Where a free PDF to Excel converter breaks
Columns merge or split
A converter reproduces the page layout. Wrapped descriptions, merged cells and totals in the margin come back as extra columns you spend an afternoon untangling. Saff fills the columns you named, so there is nothing to untangle.
Scanned PDFs come back empty
A scan is a picture. Most converters find no text in it and return a blank sheet, or the image pasted into a cell. Saff reads the page and flags anything it could not read with confidence.
Arabic is reversed or dropped
Right-to-left text, mixed Arabic and English lines and bilingual tax invoices are where converters give up. Saff handles both directions and the mix on the same page.
One file at a time
Ninety supplier invoices means ninety uploads and ninety downloads. Saff takes the batch and returns one sheet, one row per document, the same columns for every file.
Every supplier, a different shape
Convert ten invoices from ten suppliers and you get ten different tables. Name your columns once and every batch, this month and next, comes out the same way.
Nothing to check against
A converter hands you a file and walks away. Saff shows the original page beside each value and marks the ones worth a second look before anything reaches Excel.
Convert PDF to Excel in three steps
- 1
Name your columns
Supplier, invoice number, date, VAT, total: in your words, for your documents. Up to 50 fields per table, any document type.
- 2
Upload the PDFs
One file or a batch. Native PDFs, scans and phone photos, Arabic or English. Documents of up to five pages are the base price.
- 3
Check, then export
Flagged values sit next to the original page. Correct anything, mark the row reviewed, download the .xlsx.
A free PDF converter and Saff, side by side
The honest answer, for any online tool, is: read what happens to the file after the conversion. Most free converters keep an uploaded file on their servers for a period of hours and say so in their terms. For a supplier price list that may not matter. For a bank statement, a payroll file or a signed contract, it usually does.
With Saff the original file is used for the extraction and then removed, unless your workspace connects its own storage bucket and asks to keep originals there. The values you extract stay inside your workspace, encrypted at rest and separated from every other customer. Your documents are never used to improve anything for anyone else.
If the documents cannot leave your company at all, we install Saff on your own machines, train your team, and stay reachable. That is the enterprise install, and it is the same product.
AED 0.50 per Basic document of up to five pages in a table of up to ten fields, or the equivalent in ten other currencies. Enhanced extraction, for hard documents, is twice that. A three-page supplier invoice with eight fields costs AED 0.50; a hundred of them cost AED 50. Every account gets 15 documents a month free, no card. There are no seats, no minimum and no subscription: you add balance when you need it.
It will not promise perfect accuracy. Values it is unsure about are flagged for a person, and handwriting or a very poor scan may come back empty rather than guessed. It does not merge, split, sign or convert PDFs to Word: it converts documents into a table you can trust, and that is the whole job.
Can I convert a scanned PDF to Excel?
Yes. A scan is treated as an image: Saff reads the page, extracts the fields you named and flags any value it could not read clearly. Photographs taken with a phone are handled the same way.
Can I convert multiple PDFs to Excel at once?
Yes. Upload a batch, a month of invoices or a folder of delivery notes, and every file is read against the same columns. You get one sheet with one row per document.
Does it work with Arabic PDFs?
Yes. Arabic, English and mixed documents, including right-to-left layouts and bilingual UAE tax invoices. The interface is available in Arabic as well.
Why does PDF to Excel lose my columns?
Because a converter copies the layout, not the meaning. Wrapped text, merged cells and margin totals become extra columns. Saff asks which columns you want and fills those, so the layout never gets in the way.
Is it free?
15 documents a month are free, with no card. After that it is AED 0.50 per Basic document, or the equivalent in your currency, prepaid, with no subscription.
Do you keep my files?
Not by default. Originals are used for the extraction and then removed, unless you connect your own storage and choose to keep them there. The values you extract stay in your workspace, encrypted.