Comparison

PUB Reader vs Fairy PDF Reader

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

Head to head
About

PUB Reader

Open, read, and convert Microsoft Publisher documents on your iOS device. Easily view document outlines, page thumbnails, and search text. Export files to Word or PDF formats for further editing.

Highlights
  • Open and read PUB files
  • Export to Word (.docx, .doc)
  • Export to RTF
  • Export to PDF
  • Document outlines and page thumbnails
  • Text search and copy
  • Document management and organization
Features
Read full description

“PUB Reader” allows you to open and read Microsoft Publisher documents (PUB file) on iOS device. It offers you fantastic reading experience using document outlines, page thumbnails and text search features. In addition, “PUB Reader” allows you to export PUB file into Microsoft Word(.docx, .doc) and RTF to make it available for editing in other Word processing software. Do you receive Microsoft Publisher documents (.pub) as email attachments on you iPhone and iPad? Are you having plenty of Microsoft Publisher files that no decent viewer available to open on your iPhone and iPad? The easiest way to circumvent these problems is PUB Reader. - It converts the text, text characteristics, paragraphs, text frames linking, text frame columns, tables, graphics and other Publisher objects and properties to the matching Microsoft Word format objects and properties by preserving layout. - It also allows to convert PUB file into PDF. - Standard document interaction interface to share, send and save exported documents. READING FEATURES: - Fully selectable and searchable text contents. Select and copy text to clipboard for further use. - Pinch out and Pinch in to ZoomIn and ZoomOut view. - Navigate through topics by document outlines, if exist. - Search text feature to find a character, word or sentence any where in a document. - Scroll through your document by Page Thumbnails or Go to page feature. DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT - The inbuilt document browse view automatically gives you the option to share documents using the Share button or a drag-and-drop action. It also provides a standard interface for browsing and managing documents. - Automatically handles access to iCloud for you within the app. It also provides access to documents managed by third-party storage service extensions installed on your device. - Browse, find and sort documents to help you locate the document you want. Tap the PUB file that you want to open. - You can move, delete, duplicate and rename a document with document manager in browser view. - In the document manager, you can group related documents into folders so they’re easy to find. Note: “PUB Reader” is standalone application running natively to open and convert Microsoft Publisher documents (.pub) securely right on your iOS device. You can refer User Manual for any assistance Or Contact Support.

About

Fairy PDF Reader

This app offers a comprehensive PDF reading experience on iOS devices, mimicking desktop functionality. It includes advanced features like keyboard support, smart zoom, dark mode, and translation saving to enhance document interaction and learning.

Highlights
  • Full keyboard support
  • Smart zoom & lock
  • Dark mode with color inversion
  • Table of contents search
  • Translate & save words
  • Import from cloud services & zip files
  • Organize files in folders
Features
Read full description

Fairy PDF Reader is a PDF reader that’s aims to provide you with the best reading experience on your iOS device. I created it for myself at first, and then continued to add features to it to make it more useful. It features full keyboard support for almost anything, including turning pages, opening & closing documents, finding stuff on the PDF document, importing PDF files and more. It tries to imitate the desktop PDF reading experience on your iPad or iPhone for you to take it anywhere you go. Fairy PDF Reader has many other nifty features:- - It remembers the last book you opened, and allows you to continue reading it whenever you want. If the app was closed for whatever reason, the next time you open it, it will reopen the last PDF document where you stopped. This is quite useful in case you own an old iOS device with a low amount of memory. - Zoom & Lock feature:- A lot of PDF books tend to have large margins. The zoom & lock feature makes it easier to zoom in & take advantage of your iPad or iPhone screen real-estate. Once the zoom level is locked, you won’t be able to zoom in or out again until you unlock it again. Fairy PDF Reader will remember the last zoom setting you did separately for each book in your library, and it remembers it for both portrait & landscape modes separately. Other PDF readers allow you to zoom in to view your documents, but they make to harder to turn pages or maintain the page's position on the screen. - Dark Mode support, with the ability to invert the PDF colors to further relief your eyes. - Shows the PDF book table of content, with a search box to find the part you are looking for - The PDF Documents list is sorted based on the last book you opened, making it easier to open one of the last few books you read - Supports importing files from Zip files. If there are multiple PDF files inside the Zip, Fairy PDF Reader will import all of them. - Import PDF files from common cloud services. Like Dropbox or OneDrive. - Stores all the words you translated:- With the Translate & Save feature, any word you translate will be stored automatically, you can view these words and copy them for revision at any time you want to. This can quite helpful to expand your vocabulary or learning new languages. - Share PDF files from other applications:- You can export any PDF file you open in Safari or other apps & they will be directly imported to Fairy PDF Reader. - Find text in the documents you’re currently reading. - Organize files in folders, and copy or move them between them. - Search for books in the current folder. Fairy PDF Reader has a convenient text matching that makes this easier. - Smart tap detection:- Touching the lower part of the page won’t turn the page, this was added so you won’t turn the page by mistake while reading. The same goes to showing the options bar, you can easily hide it by tapping anywhere on the screen, but you need to tap on the upper part of the screen to show it, so you will unlikely show it by mistake. Unselecting text is also easy, just tap anywhere on the screen, and the selection will be gone. Generally speaking, taps & gestures are designed so that they won't interfere with one another, or interfere with you while you're focused on your book. - Go to any page quickly using the pages navigator, you can either type the page number you want or move the slider, or you can simply tap on the left or right arrows to go to the next or previous page. - Scroll To Top disabled:- While in landscape mode, you can't go to the beginning of the PDF document by tapping on the title bar, which is a common feature in iOS. This was done since it's easy to trigger that feature by mistake. The "Go To Page" dialog is there to help you get to the beginning of the book if you like. You can also read the full documentation of the app on my website:- https://Tech-Fairy.com/fairy-pdf-reader-user-manual-how-to-use-fairy-pdf-reader-to-get-the-best-pdf-reading-experience/

Screenshots

PUB Reader4 screens
Fairy PDF Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Fairy PDF Reader at 100% against PUB Reader's 7%. Fairy PDF Reader also leads on price ($4.99 vs $14.99) and rating (5.0 vs 3.9). PUB Reader's advantage is ratings volume (48 vs 3) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 14.1). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model 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

PUB Reader costs $14.99 and Fairy PDF Reader $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Fairy PDF Reader holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PUB Reader has 48 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 7% of PUB Reader's written reviews are positive against 100% of Fairy PDF Reader's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PUB Reader ships an update every 7 months, Fairy PDF Reader every 2 months. Both last shipped on November 3, 2026.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
PUB Reader versus Fairy PDF Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPUB ReaderFairy PDF Reader
Price$14.99$4.99 — better
Rating3.9 (48 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews7.1% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings48 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 7 monthsEvery 2 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS11.0 — better14.1
Further details — not scored
Size163 MB27 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRootRise Technologies Pvt. Ltd.Mohannad Daghistany

Customer experience

PUB Reader

All ratings48 ratings
Positive72.9%
Neutral0.0%
Negative27.1%
Written reviews14 reviews
Positive7.1%
Neutral0.0%
Negative92.9%

Fairy PDF Reader

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

PUB Reader

No in-app purchases

None

Fairy PDF Reader

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is PUB Reader free?
PUB Reader costs $14.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Fairy PDF Reader free?
Fairy PDF Reader costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, PUB Reader or Fairy PDF Reader?
Fairy PDF Reader is rated higher. PUB Reader averages 3.9 out of 5 from 48 ratings, while Fairy PDF Reader averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do PUB Reader or Fairy PDF Reader have ads?
Neither PUB Reader nor Fairy PDF Reader shows ads.
Which is updated more often, PUB Reader or Fairy PDF Reader?
PUB Reader ships an update every 7 months, and Fairy PDF Reader every 2 months. Most recently, PUB Reader was updated on November 3, 2026 and Fairy PDF Reader on November 3, 2026.

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