Comparison

PDF Max Pro vs PDF Viewer by Nutrient

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

Head to head
About

PDF Max Pro

This comprehensive PDF editor allows you to edit, annotate, organize, and sign documents on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It transforms PDFs into interactive workspaces, enabling you to collect and connect important information, study effectively, and collaborate on projects.

Highlights
  • Edit text, images, and shapes
  • Annotate and highlight PDFs
  • Fill and sign forms
  • Organize and connect PDF content
  • Scan and OCR documents
  • Create fillable forms
  • Export to Markdown, PDF, or Word
Features
Read full description

PDF Max Pro 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 Pro 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 Pro. 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 Viewer by Nutrient

Easily view, search, and annotate PDF documents on your iPhone and iPad. Import files from cloud services, fill out forms, add signatures, and organize your documents. Advanced features like redaction and combining documents are available with a Pro subscription.

Highlights
  • View and search PDFs
  • Annotate with highlights and notes
  • Sign documents digitally
  • Fill out PDF forms
  • Organize and share documents
  • Import from cloud services
Features
Read full description

PDF Viewer is a fast and beautiful app, allowing you to view, search, and annotate PDF documents with ease on your iPhone and iPad. Access your files from iCloud, Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, Google Drive or any other cloud solution via Apple's familiar Document Browser interface. +++ Listed as “Productivity lifesaver” on the App Store +++ "A streamlined interface packed with powerful features - it’s like having a desktop-quality PDF toolkit wherever we go" – App Store Editor Notes “I'm impressed by how the folks at PSPDFKit have been able to fine-tune the document browser to the app's needs.” – MacStories.net "If you want a PDF viewer that is designed for reading PDF books, this is it." – App Review VIEW DOCUMENTS ON THE GO • Easily import a PDF from your favorite cloud service provider, email, or directly off a website. • Supports Open In Place, Drag & Drop and features the familiar Apple Document Browser interface from the Files app. • Search for the exact text you are looking for within the document. • Double tap on the screen to Smart Zoom directly to the text you want to read. • Annotate images (JPEG, PNG) non-destructive, just like PDF documents. (PRO) ANNOTATE WITH EASE • While reviewing a document, use your finger or Apple Pencil to highlight and markup text. • Leave comments by adding a note, text, or drawing directly on the PDF. • Add images or audio. • Reply to notes. (PRO) SIGN DOCUMENTS ANYWHERE • Add your signature to any document using your finger or Apple Pencil. • Move and resize your signature as needed. • Flatten a document to ensure the signature doesn’t change. CREATE AND EDIT PDFs • Create new documents from existing documents by moving, rotating, deleting, or adding new pages. • Combine multiple documents into a single one. (PRO) • Add bookmarks to easily return to certain pages in large documents. FILL OUT FORMS • Quickly fill out PDF Forms by adding text to the fields. • Flatten and secure the form once you’re done to ensure the document doesn’t change. • Add a signature to any Form. STORE, ORGANIZE AND SHARE • Store documents, create folders and organize your documents. • Share documents by printing, emailing or saving your edits back any cloud service. PASSWORD PROTECT DOCUMENTS • Read document metadata, title and keywords. • Protect documents with user and owner passwords and limit permissions. (PRO) AND SO MUCH MORE • Conveniently switch to night mode when viewing your documents at night. • Present on external screens without the distraction of toolbars. (PRO) • Have the text from a PDF read out loud to you with text-to-speech. • PDF Viewer remembers where you were down to the page/position where you left off - even across devices. PRICING PDF Viewer comes with a large feature set, completely free. Some advanced features require the purchase of PDF Viewer Pro, available as a subscription. We offer 3-monthly and yearly subscription plans. There’s also a fully functional 7-day trial, so you can test PDF Viewer Pro (including document merging and password editing) before you commit. All plans unlock the app on iPhone and iPad. TRUSTED BY COMPANIES YOU KNOW PDF Viewer is built on top of and powered by PSPDFKit, the same PDF engine trusted around the world by companies like Dropbox, Box, IBM, Atlassian, SAP, and Lufthansa. BE PART OF THE PDF VIEWER COMMUNITY pdfviewer.io twitter.com/pdfviewerapp LEGAL Duration and price of each subscription are displayed in PDF Viewers’ storefront, updated at the time of purchase. Payment will be charged to iTunes account at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off no later than 24 hours before the end of the current period. Subscriptions and auto-renewal can be managed/turned off in the iTunes account settings. Any unused portion of a free trial period is forfeited as soon as a subscription is purchased. Terms of Use: https://pdfviewer.io/terms Privacy Policy: https://pdfviewer.io/privacy

Screenshots

PDF Max Pro4 screens
PDF Viewer by Nutrient4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: PDF Viewer by Nutrient at Free against PDF Max Pro's $9.99. PDF Viewer by Nutrient also leads on review sentiment (73% vs 41%) and ratings volume (9.1K vs 1.5K). On rating, update cadence, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

PDF Viewer by Nutrient is free to download; PDF Max Pro costs $9.99 up front. PDF Max Pro sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days and PDF Viewer by Nutrient sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per 3 months. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for PDF Max Pro against 4.6 for PDF Viewer by Nutrient. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PDF Viewer by Nutrient has 9.1K ratings behind it against 1.5K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 41% of PDF Max Pro's written reviews are positive against 73% of PDF Viewer by Nutrient's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 4, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
PDF Max Pro versus PDF Viewer by Nutrient: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPDF Max ProPDF Viewer by Nutrient
Price$9.99Free — better
Rating4.5 (1.5K ratings)4.6 (9.1K ratings) — better
Positive reviews41.2% of reviews73.2% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1.5K9.1K — better
Update frequencyMonthlyMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro — better
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size301 MB109 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMobeera Co., LtdPSPDFKit GmbH

Customer experience

PDF Max Pro

All ratings1,457 ratings
Positive88.3%
Neutral2.3%
Negative9.4%
Written reviews245 reviews
Positive41.2%
Neutral7.3%
Negative51.4%

PDF Viewer by Nutrient

All ratings9,101 ratings
Positive90.8%
Neutral3.7%
Negative5.4%
Written reviews1,095 reviews
Positive73.2%
Neutral9.8%
Negative17.1%

User reviews

PDF Max Pro

From 1.5K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Easy to use
  • 👍 Great features
  • 🚀 Excellent PDF editing tools
  • 👍 Useful for documentation

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes frequently
  • 🐛 Loses data/annotations
  • 💰 Expensive subscription
  • 🐛 Compatibility issues with new iOS versions
  • 🐛 Unreliable file management

PDF Viewer by Nutrient

From 9.1K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Seamless integration with iCloud and Files app
  • 👍 Intuitive annotation tools with Apple Pencil
  • 🎨 Versatile highlighting and drawing options
  • 💾 Saves annotations to original PDF files
  • 🔍 Powerful search and navigation features

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes and performance issues
  • 🤔 Confusing UI and steep learning curve
  • 🔀 Difficulty managing and organizing PDF files
  • 🔍 Inconsistent text selection and highlighting
  • 🔒 Privacy concerns around data collection

Bugs and requests

PDF Max Pro

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • App crashes when opening certain PDF files
  • Annotations and edits not saving properly
  • Inability to restore previous in-app purchases
  • Syncing issues with Dropbox and Google Drive

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add text-to-speech and speech-to-text functionality
  • Improve integration with cloud storage services
  • Enhance annotation tools and responsiveness
  • Provide better documentation and support

PDF Viewer by Nutrient

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Annotations randomly disappearing or not saving
  • Incompatibility issues with certain PDF files
  • Scrolling and panning problems on large PDFs
  • Unexpected crashes after iOS updates

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add a rubber/eraser tool for annotations
  • Implement a side-by-side PDF view mode
  • Improve palm rejection and gesture support
  • Allow customization of toolbar and shortcuts
  • Provide better options for PDF file management

In-app purchases

4 purchases

PDF Max Pro

Subscriptions3
  • Premium Subscription (1 week)$2.997 Days
  • One year Premium$34.991 Year
  • Onboarding Yearly Offer7 Days trial$34.991 Year
One-time1
  • Premium Package$4.99
2 purchases

PDF Viewer by Nutrient

Subscriptions2
  • PDF Viewer Pro 3 Months7 Days trial$6.993 Months
  • PDF Viewer Pro Yearly7 Days trial$19.991 Year

Questions

Is PDF Max Pro free?
PDF Max Pro costs $9.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is PDF Viewer by Nutrient free?
PDF Viewer by Nutrient is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, PDF Max Pro or PDF Viewer by Nutrient?
PDF Viewer by Nutrient is rated higher. PDF Max Pro averages 4.5 out of 5 from 1.5K ratings, while PDF Viewer by Nutrient averages 4.6 from 9.1K ratings.
Do PDF Max Pro or PDF Viewer by Nutrient have ads?
Neither PDF Max Pro nor PDF Viewer by Nutrient shows ads.
Which is updated more often, PDF Max Pro or PDF Viewer by Nutrient?
PDF Max Pro ships an update monthly, and PDF Viewer by Nutrient monthly. Most recently, PDF Max Pro was updated on November 1, 2026 and PDF Viewer by Nutrient on November 4, 2026.

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