Comparison

PDF Reader vs PDF Vault

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

PDF Vault

This ultra-lightweight application offers a comprehensive suite of PDF tools, including text-to-speech functionality, digital signing, document scanning, organization, and instant translation. It's designed for efficiency and ease of use, saving device space while enhancing productivity for work, study, or personal tasks.

Highlights
  • Text-to-speech for PDFs
  • Digital document signing
  • Scan paper documents to PDF
  • Organize and manage PDF files
  • Instant document translation
  • Ultra-lightweight and fast
Features
Read full description

Your private PDF workspace, built for people who take their documents seriously. Ask your PDFs questions, understand complex documents, translate, scan, sign, listen, and manage your files in one lightweight app. PDF Vault combines powerful PDF tools with a privacy-first approach: your documents stay on your device. ASK YOUR PDF ANYTHING Have a long report, contract, research paper, manual, or other document? Just ask. Ask PDF lets you ask questions about the content of your document and get answers based on the information inside it. Find important details, understand complex sections, summarize information, and explore your documents without searching through page after page. Your documents stay private and are processed on your device. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your documents are personal. PDF Vault is designed with privacy at its core. Your PDF data never leaves your device. No document uploads are required for the core PDF experience. Your files remain under your control while you work with them. ALL THE PDF TOOLS YOU NEED Listen to PDFs Turn your documents into spoken audio with built-in text-to-speech. Listen while working, commuting, studying, or simply when you prefer to hear rather than read. Translate PDFs Translate documents and understand content in other languages without leaving your PDF workspace. Scan documents Turn paper documents into digital PDFs using your device camera. Built-in OCR helps make scanned documents searchable and usable. Sign PDFs Sign documents quickly and conveniently. Add your signature and complete documents without printing them. Read and organize Open, read, manage, and organize your PDF files in a clean, focused workspace designed to stay out of your way. LIGHTWEIGHT AND FOCUSED PDF Vault is built to give you the tools you actually need without turning your device into a document-management maze. Whether you are working with contracts, invoices, academic papers, reports, forms, manuals, or personal documents, PDF Vault keeps everything you need close at hand. FOR WORK, STUDY, AND EVERYDAY DOCUMENTS Use PDF Vault at work to understand reports and contracts. Use it at university to explore research papers and study materials. Use it at home to manage forms, manuals, receipts, and other important documents. ONE PRIVATE WORKSPACE FOR YOUR PDFs Read. Ask. Translate. Scan. Sign. Listen. Organize. PDF Vault brings essential PDF tools together while keeping privacy at the center of the experience. PDF Vault Unlimited gives you unlimited access to all PDF Vault features while directly supporting our mission to provide the best privacy-first PDF tool where your data never leaves your device. Terms of Service: https://macmonsters.com/pdf-reader-terms-of-service.html

Screenshots

PDF Reader4 screens
PDF Vault2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: PDF Reader at none against PDF Vault's 2. PDF Reader also leads on review sentiment (77% vs 50%) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.1). PDF Vault's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months). On price, ads 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

Both are free to download. PDF Vault sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. PDF Reader asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PDF Reader ships an update every 2 months, PDF Vault fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 28, 2026 and September 26, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
PDF Reader versus PDF Vault: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPDF ReaderPDF Vault
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (3.9K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews76.7% of reviews — better50.0% of reviews
Number of ratings3.9K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS15.0 — better18.1
Further details — not scored
Size173 MB4 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperWondershare Technology (Hunan) Co.,Ltd.Dmytro Skorokhod

Customer experience

PDF Reader

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

PDF Vault

Written reviews6 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral16.7%
Negative33.3%

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.)

PDF Vault

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

PDF Reader

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

PDF Vault

Subscriptions2
  • Mox PDF Tool Unlimited Monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Mox PDF Tool Unlimited Annually7 Days trial$19.991 Year

Questions

Is PDF Reader free?
PDF Reader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is PDF Vault free?
PDF Vault is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do PDF Reader or PDF Vault have ads?
Neither PDF Reader nor PDF Vault shows ads.
Which is updated more often, PDF Reader or PDF Vault?
PDF Reader ships an update every 2 months, and PDF Vault fortnightly. Most recently, PDF Reader was updated on September 28, 2026 and PDF Vault on September 26, 2026.

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