Zoho Scanner vs Alcove
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Zoho Scanner
Transform your mobile device into a powerful document scanner. Capture paper documents, receipts, and business cards with high precision. Convert scanned text to editable formats, translate content, and securely share your files.
- Document scanning
- OCR text extraction
- E-signature integration
- Cloud storage sync
- Document annotation
- Multi-language translation
Read full descriptionHide full description
Zoho Scanner is a document scanner that helps students, freelancers, and small business teams turn paper into searchable PDFs and images, using text recognition and e-signatures. WHO IT'S FOR Built for people who deal with paper they need to keep: students scanning notes and exam papers, small business owners filing receipts and invoices, admin teams capturing business cards and contracts, and anyone who needs a clean copy of an ID or official document. A good fit if you already keep documents in a cloud drive. WHAT PEOPLE USE IT FOR • Scan ID cards, passports, and official documents to keep a clear copy on hand • Scan receipts, bills, and invoices so expenses get filed as they happen, not at month end • Pull editable text out of printed pages and notes, and translate it into 17 languages • Sign contracts and forms and email them back without printing anything • Scan business cards so contact details are saved instead of lost HOW IT WORKS Scan — Point your iPhone or iPad camera at a page and Zoho Scanner finds the document's edges, so you get a straight, cropped scan instead of a photo of a page. Handles multi-page documents and imports from your photo library. Crop, edit, rotate, reorder pages, filter and annotate, then share as a PDF or an image. Extract text — Text Recognition pulls the words out of a scan so you can edit them, find a document by what's inside it, and share the text as a file. Translate — Turn a scanned document into any of 17 languages, including French, German, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese, then send it as a file or paste it in a message. E-sign — Add your signature, initials, name, and the date to a scan, powered by Zoho Sign, so you don't need a printer and a scanner to return a form. Organize — Use folders, reminders, and tags to keep documents findable. Zoho Scanner suggests tags from a document's content, and Zia Lens sorts scans into documents, receipts, and business cards, then alerts you when new documents appear in your photos. Share and automate — Send scans by email or iMessage, or upload to Zoho WorkDrive, Zoho Expense, Zoho Notebook, Photos, or your own cloud drive. Build a workflow once and its actions run in the order you set, so filing a receipt is one tap instead of five. COMMON QUESTIONS Can I search inside my scans? Yes. Text Recognition reads every scan, so you can find a document by a word inside it. Can I edit the text after scanning? Yes. Extract the text, edit it, and share it as a file by email or message. Can I sign a document and send it back? Yes. Add your signature and date with Zoho Sign, then email it without printing. Can I translate a scanned document? Yes, into 17 languages, and you can send the result as a file or paste it in a message. Can I file receipts automatically? Yes. Build a workflow that sends a scan to Zoho Expense or your cloud drive, then run it in a tap. ONLY ON iPHONE AND iPAD • Sync across Apple devices, back up and restore with iCloud Drive • Lock your documents with Face ID or Touch ID • Scan and share from iMessage; Siri Shortcuts to scan, search, and read docs • Find documents in Spotlight, recent ones in the Today widget, workflows on Apple Watch • Multiple windows on iPad, plus Voice Control, Dynamic Text, and Dark Mode PRIVACY AND TRUST Zoho Scanner is built by Zoho Corporation, certified to ISO/IEC 27001, ISO 27017, and ISO 27018 and SOC 2 Type II compliant. Zoho does not sell user data and shows no ads. The app is available in 22 languages. PREMIUM Some features require a Zoho Scanner Premium subscription. • Premium Monthly — 1.99 USD • Premium Yearly — 19.99 USD (save 50%) Payment is charged to your iTunes account on confirmation. Subscriptions renew within 24 hours of the period ending unless auto-renewal is turned off in Account Settings. Any unused portion of a trial is forfeited on purchase. Privacy — zoho.com/privacy.html Terms — zoho.com/terms.html Questions? support@zohoscanner.com
Alcove
Read full descriptionHide full description
Alcove is a calm to-do list, daily planner and notes app in one place. Capture tasks in plain words, plan your week on a calendar, keep notes that do the maths, and move work along on kanban boards. Tick tasks off from a widget, and find the same lists on your Mac, kept in step by your own iCloud. TYPE IT THE WAY YOU'D SAY IT Write "Call mum Friday 6pm" or "Stand-up every weekday 9:30 15m /Work" and Alcove picks out the day, time, length, repeat, priority, list and tags as you type. On the Mac, press Option-Space from any app to add a task. SPEAK YOUR TASKS Say everything on your mind at once. Alcove turns it into separate tasks, each with its date, time and list. PLAN YOUR DAY AND WEEK • Today, Upcoming and a calendar with an hour grid and an all-day row • Drag a task to a new time or day • Repeating tasks for any rhythm: every few days, weeks, months or years, chosen weekdays, or counted from when you finished REMINDERS AS LOUD AS THE TASK Pick quiet, a notification, or an alarm. On iPhone with iOS 26, an alarm rings through silent mode and Focus, with Stop and Snooze. Mark a task done right from its reminder. NOTES THAT DO THE MATHS Headings, checklists, code, quotes and tables, written with Markdown shortcuts. End a line with = and it's worked out, and tables add up their own totals. Paste a checklist or table from another app and it arrives as one. Turn any checklist line into a task. KANBAN BOARDS Lay tasks out in To do, Doing and Done, or columns of your own. Tasks stay in their lists and in Today, and a card dropped in Done is finished everywhere. WIDGETS, SIRI AND SHORTCUTS • Widgets for the Home Screen, Lock Screen and Mac desktop, with tasks you can tick without opening the app • Controls for Control Center and the Lock Screen • Siri adds tasks, reads out your day and takes notes • Shortcuts actions for your own automations MADE FOR THE MAC A menu bar list with a live count, a main window with a sidebar of every list, board and note, floating windows that stay on top, and keyboard shortcuts throughout. AI assistants can work with your tasks too, but only once you turn them on, only with the permissions you approve, and every call is logged. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account to create, no ads and no tracking. Your tasks and notes sync through your own iCloud. Progress shows what you finished against what you added, worked out on your device, with no streaks and no scores. AND THE DETAILS • 100 steps of undo, and six months of history for every task • Search across tasks, notes, tags and attachments • Lists with colours and icons, folders and tags • Six accents and five papers, in light and dark ONE PURCHASE, NO SUBSCRIPTION Download free and try everything for 14 days, starting whenever you're ready. Then a single purchase unlocks Alcove for good on your Mac, iPhone and iPad, and Family Sharing includes your family. If you don't unlock, your tasks and notes stay readable and exportable, and nothing is deleted. Privacy Policy: https://alcovetasks.com/privacy Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
Zoho Scanner and Alcove are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Zoho Scanner sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Alcove sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
| Parameter | Zoho Scanner | Alcove |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (89 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 78.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 89 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.6 — better | 17.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 85 MB | 22 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Zoho Corporation | Muhammed Basil E |
Bugs and requests
Zoho Scanner
Reported bugs
11 issues- Search function not working since July 2026 update
- Account deletion process does not work
- App crashes immediately on launch
- Scanning settings default to zoomed-in camera with no adjustment
- Cloud backup not visible in account
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- App freezes when scanning multiple documents and uploading to WorkDrive
- Minor error in detecting paper edges
- OCR is wildly inaccurate for Mac
- App crashes and cannot access documents, even for premium users
- Cannot save to Zoho WorkDrive Team folders
- Backup is going but cannot be found in cloud account
Requested features
11 requests- Improve search functionality with OCR
- Allow file import without mandatory account creation
- Enhance editing options, add erase tool
- Improve file management to be more user-friendly
- Adjust zoom/scan settings for different document sizes
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- Add more features for business card scanning (database, CSV export)
- Improve OCR accuracy
- Add a dark mode option
- Allow applying filters to all pages automatically
- Integrate signing feature for paid subscribers
- Translate app into French
Alcove
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Zoho Scanner
- Doc Scanner Premium Monthly$0.991 Month
- Zoho Scanner Premium Monthly$1.991 Month
- Doc Scanner Basic Monthly$2.991 Month
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- Doc Scanner Standard Monthly$4.991 Month
- Doc Scanner Premium Monthly$6.991 Month
- Doc Scanner Premium Yearly$11.991 Year
- Zoho Scanner Premium Yearly$19.991 Year
- Doc Scanner Basic Yearly$29.991 Year
- Doc Scanner Standard Yearly$49.991 Year
- Doc Scanner Premium Yearly$69.991 Year
Alcove
- 14-day TrialFree
- Alcove Unlock$29.99









