Acrobat Reader vs PDF Scanner
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Acrobat Reader
This app is a powerful PDF tool for viewing, editing, annotating, and signing documents. It offers AI-powered features for summarizing and interacting with PDFs, along with robust conversion and security options. Collaborate on files and access your documents from anywhere.
- View, edit, and annotate PDFs
- Sign and fill PDF forms
- Convert files to and from PDF
- AI-powered document summarization
- Collaborate in PDF Spaces
- Compress and secure PDFs
- Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
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Major new updates: Collaborate and share your files in PDF Spaces, and turn your document summaries into podcast-style audio in Acrobat Studio. The world’s most trusted PDF reader, PDF editor, and PDF maker with more than 635 million installs. View, share, annotate, add comments, and sign documents - all in one app. You can store your files online and read documents anywhere. Get your 7-day free trial and try all the features of Acrobat Reader. Paid features: Adobe Acrobat AI Assistant • Work across multiple files in one place with PDF Spaces. Collaborate, store, and use AI Assistant across files • Use voice or text prompts with AI Assistant chatbot • Ask questions and get cited answers about details in your document, including charts, graphs, and tables with Figures Q&A • Easily share the responses you get • Try voice support to ask queries and have answers read aloud. • Use new Hands-free to keep the conversation flowing with voice only • Instantly generate summaries from your PDFs with Generative AI Summaries • Get content for emails, text, study notes, blogs, and more [Adobe Acrobat AI Assistant is a paid feature*, free for a limited time] Edit PDFs • With our PDF editor, edit text and images directly in your PDF (mobile only) • Fix typos or add paragraphs with the PDF editor • Easily add, delete, or rotate any image • Use this PDF signer and PDF viewer to get your docs just right Recognize text • Optical Character Recognition (OCR) turns scanned PDFs into searchable, editable text to use in other formats Merge & organize PDFs with PDF Converter • Split or combine multiple files into one PDF with PDF converter • Use the PDF editor to insert, delete, rotate, crop & reorder pages in your PDF file Create, convert & export PDFs • Easily convert to PDF from any file type including Microsoft, Google Docs, and images • Export and convert PDFs to Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or various image files • Convert web pages to PDFs Compress & highly secure PDFs • Compress PDF files for easy saving and sharing • Password Protect PDF documents Have your PDF read aloud • Listen to your PDFs on the go, great for reading support • Choose free voices or upgrade for high-quality options Subscribe now to access all these features and use Acrobat across mobile and web platforms. Free-to-use features: PDF signer: Fill & Sign Adobe Fill & Sign is free & available in Acrobat Reader. A form filler and PDF signer that lets you fill, sign, and send Liquid mode in the optimal PDF viewer • Get the best PDF reading experience with this PDF viewer • Search, navigate & adjust font size or spacing to fit your screen Annotate PDFs • Add sticky notes, comments, and highlight text Store & manage files • Link online storage accounts like Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, or Google Drive • Star files to quickly open important documents Connect the PDF viewer and reader to Google Drive • A PDF creator that lets you edit, compress, and export Google Drive files with a subscription Work with scanned documents • Access scanned PDFs from Adobe Scan in Acrobat to fill, sign, and share The Acrobat Reader mobile app is designed to work with customers who have Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) enabled. *An Adobe Acrobat AI Assistant add-on plan is available to Acrobat Individual customers. iOS 16 or above required. Terms & Conditions: Your use of this application is governed by the Adobe General Terms of Use http://www.adobe.com/go/terms_linkfree_en and the Adobe Privacy Policy http://www.adobe.com/go/privacy_policy_linkfree_en Do not sell or share my personal information www.adobe.com/go/ca-rights-linkfree
PDF Scanner
Transform your device into a powerful digital scanner. Easily capture, edit, and save documents as high-resolution PDFs or JPEGs. Organize your mobile office and share files instantly via email, social media, or cloud services.
- Scan documents to PDF and JPEG
- High-resolution scanning
- Automatic color detection and adjustment
- Image cropping and filtering
- Multi-page document scanning
- Share via email, social media, and cloud
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Turn paper into perfect PDFs in seconds. Fast Scanner finds the edges of your document, straightens it, cleans it up and saves it as a crisp PDF — ready to sign, search and share. SCAN ANYTHING • Contracts, receipts, invoices, notes, business cards, IDs and books • Automatic edge detection captures the page the moment it's in view • Scan multi-page documents in one go, then reorder pages anytime • Import photos from your library and turn them into PDFs PERFECT RESULTS • Magic filter removes shadows and makes text pop • Grayscale and Black & White filters for clean, print-ready copies • Adjust corners precisely with the crop editor SIGN DOCUMENTS • Draw or type your signature once and reuse it • Place your signature and today's date anywhere on the page • Sign leases, contracts and forms without printing EXTRACT TEXT (OCR) • Recognize the text in any scan or photo • Copy and share text in one tap — no retyping FIND IT INSTANTLY • Smart search looks inside your documents, not just their names • Search "deposit" and find the lease that mentions it PRIVATE BY DESIGN • Your documents are stored on your device • Text recognition runs on your iPhone SHARE YOUR WAY • Share PDFs by email, message or any app • Print or save to Files in seconds SCANNER PREMIUM Upgrade to unlock signatures and text extraction, and remove all ads. • Payment is charged to your Apple ID account at confirmation of purchase. • Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. • Your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the end of the current period. • Manage or cancel your subscription in your App Store account settings. • Any unused portion of a free trial is forfeited when you purchase a subscription. Terms of Use: https://hashcloudinfotech.com/term-and-condition/ Privacy Policy: https://hashcloudinfotech.com/privacy-policy/ Questions or ideas? Write to us at hashcloudinfotech@gmail.com
Screenshots
Verdict
Acrobat Reader and PDF Scanner both sit at 4.6 stars, but that hides the real split: 94% of PDF Scanner's written reviews are positive against 49% of Acrobat Reader's. PDF Scanner also leads on iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.3). Acrobat Reader's advantage is ratings volume (664K vs 259) and update cadence (every 10 days vs every 6 weeks). On price, rating, 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
Both are free to download. Acrobat Reader sells 16 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and PDF Scanner sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for Acrobat Reader against 4.6 for PDF Scanner. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Acrobat Reader has 664K ratings behind it against 259, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 49% of Acrobat Reader's written reviews are positive against 94% of PDF Scanner's.
Acrobat Reader ships an update every 10 days, PDF Scanner every 6 weeks. Both last shipped on October 29, 2026.
| Parameter | Acrobat Reader | PDF Scanner |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (664K ratings) — better | 4.6 (259 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 49.1% of reviews | 93.8% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 664K — better | 259 |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days — better | Every 6 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #2 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.3 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 552 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Adobe Inc. | vijay kachhadiya |
Customer experience
Acrobat Reader
PDF Scanner
User reviews
Acrobat Reader
From 664K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Fast and efficient
- 🔒 Secure document storage
- 👍 Convenient for reading and annotating PDFs
- 👍 Useful for students and professionals
Room to improve
- 🐛 Buggy and unreliable
- 🔒 Overly intrusive login requirements
- 💰 Expensive subscription model
- 👎 Counterintuitive user interface changes
- 🔍 Poor search and organization features
PDF Scanner
From 259 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use
- 🚀 Fast scanning
- ✨ Great clarity and precision
- 💯 Useful for college/nursing school
- 📱 Keeps documents accessible
Room to improve
- 💸 Too many ads
- 🐌 Ads slow down usage
Bugs and requests
Acrobat Reader
Reported bugs
4 issues- Frequent crashes and freezes
- Inconsistent behavior when editing PDFs
- Inability to open or save certain file types
- Sync issues between mobile and desktop versions
Requested features
5 requests- Add erase tool for annotations
- Improve palm rejection for Apple Pencil
- Allow direct text editing in PDFs
- Provide better cloud integration and sync
- Offer more customization options
PDF Scanner
Reported bugs
1 issue- Does not work (reported by one user)
Requested features
1 request- Add facsimile capability
In-app purchases
Acrobat Reader
- Acrobat Premium - Monthly$3.991 Month
- Adobe Acrobat Premium$4.991 Month
- AI Assistant for Acrobat$6.991 Month
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- Acrobat Premium$7.497 Days
- Acrobat Premium - Monthly$9.991 Month
- Acrobat Premium - Weekly$9.997 Days
- PDF Pack - Doc Creator$9.991 Month
- Premium - Edit & Create PDF$9.991 Month
- PDF Edit and Convert Monthly7 Days trial$12.991 Month
- Acrobat Premium - Monthly$12.991 Month
- Acrobat Premium - Monthly$14.991 Month
- Acrobat Reader Plus - Yearly$19.991 Year
- Adobe ExportPDF$23.991 Year
- Adobe Acrobat Pro$24.991 Month
- Acrobat Premium - Yearly7 Days trial$48.991 Year
- Acrobat Premium - Yearly7 Days trial2 variants$69.991 Year
PDF Scanner
- Week$2.997 Days
- Month$5.991 Month
- Yearly3 Days trial$29.991 Year
Questions
Is Acrobat Reader free?
Is PDF Scanner free?
Which has better reviews, Acrobat Reader or PDF Scanner?
Do Acrobat Reader or PDF Scanner have ads?
Which is updated more often, Acrobat Reader or PDF Scanner?
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