Comparison

PDF Search vs Document Reader

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

Document Reader

Features
Read full description

Document Reader turns your iPhone and iPad into a premium document scanner and complete PDF studio. Scan anything, pull out the text, sign it, and share it — all in a beautifully designed, distraction-light app. Whether it's a contract, receipt, ID, tax form, or a whiteboard full of notes, Document Reader captures it crisply and gives you the tools to finish the job. SCAN LIKE A PRO • Automatic edge detection, perspective correction, and shadow removal • Multi-page scanning — reorder, rotate, crop, or retake before you save • Studio filters: Original, Grayscale, high-contrast Black & White, and Enhanced • Import straight from Photos and Files, or share in from any app TEXT RECOGNITION (OCR) • Extract text from any scan or photo with fast, on-device recognition • Make any PDF searchable — find, select, and copy text right inside your documents • Share or copy extracted text in one tap A COMPLETE PDF TOOLKIT • Merge several PDFs into one, or split a document into pieces • Reorder, rotate, and delete pages with a visual page manager • Sign with your finger or Apple Pencil — and save signatures to reuse • Add text in any font, size, and color, plus highlights • Stamp a watermark and page numbers • Compress large PDFs with a live size preview • Password-protect documents on export ORGANIZED, YOUR WAY • Folders, favorites, and search by filename or by the text inside your scans • Grid or list view; sort by name, date, or size • Recently Deleted keeps files for 30 days, just in case PRIVATE BY DESIGN • App Lock with Face ID / Touch ID for your sensitive documents • Your scans are processed and stored on your device — not uploaded DOCUMENT READER PRO Go Pro with a single one-time purchase — no subscription — to remove all ads and unlock every premium tool forever: unlimited signatures, watermarks, compression, and password protection. Document Reader is free to use, supported by ads. Pro is an optional one-time purchase. Terms of Use: https://puzzelo.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://puzzelo.app/privacy Support: https://puzzelo.app/support

Screenshots

PDF Search4 screens
Document Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: PDF Search at none against Document Reader's shown. PDF Search also leads on iOS requirement (16.0 vs 26.5). On price, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. PDF Search sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Document Reader sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
PDF Search versus Document Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPDF SearchDocument Reader
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (128 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews50.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings128 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 5 days—
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationSubscription—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.0 — better26.5
Further details — not scored
Size16 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMuharrem OzkanTarik Benali

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."

Document Reader

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
1 purchases

Document Reader

One-time1
  • Document Reader Pro$9.99

Questions

Is PDF Search free?
PDF Search is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Document Reader free?
Document Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do PDF Search or Document Reader have ads?
Document Reader shows ads; PDF Search does not.

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