PDF Reader vs Lumin
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PDF Reader
This app offers a superior PDF reading experience with its innovative Liquid Mode, which optimizes documents for mobile screens. It also provides robust tools for annotating, signing, managing, and sharing your PDF files, catering to both work and study needs.
- Liquid Mode for optimized mobile reading
- Annotation tools (pencil, text, highlighting)
- Handwritten signature insertion
- File management (move, merge, copy, delete)
- Cloud service integration (Wondershare, iCloud)
- Create blank PDFs and folders
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PDFelement - PDF Reader is a PDF reader using the latest technology. The newly connected Liquid Mode function allows you to enjoy the best reading experience. In addition, there are various annotation tools, file management, signature, Various functions such as cloud services can meet your PDF needs in work and study. PDF VIEWER • Liquid Mode gives you the best PDF reading experience • Star files to find them quickly • Easily locate recently accessed files in the "Recent" list. • Enter the page number to navigate to the desired page for viewing LIQUID MODE • Get the best PDF Reading experience with Liquid Mode • PDF document fully fits the mobile phone screen, no need to zoom in and out repeatedly. • Easily adjust brightness, font size,style, and spacing. ANNOTATE • Using Pencil to annotate like writing on the paper • Add text annotations, freely modify the text and background, border colors, choose the appropriate font and font size. • Supports many annotating tools like highlighting, underlining, squiggly lines, or strikethroughs. MANAGE • Move, merge, copy or delete files SIGNATURE • Enables handwritten signatures to be inserted anywhere within the document, while also offering the ability to zoom in and out for greater flexibility. • Built-in commonly used stamps CREATE • Quickly create completely blank PDF documents • Creat blank folders. SHARE • Sharing document content with others is just a click away with capture feature. • Select sentence(s) or pragraph(s) to share CLOUD SERVICE • PDF Reader supports uploading or downloading docs via computer, Wondershare document cloud and iCloud. Please note that this app only supports editing native PDF files. It does not support editing scanned or raster PDF. If you find you cannot edit text in PDF, please check if it is scanned PDF. Thank you! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Need HELP? Please contact us! We'll feedback to you ASAP. Email: pdfelement@wondershare.com Support Center: http://support.wondershare.com Forum: http://forum.pdf.wondershare.com Official Website: https://pdf.wondershare.com If you think this App helps you, your positive review in the App Store would be much appreciated.
Lumin
Edit, share, and collaborate on PDF documents in the cloud. This app offers a suite of tools for annotating, organizing, and signing PDFs, with seamless integration for cloud storage and real-time collaboration.
- Seamless document management
- Cloud integration and auto-save
- Versatile editing and annotation tools
- Document organization and conversion
- Pre-designed templates
- Real-time collaboration
- eSignatures and form filling
- Scanning to PDF
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Lumin for iOS allows you to edit and sync to your Google documents in seconds. Collaborate with colleagues in real-time with a diverse set of editing tools. Lumin auto-saves your changes and syncs them to all your devices. Connect your Google account and stay on top of your documents. You can effortlessly view and share files with anybody via email or shareable links. TRUSTED BY MILLIONS Join over 100 million Lumin users worldwide who use our app to edit, share, and collaborate in the cloud. From note-taking and project management to client onboarding and legal document review, Lumin empowers you across industries. KEY FEATURES - Seamless document management: Import from your favorite storage (Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive), edit, and share PDFs effortlessly. - Cloud integration: Automatically save changes and sync across devices. - Versatile editing tools: Highlight, annotate, draw on PDFs and more. - Document organization: Organize, extract pages, merge files, convert to/from PDF,... - Pre-designed templates: Choose from various templates for various purposes and industries, such as real estate, education, job application, etc. - Collaboration: Share files and receive real-time notifications. - eSignatures: Sign and fill out forms with ease. - Scanning: Convert paper documents into portable PDFs. LUMIN IN THE REVIEWS “I use Lumin to mark up PDF drawings and send them to my subcontractors. In my role, time is of the essence. Lumin provides me with a tool to make collaboration and feedback easy.” – Construction site manager, US “We have been using Lumin for a little over two years, and it's been amazing. Using Lumin on-the-go and in-office allows us better turnaround time for our patients' care.” – Director of Services and Operations, US “It s very useful and handful for studying and I feel like they make good improvements with each upgrade. I use it for studying, it's cool that I can connect my university Google Drive to the Lumin account and I can edit, draw, write, highlight and add comments and they always get saved.” – Individual user “Too loud. You can open and edit texts from any device, everything is saved automatically, quickly. Access is very fast. The options for editing documents are diverse.” – Individual user Terms & conditions: https://www.luminpdf.com/terms-of-use/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: PDF Reader at 77% against Lumin's 32%. PDF Reader also leads on ads (none vs shown) and monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). Lumin's advantage is update cadence (every 8 days vs every 2 months) and rating (4.5 vs 4.3). On price, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Lumin holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3.9K and 895 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 77% of PDF Reader's written reviews are positive against 32% of Lumin's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
PDF Reader ships an update every 2 months, Lumin every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PDF Reader | Lumin |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (3.9K ratings) | 4.5 (895 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 76.7% of reviews — better | 32.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3.9K — better | 895 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 8 days — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 16.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 173 MB | 343 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Wondershare Technology (Hunan) Co.,Ltd. | Nitrolabs Limited |
Customer experience
PDF Reader
Lumin
User reviews
PDF Reader
From 3.9K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use
- 🚀 Efficient PDF editing
- 💡 Useful annotation tools
- 🚀 Convenient for students/professionals
- 👍 Great value for free app
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes and glitches
- 🔒 Privacy concerns with account requirement
- 👎 Unintuitive user interface
- 🐛 Unreliable saving/syncing
- 👎 Limited functionality compared to paid version
Lumin
From 895 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Smooth performance
- 👍 Easy to use
- 💡 Useful annotation tools
- 🚀 Fast PDF rendering
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes and freezes
- 🔒 Unreliable data sync
- 💰 Expensive subscription
- 🐛 Buggy app experience
Bugs and requests
PDF Reader
Reported bugs
4 issues- Text boxes appearing randomly
- Inability to select/edit text in some PDFs
- Scrolling issues and page loading delays
- Incompatibility with certain PDF formats
Requested features
5 requests- Ability to edit text formatting (font, size, color)
- Support for multiple open documents
- Improved Apple Pencil integration
- Bookmark/favorite feature for frequently used PDFs
- Expanded cloud storage integration (OneDrive, Google Drive, etc.)
Lumin
Reported bugs
4 issues- Lost work and unsaved changes
- Inability to open/access files
- Frequent login issues
- Compatibility problems on mobile
Requested features
4 requests- Offline mode support
- Split-screen functionality
- Improved highlight/annotation tools
- Better Google Drive integration
In-app purchases
PDF Reader
No in-app purchases
Lumin
No in-app purchases








