I’ve read that pdfsam, smallpdf and ilovepdf handle merging PDFs differently, but I can’t tell which is least hassle for a 30-file batch on my work laptop. Has anyone actually compared them side by side?
Honestly, for 30 files at once, PDFsam is way less hassle becuase it runs locally on your machine. The web tools like ilovepdf usually hit free batch limits or choke when you toss that many in at one time.
For a 30-file batch, I would use PDFsam Basic: it runs locally, handles larger batches without uploading invoices, and lets you reorder files before merging. Smallpdf and iLovePDF are usually simpler for occasional jobs, but their web versions can have file-size, batch, or account limits, and uploading work documents may not be acceptable.