Comparison

PDF Max vs PDF Book 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 Book Reader

Easily read, manage, and annotate PDF books and documents. This app offers a smooth reading experience, powerful annotation tools, and seamless cloud integration. Organize, search, and share your PDFs with ease.

Highlights
  • Natural PDF reading and navigation
  • PDF bookmarking and annotation
  • Text search and OCR extraction
  • PDF merging and page rearrangement
  • Cloud storage integration (Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud)
  • File import and export via cloud and Files app
  • PDF sharing and printing
Features
Read full description

PDF Book Reader app helps you easily and naturally read PDF books and documents. It works as smooth as reading web pages in web browsers. PDF Book Reader is the best app to read, manage and annotate PDF Books and it works beautifully on iOS 14. The most powerful PDF Book reader, carefully designed and optimized specially for the iPhone & iPad. [ KEY FEATURES ] • Naturally read and navigate PDF books • Bookmark PDF e-Books • Annotate PDF e-Books • Search texts in entire PDF files • Extract texts by using OCR • Merge PDF files • Rearrange PDF pages by drag & drop • Connect with Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud, Photos • Import files from Files, Photos, Google Drive, Dropbox • Automatically and securely save PDF files in Files app • Share PDF files via email, text (sms), cloud solutions • Print PDF files [ Upgrade to subscription version ] Upgrading to subscription version requires auto-renewal subscription. Payment will be charged to your Apple ID account at the confirmation of purchase. The subscription automatically renews unless it is canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. You can manage and cancel your subscriptions by going to your App Store account settings after purchase. Links to Your Privacy Policy and Terms of Use: http://www.btoj.com.au/privacy.html http://www.btoj.com.au/terms.html Please feel free to contact us for anything.

Screenshots

PDF Max4 screens
PDF Book Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: PDF Max at 4.5 against PDF Book Reader's 3.9. PDF Max also leads on ads (none vs shown) and ratings volume (1.2K vs 31). PDF Book Reader's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs monthly) and review sentiment (61% vs 35%). On price, in-app purchases, monetization model 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 and PDF Book Reader sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. 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 3.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PDF Max has 1.2K ratings behind it against 31, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 35% of PDF Max's written reviews are positive against 61% of PDF Book Reader'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, PDF Book Reader every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
PDF Max versus PDF Book Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPDF MaxPDF Book Reader
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (1.2K ratings) — better3.9 (31 ratings)
Positive reviews35.4% of reviews61.1% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1.2K — better31
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 5 days — better
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 MB46 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMobeeraB TO J PTY LTD

Customer experience

PDF Max

All ratings1,177 ratings
Positive87.9%
Neutral2.5%
Negative9.5%
Written reviews189 reviews
Positive35.4%
Neutral7.4%
Negative57.1%

PDF Book Reader

All ratings31 ratings
Positive74.2%
Neutral3.2%
Negative22.6%
Written reviews18 reviews
Positive61.1%
Neutral0.0%
Negative38.9%

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 Book 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 Book Reader

Subscriptions2
  • 1 Month Subscription$3.991 Month
  • 1 Year Subscription$28.991 Year

Questions

Is PDF Max free?
PDF Max is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PDF Book Reader free?
PDF Book Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, PDF Max or PDF Book Reader?
PDF Max is rated higher. PDF Max averages 4.5 out of 5 from 1.2K ratings, while PDF Book Reader averages 3.9 from 31 ratings.
Do PDF Max or PDF Book Reader have ads?
PDF Book Reader shows ads; PDF Max does not.
Which is updated more often, PDF Max or PDF Book Reader?
PDF Max ships an update monthly, and PDF Book Reader every 5 days. Most recently, PDF Max was updated on September 24, 2026 and PDF Book Reader on September 13, 2026.

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