Comparison

PDF Max vs PDF Maker & Reader

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

Head to head
About

PDF Max

This app allows you to read, annotate, and sign PDF documents on your mobile device. You can mark up text, add handwritten notes, insert stamps, fill out forms, and manage PDF pages. It also offers robust file management and cloud integration for seamless access to your documents.

Highlights
  • Read and annotate PDFs
  • Fill and sign PDF forms
  • Handwriting and text markup
  • Manage PDF pages
  • Cloud storage integration
  • Voice annotations
Features
Read full description

PDF Max is a complete PDF editor for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, trusted by millions of people since 2012. From signing a form to building research you can verify, PDF Max helps you edit, annotate, organize, understand, study, protect, and deliver PDFs—all in one app. YOUR PDF. NOW A WORKSPACE. Collect important passages, highlights, images, tables, formulas, and notes as Cards beside your PDFs. Every Card remembers where it came from, so you can return to the original page whenever you need the full context. • Search, tag, connect, and arrange your Cards • Gather related Cards into named groups called Frames • Organize evidence from several PDFs without merging them • Compare passages side by side or view your evidence as an Outline or table • Present Frames or export your work to Markdown, PDF, or Word STUDY WHAT MATTERS Turn trusted Cards into Questions, practice a focused topic, or use scheduled Study for long-term review. Track your Progress, study text and visual material, and return to the supporting PDF whenever an answer needs more context. On supported devices, Apple Intelligence can draft Questions for you to review before saving. EDIT, ANNOTATE, FILL, AND SIGN • Edit existing text, typography, images, links, shapes, and tables • Add, replace, crop, align, rotate, and arrange content • Remove image backgrounds and automatically crop subjects • Highlight, underline, strike through, draw, stamp, and comment • Add text boxes, callouts, notes, shapes, and threaded comments • Complete forms, find missing required fields, and add reusable signatures • Create and edit text, checkbox, radio, dropdown, signature, date, and image fields • Permanently redact text, areas, pages, or search results SCAN, READ, AND UNDERSTAND • Scan paper with automatic capture, edge detection, cleanup, crop, filters, and page reordering • Make scans searchable with optional OCR • Turn selected images into polished PDFs • Reflow fixed or scanned pages into a comfortable reading column • Keep figures beside the text they explain • Customize reading theme, typography, spacing, margins, and alignment • Translate supported languages and listen with on-device Read Aloud • Keep selected passages and useful context with Focus View VOICE NOTES THAT STAY ON THE PAGE • Place and play audio notes anywhere in a PDF • Create searchable on-device transcripts when the required speech model is available MAKE FLAT FORMS FILLABLE • Detect likely text, checkbox, and signature fields in flat or printed forms • Review every detected field before applying it • Use Form Assist to review suggested answers from your encrypted profile EVERY PDF TOOL IN ONE PLACE • Reorder, rotate, insert, duplicate, replace, extract, merge, split, or delete pages • Compress PDFs while preserving selectable text and vector graphics • Resize mixed pages to standard paper sizes • Add page numbers, N of M, Roman numerals, letters, or Bates numbering • Add or remove an open password • Create and edit PDF outlines and bookmarks • Recognize text with OCR and convert Word documents to PDF • Create PDFs from paper, journal, planner, graph, and project templates • Present PDF pages or Workspace Frames full screen • Save, print, flatten, share, or export the finished result Join more than 25 million downloads worldwide and move from document to outcome with PDF Max. Some advanced features require PDF Max PREMIUM. PDF MAX PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION Payment will be charged to your Apple Account when the purchase is confirmed. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current subscription period. You can manage or cancel your subscription in your Apple Account settings. Any unused portion of a free trial will be forfeited when a subscription is purchased, where applicable. Privacy Policy: https://mobeera.ai/privacy Terms: https://mobeera.ai/terms

About

PDF Maker & Reader

Create and read PDF documents on your iPhone and iPad. Easily add text, photos, maps, and diagrams to new or existing PDFs. Share your creations via iCloud Drive, email, and other compatible applications.

Highlights
  • Create new PDF documents
  • Read PDF documents from various sources
  • Add text manually or via keyboard
  • Insert photos, maps, and diagrams
  • Export PDFs to other applications
  • Compatible with App Extensions and Apple Pencil
Features
Read full description

PDF Maker & Reader is a simple and powerful tool for reading and creating PDF. It can be displayed PDF documents on iPhone and iPad and you can input either manually or from the keyboard and add photos, maps, lines and diagrams. And you can make a new PDF document. PDF documents that you made can be output to many applications. [Major Functions] - You can read PDF documents from iTunes, iCloud Drive and many applications.(compatible with App Extensions) - You can make a new PDF document. - You can make a PDF document in the following way.  1. You can input either manually or from the keyboard (compatible with Apple Pencil).  2. You can paste up to photos.  3. You can paste maps.  4. By pasting figures and lines, you can display PDF documents graphically. - You can upload PDF documents to iTunes, iCloud Drive, applications compatible with PDF, and you can attach PDF to emails. You can use PDF Maker & Reader for free for 10 days. If you want to use it for more than 11 days, you need to follow the procedure for In-App Purchases(the one time purchase). Or you can extend the free usage period by 3 days by watching a video ad. [Contact us] https://www.studioks.net/en/contact-us/ [Studio K's - Business Applications Maker] https://www.studioks.net/en/

Screenshots

PDF Max4 screens
PDF Maker & Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: PDF Max at none against PDF Maker & Reader's shown. PDF Max also leads on rating (4.5 vs 4.2) and ratings volume (1.2K vs 25). PDF Maker & Reader's advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 18.0). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

Both are free to download. PDF Max sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days and PDF Maker & Reader sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

PDF Max holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PDF Max has 1.2K ratings behind it against 25, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 35% of PDF Max's written reviews are positive against 20% of PDF Maker & Reader's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PDF Max ships an update monthly, PDF Maker & Reader every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
PDF Max versus PDF Maker & Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPDF MaxPDF Maker & Reader
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (1.2K ratings) — better4.2 (25 ratings)
Positive reviews35.4% of reviews — better20.0% of reviews
Number of ratings1.2K — better25
Update frequencyMonthly — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS18.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size266 MB27 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMobeeraNAOAKI SEKIGUCHI

Customer experience

PDF Max

All ratings1,176 ratings
Positive87.8%
Neutral2.6%
Negative9.5%
Written reviews189 reviews
Positive35.4%
Neutral7.4%
Negative57.1%

PDF Maker & Reader

All ratings25 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral4.0%
Negative16.0%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive20.0%
Neutral20.0%
Negative60.0%

Bugs and requests

PDF Max

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Disappearing documents and annotations
  • Incompatibility with newer devices
  • Crashes on launch
  • Unreliable file saving

Requested features

5 requests
  • Dark mode option
  • Ability to edit/delete annotations
  • Better integration with cloud storage
  • Split-screen viewing for PDFs
  • Improved handwriting recognition

PDF Maker & Reader

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

10 purchases

PDF Max

Subscriptions3
  • Premium Subscription (1 week)$1.997 Days
  • One year premium$34.991 Year
  • Yearly Onboarding Offer7 Days trial$34.991 Year
One-time7
  • Standard Annotating Package$0.99
  • Cloud Access Package$1.99
  • Advanced Annotating Package$3.99
Show 4 more
  • Form Filling Package$3.99
  • Pro Package$4.99
  • Premium Package (Update)$4.99
  • Premium Package (New User)$9.99
2 purchases

PDF Maker & Reader

One-time2
  • PDF Maker & Reader Pro$1.99
  • License$3.99

Questions

Is PDF Max free?
PDF Max is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PDF Maker & Reader free?
PDF Maker & Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, PDF Max or PDF Maker & Reader?
PDF Max is rated higher. PDF Max averages 4.5 out of 5 from 1.2K ratings, while PDF Maker & Reader averages 4.2 from 25 ratings.
Do PDF Max or PDF Maker & Reader have ads?
PDF Maker & Reader shows ads; PDF Max does not.
Which is updated more often, PDF Max or PDF Maker & Reader?
PDF Max ships an update monthly, and PDF Maker & Reader every 2 months. Most recently, PDF Max was updated on October 17, 2026 and PDF Maker & Reader on October 6, 2026.

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