Comparison

MLC Chat vs Scan

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

Head to head
About

MLC Chat

Engage in conversations with open language models directly on your iPad or iPhone. Once a model is downloaded, all interactions occur locally, ensuring privacy and offline functionality without internet access. This app is designed for non-commercial use, allowing you to run various open-source language models on your device.

Highlights
  • Local AI model chat
  • Offline functionality
  • No internet required
  • Privacy-focused
  • Open-source project integration
  • Downloadable language models
Features
Read full description

MLC Chat lets users chat with open language models locally on ipads and iphones. After a model is downloaded to the app, everything runs locally without server support, and it works without internet connections do not record any information. Because the models run locally, it only works for the devices with sufficient VRAM depending on the models being used. MLC Chat is part of open source project MLC LLM, with allows any language model to be deployed natively on a diverse set of hardware backends and native applications. MLC Chat is a runtime that runs different open model architectures on your phone. The app is intended for non-commercial purposes. It allows you to run open-language models downloaded from the internet. Each model can be subject to its respective licenses.

About

Scan

This app transforms a single photo of multiple documents into individual, straightened scans. It automatically detects and crops each item, offering various filters and export options to Files or Photos. Automate workflows with Apple Shortcuts for efficient document management.

Highlights
  • Automatic document detection and cropping
  • Straightens and flattens scanned items
  • Save as individual files or combined PDF
  • Black-and-white, grayscale, and color filters
  • Apple Shortcuts integration
  • On-device processing
Features
Read full description

Scan-A-Lot turns one photo of many documents into separate scans. Lay your receipts out on a table and take one picture. The algorithm finds each receipt, then crops, straightens and flattens it. Save them as separate files, or combine them into one PDF. No more scanning them one at a time. It works great for letters, school forms, recipes and cards too! You can even automate it with Apple Shortcuts! • Finds every document, even tilted or shot at an angle. Missed one? Just tap it. • Drag a corner to adjust a crop, or rotate a document. • Black-and-white, grayscale and color filters, for every page or one at a time. • Save documents as images or PDF files to Files or Photos, or share them to any app. • Shortcuts: "Split Photo into Documents" splits a photo without opening the app, or opens it so you can check the crops first. • Runs on iPhone, iPad and Macs with Apple silicon. On iPad, use keyboard shortcuts, drag and drop, and multiple windows. • Everything happens on your device. No account, no ads, no tracking and no subscription. (Scan-A-Lot makes images and PDFs. It doesn't read the text on your documents or add up your receipts.)

Screenshots

MLC Chat2 screens
Scan4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: MLC Chat at Free against Scan's $2.99. MLC Chat also leads on ratings volume (83 vs 2) and iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). Scan's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.2) and update cadence (daily vs every 2 months). On ads, in-app purchases 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

MLC Chat is free to download; Scan costs $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Scan holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: MLC Chat has 83 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MLC Chat ships an update every 2 months, Scan daily. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 26, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
MLC Chat versus Scan: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMLC ChatScan
PriceFree — better$2.99
Rating4.2 (83 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews68.3% of reviews—
Number of ratings83 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size1.7 GB24 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperTianqi ChenNATHAN PAUL WATKINS JR

Bugs and requests

MLC Chat

Reported bugs

17 issues
  • Phi model crashes on iOS 26.0.1 17 Pro Max
  • App crashes on iPad Pro 4th Gen, iPadOs 17.7
  • RedPajama model crashes app on initialization
  • Update is extremely slow
  • Download model button disabled in new version
Show 12 more
  • RedPajama model crashes, custom model download removed
  • App closes when hitting send on iPhone 13
  • Conversation resets when app is backgrounded
  • Vicuna and Mistral 7B models cause crashes
  • Some 7b q4f16/q4f32 models crash on iPhone 15 Pro
  • App crashes on iPhone 13 mini
  • Cannot load other models from URL
  • Crash on iPhone 12
  • Severe heating and frequency reduction on A15
  • Low VRAM failed initialization on 3GB LP DDR4X phone
  • Cannot run 4bit model on iPhone 15 with 8GB RAM
  • Loading models from HF MLC official Repo causes crashes

Requested features

14 requests
  • Ability to import custom models (from URL/Hugging Face)
  • Support for more specific models (DeepSeek, Phi-2, Gemma 2B/7B, MoE Mixtral 8x7B, LLaVA)
  • History of conversations
  • iOS shortcuts support
  • Ability to export entire responses
Show 9 more
  • Information on VRAM requirements per phone/model
  • Ability to change system message/create custom profiles
  • Ability to edit responses and system prompt
  • Add coffee support
  • Delete downloaded models
  • Change settings per model (repetition penalties, temperature)
  • How-to guide for importing/recompiling LLMs
  • Estimate model compatibility before download
  • Support for CN and ZH languages

Scan

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

MLC Chat

No in-app purchases

None

Scan

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is MLC Chat free?
MLC Chat is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Scan free?
Scan costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, MLC Chat or Scan?
Scan is rated higher. MLC Chat averages 4.2 out of 5 from 83 ratings, while Scan averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do MLC Chat or Scan have ads?
Neither MLC Chat nor Scan shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MLC Chat or Scan?
MLC Chat ships an update every 2 months, and Scan daily. Most recently, MLC Chat was updated on October 30, 2026 and Scan on October 26, 2026.

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