Comparison

Docbase vs PDFiles

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

Head to head
About

Docbase

Features
Read full description

Your paperwork, finally under control. Docbase turns your phone into a portable document scanner with built-in organization, intelligent search, and encrypted cloud backup. Whether it's tax returns, insurance policies, medical records, or invoices — scan it once and find it instantly. SCAN & DIGITIZE Point your camera at any document. Docbase automatically detects edges, crops the page, and extracts text using on-device OCR — no internet connection required. Import existing PDFs directly from your files or iCloud. ORGANIZE WITH SMART CATEGORIES Sort documents into predefined categories like Tax, Insurance, Housing, Health, Banking, Employment, Contracts, and Invoices — each with detailed subcategories. Create your own custom categories with emoji icons to match your personal filing system. FIND ANYTHING INSTANTLY Search across all your documents by title, tags, category, or full-text content. Premium users can ask questions in natural language: "How much was my electricity bill in March?" and get answers drawn directly from their documents. AI-POWERED DOCUMENT ASSISTANT Chat with your documents. Ask questions, get summaries, and extract specific information from any scanned page or imported PDF. Powered by AI, available with up to 20 queries per day on Premium. SECURE CLOUD BACKUP Back up every document to your personal Google Drive using the restricted drive.file scope — Docbase can only access files it created. Your documents never touch our servers. You stay in full control. BUILT FOR PRIVACY - On-device OCR: Text recognition runs entirely on your phone (Apple Vision on iOS) - GDPR compliant: No server-side access to your files - Data export: Download all your data anytime in JSON format - Account deletion: Remove everything with one tap - AI is optional: Document analysis requires your explicit consent MULTI-LANGUAGE SUPPORT Available in 9 languages: English, German, Turkish, French, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Italian, and Portuguese. The app automatically detects your device language. WHAT'S INCLUDED FOR FREE - Unlimited document scanning and PDF import - On-device OCR text extraction - Category organization with subcategories - Tags and custom metadata - Google Drive cloud backup - Search by title, tags, and category - Dark mode support PREMIUM FEATURES (7-day free trial) - Full-text OCR search across all documents - AI Document Q&A (20 questions/day) - AI semantic search in natural language - AI smart suggestions and auto-tagging PERFECT FOR - Tax season preparation - Managing insurance documents - Keeping medical records accessible - Organizing rental and housing paperwork - Archiving invoices and receipts - Storing employment contracts and payslips Stop losing important papers. Start scanning with Docbase. ---Subscription auto-renews unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in Settings > Subscriptions. Privacy Policy: https://docbaseapp.com/en/privacy Terms of Service: https://docbaseapp.com/en/terms

About

PDFiles

Features
Read full description

PDFiles is a fast, private PDF scanner for iPhone. Scan documents, receipts, invoices, notes and forms into clean PDFs and save them directly to the Files app. What makes PDFiles different is the workflow. Choose a Files folder once, then every scan lands there automatically. No export maze, no repeated folder picking, no account and no cloud upload required. New in 2.0: faster batch scanning for real documents. Detect several documents in one camera image, choose the pages you want and set the final PDF order by the order you tap them. Scan multiple pages without an artificial 25-page limit. Keep the camera open, collect pages in a scan stack and save one multi-page PDF when you're done. Need to scan book pages, sheet music or two A4 pages side by side? Double Page Mode splits one photo into separate PDF pages. Move or delete the divider before saving. PDFiles also lets you fine-tune every scan. Adjust corners and edges, use the magnifier for precise placement or add a manual scan area when automatic detection misses something. Use PDFiles for: • documents • receipts • invoices • contracts • forms • notes • letters • sheet music • book pages Features: • Scan documents to PDF • Save PDFs directly to the Files app • Choose a default Files folder • Detect multiple documents in one photo • Create several PDF pages from one camera image • Scan longer documents without a 25-page limit • Keep scanning and save one multi-page PDF at the end • Split double-page scans into separate pages • Reorder pages before saving • Merge documents into one PDF • Compress PDFs to reduce file size • Adjust corners and edges manually • Add a manual scan area • Use A4, A3 and US Letter paper formats • Organize folders with colors • Switch target folders quickly Privacy first: Scans are processed locally on your iPhone with iOS and Apple frameworks. No account is required. No cloud upload is required. Your documents stay under your control. PDFiles is made for people who want a simple PDF scanner that gets documents into the right folder fast.

Screenshots

Docbase4 screens
PDFiles4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: PDFiles at every 2 weeks against Docbase's monthly. Docbase's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 26.2). On price, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. Docbase sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and PDFiles sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Docbase ships an update monthly, PDFiles every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 14, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences Ā· 3 level
Docbase versus PDFiles: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDocbasePDFiles
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.1 — better26.2
Further details — not scored
Size67 MB3 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperGazihan Ilhami IsildakLukas Daniel Kofler

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Docbase

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Premium Subscription$4.991 Month
  • Yearly Premium Subscription7 Days trial$49.991 Year
1 purchases

PDFiles

One-time1
  • PDFiles Pro$1.99

Questions

Is Docbase free?
Docbase is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PDFiles free?
PDFiles is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Docbase or PDFiles have ads?
Neither Docbase nor PDFiles shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Docbase or PDFiles?
Docbase ships an update monthly, and PDFiles every 2 weeks. Most recently, Docbase was updated on September 22, 2026 and PDFiles on September 14, 2026.

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