Swift Paperless vs LinkBuddy
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Native iOS integration
- Paperless-ngx compatibility
- Document finding
- Document categorization
- Add documents from phone
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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!
LinkBuddy
This is a free, open-source client for a self-hosted bookmark management service. It allows users to add, edit, archive, and search bookmarks, with support for a share sheet extension and an in-app browser. It's privacy-focused and ad-free.
- Add, edit, archive, delete bookmarks
- Search bookmarks (active, archive, unread, untagged, shared)
- Share sheet extension for external app sharing
- In-app browser with Safari Reader View
- Dark and light mode themes
- iPad compatible
- Privacy focused and ad-free
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LinkBuddy is a free and open source client for linkding, a selfhosted bookmark management service. NOTE: This does not work without a selfhosted instance of linkding and an associated API access token. Please see more information about setting up linkding here: https://linkding.link/ Features: - Add, edit, archive and delete bookmarks - View and search your active, archive, unread, untagged, and shared bookmarks - Supports share sheet extension to share URLs from other apps into LinkBuddy - Open and view links in in-app web browser - Supports Safari Reader View via in-app web browser - Supports dark mode and light mode themes - iPad compatible - Privacy focused - this app doesn't store or track any personal user information, logs, or display any ads - Free and open source: https://github.com/peterto/LinkBuddy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: LinkBuddy at none against Swift Paperless's 4. LinkBuddy also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). Swift Paperless's advantage is ratings volume (68 vs 1). On price, rating, update cadence and ads 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
Both are free to download. Swift Paperless sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. LinkBuddy asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Swift Paperless against 5.0 for LinkBuddy. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Swift Paperless has 68 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 18, 2026 and June 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Swift Paperless | LinkBuddy |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (68 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 96.8% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 68 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 26 MB | 22 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Paul Gessinger | Peter To |
Customer experience
Swift Paperless
LinkBuddy
In-app purchases
Swift Paperless
- Coffee money$3.99
- Proper thank-you$8.99
- Above and beyond$17.99
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- Legendary generosity$44.99
LinkBuddy
No in-app purchases
