PDF Arranger and PDFsam Basic are the two free, open-source tools people most often shortlist for organizing PDF pages, and they approach the same job from opposite directions. PDF Arranger shows you every page as a thumbnail in one window and lets you drag the document into shape. PDFsam Basic gives you a set of task modules — merge, split, mix, rotate, extract, insert — where you set parameters and run the job. Both are free, both work fully offline, and neither edits the text inside your pages. The right choice depends on how you like to work.
This comparison uses PDF Arranger 1.14.0 and PDFsam Basic 6.0.6, the versions listed on the official sites when this article was checked in October 2026.
At a glance
| PDF Arranger 1.14.0 | PDFsam Basic 6.0.6 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, open source (GPL-3.0-or-later) | Free and open source, with no watermarks and no size limits |
| Platforms | Windows and Linux; macOS only via Nix | Windows, macOS and Linux |
| Merge | Drag-and-drop in one visual window; can also lay several pages onto one sheet | Merge module, plus Mix to interleave two documents page by page |
| Split | Select pages visually and export them as one or more files; booklet splitting included | Very granular: split by bookmarks, by file size, or every n pages |
| Booklet | Yes — generate and split booklet layouts | Not officially documented |
| Metadata and encryption | Edit title, subject, keywords and other metadata; set a password on the exported file | Not part of the six tools listed for Basic |
| Edit text or OCR | No | No in Basic; text editing is in the paid Enhanced edition |
| Compress | No | No in Basic; compression is in the paid Visual edition |
Page organizing: visual vs. parametric
In PDF Arranger, organizing is direct manipulation. You open one or more PDFs, see all pages side by side, and drag thumbnails until the order looks right. Deleting, duplicating, rotating and inserting blank pages happen in the same window, and nothing is written until you export. That makes it forgiving: if the arrangement looks wrong, you simply keep dragging. It is the better fit when every document is different and you need to judge pages by eye — scanned contracts, mixed coursework, photo pages.
PDFsam Basic is built around repeatable jobs. Each module asks for inputs and settings, then produces the output. Its split options are genuinely deeper than PDF Arranger’s: splitting a 400-page manual at every chapter bookmark, or into chunks of a set file size, is a parameter choice rather than manual page selection. If you process similar documents the same way every week, that parametric style saves real time.
The extras that separate them
PDF Arranger packs more single-window page craft around the core job: cropping white borders or custom margins, resizing page size, generating booklet layouts for folded printing, editing document metadata, importing images as pages, and password-protecting the file you export. PDFsam Basic’s six listed tools stay closer to merge-and-split work, and features such as compression sit in the paid Visual edition, while full text editing sits in the paid Enhanced edition, which is Windows-only.
Platform coverage cuts the other way. PDFsam Basic ships official packages for Windows, macOS and Linux, so Mac users get a native free organizer. PDF Arranger has official Windows and Linux builds, but on macOS it only runs through Nix or a manual source setup — there is no official Mac installer.
When neither free tool is enough
Both tools stop at the page level. If your document needs its text edited, a scan turned into searchable text with OCR, a signature, or a smaller file size, you have left organizer territory. PDFsam answers that with its own paid Visual and Enhanced editions. The other honest route is a full editor such as Wondershare PDFelement (sponsored) or Adobe Acrobat (sponsored), which cover editing, OCR, signing and compression in one program. Disclosure: the editor links in this section are sponsored affiliate links — if you buy through them, this site may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. See our Affiliate Disclosure.
Verdict: who should choose which
- Choose PDFsam Basic if your splits are parametric — by bookmarks, by size, every n pages — or if you need a native Mac version of a free organizer.
- Choose PDF Arranger if you organize by eye: visual drag-and-drop arranging, booklet layouts, cropping and page-size work, metadata editing, and password-protected output in one free window.
- Choose a paid editor instead if the job is editing text, OCR, signing or compressing — neither free tool does those things, in any edition of Basic.
Still deciding? Our best free PDF organizers roundup puts both tools alongside the other free options, and the PDF Arranger alternatives page routes you by task.