Comparison

QuickSearch PDF Reader vs Airport Notes

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

Head to head
About

QuickSearch PDF Reader

This app provides lightning-fast text searching within PDF documents, both individually and across your entire library. It also functions as a smooth PDF viewer with intuitive navigation and zooming capabilities.

Highlights
  • Instant text search within PDFs
  • Cross-document search
  • Natural page navigation
  • Pinch-to-zoom and double-tap zoom
  • Scrub bar for document navigation
  • Import from other apps and iTunes File Sharing
Features
Read full description

"QuickSearch PDF Reader is the tool you didn't realize you needed ... searches are extra fast but it's the interface design that shines ... a terrific app" -- The Unofficial Apple Weblog (tuaw.com) QuickSearch PDF Reader makes it fast and easy to find text in PDF documents. When you add a document, it is scanned in the background, so when you search, results are instant. And as well as searching within a document, you can search across all your documents at once. It’s also a great PDF viewer with a very natural style of navigation. It snaps to page boundaries, yet it’s easy to flick past them. Zooming is straightforward by pinching, or you can double-tap a region of text to zoom to fit. You can easily jump to any part of the document using the scrub bar. And everything is lightning-fast, even on large documents. You can easily get your documents into QuickSearch from other apps on your iPad or iPhone that support the "Open In..." function, such as Mail, Safari, or Dropbox. You can also use iTunes File Sharing to transfer documents to and from your Mac or PC. Full step-by-step instructions are included.

About

Airport Notes

Features
Read full description

Know the field before you land. AirportNotes is the airport notebook built by pilots, for pilots. Read what other crews learned at the airports you fly to, write your own briefing notes, and keep runway and airport data at hand — even when you're offline. COMMUNITY NOTES FROM REAL CREWS • Read notes shared by pilots for thousands of airports worldwide • Arrival and departure tips: STARs, approaches, SIDs, taxi routes, stands, NADPs and handling • Sort by most recent or most popular • Filter by topic and by note language • Mark notes as helpful and see which tips other pilots trust • Share a note with your crew using a simple link • Report inappropriate notes and block users you don't want to see BRIEF IT YOUR WAY • Quick notes for a fast reminder • Briefing notes with ready-made Arrival and Departure sections: STAR, Approach, Taxi, Stand, SID, Runway and NADP • Add a topic and language to every note • Your preferred note language is selected automatically FIND ANY AIRPORT FAST • Search by ICAO code, IATA code, city or airport name • Search works offline with the built-in airport database • Explore every airport on a clustered world map • Airports where you have notes are highlighted on the map • Center the map on your current location • See nearby airports and their distance in nautical miles — handy when you check alternates AIRPORT AND RUNWAY DATA • Elevation and coordinates for each airport • Every runway with length, width, surface and lighting • Update the airport and runway database from inside the app BUILT FOR THE COCKPIT AND THE CREW ROOM • Offline-first: every note is saved on your device first and synchronized when you're back online • A reminder if a note still hasn't been synchronized after a day • Save your favorite airports and keep them ready offline • Continue where you left off with your last and recent airports • "I was here" keeps a private history of the airports you have visited • My Notes lists and maps every airport where you have written a note • Notifications when pilots find your notes helpful • Pilot profile with your airline, rank and helpful score • Sign in with email, Apple or Google — and connect more than one method to the same account • Light, dark or automatic appearance AIRPORTNOTES PRO Community notes are free to read and write. Upgrade to AirportNotes Pro to unlock: • Private airport notes that only you can see • Offline-first synchronization across your devices • An ad-free experience AirportNotes Pro is available as a monthly or annual auto-renewing subscription. Payment is charged to your store account at confirmation of purchase. The subscription renews automatically unless it is cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage or cancel your subscription in your store account settings. Existing Remove Ads purchases are still honored. Privacy Policy: https://airportnotes.info/privacy-policy/ Terms of Use: https://airportnotes.info/terms-of-use/ IMPORTANT AirportNotes is a personal briefing aid. It is not an approved source of navigation or operational information. Always use current official documentation, charts and your company procedures. Questions or feedback? Contact us from the Profile screen inside the app — we read every message.

Screenshots

QuickSearch PDF Reader4 screens
Airport Notes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Airport Notes at Free against QuickSearch PDF Reader's $2.99. QuickSearch PDF Reader's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ads (none vs shown). On update cadence 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

Airport Notes is free to download; QuickSearch PDF Reader costs $2.99 up front. Airport Notes sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. QuickSearch PDF Reader asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

QuickSearch PDF Reader ships an update every 5 weeks, Airport Notes every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 4, 2026 and October 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
QuickSearch PDF Reader versus Airport Notes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterQuickSearch PDF ReaderAirport Notes
Price$2.99Free — better
Rating3.9 (24 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews67.2% of reviews—
Number of ratings24 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeks — betterEvery 6 weeks
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS9.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size6 MB94 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperOlive Toast Software LtdBahadir ARSLAN

Bugs and requests

QuickSearch PDF Reader

Reported bugs

12 issues
  • Dropbox authentication fails with reCAPTCHA not displaying
  • App crashes when opening certain PDF documents
  • Search function crashes during use
  • Cannot access PDF files on iPad Air 2
  • File upload functionality not working
Show 7 more
  • Search fails to find all instances of words in documents
  • Inconsistent search results with multi-column PDFs
  • App crashes when handling large file collections (2GB+)
  • Cannot open user manual without crashing
  • Search misses words mixed with numbers
  • Case-sensitive search issues
  • Poor performance with non-English character sets

Requested features

16 requests
  • Text highlighting and underlining capabilities
  • Note-taking and annotation features
  • Folder creation and document organization
  • Microsoft OneDrive integration
  • Google Translate integration
Show 11 more
  • Copy and translate functionality
  • Advanced search options (exact match, case sensitivity)
  • Document renaming capability
  • Tab support for multiple PDFs
  • PDF index/table of contents navigation
  • Support for additional file formats (.txt, .doc)
  • Batch file export functionality
  • Search results listing with page numbers
  • OCR support for scanned documents
  • Right-to-left language support
  • Folder-based search filtering

Airport Notes

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

QuickSearch PDF Reader

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Airport Notes

One-time1
  • Remove Ads$0.99

Questions

Is QuickSearch PDF Reader free?
QuickSearch PDF Reader costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Airport Notes free?
Airport Notes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do QuickSearch PDF Reader or Airport Notes have ads?
Airport Notes shows ads; QuickSearch PDF Reader does not.
Which is updated more often, QuickSearch PDF Reader or Airport Notes?
QuickSearch PDF Reader ships an update every 5 weeks, and Airport Notes every 6 weeks. Most recently, QuickSearch PDF Reader was updated on October 4, 2026 and Airport Notes on October 5, 2026.

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