in part and splitting by bookmarks had none.
By PulsarKit ·
PDFsam online: three desktop programs, no browser version
PDFsam (PDF Split and Merge) comes as three programs. On October 29, 2026, its home page called it “a free, open-source desktop app to split, merge, extract, rotate and mix PDF files”. That free app is PDFsam Basic. PDFsam Visual adds tools that work on page thumbnails, and PDFsam Enhanced is a full PDF editor.
None of them runs in a browser. PDFsam's FAQ says: “All three are desktop applications, you download and install them, there is no browser version.” Basic and Visual run on Windows, macOS and Linux, and Enhanced runs on Windows only.
Basic is free and open source under the AGPL v3 license. Its FAQ adds that “as of version 4 Java is bundled with the application”, and the site offered version 6.0.6.
Visual is “free to try for 14 days with no sign-up, then it needs a license”, one-time or yearly. We leave out its price: pdfsam.org loads it from its payment provider, and the figure we saw was set for our country. Enhanced is free for viewing PDFs and creating them from other files, with registration. “Editing, signing, OCR and conversion need a yearly subscription”, at $69, $89 or $129 per user, depending on the plan, tax included.
PulsarKit is a website with more than 200 free tools for files. There is nothing to install, and there is no sign-up, subscription or payment form. The site is paid for by advertising.
PDFsam Basic: 4 of 8 modules, checked on October 29, 2026
PDFsam Basic's page groups its jobs into six tools, with splitting by size and by bookmarks under Split. Its source code on GitHub has eight modules, and we counted those. For each, we looked for a PulsarKit tool that gives the same result, not identical features. Both products change, so this is a count on one date.
In our check on October 29, 2026, four of the eight had a counterpart. Split matches Split PDF, which cuts where you tap ✂ between page thumbnails, at custom ranges or every N pages. Split by size, Rotate and Extract match our Split by size, Rotate PDF and Extract pages.
Three matched only in part. Their Merge takes chosen pages from each file, while our Merge PDF joins whole files. Alternate Mix weaves the pages of two or more files, and our Reverse pages does that inside one file. Insert pages multiple times puts one PDF into another every few pages, and our Insert blank page adds empty pages only.
One module had no counterpart: Split by bookmarks, which cuts a file at every bookmark of the level you pick. Every PulsarKit tool named here runs in your browser.
What PDFsam Basic does better
Splitting by bookmarks is free in PDFsam. Here the same job takes two steps: read where each chapter starts, then type the chapters as ranges in Split PDF. Our guide to splitting a large PDF into chapters walks through both.
Merging goes deeper there. PDFsam's Merge can keep the bookmarks of every file, drop them or build one entry per file. It can merge form fields, renaming clashes, and add a clickable table of contents. Our Merge PDF offers None or One per file name for bookmarks, so the source files' bookmarks are not kept. It flattens all form fields, or keeps one form fillable, from the first file that has one.
Alternate Mix takes two or more files, in straight or reverse order. Reverse pages interleaves one file with an even number of pages, so two scans go through Merge PDF first. It always takes the backs from the last page.
PDFsam Basic has “no file size limit”, its FAQ says, and needs no internet connection. Our tools state their largest file on each page: Merge PDF takes up to 50 files, 300 MB each and 500 MB together. PulsarKit is a website, so you need to be online to open it.
PDFsam Visual and Enhanced, tool by tool
PDFsam Visual's page listed 26 tools that day. Four of them stay free after the 14 days: Merge, Alternate mix, Split by bookmarks level and Split PDF by size. In our check, 16 of the 26 had a counterpart on PulsarKit, and 6 more matched in part.
The 16 include PDF Compress, Crop PDF files, N-up, Protect PDF, Unprotect PDF, Extract images and Repair PDF. Of those 16, only our Repair PDF runs on our server, and the rest run in your browser. Four had none: Split by bookmarks level, Split PDF by text, Resize PDF pages and Edit metadata.
Among the partial matches, our Organize PDF works inside one file, while theirs also adds pages from other files. Their grayscale tool turns text and images grey, while our Compress PDF can turn only images grey. Their PDF/A validator checks an existing file. Our PDF to PDF/A checks only its own result, on our server.
PDFsam Enhanced has nine modules, and all nine matched only in part. Our Edit PDF adds a layer on top of the page and does not rewrite the text already there. Sign PDF places a visual signature without a certificate, and PDF Viewer opens PDF files but not ePub or comics.
Where your file goes
PDFsam's FAQ is direct about it. The files you work on “stay on your machine and are never uploaded to a server.”
The Basic download page says its Windows downloader “offers to try PDFsam Enhanced with two free modules to view and create PDF files”. The page also lists an MSI installer, portable archives and packages for macOS and Linux.
On PulsarKit, every tool matched to a Basic module runs in your browser, so the file stays on your device. Some PDF tools do use our server, such as OCR PDF, Repair PDF and PDF to PDF/A. So do conversions to and from Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Each of those pages says the file is deleted after processing and the result is wiped within about two hours.
To continue in another tool, PulsarKit may store a local copy of your input or result in this browser. It can remain after you close the tab or restart the browser. Clear PulsarKit’s site data to delete it.
Which one fits
If you split and merge PDFs often on your own computer, PDFsam Basic does more of that job, for free and offline. It splits by bookmarks, picks pages while merging and mixes two scans.
If you need one job done on a phone or a borrowed computer, PulsarKit needs no install and no account. It also handles images, video, audio and text, and a list of next tools under each result passes the file straight on.
Tools used in this article
Merge PDFCombine several PDFs into one document in the order you choose, without uploading anything.
Split PDFCut one PDF into several documents with scissors between pages, by page ranges, every N pages, or one page per file.
Split by sizeCut an oversized PDF into parts that each stay under a limit you set, such as the 10 MB an email server will accept.
Reverse pagesFlip a document so the last page comes first, turn round a single stretch of pages, or weave two scanned halves back together.Read next
- How to Compress a PDF on iPhone, and Why Some PDFs Stop ShrinkingOn October 23, 2026, a six-page PDF with pictures went from 8 MB to 1.2 MB in Safari on an iPhone 17 Pro. Here is which level to pick, why a PDF of photos can refuse 1 MB, and where the file goes.
- What Is OCR and When Do You Need It? A 20-Page Scan, MeasuredWe ran a 20-page scan, a tilted scan and a PDF that already had text through OCR PDF: what OCR adds to a file, how to tell whether you need it, and where our tool stops.
- Split a Large PDF Into Chapters: From the Bookmarks to One File per ChapterSplit PDF does not split by bookmarks, so the chapter pages come from a viewer and go into Custom ranges. What a 120-page book gave us on October 23, 2026: six files in 0.56 seconds.