PDF Reader vs calmdocs
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.
calmdocs
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calmdocs is file storage you control. Every save is kept and restorable, every deleted file recoverable, and everything comes back out whenever you want it — a folder as a single zip, or the whole account through a documented API. Files live in named groups on Mac, iPhone, iPad and the web, and photographs can be browsed by date, by place, or at random. No subscription, no advertising, and nothing collected that the app does not need to work. GROUPS Separate libraries, each with its own folder tree: Photos, Work, the scans, the house. You work in one group at a time rather than in a single combined drive. VERSION HISTORY Every save is kept. Open a file's history and restore any earlier version. Restoring does not discard the current one. DELETED FILES Deleting moves a file to the group's bin, not off the server. Restore it at any time. A group can also empty its own bin automatically after a set number of days. PHOTO VIEWS A group can show you: • a random photograph • the most recent • one taken on this day in an earlier year • one from this month • one taken near your current location A slideshow runs any of these full screen and keeps the display awake. PHOTO FILTERING Screenshots, photographs of documents, and blurred or badly exposed shots are excluded from the random, recent and slideshow views. This is always on and applies to every photo view. WIDGETS Home Screen, Lock Screen and StandBy widgets show photographs from a group you choose. Long-press and choose Edit Widget to change the group; two widgets can show two different groups. Tapping one opens the slideshow. A widget can read only the group it shows, and never has your sign-in. Signing out stops them. FILES OF EVERY KIND Photographs, video, audio and PDFs open in the app. Large video is converted for streaming rather than downloaded whole. Any folder can be downloaded as a single zip, and a link to that zip works for someone without the app. SEARCH By name and path, within a group. You can also browse the folder tree or list what changed most recently. ON THE MAC A menu bar app, downloaded from calmdocs.com rather than the App Store, syncs chosen folders on your disk with a group and updates itself. It is not sandboxed, which is what lets it sync folders you choose. ON THE WEB, AND FROM YOUR OWN CODE Everything is also at calmdocs.com in a browser, on the same account. There is a documented HTTP API with an OpenAPI description at calmdocs.com/api/docs. SIGNING IN An email address and a six-digit code. There is no password to reuse, leak or reset. WHAT WE HOLD Your email address, the files you upload, and what those files say about themselves: size, type, when they were taken, and for photographs the position the camera recorded. That is what the service runs on. We do not sell it and we do not track you between apps. The full policy is at calmdocs.com/privacy.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: calmdocs at weekly against PDF Reader's every 2 months. PDF Reader's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.6). On price, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
PDF Reader ships an update every 2 months, calmdocs weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 9, 2026 and November 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PDF Reader | calmdocs |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (3.9K ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 76.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 3.9K — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 173 MB | 9 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Wondershare Technology (Hunan) Co.,Ltd. | Elaine Bevington |
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.)
calmdocs
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
PDF Reader
No in-app purchases
calmdocs
No in-app purchases









