Overall Winner
PDF Candy
beats PDFsam by 20 points
PDFsam 40/100
PDF Candy 🏆 60/100
P
PDFsam
Free
VS
P
PDF Candy
From $6/mo
The verdict
PDF Candy scores 60/100 against PDFsam's 40/100. Compare the full breakdown of scores, features, pricing, and user reviews below.
Score breakdown
Dimension
PDFsam
PDF Candy
Price & Value
★★★★☆
★★★★☆
Features
★★★☆☆
★★★★☆ wins
Ease of Use
★★☆☆☆
★★★☆☆ wins
Reviews
★★☆☆☆
★★★★☆ wins
Each dimension rated 1–5. Higher is better across all four.
What users say
PDFsam
"Free open-source PDF splitter but plagued by aggressive upsell behavior"
Pros
Free open-source basic version for page manipulation Cross-platform support including Linux Specialized in split, merge, extract, and rotate operations
PDF Candy
"40+ free PDF tools with a perpetual license option, but quality varies"
Pros
Broadest free tool count with 40+ PDF utilities Flexible pricing including a perpetual one-time license option Comprehensive suite covering merge, split, convert, compress, OCR, sign
Pricing & value
| Metric | PDFsam | PDF Candy | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Yes | Yes | Tie |
| Starting price | Free | From $6/mo | PDFsam |
Our pick