Comparison

ScanText vs PureScan

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

Head to head
About

ScanText

Capture text from photos or PDF files and convert it into editable text. Edit, translate, share, or have the text read aloud. This utility works offline for convenient text extraction.

Highlights
  • Photo to text conversion
  • PDF to text extraction
  • Text editing
  • Text translation
  • Read text aloud
  • Offline functionality
Features
Read full description

Take a photo of any articles, and it will be converted to text. Scan any photos or PDF file to extract text. Continue to scan, edit, translate, share or read it out!  It is that easy! No Internet connection needed.

About

PureScan

This app is a privacy-focused document scanner that performs all operations locally on your device. It offers on-device OCR for full-text search and creates searchable PDFs without requiring an account or internet access.

Highlights
  • 100% On-Device Scanning
  • Instant Full-Text Search
  • Searchable PDF Export
  • Smart Capture & Perspective Crop
  • On-Device PDF Password Protection
  • Multi-Language OCR
Features
Read full description

PureScan —— Your truly private on-device document scanner, OCR text extractor, and digital file manager. Tired of expensive weekly subscriptions, intrusive pop-up ads, forced export watermarks, or worrying about confidential contracts and personal IDs uploaded to cloud servers? PureScan is crafted with a single mission: Absolute Privacy & Peak Efficiency. Every edge crop, OCR recognition, full-text index, and PDF encryption runs strictly on your iPhone via the Apple Neural Engine. No network connection, no cloud upload, and zero data tracking. 【Why Users Around the World Love PureScan】 • 100% On-Device Processing: Documents never leave your device. Works offline in airplane mode with zero mobile data consumption. • Instant Full-Text Search: Automatically indexes document content locally. Type any word to locate the exact page in milliseconds. • Professional Searchable PDF: Exports native PDFs with aligned invisible text layers for easy selection, copying, and desktop search. • Completely Clean & Honest: no subscriptions, zero ads, no export watermarks, and zero third-party analytics SDKs. 【Powerful Core Features】 1. Smart Document Camera: - Powered by Apple VisionKit for instant automatic edge detection and multi-page continuous capture. - Manual 8-point corner adjustment with a 2.5× precision magnifying loupe. 2. ID Card & Passport A4 Stitching: - Capture front and back sides of driver’s licenses, IDs, or passport cards with built-in visual guides. - Automatically arranges both sides onto a standard 1:1 scale A4 sheet for instant color or B&W printing. 3. Security Anti-Theft Watermarking: - Built-in presets such as "FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY" and "CONFIDENTIAL COPY". - Full-bleed diagonal tiling with customizable color (Gray, Red, Blue) and opacity to prevent identity theft. 4. Quick Screenshot & Photo OCR: - One-tap quick extract on the home screen automatically loads your latest screenshot. - Pre-warmed neural engine ensures zero lag, instant recognition, and one-tap text copying. 5. Page Management & Fast Sharing: - Grid thumbnail view, drag-and-drop page reordering, single-page deletion, rescanning, and rotation. - Share or save individual pages instantly without sending unnecessary pages. 6. Document Categories & Smart Search: - Organize files with customizable category capsules on the home screen. - Search across document titles and OCR text with highlighted context snippets. 7. Multi-Format High-Quality Export: - Searchable PDF (with embedded text layer and zero white-edge fit). - Password-protected PDF with standard AES encryption. - High-resolution multi-page long image (JPEG) or raw TXT text. 【Perfect For】 • Business & Office: Contracts, expense receipts, NDAs, invoices, whiteboard notes. • Students & Educators: Lecture slides, study notes, book digitization, research papers. • Personal Records: IDs, passports, insurance cards, tax documents, warranty certificates. 【Our Privacy Promise】 • PureScan does not request internet access permissions. • Camera access is used solely for document capture; Photo Library access is requested only when saving images. • What's on paper stays on your iPhone. —— For support or feedback, please reach out via "More → Feedback & Suggestions" inside the app.

Screenshots

ScanText4 screens
PureScan4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: PureScan at Free against ScanText's $0.99. ScanText's advantage is update cadence (every 8 days vs every 3 weeks). On review sentiment, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

PureScan is free to download; ScanText costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ScanText ships an update every 8 days, PureScan every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
ScanText versus PureScan: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterScanTextPureScan
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating4.7 (6 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings6 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 8 days — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size13 MB5 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperVirtual GSAnwa Leo

Customer experience

ScanText

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

PureScan

Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

ScanText

No in-app purchases

None

PureScan

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is ScanText free?
ScanText costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is PureScan free?
PureScan is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do ScanText or PureScan have ads?
Neither ScanText nor PureScan shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ScanText or PureScan?
ScanText ships an update every 8 days, and PureScan every 3 weeks. Most recently, ScanText was updated on September 23, 2026 and PureScan on October 10, 2026.

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