Comparison

PDF Gear vs Simple PDF Compressor

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

Head to head
About

PDF Gear

This app offers a comprehensive suite of tools for managing PDF documents on mobile devices. Users can easily view, annotate, edit pages, fill out forms, and digitally sign documents. It provides a free and unlimited experience for all its powerful PDF manipulation features.

Highlights
  • View and print PDFs
  • Annotate with highlights, text, and drawings
  • Organize pages (add, delete, rotate, extract)
  • Fill out forms and sign documents
  • Manage PDF files (duplicate, rename, move, share)
  • Open and save to device & iCloud
Features
Read full description

Want a well-featured and easy-to-access PDF solution for mobile use? PDFgear for iOS could achieve this! With PDFgear for iOS, users could handle their PDFs with ease, including viewing, printing, annotating, page editing, signing, etc. The abundant features will let you fill out forms, sign contracts, finish works, review documents, and make more possibilities in PDF! PDFgear for iOS provides free use for all functions without any limits like trial watermark, page count, etc. The concise design brings users a satisfying experience, and the powerful performance makes the perfect document. PDFgear will make your study and work easier to carry out PDFs! Try it on your own! View and Print PDF • Open and view PDFs with easy touch • Zoom in or out for better details • Jump to the appointed page directly • Print PDF from your phone Annotate PDF • Markup texts in PDF with highlight, underline and strike-through • Input texts with the color and font size you need • Draw shapes like rectangles, circles, lines, and arrows easily • Write on PDFs with the Ink tool, and erase the ink freely Organize Pages • Add, delete, and rotate pages supported • Extract pages from the PDF file with the aimed page range Fill out Forms & Sign PDFs • Insert text to the form at the place you need • Put common symbols like checkmarks and crossmarks in the document • Add built-in or customized stamps to the form • Sign the PDF with the signature created from image, keyboard, or drawing Manage PDFs • Manage PDF files with duplicate, rename, copy, move, share, etc. • Open and save PDFs in the device & iCloud

About

Simple PDF Compressor

Easily reduce the size of PDF files or combine multiple documents into a single PDF. Offers three compression levels and allows reordering files before merging. Processed documents can be shared or saved directly to your device.

Highlights
  • Reduce PDF file size
  • Merge multiple PDFs
  • Three compression strengths
  • Reorder files before merging
  • Preview before processing
  • On-device processing
Features
Read full description

Simple and easy PDF compressor & merger. Just select PDFs from the Files app to reduce file size, merge multiple PDFs into one, or merge and compress in one go. Choose from three compression strengths (Light / Balanced / Strong) to fit your use case. Export is seamless—share the processed PDF or save it back to Files, so you can finish sending or submitting documents quickly. ●Key Features 【Create results in seconds】 ・Pick multiple PDFs from Files ・Review selected PDFs in a clean list ・Reorder files by drag & drop before merging 【Compress PDFs to reduce size】 ・Compress each PDF individually ・Choose 3 levels: Light / Balanced / Strong ・Great for image-heavy PDFs (scans, photos, documents with screenshots) 【Merge PDFs into one file】 ・Combine multiple PDFs into a single PDF ・Reorder files before merging ・Perfect for submissions, applications, and archiving 【Merge + Compress】 ・Merge PDFs first, then compress the final file ・Ideal when you want one smaller PDF to share 【Preview before processing】 ・Quick Look preview to confirm the content ・Helpful when thumbnails and filenames aren’t enough 【Easy export】 ・Share via AirDrop, Mail, messaging apps, and more ・Save to Files (iCloud Drive, On My iPhone/iPad, etc.) 【On-device processing】 ・No account required—ready to use right away ・Processing is designed to stay on your device ●Notes ・Text-only PDFs are often already small, so compression may not reduce the size much. ・PDFs with lots of images (scans/photos) usually see the biggest size reduction. For submitting, sharing, or organizing PDFs—compress and merge quickly with a simple, modern workflow.

Screenshots

PDF Gear4 screens
Simple PDF Compressor4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: PDF Gear at 85% against Simple PDF Compressor's 0%. PDF Gear also leads on ads (none vs shown) and monetization model (free vs ad-supported). On price, update cadence, 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

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PDF Gear ships an update monthly, Simple PDF Compressor every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
PDF Gear versus Simple PDF Compressor: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPDF GearSimple PDF Compressor
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (8.7K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews85.1% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings8.7K — better—
Update frequencyMonthly — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterAd-supported
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size45 MB11 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPDF GEAR TECH PTE. LTD.MITSUKO MARGOT KUBOTA ONO

Customer experience

PDF Gear

All ratings8,677 ratings
Positive93.6%
Neutral2.0%
Negative4.4%
Written reviews719 reviews
Positive85.1%
Neutral3.5%
Negative11.4%

Simple PDF Compressor

Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

Bugs and requests

PDF Gear

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes when opening certain PDF files
  • Inability to edit text in forms on iPad
  • Corrupted PDFs after repeated editing and saving

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add password protection and encryption
  • Improve undo/redo functionality
  • Enhance text editing capabilities
  • Implement better auto-save and file recovery
  • Provide more customization options
Show 1 more
  • Integrate with more cloud storage services

Simple PDF Compressor

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

PDF Gear

No in-app purchases

None

Simple PDF Compressor

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is PDF Gear free?
PDF Gear is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Simple PDF Compressor free?
Simple PDF Compressor is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do PDF Gear or Simple PDF Compressor have ads?
Simple PDF Compressor shows ads; PDF Gear does not.
Which is updated more often, PDF Gear or Simple PDF Compressor?
PDF Gear ships an update monthly, and Simple PDF Compressor every 2 months. Most recently, PDF Gear was updated on October 16, 2026 and Simple PDF Compressor on October 7, 2026.

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