Paperless vs Swift Paperless
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Paperless
Create and organize any type of list with this beautifully designed, simple, yet powerful application. Customize your lists with icons and themes, and easily share them via email or text. Sync your data across devices for seamless access.
- Create any type of list
- Customizable icons and themes
- Checklist or regular list format
- Send lists via email or iMessage
- Automatic backup and syncing
- Manual reordering and sorting
- Passcode lock
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Get the app that Macworld says "deserves a spot on your iPhone"! MAKE LISTS OF ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING Paperless is a simple but powerful app for making lists. Use it to create to do lists, make grocery lists, take notes, write an outline of a story, prepare notes for a presentation, make a list of gift ideas, plan a vacation... or anything else you'd want to make a list for. BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED Assign a fun icon to each of your lists - there are over 450 to choose from. You can also select from 30 themes to customize the app's design to your liking. SIMPLE AND VERSATILE Paperless is easy to use with a clean, elegant and well thought out interface. Each list can either be a checklist or a regular list without checkboxes, making a wide variety of uses possible. REALLY HELPS YOU GET THINGS DONE For checklists and todo lists, many people prefer using Paperless over traditional "getting things done" apps - or, they use it in addition to one. There are no due dates or priority settings, so you're left to focus on the actual tasks at hand, rather than waste time changing those settings when your priorities change. Instead, if a particular task becomes important, you can simply move it to the top of the list. AUTOMATIC BACKUP AND SYNCING Automatically backup your lists and sync them between iOS devices via a free Dropbox account. POWERFUL FEATURES - send lists via email, others can import your list into their copy of Paperless - send a plain text version of a list via iMessage, or copy it into another app - easily duplicate lists - manually reorder lists and list items - sort list items alphabetically - copy and move items from one list to another - comprehensive search - passcode lock PRAISED BY THE PRESS "Paperless deserves a spot on your iPhone" - Lex Friedman, Macworld (4.5 out of 5 mice rating) "Paperless has a permanent spot on the first page of my iPhone's home screen... it will probably earn a similar spot on yours." - Marianne Schultz, AppShopper "... a good way to ensure things get done at your own pace, free of the disappointment of missing deadlines." - Nick Spence, Macworld UK "I've been trying many To Do apps since iPhone 1.0 -- from the expensive Things to Toodledo and others -- and I don't use any of them regularly. Most just require too much effort. Paperless is the first one I've found that hits that sweet spot between being simple enough you'll actually use it and powerful enough to be useful." - Marc Zeedar, REALbasic Developer Magazine (4.8 out of 5 rating) "This is one nice-looking list / task app... As a basic list app, the beautiful Paperless reigns supreme." - Bonnie Eisenman, 148apps.com (4 out of 5 rating) PRAISED BY USERS "Best app ever - The most incredibly useful app I've come across. Simple, effective and bloody marvelous!!!" "The simplicity of the interface and the flexibility given to the user is perfection." "Simply loved it - Best app I've ever downloaded, my life is so organized now! ..." "After having tried a good deal of apps to get myself more organized - both free and paid - it is clear that this tops them all. Other apps presented a kind of novelty; I could fool myself into thinking that I was more organized, but it was never long before I abandoned them because it was obvious that they consumed unnecessary time. Paperless, however, has truly helped. It is streamlined, it is simple, it is sumptuous" PLEASE RATE AND REVIEW If you love Paperless, please leave a review and star rating. Thank you!
Swift Paperless
This app allows users to manage documents directly from their iOS device. It seamlessly integrates with a self-hosted document management system, ensuring data privacy and control. Easily find, categorize, and add new documents on the go.
- Native iOS integration
- Paperless-ngx compatibility
- Document finding
- Document categorization
- Add documents from phone
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Swift Paperless is a native iOS app that interacts with the popular Paperless-ngx document management software. Paperless-ngx is self-hosted, and therefore fully privacy preserving: you control your data! With Swift Paperless, it's easy to find, categorize and also add documents from your phone!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Swift Paperless at Free against Paperless's $2.99. Swift Paperless also leads on rating (4.9 vs 4.4). Paperless's advantage is ratings volume (494 vs 77) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.0). On review sentiment, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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
Swift Paperless is free to download; Paperless costs $2.99 up front. Paperless sells 4 one-off in-app purchases and Swift Paperless sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Swift Paperless holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Paperless has 494 ratings behind it against 77, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 92% of Paperless's written reviews are positive against 97% of Swift Paperless's.
Paperless ships an update every 2 months, Swift Paperless monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Paperless | Swift Paperless |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.4 (494 ratings) | 4.9 (77 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 91.7% of reviews | 97.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 494 — better | 77 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Monthly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 39 MB | 30 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | James Rhoades | Paul Gessinger |
Customer experience
Paperless
Swift Paperless
User reviews
Paperless
From 494 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 💻 Excellent organization and productivity tool
- 📋 Customizable lists and checklists
- 🔄 Reusable and recyclable lists
- 🔒 Secure with Dropbox backup
- 🌟 Simple and intuitive interface
Room to improve
- 🔍 Lack of search functionality
- 🖼️ Inability to add photos or images
- 🔀 Difficulty rearranging list items
- 🔒 Limited backup/sync options beyond Dropbox
- 🔔 Absence of reminder or alarm features
Swift Paperless
From 77 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Fast and efficient performance
- 👍 User-friendly interface
- ✨ Modern and clean design
- ✅ Seamless integration with Paperless-ngx
- 📱 Excellent mobile scanning feature
Room to improve
- 🐛 Metadata box not resizable on iPhone 13 Mini
- 🐛 Document upload screen sometimes exits unexpectedly
- 🐛 Extra step to access iOS share sheet
- 🐛 Can't scroll multi-page PDFs on iPad
- 🐛 Document scan function buried in menus
Bugs and requests
Paperless
Reported bugs
4 issues- Occasional app crashes or freezes
- Syncing issues between devices
- List data loss or disappearance
- Compatibility problems with iOS updates
Requested features
6 requests- Add search and filtering capabilities
- Integrate photo/image attachment support
- Implement advanced list management features
- Expand backup and sync options (e.g., iCloud)
- Introduce reminder and alarm functionalities
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- Implement folder or category organization for lists
Swift Paperless
Reported bugs
7 issues- Metadata box not resizable on iPhone 13 Mini
- Document upload screen sometimes exits unexpectedly
- Extra step to access iOS share sheet
- Cannot scroll multi-page PDFs on iPad
- Server removal from list upon logout
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- Editing area only half screen after update
- App crying about certificate issue with HTTPS
Requested features
12 requests- Ability to quickly open next document in current view (like 'save & next')
- Option to hide preview side bar for full-screen document view
- Smarter server management in multi-instance setup
- Ability to search within a document
- Support for Title view only without thumbnails
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- Siri Shortcuts support for adding documents
- Option to add from a network scanner
- Support for SSO
- Ability to copy file content from the app
- Option to send documents from archive via share menu (e.g., email)
- Grid view with thumbnails on iPad
- Direct donation link in the app
In-app purchases
Paperless
- Small Tip$0.99
- Medium Tip$4.99
- Large Tip$9.99
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- Huge Tip$29.99
Swift Paperless
- Coffee money$3.99
- Proper thank-you$8.99
- Above and beyond$17.99
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Legendary generosity$44.99
Questions
Is Paperless free?
Is Swift Paperless free?
Which has better reviews, Paperless or Swift Paperless?
Do Paperless or Swift Paperless have ads?
Which is updated more often, Paperless or Swift Paperless?
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