Comparison

PDFsmith vs DraftPlanar

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

Head to head
About

PDFsmith

Edit PDF text, convert scanned documents with OCR, and add annotations like signatures and highlights. Manage, merge, split, and protect your PDFs with ease. This app offers desktop-class PDF functionality on your mobile device.

Highlights
  • In-place text editing
  • OCR for scanned documents
  • Annotation tools (highlights, drawings, notes)
  • E-signature functionality
  • PDF merging, splitting, and rotation
  • Image to PDF conversion
  • Password protection
Features
Read full description

PDFsmith gives you desktop-class PDF power on iPhone, without desktop complexity. Edit text in-place with smart alignment and font matching, so changes look natural. Turn scanned files into searchable, selectable documents with high-accuracy OCR. Add signatures, highlights, underlines, drawings, notes, and text boxes in seconds. Everything you need in one app: - Word-style PDF text editing - OCR for scanned documents - Highlight, underline, draw, erase, and annotate - E-sign documents fast - Merge, split, rotate, extract, and compress PDFs - Convert images to PDF and PDF to images - Add or remove password protection - Search, print, and share instantly From quick fixes to heavy multi-page files, PDFsmith is built to be fast and clean. SUBSCRIPTION INFO PDFsmith offers a free 7-day trial with full access to all features. After the trial, a subscription is required to continue using the app: • Monthly: $2.99/month • Yearly: $24.99/year ($2.08/month) • Lifetime: $89.99 (one-time purchase) Payment will be charged to your Apple ID account at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions automatically renew unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage and cancel subscriptions in your Apple ID account settings. Terms of Use: https://pdfsmith.io/#terms Privacy Policy: https://pdfsmith.io/#privacy

About

DraftPlanar

View and annotate large PDF documents offline on your Apple devices. Compare multiple plans side-by-side, measure dimensions, and mark up drawings with precision tools. Ideal for professionals and anyone working with complex documents.

Highlights
  • Offline PDF viewing
  • Side-by-side document comparison
  • Precision measurement tool
  • Apple Pencil annotation
  • Text search and OCR
  • Layer control
  • Paste reference images
Features
Read full description

DraftPlanar is a hardware-accelerated PDF viewer and markup tool for iPad, iPhone, and Mac. Open large documents — blueprints, floor plans, technical drawings, or any PDF — and view them side by side on an infinite canvas with 60 FPS Metal-native performance. Unlike single-page PDF readers, DraftPlanar lets you lay out multiple documents at once. Place a floor plan next to a section detail. Compare two versions of a drawing. Pin reference images alongside your specs. Work the way professionals do — with everything visible, not buried in tabs. WHAT YOU CAN DO • View & Navigate Large PDFs Open 500+ page documents and zoom in at 60 FPS. Our Metal-native rendering pipeline keeps massive PDFs razor-sharp at any scale. Smooth panning and pinch-to-zoom, optimized for Apple Pencil and trackpad. • Measure & Dimension Calibrate your drawings to real-world scale. The Precision Measure tool snaps to path vertices, midpoints, and edges in the PDF's vector geometry — accurate to the line. • Annotate with Apple Pencil Draw, sketch, and redline with a GPU-accelerated pen tool that produces smooth, variable-width strokes. Non-destructive layers keep your annotations separate from the original document. Includes shapes, lasso selection, and a precision eraser. • Pin Notes & Bookmark Viewports Place visual Pins with rich notes, screenshots, or images directly on document coordinates. Save precise viewports to instantly teleport between distant sections of a large blueprint — perfect for construction punchlists and reading notes. • Search Text with Fuzzy Matching Find details instantly across hundreds of plans. DraftPlanar's spatial OCR engine reconstructs text layout from raw characters and scanned documents, then runs lightning-fast fuzzy searches — locate labels, dimensions, or notes even with partial matches. • Compare Document Versions Place two revisions side by side and spot differences. Perfect for reviewing plan updates, spec changes, or contractor submissions. • Control PDF Layers (OCG) Toggle individual layers in complex PDFs — electrical, plumbing, HVAC, or structural overlays. Filter and search layer names (supports regex) to isolate exactly what you need. • Import Markdown & Structured Content Drop Markdown files, Mermaid diagrams, Graphviz graphs, images, SVGs, or HTML onto your canvas. Everything renders as crisp, interactive vector objects automatically. FREE TO USE DraftPlanar's viewer is completely free — unlimited PDF, Markdown, and canvas imports with full 60 FPS hardware-accelerated rendering. No limits, no watermarks. Start viewing immediately. BUILT FOR PROFESSIONALS Architects, engineers, contractors, and project managers trust DraftPlanar for on-site plan review, takeoff measurements, and specification markup. But the app works just as well for anyone who needs a powerful PDF viewer — students, researchers, designers, or anyone working with large documents. 100% PRIVATE & OFFLINE - All processing happens on your device. No cloud uploads. No tracking. - Works without Wi-Fi or internet — perfect for job sites and travel. - No account required. Download and start working immediately. DraftPlanar Pro unlocks the full annotation toolkit (Pen, Shapes, Lasso, Custom Pins), Precision Measurement & Scale Calibration, Version Compare, Spatial OCR & Fuzzy Search, PDF Layer Toggling, Viewport Bookmarks, and Exporting. SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION • DraftPlanar Pro Annual — auto-renewable, 1 year • DraftPlanar Pro 3-Month Pass — non-renewing, 3 months • Payment will be charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase • Subscriptions automatically renew unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period • You can manage and cancel subscriptions in your Account Settings Terms of Use: https://www.draftplanar.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://www.draftplanar.com/privacy

Screenshots

PDFsmith4 screens
DraftPlanar4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: DraftPlanar at freemium against PDFsmith's subscription. PDFsmith's advantage is ratings volume (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). 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. PDFsmith sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and DraftPlanar sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $19.99 per month. 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 — 5.0 for PDFsmith against 5.0 for DraftPlanar. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 1 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
PDFsmith versus DraftPlanar: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPDFsmithDraftPlanar
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings3 — better1
Update frequency—Weekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationSubscriptionFreemium — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS17.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size28 MB72 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJames DellamorteDraft Planar LLC

Customer experience

PDFsmith

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

DraftPlanar

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

In-app purchases

3 purchases

PDFsmith

Subscriptions2
  • PDFsmith Pro Monthly$2.991 Month
  • PDFsmith Pro Yearly$24.991 Year
One-time1
  • PDFsmith Pro$89.99
3 purchases

DraftPlanar

Subscriptions2
  • Pro Monthly$19.991 Month
  • Pro Annual$179.991 Year
One-time1
  • 3-Month Project Pass$49.99

Questions

Is PDFsmith free?
PDFsmith is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is DraftPlanar free?
DraftPlanar is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, PDFsmith or DraftPlanar?
PDFsmith and DraftPlanar are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 3 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do PDFsmith or DraftPlanar have ads?
Neither PDFsmith nor DraftPlanar shows ads.

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