# OpenManual — Find the right manual

> Find the right manual (iPhone/iPad app by Gunnar Hostetler.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/openmanual/id6804523993 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Gunnar Hostetler](https://appshunter.io/developer/1768599987)
- Category: Utilities, Reference
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 26.0 · 8 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2026-09-06
- Data updated: 2026-09-10
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/openmanual/id6804523993/reviews.md

## What is OpenManual?

The manual is never around when you actually need it. It came in a box you recycled years ago, or it's in a drawer somewhere, or the company that made the thing doesn't even exist anymore. Meanwhile the thing is sitting right in front of you blinking and all you want to know is what the light means.

So OpenManual starts where you already are, which is standing next to it.

Point your camera at the label. Everything has one somewhere, whether it's a sticker on the back, a plate screwed to the side, or tiny type stamped into the plastic. OpenManual reads it and figures out which part is the brand and which part is the model, because those two are almost never labeled and the whole search depends on getting them right. If you can't get to the label, take a photo of it, scan the barcode on the box, or just type in what you know.

Then it goes looking, and it looks where manuals actually live. The manufacturer's own support site first, then the public archives that hang onto documentation long after a product is discontinued, then the open web. If one source doesn't answer it just moves on to the next one, because a search engine having a bad day doesn't mean your manual doesn't exist. If the first pass comes up short it reads what went wrong and searches again, and on an iPhone with Apple Intelligence that thinking happens on the phone.

When somebody keeps a document, the next person who scans that same model finds it first. Only the document's address and the model get shared, never anything about you, and you can turn it off.

It finds documents but it never decides for you, and that's on purpose. Every result shows you the cover of the actual file, tells you what site it came from, and says in plain words how well it matches. If a document only half fits your device it says so instead of handing it over and hoping you don't notice. Nothing gets saved until you say yes.

Sometimes the manual is real and sitting behind a login or a paywall. OpenManual won't sign in, pay, or sneak around a gate, so it just tells you where the document is and lets you go get it yourself. That felt more honest than pretending nothing turned up.

Anything you keep stays on your phone and works offline, which matters when you're in a basement and the signal gives up. Ask a question about a manual you saved and the answer comes straight from the document with the page shown, so you can check that it really says that.

It works on the stuff that fills a house, a shop, or a building:

• Washers, dryers, fridges, dishwashers, ovens
• Furnaces, heat pumps, water heaters, thermostats
• Drills, saws, mowers, pressure washers, generators
• Printers, routers, TVs, cameras
• The mystery unit in the garage that was already there when you moved in

It also does medical and lab equipment, which is honestly why I built it. I spend my days supporting operating rooms, and I've spent a lot of that time hunting down IFUs for devices that went out of production a decade ago. So scan the UDI barcode on a device label and the whole device lands on one page: what it is, verified against the FDA's public registry, this unit's lot, serial and expiry, the instructions for use, recalls, adverse event reports split by what happened, and its class and regulation. It knows a REF from a serial from a lot number, and an IFU from a service manual from a cleaning guide.

A few things worth knowing before you download it:

• Three saved devices are free, no account, no sign up
• One purchase lifts the limit forever and nothing renews
• Saved manuals work offline
• You confirm every document before it gets kept
• It runs on iPhone and iPad

One last thing, because it matters. OpenManual finds documentation and quotes it. It doesn't diagnose problems, it doesn't tell you whether something is safe to run, and it's not a substitute for someone who actually knows the machine. When it can't find your manual it says so, because being confidently wrong is worse than being honest.

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Lifetime Unlock | $4.99 | one-time |



## Version history (last 2 releases)

### 1.1 — 2026-09-08

1.1 is mostly about labels that used to fool it, and about not making you tap things.

• You can scan the UDI barcode right from the device page now, and the camera screen opens that page on its own the second it reads one, so nobody has to type a DataMatrix by hand anymore.
• Hospital asset tags don't become the brand anymore. A person's name, a login, a department or an inventory number gets read as the owner's and not the maker's, and the part number printed under the item's name gets read as the REF like it should have all along.
• Component labels read right now. A directive number isn't a date, a part number with a hyphen isn't a serial, and the bare number under them is.
• It tells you when the label you're looking at is an owner's tag and not the maker's plate, and where the real plate usually is.

### 1.0 — 2026-09-06

No release notes.

## More apps by Gunnar Hostetler

- [OpenAssistant](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/openassistant/id6692613772)
- [OpenCone](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/opencone/id6744467668)
- [OpenIntelligence](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/openintelligence/id6756559175)
- [OpenResponses](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/openresponses/id6757338355)

All apps by Gunnar Hostetler: https://appshunter.io/developer/1768599987

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-10.*