Comparison

PDF Search vs 3tabs Secure

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

Head to head
About

PDF Search

This app uses AI to quickly search through multiple documents, finding information in seconds. It features NLP for smarter searches, OCR for text recognition in scanned documents and images, and allows for unified searching across devices.

Highlights
  • AI-powered document search
  • Natural Language Processing (NLP)
  • Built-in OCR for text recognition
  • Document scanning to PDF
  • Exportable search results
  • Unified search across devices
Features
Read full description

PDF Search reads every word of every document you own and makes it findable in the time it takes to type. Then it goes further: ask a question in plain words and get an answer, with the exact pages it came from. Built for people who live in documents: students, lawyers and researchers. ASK YOUR DOCUMENTS ANYTHING AI Chat answers questions about your library in plain language. Ask "can I end my lease early?" and it searches your documents, reads the pages that matter, and answers, citing the page each fact came from so you can check it yourself. • Chat about your whole library, or the one document you are reading • Every answer carries page references you can tap • Conversations are saved, so you can pick one up later • Runs on your device, or on Apple's Private Cloud Compute AI Chat needs Apple Intelligence: an iPhone 15 Pro or later, or an iPad with an M-series chip, running iOS 26 or later. SEARCH THAT RANKS, NOT JUST MATCHES Ordinary search tells you a word exists somewhere. PDF Search scores every page on how well it answers you: where the words appear, how close together they are, whether they land in a heading. The strongest pages come first. • Results grouped by document, with every matching page and its rank • Jump straight to the page, your words highlighted in context • Search everything at once, or narrow to a folder or tag • Export results to share or keep LANGUAGE, NOT JUST LETTERS Indexing uses tokenizing and lemmatization, so search understands the shape of a word. Look for "hike" and find "hiking"; look for "children" and find "child". Stems and near matches are covered too. WORDS LOCKED IN PICTURES Built-in text recognition reads photographed receipts, scanned contracts and screenshots of slides, and adds every word to your index, so a picture of a page is as searchable as the page itself. It covers every language your device supports. The built-in scanner turns paper documents, notes and cards into PDFs, reads them as it goes, and files them with everything else, searchable from the moment they land. MORE THAN PDFS Index PDFs alongside Microsoft Office documents (Word, PowerPoint), iWork files (Pages, Keynote), rich text, plain text and logs, source code, and pages saved from the web. Turn any format off to skip it. KEEP A LARGE LIBRARY IN ORDER • Folders on device or in iCloud, plus any folder or file you point the app at • Tags, to cut across folders however you think • Bookmarks with notes, gathered in one place across every document • A document's table of contents, to move around a long file quickly • Highlights and annotations while you read • Index status at a glance: what is indexed, what is queued YOUR MAC, IN YOUR POCKET Run PDF Search on your Mac and sync over Wi-Fi with a single click. Documents come across with their index intact, so your iPhone or iPad need not do the work twice. PRIVATE BY DEFAULT Indexing, text recognition and search happen on your device. No account, no tracking, and purchases are verified on the device by the App Store. FREE AND PRO The free version indexes and searches your documents and opens the top-ranked result. Pro unlocks everything else: • AI Chat, with page references • Search inside images and scans • Scan paper to PDF • Plurals, stems and near matches • Every ranked result, not just the first • Export, tag and de-duplicate Pro comes as a monthly or annual subscription, or a one-off lifetime unlock: one payment, yours for good, no renewals. SUBSCRIPTION TERMS Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. A subscription renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and renewal is charged within 24 hours of that. Manage or cancel any time in your Apple Account settings. An unused part of a free trial is forfeited when a subscription is bought. Privacy Policy: https://pdfsearch.mozkan.com/privacy.html Terms of Use: https://pdfsearch.mozkan.com/terms.html

About

3tabs Secure

This app helps you stay organized and secure while browsing the web. It offers quick switching between three tabs, dedicated search and favorites tabs, and robust security features like passcode and biometric unlocking.

Highlights
  • One-click tab switching
  • Dedicated Search tab
  • Dedicated Favorites tab
  • Passcode lock
  • Face ID/Touch ID unlock
Features
Read full description

With 3tabs Secure you can stay organized and secure while browsing the web! - Switch between your three tabs with one click - Dedicated Search tab - Dedicated Favorites tab - Lock 3tabs Secure with a Passcode - Unlock 3tabs Secure with Face ID or Touch ID (Requires supported device)

Screenshots

PDF Search4 screens
3tabs Secure3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: PDF Search at Free against 3tabs Secure's $0.99. PDF Search also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs every 23 months) and ratings volume (129 vs 1). On ads, in-app purchases, 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

PDF Search is free to download; 3tabs Secure costs $0.99 up front. PDF Search sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and 3tabs Secure sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

PDF Search holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PDF Search has 129 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PDF Search ships an update every 5 days, 3tabs Secure every 23 months. Both last shipped on October 29, 2026.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
PDF Search versus 3tabs Secure: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPDF Search3tabs Secure
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating4.3 (129 ratings) — better4.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews50.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings129 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterEvery 23 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationSubscriptionPaid — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size16 MB2 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperMuharrem OzkanVedant Malhotra

Customer experience

PDF Search

All ratings128 ratings
Positive80.5%
Neutral6.3%
Negative13.3%
Written reviews64 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral12.5%
Negative37.5%

3tabs Secure

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

PDF Search

Reported bugs

35 issues
  • Mac sync broken
  • App crashes frequently, especially with large catalogs or during indexing/downloading
  • Scrolling documents repeats and skips pages
  • Search results are unreliable, missing pages or displaying duplicates
  • App cannot index large files
Show 30 more
  • App fails to connect to cloud services
  • App heats up iPad Pro M2
  • Crashes on exporting PDFs
  • Search does not find phrases correctly
  • Search misses occurrences of words
  • Indexing fails to pick up files
  • PDF viewing is buggy, losing view when scrolling
  • App indexes hidden folders like .Trash
  • Search results cannot be ordered by filename
  • Mac version has sync code feature, iOS version does not
  • Some PDF documents are not indexed
  • Indexing is incomplete, leading to poor search results
  • App crashes when downloading from Google Drive and indexing
  • Sync issues with Mac app
  • File import issues after update
  • Indexing crashes after a certain percentage
  • Paid version features not restoring after update
  • App crashes when searching or scrolling through documents with repeated words
  • Cannot access files on OneDrive
  • Indexing fails on most PDF files, stating they are invalid
  • Documents get stuck, especially larger ones
  • Cannot search notes made on PDFs
  • Highlighting syncs inconsistently across devices
  • Unexpected highlighting of words
  • Search results not displayed clearly, requiring clicking each result
  • Indexing is slow and gets stuck
  • Search often yields no results for indexed terms
  • Search does not find words combined with numerical signs
  • Cannot search any notes made on the pdf
  • Cannot search bookmarks or annotations

Requested features

21 requests
  • Add Boolean search functionality
  • Improve export functionality
  • Add dark theme option
  • Implement lasso tool for document capture
  • Ability to search only in specific folders
Show 16 more
  • Organize files alphabetically
  • Search for punctuation
  • Specify exact spelling for search
  • Search notes and bookmarks within PDFs
  • Improve highlighting and annotation export
  • Add Nextcloud or Sharepoint integration
  • Sync OSX Color Tagged PDFs
  • Display search results by page number
  • Automatically copy document name and page number with copied sentences
  • Boolean search as in devonthink
  • Lasso tool for capturing parts of a document
  • Dark theme
  • Ability to find hyphenated terms in results list
  • Ability to search for punctuation
  • Ability to sort results by alphabetical files
  • Ability to specify "only search this EXACT spelling."

3tabs Secure

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

3 purchases

PDF Search

Subscriptions2
  • PRO Monthly Access$4.991 Month
  • PRO Annual Access3 Days trial$14.991 Year
One-time1
  • PRO Lifetime Access$29.99
5 purchases

3tabs Secure

One-time5
  • Tip Level 1$0.99
  • Tip Level 2$1.99
  • Tip Level 3$2.99
Show 2 more
  • Tip Level 4$3.99
  • Tip Level 5$4.99

Questions

Is PDF Search free?
PDF Search is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is 3tabs Secure free?
3tabs Secure costs $0.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, PDF Search or 3tabs Secure?
PDF Search is rated higher. PDF Search averages 4.3 out of 5 from 129 ratings, while 3tabs Secure averages 4.0 from 1 ratings.
Do PDF Search or 3tabs Secure have ads?
Neither PDF Search nor 3tabs Secure shows ads.
Which is updated more often, PDF Search or 3tabs Secure?
PDF Search ships an update every 5 days, and 3tabs Secure every 23 months. Most recently, PDF Search was updated on October 29, 2026 and 3tabs Secure on October 29, 2026.

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