Dark Reader for Safari vs DarkPDF
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Dark Reader for Safari
This Safari extension transforms websites into dark themes, reducing eye strain and improving readability. It offers customizable brightness, contrast, and color themes, and seamlessly integrates with system dark mode. Enjoy a comfortable browsing experience, especially in low light conditions.
- Creates dark themes for websites
- Adjustable brightness and contrast
- Multiple color theme presets
- Customizable background and text colors
- Enable/disable for specific websites
- Syncs with system dark mode
Read full descriptionHide full description
Dark Reader is an eye-care Safari extension that enables night mode by creating dark themes for websites on the fly. It inverts bright colors to make web pages high contrast and easier to read. Dark Reader integrates seamlessly with system dark mode. Adjust brightness and contrast to match your display and ambient lighting. Enable dark mode on every web page or give websites a sepia tone. Select from multiple color theme presets or create your own by customizing background and text colors. Enable or disable Dark Reader for specific websites, automatically sync with system dark mode, or detect already dark websites and leave them unchanged. Developed by the original creators of Dark Reader. Since 2014, we continuously evolve alongside modern web technologies to deliver fast and reliable dark mode support for people sensitive to bright light. A single purchase includes access to the macOS version (Safari browser) when using the same iCloud account. Dark Reader contains no ads and does not collect user data. Enable Dark Reader in Safari preferences and disable similar extensions to prevent conflicts. Enjoy browsing!
DarkPDF
This app allows you to read PDF documents in dark mode, inverting text and background colors to reduce eye strain. It also offers the ability to compress margins and blank spaces for a larger text display.
- Dark mode PDF reading
- Invert text and background
- Larger text display
- Margin compression
- Cross-platform compatibility (macOS & iOS)
Read full descriptionHide full description
macOS and iOS 13 bring us this marvellous Dark Mode. Dark Mode has many benefits. But there is a problem for PDF readers. Most PDF files are black text on a white background, resembling a printed form of documents. For eyes that get used to Dark Mode, such pages put a strain on them. DarkPDF can help. It is available on both macOS (Catalina) and iOS. Buy it once, and use it on both platforms. By altering the background from white to black, text from black to white, you can read PDFs in Dark Mode. Even better, DarkPDF can also compress margins around the page, as well as blank spaces in the page so that more space can be used to render meaningful text.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: DarkPDF at every 4 days against Dark Reader for Safari's every 2 months. DarkPDF also leads on price ($0.99 vs $4.99) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.0). Dark Reader for Safari's advantage is review sentiment (64% vs 47%) and ratings volume (285 vs 27). On rating, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Dark Reader for Safari costs $4.99 and DarkPDF $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.3 for Dark Reader for Safari against 4.3 for DarkPDF. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Dark Reader for Safari has 285 ratings behind it against 27, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 64% of Dark Reader for Safari's written reviews are positive against 47% of DarkPDF's.
Dark Reader for Safari ships an update every 2 months, DarkPDF every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Dark Reader for Safari | DarkPDF |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | $0.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.3 (285 ratings) | 4.3 (27 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 64.4% of reviews — better | 47.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 285 — better | 27 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #10 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Dark Reader Ltd | Numathic |
Customer experience
Dark Reader for Safari
DarkPDF
Bugs and requests
Dark Reader for Safari
Reported bugs
3 issues- Extension stops working after Safari has been open for a while
- Fails to load on certain websites
- Inverts colors incorrectly on some websites
Requested features
5 requests- Per-site settings for Dynamic vs Filter modes
- Automatic dark mode based on time of day
- Ability to customize accent colors
- Support for PDF documents
- Sync settings across devices
DarkPDF
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Dark Reader for Safari
No in-app purchases
DarkPDF
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Dark Reader for Safari free?
Is DarkPDF free?
Which has better reviews, Dark Reader for Safari or DarkPDF?
Do Dark Reader for Safari or DarkPDF have ads?
Which is updated more often, Dark Reader for Safari or DarkPDF?
Other comparisons
