PDFelement vs LightPDF
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PDFelement
This app offers a comprehensive suite of tools for managing PDF documents, including editing, scanning, converting, and signing. It leverages AI for advanced features like summarizing, translating, and chatting with your PDFs, streamlining workflows for work, study, and daily life.
- AI PDF editing and chat
- Edit text, images, and links
- Scan documents to PDF with OCR
- Convert PDFs to Word, Excel, PPT
- Annotate and markup PDFs
- Fill and sign PDF forms
- Compress and merge PDFs
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PDFelement is optimized for the latest Liquid Glass experience, with a more refined interface, clearer navigation, and smoother interactions for your PDF workflow. AI PDF Editor, PDF Reader, PDF Scanner, PDF Converter, PDF Signer. One app for work, study, and everyday life. Customize Your Toolbar Arrange your PDF tools the way you work. Reorder, show, or hide toolbar items to keep your favorite actions within easy reach and create a cleaner, faster, and more efficient workspace. AI PDF • Chat with PDF: Ask questions and get instant, accurate answers from your PDFs. • AI Summarize PDF: Turn lengthy contracts, reports, and documents into concise key points. • AI Translate: Translate selected text instantly across 60+ languages. • Generate Mind Map: Transform PDF content into clear visual mind maps. • AI Record: Record, transcribe, and convert voice notes into editable text for efficient note-taking. Edit PDF Like Word • Edit PDF: Edit PDF text, images, links, and watermarks with ease. • Font Editing: Keep the original font, erase content, and adjust font size, spacing, and formatting effortlessly. Professional PDF Reader • Liquid Mode: Optimize PDFs for comfortable reading on any screen. • Bookmarks: Save and jump to important pages instantly. • Read Aloud: Listen to PDFs with your preferred voice and playback speed. Scan & OCR • PDF Scanner: Scan receipts, invoices, contracts, IDs, and certificates into high-quality PDFs. • OCR: Extract editable text from scanned documents and images. • Multi-Page Scan: Combine multiple scans into a single PDF. PDF Converter • PDF to Word, Excel, PowerPoint & Images: Convert PDFs into editable Office files or JPG, PNG, and more. • Create PDF: Convert Microsoft Office documents and images into PDFs. Annotate PDF • Markup & Notes: Highlight, underline, draw, and add sticky notes. • Comments: Review documents with professional commenting tools. • Measure: Measure distance, perimeter, and area directly inside PDFs. Create PDF • Blank PDF: Start with customizable paper templates. • Image to PDF: Create PDFs from photos or camera scans. Manage PDF • Compress PDF: Reduce file size while maintaining quality. • Merge PDF: Combine multiple PDFs into one document. • Organize Pages: Add, delete, rotate, extract, split, and rearrange PDF pages. Fill & Sign • Fill PDF Forms: Complete interactive PDF forms quickly and accurately. • E-Sign PDF: Add typed or handwritten signatures. • Custom Stamps: Create reusable stamps with text, drawings, or images. Store & Share PDF • PDFelement Cloud: Access your PDFs anytime, anywhere across your devices. • Protect PDF: Secure sensitive files with passwords and encryption. • Share PDF: Share documents via links, email, AirDrop, or social apps. PDF Templates • Professional Templates: Browse resumes, invoices, planners, contracts, invitations, and more. • Easy Customization: Personalize colors, fonts, and layouts in seconds. • Business & Education Ready: Create polished documents for work, school, and everyday use. MEMBERSHIP SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS Payment will be charged to your iTunes Account upon confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current subscription period. You can manage or cancel your subscription anytime in your App Store account settings. Terms of Use: https://www.wondershare.com/company/terms_conditions.html Privacy Policy: https://www.wondershare.com/privacy.html
LightPDF
This app offers a comprehensive suite of tools for managing PDF documents on your mobile device. It leverages AI to summarize, chat with, and convert PDFs, along with scanning capabilities, text extraction, and editing features. It also includes an ID photo maker and watermark removal.
- AI Chat with PDFs
- Phone Scanner to PDF
- PDF to Word/JPG/Excel Converter
- OCR Text Extraction
- PDF Editing and Annotation
- ID Photo Maker
- Watermark Removal
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LightPDF, AI-powered, is a must-have PDF toolkit for your mobile device. You can use it to summarize and chat with PDFs and other documents, and quickly get the key information from the files! And it takes advantage of AI to help you easily scan paperwork to PDFs, extract texts and remove specific objects. It can be your PDF converter, editor, reader, on-the-go mobile scanner, cloud-based PDF storage, and ID photo maker. Try LightPDF to convert, OCR, scan, edit, read, annotate, comment, compress, and merge PDFs easily and quickly to get a high-quality result. And its sharing and collaborating feature can help you communicate smoothly with your colleagues on the same PDF document, and improve your teamwork productivity. What LightPDF can do: Smart AI Chat Assistant for PDFs - Ask questions to the chatbot about your file and it will answer you with cited sources - Quickly output results in markdown and table formats - Chat with PDFs, scans, Excel, Word, PPT, and ePub documents Intelligent Phone Scanner - Take photos of your papers, cards, books, and more to turn them into PDF format. Work as your pocket PDF scanner - Extract and copy texts from paper works - Remove handwriting from the test paper - Advanced filter features for better scanning result Powerful PDF Converter with OCR - Convert PDF to Word, JPG, PNG, Excel, PPT, and TXT, as well as turn Word, PPT, Excel, JPG, PNG, and CAD formats to PDF - Equipped with OCR technology to recognize and turn PDF scans and photos into docx, xlsx, pptx, pdf, and txt formats - Convert multiple documents at the same time and quickly get your work done Cloud-based PDF Editor & Reader - Edit, sign, and add images to a PDF file - Highlight, draw markups, and insert notes into PDF - Reduce PDF file size with a few touches - Combine multiple PDF documents into one - Read PDFs, add bookmarks, search and annotate - Print PDFs directly from your devices - Auto-sync PDFs in order to work with PDFs on the go. No more worry about losing data Handy ID Photo Maker - Create ID and passport photos with ease. It allows you to remove the background, change the background color, and produce a new photo with the selected size - Unblur the photo to enhance its quality and make it clear Image Watermark Removal - AI automatically recognizes and removes watermarks from images, eliminating the need for manual smudging like in Photoshop. It is particularly effective for large logos and full-screen watermarks, enhancing learning efficiency. New Way for Teamwork - Share files via links with your team and invite multiple people to view, edit, highlight, sign, and add comments on the same PDF at the same time - Set permissions to keep PDF security under control - Upload the file to the cloud, and access it on any device - Star files as favorites to quickly find and open them Subscriptions will be charged to your credit card through your iTunes account. Your subscription will automatically renew unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. After purchase, please manage your subscriptions in the App Store Account Settings. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you need any help or have suggestions on LightPDF, please feel free to contact us. We can't keep making progress without your voice. Email: support@lightpdf.com Customer Service Center: https://lightpdf.com/contact FAQ: https://lightpdf.com/faqs/lightpdf-editor-faq Privacy Policy:https://lightpdf.com/privacy Terms of Service:https://lightpdf.com/terms
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: LightPDF at none against PDFelement's shown. LightPDF also leads on review sentiment (88% vs 76%). PDFelement's advantage is rating (4.6 vs 4.1) and ratings volume (7.6K vs 54). On price, update cadence, 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
Both are free to download. PDFelement sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and LightPDF sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $13.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
PDFelement holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PDFelement has 7.6K ratings behind it against 54, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 76% of PDFelement's written reviews are positive against 88% of LightPDF's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
PDFelement ships an update every 11 days, LightPDF every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PDFelement | LightPDF |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (7.6K ratings) — better | 4.1 (54 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 76.2% of reviews | 88.4% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 7.6K — better | 54 |
| Update frequency | Every 11 days — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 14.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 199 MB | 113 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Wondershare Technology Group Co.,LTD | Wangxu Technology Co., Ltd |
Customer experience
PDFelement
LightPDF
User reviews
PDFelement
From 7.6K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use
- 🚀 Efficient PDF editing
- 💡 Comprehensive feature set
- 🔒 Secure document handling
- 👍 Intuitive interface
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional crashes or glitches
- 🔋 High battery consumption
- 🔒 Mandatory account required
- 🔒 Unclear licensing and subscription model
- 🐛 Syncing issues between devices
LightPDF
From 54 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 User-friendly interface
- 🚀 Efficient PDF tools
- ✨ High-quality PDF to Word conversion
- 💡 Impressive OCR functionality
- 💬 Helpful AI chatbot
Room to improve
- 💸 High price
- ❌ App doesn't work
- 💳 Unexpected charges
- 🚫 Watermark removal issues
- 📉 Blurry pictures
Bugs and requests
PDFelement
Reported bugs
4 issues- Login issues and inability to restore purchases
- Corrupted scanned files or loss of progress
- Inconsistent behavior when editing PDF text
- Compatibility problems with older devices or OS versions
Requested features
5 requests- Add dark mode option
- Improve cloud integration and file management
- Enhance OCR accuracy and capabilities
- Introduce multi-tab support for better workflow
- Add more customization options for toolbars and UI
LightPDF
Reported bugs
5 issues- App requests more money after payment
- Paid subscription not unlocking features
- Trial period charged despite cancellation
- Scans cut off PDF to 3 pages or under
- Performance issues
Requested features
3 requests- iPad support
- Edit text in the exact same font
- More advanced editing features
In-app purchases
PDFelement
- Monthly Subscription (AI)$3.991 Month
- PDF Editor& Converter& Scanner$6.991 Month
- PDF Editor & Scanner Pro(iOS)$6.991 Month
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- Weekly Subscription (iOS)$6.997 Days
- Quarterly Subscription (iOS)$9.993 Months
- Weekly Subscription (iOS)7 Days trial$9.997 Days
- Weekly Subscription (iOS)$9.997 Days
- Annual Subscription (iOS)2 variants$29.991 Year
- iOS$39.99
LightPDF
- LightPDF Weekly Subscription$13.997 Days
- LightPDF Monthly Subscription2 variants$19.991 Month
- LightPDF Yearly Subscription$47.991 Year
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- LightPDF Annual Subscription$49.991 Year
- LightPDF Yearly Subscription3 Days trial$59.991 Year
- iOS LightPDF - 1 Week$9.99
- 3-Year Subscription$99.99
- Mac LightPDF Lifetime Plan$109.99
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- Buy 3 yrs Get 3 yrs Free$149.99








