Comparison

PDF Max vs Ink PDF Editor

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 offers a comprehensive suite of tools for editing, annotating, and organizing PDF documents. It allows users to extract key information, create study materials, and fill out forms. Advanced features include OCR scanning, voice notes, and PDF page management.

Highlights
  • Edit text, images, and links in PDFs
  • Annotate with highlights, stamps, and comments
  • Scan documents with OCR capabilities
  • Create and fill PDF forms
  • Organize and study content with Cards
  • Export work to Markdown, PDF, or Word
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

Ink PDF Editor

This application allows users to quickly read, annotate, and edit PDF documents. It offers tools for marking up important information, navigating through documents with bookmarks, and even playing embedded audio. The app provides a straightforward way to manage PDF files on mobile devices.

Highlights
  • Quick PDF reading and viewing
  • Full-text scroll and zoom
  • PDF annotation tools
  • Embedded PDF audio playback
  • Bookmark creation and management
Features
Read full description

Ink PDF Editor is a simple and easy-to-use PDF app. It helps you read and edit PDF files quickly and complete any PDF tasks effortlessly. • Quickly Read PDFs Quickly open and view PDF documents Enable full-text scroll, zoom in and out Choose single page or double page scroll mode • Annotate PDFs Mark up important information with professional annotation tools Various annotation styles and colors to choose from • PDF audio reading Recognize and play PDF embedded audio Support single loop/list mode • Bookmarks Add and edit bookmarks as you like to navigate your PDF documents easily

Screenshots

PDF Max4 screens
Ink PDF Editor4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Ink PDF Editor at none against PDF Max's 10. Ink PDF Editor also leads on review sentiment (44% vs 35%) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 18.0). PDF Max's advantage is rating (4.5 vs 4.2) and ratings volume (1.2K vs 37). On price, update cadence, ads 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

Both are free to download. PDF Max sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days. Ink PDF Editor asks for nothing beyond the download.

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 37, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 35% of PDF Max's written reviews are positive against 44% of Ink PDF Editor's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PDF Max ships an update monthly, Ink PDF Editor every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
PDF Max versus Ink PDF Editor: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPDF MaxInk PDF Editor
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (1.2K ratings) — better4.2 (37 ratings)
Positive reviews35.4% of reviews44.4% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1.2K — better37
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS18.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size301 MB27 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMobeeraHefei T-Stack Information Technology Co., Ltd.

Customer experience

PDF Max

All ratings1,178 ratings
Positive87.9%
Neutral2.6%
Negative9.5%
Written reviews189 reviews
Positive35.4%
Neutral7.4%
Negative57.1%

Ink PDF Editor

All ratings35 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews9 reviews
Positive44.4%
Neutral22.2%
Negative33.3%

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

Ink PDF Editor

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
None

Ink PDF Editor

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is PDF Max free?
PDF Max is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Ink PDF Editor free?
Ink PDF Editor is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, PDF Max or Ink PDF Editor?
PDF Max is rated higher. PDF Max averages 4.5 out of 5 from 1.2K ratings, while Ink PDF Editor averages 4.2 from 37 ratings.
Do PDF Max or Ink PDF Editor have ads?
Neither PDF Max nor Ink PDF Editor shows ads.
Which is updated more often, PDF Max or Ink PDF Editor?
PDF Max ships an update monthly, and Ink PDF Editor every 3 weeks. Most recently, PDF Max was updated on November 6, 2026 and Ink PDF Editor on November 3, 2026.

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