PDF Reflow vs Journal Mate
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PDF Reflow
This app reflows PDFs and Word documents into a comfortable, vertical reading format for mobile devices. It uses AI to analyze page layouts, ensuring text, graphics, and tables are presented clearly without zooming or scrolling.
- AI-powered page analysis
- Vertical reading flow
- Adjustable text size
- Text selection and highlighting
- Search within documents
- Dark mode
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Reading PDFs on your phone shouldn’t feel like work. PDF Reflow transforms PDFs and Word documents into a clean, phone-friendly reading experience. No more tiny text, constant pinching, horizontal scrolling, or multi-column pages that don’t fit your screen. The latest version uses AI-powered page analysis to better understand each document’s layout, including text, graphics, figures, tables, and mathematical formulas. It then reorganizes the content into a natural vertical flow while preserving the document’s structure and visual context. PDF Reflow is ideal for: • Research papers • Reports and manuals • Articles • Word documents • Technical and scientific PDFs • Documents with figures, tables, colors, and formulas Features include: • AI-powered page and layout analysis • Comfortable, screen-width reading • Text selection and highlighting • Search within documents • Adjustable text size up to 300% • Automatic Table of Contents • Dark mode for PDFs • Built-in document picker If you read PDFs on your phone and are tired of fighting the original page layout, PDF Reflow is made for you. Questions or feedback? laurent@appblit.com
Journal Mate
Organize your physical and digital documents, from handwritten notes and scattered papers to screenshots and PDFs. This app acts as a scanner, library, and manager, making it easy to store, search, and share your important information.
- Scan papers on the go
- Save screenshots and PDFs
- Recognize and interact with text
- Import from Photos and Files apps
- Share notebooks or pages
- Automatic iCloud sync
- Instant search by name
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Plan your days. Keep what matters. Journal Mate is a daily planner and a media library in one app: plan your days and projects, and keep the scans, photos, PDFs, and recordings that go with them in journals. Simple from the first entry, quick to use, and yours to shape: get a thought down in seconds, arrange the day your way, pick a theme, List colors, and text size, and undo what you didn't mean. PLAN YOUR DAYS • Add as many entries as you like: tasks, events, notes, and moods, day by day • Switch to Timeline to see your day hour by hour, and drag an entry to a new time • Break a big task into steps, mark what's important, and postpone the rest • Run projects and things that don't need a date in Lists, such as a trip, a home renovation, or groceries • Write a time in an entry and it becomes a reminder that rings again if you miss it; pick one of 14 sounds or your own • Pin the Lists, journals, and entries you need most to the top • Look back with Week Review: what you got done, and what keeps slipping TODAY, WHEREVER YOU ARE • Keep today on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, and add entries right from there • Tick off today's actions in the Today's Entries widget, keep a List on your Home Screen, and start a scan or a new entry from Action Widgets • Take your day to Apple Watch: check entries off or move them, add new ones by dictation, and see what's left on a complication • Add entries with Siri or from Control Center, and see today's open actions on the app icon KEEP WHAT BELONGS TO THE DAY • Attach a photo, scan, or recording to an entry, and it becomes a page in a journal • Add the place you're at to an entry, with the day's weather • Add a journal as a task with a reminder, like renewing a passport • Take photos, scan pages, and film videos in one camera: in slow motion, with both cameras at once, or with a teleprompter • Scan objects in 3D on iPhone and iPad with LiDAR, or scan a QR code to keep its link • Import photos, screenshots, GIFs, videos, Live Photos, and PDFs; imported PDFs keep their original file • Record audio with a live on-device transcript, trim the pauses, and get a summary (Apple Intelligence) • Save websites, videos, and places as bookmarks FIND IT AGAIN • Keep related pages in Stacks, and group, pin, or archive journals • Search everything at once, and find journals and entries in Spotlight • Ask questions about your journals and get answers that link to their pages (Apple Intelligence, on supported devices) MAKE SOMETHING WITH IT • Make collages from different journals, turn a favorite quote into a card, and watermark a copy before you share it • Edit photos, GIFs, and videos: Adjust, 18 filters, crop, blur details, draw, and add text, emoji, or stickers • Sign PDFs with a saved signature, and write notes with headings and checklists • Create PDFs from pages, journals, or days and Lists, print them, and export a restorable backup • Listen to text pages with Read Aloud, or translate them • Save content from any app with the Share Extension GALLERY Page through facsimiles of artists' sketchbooks, travel journals, and even the Apollo 11 flight plan. Two editions are free in full, Pro opens every edition, and the Gallery never counts toward your pages. YOUR DATA, WITHOUT TRACKING Your library stays on your devices and syncs through your iCloud. No third-party ad SDKs, no cross-app tracking. FREE AND PRO Journal Mate has no limit on journals or entries. Free includes 50 active pages and 3 Lists, plus Timeline, reminders, widgets, Apple Watch, Ask, 3D scanning, editing, Signatures, export, and 8 color themes. Pro removes the page and List limits and adds List templates, Views of several Lists, repeating entries, all 30 themes, every Gallery edition, every collage layout, and every quote card, watermark, camera card, and teleprompter style. Save it now. Find it later. Terms of Use: https://journalmate.app/en/legal/terms/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Journal Mate at 5.0 against PDF Reflow's 3.7. Journal Mate also leads on review sentiment (60% vs 44%). PDF Reflow's advantage is ratings volume (29 vs 1) and update cadence (every 4 days vs every 2 weeks). 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. PDF Reflow sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Journal Mate sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Journal Mate holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PDF Reflow has 29 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 44% of PDF Reflow's written reviews are positive against 60% of Journal Mate's.
PDF Reflow ships an update every 4 days, Journal Mate every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on November 11, 2026.
| Parameter | PDF Reflow | Journal Mate |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.7 (29 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 44.4% of reviews | 60.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 29 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 days — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 103 MB | 568 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | AppBlit LLC | Vitalii Bahmet |
Customer experience
PDF Reflow
Journal Mate
In-app purchases
PDF Reflow
- PDF Reflow PRO$7.99
Journal Mate
- Pro Monthly$2.991 Month
- Pro Yearly$19.991 Year
Questions
Is PDF Reflow free?
Is Journal Mate free?
Which has better reviews, PDF Reflow or Journal Mate?
Do PDF Reflow or Journal Mate have ads?
Which is updated more often, PDF Reflow or Journal Mate?
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