PDF Pro vs PDF Reader
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PDF Pro
Edit, annotate, and read PDF documents on your iPhone and iPad. Highlight text, add notes, shapes, voice recordings, and photos. Search your entire PDF library, fill out forms, and sign documents.
- Edit and annotate PDFs
- Highlight text and add notes
- Embed audio and photo annotations
- Full-text search of PDF library
- Fill out and sign PDF forms
- Organize PDFs with folders and tags
- Import from cloud storage
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PDF Pro lets you read, edit and annotate your PDF documents directly on your iPhone and iPad. Highlight text, take notes, embed shapes or draw with your finger. You can even embed voice recordings or photo annotations. Full-text-search your entire PDF library with just a single tap. Above all PDF Pro comes with full-featured PDF form and signature support. Key-Features At A Glance: • POWERFUL SEARCH: ∙ Full-text-search your entire PDF library. ∙ Search inside specific documents with easy navigation through the search results. ∙ Look-up selected text directly on Wikipedia or in the included dictionaries. • FILE-MANAGEMENT: ∙ Group your PDFs in folders and tag them with colorful labels. ∙ Import PDFs from your Dropbox®, Microsoft OneDrive® or Google Drive®. ∙ Add PDFs via USB or WiFi. ∙ Open E-Mail attachments. • CLEAR VIEW: ∙ Easily browse through all your annotations. ∙ Full PDF outline support. You can even search the outline. ∙ Get an overview of all your bookmarked or annotated pages just with a single tap. • SHARE and PRINT: ∙ Easily share your annotated documents with your friends or co-workers. ∙ Print your annotated and edited PDFs. ∙ You can even share or print single pages of a document. • HIGH SPEED and STABILITY: ∙ Rapid viewing of PDF documents. ∙ Smooth display of very large PDF files. • NIGHT MODE: ∙ Makes reading in the dark much easier on the eyes. • SECURITY: ∙ Support for password-protected PDFs • AND MUCH MORE... Premium Features and Premium Offer include: • ANNOTATIONS and NOTES: ∙ Highlight text, take notes or draw with your finger. ∙ Powerful shape editor for arrows, rectangles, circles, lines and much more. ∙ Embed audio and photo annotations into your PDFs. ∙ Use predefined stamps or create your own. • DOCUMENT EDITOR: ∙ Create new pages. ∙ Export pages or merge them into existing documents. ∙ Reorder, rotate and delete pages. • CONTENT EDITOR: • Modify the existing content of PDF documents. • MULTITASKING: ∙ Work with multiple PDFs at a time. ∙ Copy and paste annotations, shapes, images or text from one PDF document into another. • FORM SUPPORT: ∙ Just fill out your PDF form, sign it with your handwritten signature and you are ready to send it via E-Mail or print it via AirPrint®. A monthly or annual subscription is required to get access to all premium features and premium offer. --- Subscriptions automatically renew monthly or yearly depending on your plan unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period. Plans are priced at $3.99USD monthly and $24.99USD yearly (pricing may vary in countries other than the U.S.). Payment will be charged to your App Store Account at confirmation of purchase. To avoid automatic renewal, you must turn off auto-renew at least 24 hours before your subscription ends. You can turn off auto-renew at any time from your App Store Account Settings. Terms of Use: https://pdf-pro.net/terms-of-service/ Privacy Policy: https://pdf-pro.net/privacy-policy/
PDF Reader
This app offers a superior PDF reading experience with its innovative Liquid Mode, which optimizes documents for mobile screens. It also provides robust tools for annotating, signing, managing, and sharing your PDF files, catering to both work and study needs.
- Liquid Mode for optimized mobile reading
- Annotation tools (pencil, text, highlighting)
- Handwritten signature insertion
- File management (move, merge, copy, delete)
- Cloud service integration (Wondershare, iCloud)
- Create blank PDFs and folders
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PDFelement - PDF Reader is a PDF reader using the latest technology. The newly connected Liquid Mode function allows you to enjoy the best reading experience. In addition, there are various annotation tools, file management, signature, Various functions such as cloud services can meet your PDF needs in work and study. PDF VIEWER • Liquid Mode gives you the best PDF reading experience • Star files to find them quickly • Easily locate recently accessed files in the "Recent" list. • Enter the page number to navigate to the desired page for viewing LIQUID MODE • Get the best PDF Reading experience with Liquid Mode • PDF document fully fits the mobile phone screen, no need to zoom in and out repeatedly. • Easily adjust brightness, font size,style, and spacing. ANNOTATE • Using Pencil to annotate like writing on the paper • Add text annotations, freely modify the text and background, border colors, choose the appropriate font and font size. • Supports many annotating tools like highlighting, underlining, squiggly lines, or strikethroughs. MANAGE • Move, merge, copy or delete files SIGNATURE • Enables handwritten signatures to be inserted anywhere within the document, while also offering the ability to zoom in and out for greater flexibility. • Built-in commonly used stamps CREATE • Quickly create completely blank PDF documents • Creat blank folders. SHARE • Sharing document content with others is just a click away with capture feature. • Select sentence(s) or pragraph(s) to share CLOUD SERVICE • PDF Reader supports uploading or downloading docs via computer, Wondershare document cloud and iCloud. Please note that this app only supports editing native PDF files. It does not support editing scanned or raster PDF. If you find you cannot edit text in PDF, please check if it is scanned PDF. Thank you! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Need HELP? Please contact us! We'll feedback to you ASAP. Email: pdfelement@wondershare.com Support Center: http://support.wondershare.com Forum: http://forum.pdf.wondershare.com Official Website: https://pdf.wondershare.com If you think this App helps you, your positive review in the App Store would be much appreciated.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: PDF Reader at none against PDF Pro's 12. PDF Reader also leads on review sentiment (77% vs 60%) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). PDF Pro's advantage is rating (4.7 vs 4.3). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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 Pro sells 12 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. PDF Reader asks for nothing beyond the download.
PDF Pro holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 6.9K and 3.9K respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 60% of PDF Pro's written reviews are positive against 77% of PDF Reader's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PDF Pro | PDF Reader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (6.9K ratings) — better | 4.3 (3.9K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 60.3% of reviews | 76.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 6.9K — better | 3.9K |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Subscription | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 91 MB | 173 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Dominic Rodemer | Wondershare Technology (Hunan) Co.,Ltd. |
Customer experience
PDF Pro
PDF Reader
User reviews
PDF Pro
From 6.9K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 User-friendly interface
- 🚀 Fast and efficient
- 💡 Excellent PDF management features
- 🔒 Secure and reliable
- 🎨 Great annotation tools
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes and stability issues
- 💰 Expensive subscription model
- 🔍 Inconsistent search functionality
- 📖 Loses last read position
- 🖋️ Unreliable handwriting support
PDF Reader
From 3.9K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use
- 🚀 Efficient PDF editing
- 💡 Useful annotation tools
- 🚀 Convenient for students/professionals
- 👍 Great value for free app
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes and glitches
- 🔒 Privacy concerns with account requirement
- 👎 Unintuitive user interface
- 🐛 Unreliable saving/syncing
- 👎 Limited functionality compared to paid version
Bugs and requests
PDF Pro
Reported bugs
5 issues- Annotations and highlights randomly disappearing
- Compatibility issues with newer iOS versions
- Corrupted PDF files after editing
- Slow performance on older devices
- Inconsistent behavior when switching between PDFs
Requested features
5 requests- Improved bookmarking and note-taking
- Seamless iCloud/cloud storage integration
- Customizable keyboard shortcuts
- Advanced text editing and OCR capabilities
- Better organization and folder management
PDF Reader
Reported bugs
4 issues- Text boxes appearing randomly
- Inability to select/edit text in some PDFs
- Scrolling issues and page loading delays
- Incompatibility with certain PDF formats
Requested features
5 requests- Ability to edit text formatting (font, size, color)
- Support for multiple open documents
- Improved Apple Pencil integration
- Bookmark/favorite feature for frequently used PDFs
- Expanded cloud storage integration (OneDrive, Google Drive, etc.)
In-app purchases
PDF Pro
- Offer - Monthly - macOS3 Days trial$1.991 Month
- Offer - Monthly - iOS3 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Premium - Monthly - iOS3 Days trial$3.991 Month
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- Premium - Monthly - macOS3 Days trial$4.991 Month
- Offer - Annual - iOS3 Days trial$12.991 Year
- Offer - Annual - macOS3 Days trial$22.991 Year
- Premium - Annual - iOS3 Days trial$24.991 Year
- Offer - macOS + iOS3 Days trial$24.991 Year
- Offer - iOS + macOS3 Days trial$29.991 Year
- Premium - Annual - macOS3 Days trial$44.991 Year
- Premium - iOS + macOS3 Days trial$49.991 Year
- Premium - macOS + iOS3 Days trial$49.991 Year
PDF Reader
No in-app purchases








