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

A fast PDF plan viewer for Mac and iPad, with takeoff and markup built in. DraftPlanar opens huge construction drawing sets side by side on an infinite canvas and keeps them fast: 500+ page sets pan and zoom at 60 FPS, and lines and text stay sharp at any zoom. Also on iPhone. IF YOUR PDF READER IS SLOW ON DRAWINGS A single construction sheet can hold hundreds of thousands of lines, hatches and text runs. Readers built for ordinary documents lag, blur or stall on them. DraftPlanar was built from the ground up for drawings, from reading the file to drawing it on screen, so large sets stay smooth on Mac and iPad. AT THE DESK ON MAC. IN THE FIELD ON IPAD. • Mac: lay the whole set out on a large display, use a single-letter shortcut for every tool, take off quantities precisely with a trackpad or mouse, and present to the room over AirPlay. • iPad: mark up with Apple Pencil, measure by touch with a magnifier that shows the exact point under your finger, pin notes with a photo or voice memo, and keep working with no signal. One subscription covers Mac, iPad and iPhone. WHAT YOU CAN DO • Takeoff Length chains, area and perimeter, angles with a 15° snap, and count series that total across sheets. Points snap to the PDF's own vector lines, and every sheet keeps its own scale. DraftPlanar reads the scale printed in the title block and checks it against dimensions on the drawing. Totals sit in a list beside the plan, and export to PDF or CSV. • Markup Draw and redline with Apple Pencil. The ink is vector, so it stays sharp when you zoom in. An eraser that removes only your strokes, text boxes (including Chinese, Japanese and Korean input) and text highlighting. • Copy & Export Drawing Details Select part of a PDF drawing and copy its vector lines and text, or export the selection as SVG or a one-page PDF. Vector details stay sharp; scanned regions copy as images. • Notes & Punch Lists Drop numbered notes on the exact spot on the drawing, with category, priority, status, assignee and due date. Add a photo or voice memo, filter the list, and export a punch-list PDF report anyone can read. • Search Find any word in native PDFs, in scans and photos (text recognition runs on your device), and in text you typed. • Compare Revisions Overlay two versions of a PDF page by page, so what changed stands out. • PDF Layers Turn individual layers on and off, such as architecture, structure or MEP, and filter long layer lists by name. • And more Adaptive dark mode, AirPlay presenting with a pointer, PDF export, and a built-in Feature Guide with every shortcut. 100% PRIVATE & OFFLINE - All processing happens on your device. No cloud uploads. No tracking. - Works without Wi-Fi or internet, on the job site and in the air. - No account required. PRICING DraftPlanar is free to download and includes a 14-day free trial of every Pro tool. DraftPlanar Pro unlocks importing documents, markup, takeoff and measurement, compare, search, layers, notes and export. Without Pro you can still open and view the canvases you created. SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION • DraftPlanar Pro Monthly — auto-renewable, 1 month • DraftPlanar Pro Annual — auto-renewable, 1 year • 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 Measurements are approximate and depend on the PDF and its scale. Verify critical dimensions before relying on them. 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 iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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 6 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 2 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
PDFsmith versus DraftPlanar: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPDFsmithDraftPlanar
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings3 — better2
Update frequency—Every 8 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationSubscriptionFreemium — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS17.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size28 MB82 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 ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
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
6 purchases

DraftPlanar

Subscriptions4
  • Pro Monthly$19.991 Month
  • DraftPlanar Pro Monthly$24.991 Month
  • Pro Plan (1 Year)$179.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Pro Annual$179.991 Year
One-time2
  • 14-Day Pro TrialFree
  • 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 2 ratings respectively.
Do PDFsmith or DraftPlanar have ads?
Neither PDFsmith nor DraftPlanar shows ads.

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