Comparison

Lyonesse vs PDF nano

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

Head to head
About

Lyonesse

Record audio or video and get instant, on-device transcriptions. This app allows you to ask questions about your content, generate summaries, and identify speakers, all without uploading your data to the cloud. It supports various file formats and offers offline functionality for ultimate privacy and convenience.

Highlights
  • On-device AI transcription
  • Speaker labeling
  • Summaries and action items
  • Q&A across library
  • Import various file types
  • Offline functionality
  • Export in multiple formats
Features
Read full description

Record a meeting or lecture and read the words as people speak. Ask a question about what was said, get a summary in seconds, and find any moment later with search. The transcription and AI run on your device. Lyonesse is a private workspace for the things you record and the documents you read. Recording, transcription, summaries, speaker labels, and Q&A happen locally. There is no cloud transcription provider, so it keeps working with no internet and your audio is not uploaded to be processed. No account to create. Optional iCloud sync is off by default. WHAT YOU CAN DO - Transcribe live recordings, or import an audio or video file you already have. On Mac you can also capture system audio from any app, call, or video playing on your device. - Get AI summaries in the style you want: concise, bullets, action items, or a structured outline. - Ask Lyonesse: chat across your whole library. Notes, transcripts, PDFs, and images, with follow-up questions and citations back to the source. - Read your documents. Import a PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint file or an image, then summarize it, pull out the key points, or ask it questions. - Run a private meeting assistant: link your calendar, see full-screen live captions, get on-device speaker labels, and turn a recording into drafted minutes with action items. PICK YOUR ENGINE Lyonesse ships Apple Speech and a downloadable Parakeet model for transcription, plus Apple Intelligence and a downloadable Qwen 3 model for on-device AI. Auto picks the best one available for your language and device. In our published LibriSpeech benchmark, Apple's Speech API outperformed the Whisper models Lyonesse used to ship (read it at lyonesse.app/blog/apple-speech-api-benchmark.html). BUILT FOR STUDY AND WORK - Turn a recording into study sheets, meeting minutes, or follow-up notes with Smart Drafting. - Organize notes into Projects that file themselves, then ask questions across a whole project. - Export to PDF or text with an optional summary, Q&A, and full transcript. Send action items to Apple Reminders. - Full-text search across recordings, transcripts, documents, and action items. PRIVATE BY DEFAULT Your recordings, documents, and transcripts stay on your device. Recording, transcription, summaries, speaker labels, document analysis, and Q&A run on-device, with no cloud AI provider in the loop. A private alternative to cloud tools like Otter, Fireflies, Rev, and ChatPDF. Works on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with transcription and summaries in 15 languages. Lyonesse is free to download and there is a free tier. For unlimited use, choose a subscription or a one-time Lifetime purchase. No per-minute fees. Privacy Policy: https://lyonesse.app/privacy.html Terms of Service: https://lyonesse.app/terms.html

About

PDF nano

Edit, translate, and manage PDF documents with a focus on on-device privacy. This app offers tools for scanning, converting, annotating, and organizing your files locally.

Highlights
  • Read, organize, and manage PDFs
  • Offline PDF translation with layout preservation
  • Scan documents and create PDFs
  • Convert PDFs to Word, Excel, or images
  • OCR for Arabic and English text
  • Add signatures and annotations
  • Remove hidden metadata for privacy
Features
Read full description

PDF nano is a comprehensive, professional PDF reader, editor, translator, and manager engineered for speed and privacy. Combining powerful on-device tools with Apple Intelligence, PDF nano delivers a unified workflow tailored for iPhone, foldable iPhone Duo, and iPad—handling your contracts, reports, and paperwork with top-tier security. Key Features: 1. Foldable iPhone Duo & iPad Experience: • Seven Postures Adaptation: Automatic layout across foldable and dual-display devices. • Dual-Screen Book Mode: Side-by-side reading with automatic hinge isolation to prevent content clipping. • Tabletop Mode: Bottom screen transforms into a control deck for drawing, signing, and scrubbing without covering the document. • Dynamic iPad Sidebar: Instant browsing of thumbnails, outlines, and bookmarks beside your canvas. • High-Contrast Navigation Pill: Prominent back button for effortless touch accessibility and zero status-bar overlap. 2. AI Document Assistant (Beta): • Instant executive summaries of lengthy reports, extracting decisions and action items. • Precision risk analysis and contractual obligation detection. • Verifiable Q&A with answers grounded in direct textual citations from your document. • Encrypted Cloud Privacy: Powered by Apple Intelligence and Private Cloud Compute (PCC) to process documents securely without logging or storing data. *Note: AI features require Apple Intelligence-compatible devices. 3. Offline Document Translation (Beta): • Full-document PDF translation entirely offline while preserving layouts, fonts, and tables. • Batch approval to accelerate processing for files up to 100 pages. • Granular paragraph review with selective editing for each translated block. *Note: Translation operates fully on-device. Machine translations may contain errors. 4. Advanced Reading & Viewing: • Dual-Page Continuous View: True book-like reading with native RTL Arabic and LTR layout. • Distraction-Free Guard: Locks editing overlays during reading mode to prevent accidental markups. • Fast-Scrub Vertical Scroll: High-velocity thumb scrubber for jumping through hundreds of pages. • Full Interface Adaptation: Precision safe-area integration around the Dynamic Island and status bar. • Smart Double-Tap Zoom: Rapid focus scaling with an intuitive floating navigation capsule. • OCR Visual Search: Direct in-document search across scanned PDFs with fuzzy and multi-word query support. 5. Conversion & Smart Scanning: • High-Fidelity PDF to Word (.docx) conversion preserving tables and formatting. • Accurate Table Extraction to Excel (.xlsx) with automatic data type inference. • Camera Document Scanner to digitize receipts and paperwork into clean PDFs. • High-quality PDF-to-Image and multi-image-to-PDF conversion pipelines. 6. Editing, Signing & Organization: • Digital signatures: Create, position, and cryptographically sign contracts and forms. • Complete markup suite: Freehand drawing, highlighters, custom text boxes, and annotations. • Page management: Reorder, rotate, extract, or delete pages with fluid drag-and-drop. • Merge & Split: Combine multiple PDFs into one or split large documents into individual files. • Smart PDF Compression: Reduce file size for rapid sharing via email and messaging apps. 7. Industry-Leading Privacy & Security: • 100% On-Device Processing: Reading, editing, translation, OCR, and conversion run locally without uploading files to external servers. • Cryptographic Apple Privacy: AI Assistant requests are strictly restricted to Apple Private Cloud Compute (PCC). • Visual face and sensitive data blurring with hidden metadata sanitization. • Password encryption, native AirPrint support, and Home Screen widgets. Free tier includes daily tool quotas. Unlock unlimited access via in-app purchase. Standard Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/sla/

Screenshots

Lyonesse4 screens
PDF nano4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: PDF nano at 5.0 against Lyonesse's 3.8. PDF nano also leads on iOS requirement (18.6 vs 26.0). Lyonesse's advantage is ratings volume (5 vs 1) and device support (4 vs 2). On price, update cadence, 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. Lyonesse sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per 7 days and PDF nano 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

PDF nano holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Lyonesse has 5 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Lyonesse ships an update every 3 days, PDF nano every 4 days. Both last shipped on October 28, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Lyonesse versus PDF nano: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLyonessePDF nano
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.8 (5 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings5 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 4 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.018.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size67 MB25 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJOSIP MARKOVICThamer Mohammed

Customer experience

Lyonesse

All ratings5 ratings
Positive60.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative40.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

PDF nano

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Lyonesse

Subscriptions3
  • Weekly Subscription$3.997 Days
  • Lyonesse Monthly$7.991 Month
  • Lyonesse Annual$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lyonesse Unlimited$59.99
1 purchases

PDF nano

One-time1
  • PDFnano Pro Lifetime$4.99

Questions

Is Lyonesse free?
Lyonesse is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PDF nano free?
PDF nano is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Lyonesse or PDF nano?
PDF nano is rated higher. Lyonesse averages 3.8 out of 5 from 5 ratings, while PDF nano averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Lyonesse or PDF nano have ads?
Neither Lyonesse nor PDF nano shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Lyonesse or PDF nano?
Lyonesse ships an update every 3 days, and PDF nano every 4 days. Most recently, Lyonesse was updated on October 28, 2026 and PDF nano on October 28, 2026.

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