Document Lens vs Sift
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side ā with what reviewers say about each.
Document Lens
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This App turns your iPhone into a powerful document scanner ā fast, simple, and without an annoying subscription model. THREE SCAN MODES - Black & White: High-contrast scans perfect for text documents, contracts, and forms. Crisp, clean results every time. - Color: Full-color document scans for receipts, photos, certificates, and anything that needs to look exactly like the original. - Camera: Quick photo capture for whiteboards, notes, or anything you need to save on the go. SMART TEXT RECOGNITION (OCR) Every scan includes automatic text recognition powered by Apple's on-device AI. That means: ā Select and copy text directly from your scanned PDFs ā Search through your documents ā No internet connection required ā everything stays on your device SMALL FILES, SHARP QUALITY Choose between three quality levels: ā Small: Perfect for email and messaging (150 DPI) ā Standard: Ideal balance of quality and size (300 DPI) ā Original: Maximum detail when you need it The file size is always displayed before you share, so you know exactly what you're sending. SHARE YOUR WAY Use the native iOS share sheet to instantly: ā Save to Files ā Send via AirDrop ā Attach to Mail or Messages ā Upload to any cloud service PRIVACY FIRST This Scanner processes everything on your device. No accounts, no cloud uploads, no tracking. Your documents stay yours. Download and start scanning in seconds.
Sift
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Every document scanner reads your page. Then it saves the file as "2024-05-22 00:45:29" and hands you an empty folder. Sift uses what it just read. Scan a receipt and it saves as "Blue Bottle Coffee - Receipt - Mar 2026", already filed under Receipts. You tap Save, not Rename. Then, weeks later, you swipe down on your Home Screen, type "lease", and there it is - because Sift indexes the text inside every scan into iOS Spotlight. All of it happens on your iPhone. Sift has no servers, no account, and makes no network calls. THE LIBRARY THAT FILES ITSELF ⢠Automatic titles - Sift finds the letterhead, the vendor, and the date, and writes the title for you ⢠Automatic filing - receipts, bills, IDs, contracts, medical records, tax documents, notes ⢠Everything editable - it's a suggestion, not a decision. Change anything before you save. FIND ANYTHING, INSTANTLY ⢠Search the text inside your documents, not just their filenames ⢠Find scans from your Home Screen with Spotlight - no need to open Sift first ⢠Every result opens straight to the document SCANS THAT WORK EVERYWHERE ELSE ⢠Real searchable PDFs - Sift writes an invisible text layer into every export, so you can select and search the text in Preview, Acrobat, or Files. Not just a picture of a page. ⢠Clean captures with automatic edge detection and perspective correction ⢠Four filters - Original, Enhanced, Grayscale, Black & White - applied to every page at once, not one at a time ⢠Import what you already have - photos and PDFs from Photos or Files, read and filed the same way ⢠Sign and mark up a page with your finger - save your signature once and stamp it on any document ⢠Reorder, rotate, split, and drop pages; export as PDF, compressed PDF, or JPG ⢠Fine-tune brightness and contrast on top of the four filters ASK YOUR DOCUMENTS (ON SUPPORTED DEVICES) On iPhones with Apple Intelligence, ask Sift about any scan - "what's the total?", "when does this lease end?" - and get answers from that document, generated entirely on your device. If the answer isn't in the document, Sift says so instead of guessing. No cloud AI, ever. SCAN FROM ANYWHERE ⢠"Hey Siri, scan with Sift" ⢠Add scanning to a Shortcut, your Action Button, or Control Center PRIVATE BY CONSTRUCTION, NOT BY PROMISE ⢠No servers. No account. No sign-up. No network calls. ⢠No analytics. No ads. No third-party SDKs of any kind. ⢠No tracking permission prompt - because there is nothing in Sift to track you with. ⢠Your IDs, contracts, and medical records never leave your iPhone. They can't - there's nowhere for them to go. ⢠Want Sift locked? Long-press its icon and choose Require Face ID - iOS locks it system-wide FREE FOREVER - GENUINELY Unlimited scanning. Unlimited pages. Text recognition. Automatic titling. Automatic filing. Search. Spotlight. PDF export. No limits, no watermark, no ads. We can give this away because it all runs on your device and costs us nothing to serve. There is no paywall in onboarding, ever, and nothing above is gated. Sift shows the price twice on its own, after it titles your first scan and after your first export. Both have a full-size Not now and block nothing. SIFT PRO (OPTIONAL) Adds encrypted backup & restore (pack your whole library into one password-protected file you save wherever you like), document expiry reminders, batch tools, text export, watermarked exports, and password-protected PDFs. Every plan and its true cost is shown on one screen, with the price printed on the button. Weekly or Yearly (each with a 7-day free trial you have to actually choose), or a one-time Lifetime purchase in Settings. Subscriptions auto-renew unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the period ends, and are managed in your Apple Account settings. Lifetime is a one-time purchase and never renews. Privacy Policy: https://ajain26.github.io/app-policies/sift/privacy-policy.html Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Document Lens at 15.0 against Sift's 17.0. On price, update cadence, 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
Both are free to download. Document Lens sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Sift sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Document Lens ships an update every 10 days, Sift every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Document Lens | Sift |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days ā better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod ā better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 ā better | 17.0 |
| Further details ā not scored | ||
| Size | 1 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Moacir Schierscher | Anshul Jain |
In-app purchases
Document Lens
- Lifetime Access$0.99
Sift
- Sift Pro (Weekly)7 Days trial$6.997 Days
- Sift Pro (Yearly)7 Days trial$34.991 Year
- Sift Pro (Lifetime)$79.99









