Comparison

Papyrus vs PDF Editor

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

Head to head
About

Papyrus

Organize, annotate, and cite research papers within a native Apple ecosystem. This workspace allows you to import PDFs and citation records, take notes, and manage your reading collections as structured projects. It offers local-first storage with optional cloud sync and various export formats.

Highlights
  • Read and annotate PDFs
  • Organize citation records
  • Take Markdown notes
  • Search entire library
  • Create structured projects
  • Local-first storage
  • Optional iCloud/WebDAV sync
Features
Read full description

Papyrus is a native research workspace for reading, annotating, organizing, and citing PDFs — built for iPad, iPhone, and Mac. READ AND ANNOTATE Open a paper in a fast built-in reader. Highlight, underline, and mark up pages, and every highlight stays searchable and linked back to its source. Bookmark a page as you go, and pick the paper up later from a Reading card that remembers where you stopped. On iPad, a References tab looks up the open paper's reference list and related work, so you can follow a citation trail and add what matters to your library without leaving the page. WRITE ON THE PAGE WITH APPLE PENCIL Mark up a PDF directly on iPad — annotate a proof, sketch beside a figure, work a derivation out in the margin. Your ink belongs to the paper and travels with it, encrypted, to your other devices. NOTES BESIDE THE SOURCE Keep Markdown notes next to each paper: headings, tables, code blocks, LaTeX math, and [[note]] cross-references. Notes stay with the paper and export as PDF when you need to share them. NOTEBOOKS Gather notes from across your library onto themed shelves — a topic, a chapter you're drafting, a reading group. Filing a note copies nothing and moves nothing: it still belongs to its paper, still says which paper that is, and one tap takes you there and back. A note can sit on several shelves at once. Fill a new shelf from what you've already written, search it by a note's text or by the paper behind it, order it four ways — including oldest paper first, which reads your own notes forward through the literature — and export a whole shelf as one Markdown document. All Notes lists everything you've written in one place, filed or not. ORGANIZE THE WAY YOU THINK Folders — a paper can live in several — plus tags, star ratings, and seven colored flags you can name yourself, each with its own shape so they stay tellable apart at a glance. Smart Collections keep themselves current from rules you set, including flag rules. Review Duplicates finds look-alike papers and merges each set after you confirm, combining tags, folders, projects, notes, and highlights. FIND ANYTHING Search titles, authors, notes, and highlights — or the full text inside your PDFs. TURN READING INTO WRITING Projects are where a reading pile becomes a manuscript. Group the papers behind a chapter or article, give each one a role, and capture evidence — claims, quotes, and your own interpretation — tied back to the source paper and page. Write the project note from a template (related work, method comparison, experiment plan, thesis chapter, reviewer response), keep its revision history, and run a preflight that catches missing citation keys and metadata gaps before you export. Export a bundle with Markdown, a BibTeX bibliography, and the PDFs. IMPORT AND CITE Bring in PDFs, whole folders, or BibTeX and RIS files — including libraries exported from Mendeley and Zotero. Papyrus looks up metadata by DOI or arXiv ID and fills in the details. Save papers straight from Safari with the included extension. Copy citations in the style you write in, and export BibTeX or RIS whenever you need them. READ ANYWHERE Paste an arXiv link, a DOI, or a PDF URL and Papyrus imports it, looks up the details, and fetches the PDF. Add a paper to Read Later and its PDF downloads ahead of time, so a flight or a commute doesn't need a signal. Ask Siri, or search from the Home Screen, to pick up the paper you were last reading on the page you left it. YOUR LIBRARY, YOUR DEVICES Your library syncs over iCloud across iPad, iPhone, and Mac. No account to create, no tracking, no ads. Free to download and use — every feature included, no in-app purchases, no subscription.

About

PDF Editor

Features
Read full description

Document Assistant - PDF Editor, Tools & AI Assistant. Edit, organize, scan, and manage your documents in one powerful app. Document Assistant makes it easy to work with PDFs whether you’re studying, working, or handling paperwork on the go. Merge files, split pages, compress PDFs, sign documents, scan papers, convert images to PDF, and much more,all from your iPhone or iPad. AI-Powered Document Assistant Save time with intelligent on-device AI powered by Apple Foundation Models. * Summarize long PDF documents instantly * Generate key points and highlights * Extract important takeaways from reports, notes, and articles * Understand lengthy documents faster * Private, on-device processing for supported Apple devices PDF Editing Modify your PDF files with ease. * Add and edit text * Highlight and underline important content * Draw and annotate PDFs * Fill out PDF forms * Insert images into documents Merge & Split PDFs Organize your documents effortlessly. * Merge multiple PDFs into one * Split PDFs into separate files * Rearrange, rotate, and delete pages * Duplicate pages * Extract selected pages Scan Documents Turn your device into a portable scanner. * Scan receipts, contracts, notes, IDs, and invoices * Automatic edge detection * Smart crop and perspective correction * High-quality PDF scanning * Save and share instantly Sign Documents Sign paperwork in seconds. * Draw your signature * Create typed signatures * Place signatures anywhere in a PDF * Resize and reposition signatures Convert & Compress Work with files the way you need. * Convert images to PDF * Convert PDFs to images * Compress PDF files while maintaining quality * Share documents quickly More Features * Password protect PDFs * Rename and organize files * Quick search * Share documents with ease * Clean and intuitive interface * Fast performance * Works offline for most features Privacy policy: https://digitalhole.github.io/DHPrivacy.html Standard Apple Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Papyrus4 screens
PDF Editor3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: PDF Editor at none against Papyrus's 2. Papyrus's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (weekly vs every 3 weeks). On price, device support and iOS requirement 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. Papyrus sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. PDF Editor asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Papyrus ships an update weekly, PDF Editor every 3 weeks. Both last shipped on October 12, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
Papyrus versus PDF Editor: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPapyrusPDF Editor
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings2 — better—
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size25 MB10 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperZhenda FuArima Jain

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Papyrus

One-time2
  • Papyrus Lifetime Unlock$3.99
  • Papyrus Lifetime Unlock$5.99
None

PDF Editor

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Papyrus free?
Papyrus is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PDF Editor free?
PDF Editor is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Papyrus or PDF Editor have ads?
PDF Editor shows ads; Papyrus does not.
Which is updated more often, Papyrus or PDF Editor?
Papyrus ships an update weekly, and PDF Editor every 3 weeks. Most recently, Papyrus was updated on October 12, 2026 and PDF Editor on October 12, 2026.

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