Comparison

PDF Reader vs ReadFlow

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

ReadFlow

This app transforms PDF documents into a comfortable reading experience on small screens. It offers text reflow, customization options for fonts and themes, and iCloud sync for seamless access across devices. Enjoy reading PDFs as easily as other ebook formats.

Highlights
  • PDF text reflow for mobile
  • Customizable fonts and themes
  • Import custom font files
  • iCloud sync
  • PDF file cropping
  • Metadata editing
  • Generate and share reflowed text
Features
Read full description

Designed for mobile reading! Readflow is a reading app specially designed for small screens. The text reflow feature is elaborately designed to solve the problem that PDF documents are difficult to read on mobile devices, such as text that is too small and the scan is not clear, and obtain a reading experience consistent with EPub, txt and other formats. Key features include: - PDF text reflow, supporting multiple languages¹ - Custom font family, font size, line height, etc - Importing font files² - Reading themes, switching automatically - iCloud sync, supporting on-demand download to save storage space and cellular data - PDF file cropping - PDF file metadata editing and saving - Reflow text generating and sharing for a whole PDF file³ - More detailed features: favorites, searching, etc. - Purchase once, use everywhere⁴ --- ¹ Currently supported: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Ukrainian ² Supported file formats: otf, ttf ³ txt format ⁴ iOS / iPadOS universal app Term of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula Privacy policy: https://is.gd/TgnFzI

Screenshots

PDF Reader4 screens
ReadFlow4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: ReadFlow at 4.8 against PDF Reader's 4.3. ReadFlow also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs every 2 months) and review sentiment (100% vs 77%). PDF Reader's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and ratings volume (3.9K vs 5). On price, ads, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. ReadFlow sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. PDF Reader asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

ReadFlow holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PDF Reader has 3.9K ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 77% of PDF Reader's written reviews are positive against 100% of ReadFlow's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PDF Reader ships an update every 2 months, ReadFlow every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 19, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
PDF Reader versus ReadFlow: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPDF ReaderReadFlow
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (3.9K ratings)4.8 (5 ratings) — better
Positive reviews76.7% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings3.9K — better5
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size173 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperWondershare Technology (Hunan) Co.,Ltd.实 许

Customer experience

PDF Reader

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

ReadFlow

All ratings5 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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.)

ReadFlow

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

PDF Reader

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

ReadFlow

Subscriptions2
  • ReadFlow Pro 1x$0.991 Month
  • ReadFlow Pro 12x$9.991 Year
One-time1
  • ReadFlow Pro ∞$19.99

Questions

Is PDF Reader free?
PDF Reader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is ReadFlow free?
ReadFlow is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, PDF Reader or ReadFlow?
ReadFlow is rated higher. PDF Reader averages 4.3 out of 5 from 3.9K ratings, while ReadFlow averages 4.8 from 5 ratings.
Do PDF Reader or ReadFlow have ads?
Neither PDF Reader nor ReadFlow shows ads.
Which is updated more often, PDF Reader or ReadFlow?
PDF Reader ships an update every 2 months, and ReadFlow every 4 days. Most recently, PDF Reader was updated on September 23, 2026 and ReadFlow on September 19, 2026.

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