Comparison

PDF Reader vs DarkPDF

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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.

About

DarkPDF

This app allows you to read PDF documents in dark mode, inverting text and background colors to reduce eye strain. It also offers the ability to compress margins and blank spaces for a larger text display.

Highlights
  • Dark mode PDF reading
  • Invert text and background
  • Larger text display
  • Margin compression
  • Cross-platform compatibility (macOS & iOS)
Features
Read full description

macOS and iOS 13 bring us this marvellous Dark Mode. Dark Mode has many benefits. But there is a problem for PDF readers. Most PDF files are black text on a white background, resembling a printed form of documents. For eyes that get used to Dark Mode, such pages put a strain on them. DarkPDF can help. It is available on both macOS (Catalina) and iOS. Buy it once, and use it on both platforms. By altering the background from white to black, text from black to white, you can read PDFs in Dark Mode. Even better, DarkPDF can also compress margins around the page, as well as blank spaces in the page so that more space can be used to render meaningful text.

Screenshots

PDF Reader4 screens
DarkPDF1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: PDF Reader at Free against DarkPDF's $0.99. PDF Reader also leads on review sentiment (77% vs 47%) and ratings volume (3.9K vs 27). DarkPDF's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 2 months) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.0). On rating, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

PDF Reader is free to download; DarkPDF costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.3 for PDF Reader against 4.3 for DarkPDF. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PDF Reader has 3.9K ratings behind it against 27, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 77% of PDF Reader's written reviews are positive against 47% of DarkPDF's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PDF Reader ships an update every 2 months, DarkPDF every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on September 30, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
PDF Reader versus DarkPDF: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPDF ReaderDarkPDF
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating4.3 (3.9K ratings)4.3 (27 ratings)
Positive reviews76.7% of reviews — better47.1% of reviews
Number of ratings3.9K — better27
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS15.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size173 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperWondershare Technology (Hunan) Co.,Ltd.Numathic

Customer experience

PDF Reader

All ratings3,923 ratings
Positive83.1%
Neutral3.2%
Negative13.7%
Written reviews1,582 reviews
Positive76.7%
Neutral6.1%
Negative17.2%

DarkPDF

All ratings27 ratings
Positive81.5%
Neutral7.4%
Negative11.1%
Written reviews34 reviews
Positive47.1%
Neutral8.8%
Negative44.1%

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.)

DarkPDF

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

PDF Reader

No in-app purchases

None

DarkPDF

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is PDF Reader free?
PDF Reader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is DarkPDF free?
DarkPDF costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, PDF Reader or DarkPDF?
PDF Reader and DarkPDF are both rated 4.3 out of 5 on the App Store, from 3.9K and 27 ratings respectively.
Do PDF Reader or DarkPDF have ads?
Neither PDF Reader nor DarkPDF shows ads.
Which is updated more often, PDF Reader or DarkPDF?
PDF Reader ships an update every 2 months, and DarkPDF every 4 days. Most recently, PDF Reader was updated on September 30, 2026 and DarkPDF on September 21, 2026.

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