Comparison

Swift Paperless vs Less Paper

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

Head to head
About

Swift Paperless

This app allows users to manage documents directly from their iOS device. It seamlessly integrates with a self-hosted document management system, ensuring data privacy and control. Easily find, categorize, and add new documents on the go.

Highlights
  • Native iOS integration
  • Paperless-ngx compatibility
  • Document finding
  • Document categorization
  • Add documents from phone
Features
Read full description

Swift Paperless is a native iOS app that interacts with the popular Paperless-ngx document management software. Paperless-ngx is self-hosted, and therefore fully privacy preserving: you control your data! With Swift Paperless, it's easy to find, categorize and also add documents from your phone!

About

Less Paper

This app provides a native mobile interface for paperless-ngx, allowing users to manage their documents on the go. It offers full search and filtering capabilities, document editing, and management of various metadata like tags and correspondents.

Highlights
  • Connect to multiple servers
  • Full search and filter
  • Edit documents
  • Manage correspondents, types, views, and tags
  • Import documents
  • Supports password-protected documents
Read full description

Less Paper is a native iOS client for paperless-ngx, the self-hosted document archive. It talks directly to your own server, and to nothing else. FIND ANYTHING The complete filter set from the web interface, custom fields included: title and content, correspondent, document type, storage path, tags, dates and ASN. Save any filter as a view, then create, edit and reorder your saved views without leaving the app. EDIT WHERE YOU ARE READING Fix a title, reassign a correspondent, add tags, notes or custom field values from the document itself. Select several documents and change them together, merge them, or delete them in one go. READ IT WITH NO SERVER IN REACH Favorite a document and it is kept on the device in full — the PDF, its notes, metadata and custom fields. The Favorites tab reads those stored copies, so it works on a plane, in a basement, or anywhere your server is not. Pull to refresh and only the documents that actually changed are fetched again. GET DOCUMENTS IN Send anything on your device to paperless-ngx from the share sheet. Password-protected PDFs are unlocked on import, and the password is kept in the keychain so the next document from the same source opens without asking. BUILT FOR REAL SETUPS Connect as many servers as you like and switch between them. Sign in with a password, or with the single sign-on provider your server is configured with. Client certificates, custom HTTP headers and reverse proxies such as Authelia are all supported. A restricted account works too: the app follows your user's permissions and simply does not show what you may not do. When something does go wrong, a local error log — with anything credential-shaped redacted out of it — is there to read and share, and nothing leaves the device unless you send it. KEEP THE ARCHIVE TIDY Create, rename and delete tags, correspondents, document types and storage paths, and set ownership and permissions on any document. Restore anything you deleted from the trash, or empty it for good. Needs paperless-ngx 2.15.3 or newer. Universal: iPhone and iPad — on iPad the document opens in a column beside the list rather than covering it. Less Paper is open source. Issues and feature requests are welcome at https://github.com/plu/less-paper

Screenshots

Swift Paperless4 screens
Less Paper4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Less Paper at weekly against Swift Paperless's every 2 months. Swift Paperless's advantage is monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and review sentiment (97% vs 88%). On price, rating, 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

Both are free to download. Swift Paperless sells 4 one-off in-app purchases and Less Paper sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. 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 — 4.9 for Swift Paperless against 4.9 for Less Paper. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 68 and 18 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 97% of Swift Paperless's written reviews are positive against 88% of Less Paper's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Swift Paperless ships an update every 2 months, Less Paper weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 18, 2026 and September 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Swift Paperless versus Less Paper: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSwift PaperlessLess Paper
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (68 ratings)4.9 (18 ratings)
Positive reviews96.8% of reviews — better87.5% of reviews
Number of ratings68 — better18
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS17.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size26 MB39 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPaul GessingerJohannes Plunien

Customer experience

Swift Paperless

All ratings68 ratings
Positive98.5%
Neutral0.0%
Negative1.5%
Written reviews63 reviews
Positive96.8%
Neutral1.6%
Negative1.6%

Less Paper

All ratings18 ratings
Positive94.4%
Neutral5.6%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews8 reviews
Positive87.5%
Neutral12.5%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Swift Paperless

One-time4
  • Coffee money$3.99
  • Proper thank-you$8.99
  • Above and beyond$17.99
Show 1 more
  • Legendary generosity$44.99
1 purchases

Less Paper

One-time1
  • PRO User$3.99

Questions

Is Swift Paperless free?
Swift Paperless is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Less Paper free?
Less Paper is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Swift Paperless or Less Paper?
Swift Paperless and Less Paper are both rated 4.9 out of 5 on the App Store, from 68 and 18 ratings respectively.
Do Swift Paperless or Less Paper have ads?
Neither Swift Paperless nor Less Paper shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Swift Paperless or Less Paper?
Swift Paperless ships an update every 2 months, and Less Paper weekly. Most recently, Swift Paperless was updated on September 18, 2026 and Less Paper on September 10, 2026.

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