ScanWave Pro vs Scanly
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side β with what reviewers say about each.
ScanWave Pro
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Scanwave Pro is a scanner you buy once and own forever β no subscriptions, no monthly fees, no "unlock pro" pop-ups. Built for the Japanese practice of copying ID cards onto A4 paper. Capture an ID and lay it onto a page in Actual Size or Fill Page layout β the standard formats for Residence Card, Driver's License, and Health Insurance Card copies that landlords, banks, and city halls ask for every day. ONE-TIME PAYMENT β’ Pay once, use forever β’ No subscription, no in-app purchases β’ All updates included for life β’ No "free trial that auto-renews" tricks DOCUMENT MODE β’ Multi-page capture with automatic edge detection β’ Manual corner adjustment with magnifier loupe β’ Filters: Original, Grayscale, Black & White, Enhance β’ Drag-to-reorder pages, retake, swipe-to-delete β’ Multi-page PDF export with 1-up, 2-up, or 4-up layouts ID MODE β’ Front-only or front + back capture β’ Composed onto A4 in actual size or fill-page layout EXPORT β’ Save as JPEG or PNG to Photos β’ Save as PDF to Files (visible under On My iPhone β ScanWave) β’ Share to AirDrop, Mail, Messages, or any installed app β’ Multi-select on the Home screen for bulk share or delete PRIVACY β’ All processing on device β’ No cloud, no account, no analytics, no tracking β’ No third-party SDKs β’ Photos and documents stay on your iPhone or iPad LANGUAGES English, ζ₯ζ¬θͺ, ΰ€¨ΰ₯ΰ€ͺΰ€Ύΰ€²ΰ₯. Switch any time from the globe button on the Home screen.
Scanly
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Turn any paper document, receipt, ID card, or whiteboard into a clean, searchable PDF - right on your iPhone. Scanly scans, sharpens, signs, organizes, and recognizes text entirely on-device. Nothing is ever uploaded. FAST, SHARP SCANS - Capture pages with the camera, or import existing photos and PDFs. - Automatic edge detection and perspective correction straighten every page. - Manual crop editor with draggable corners, loupe magnifier, and pinch-to-zoom for pixel-perfect framing. - Enhancement filters clean up lighting and boost contrast for crisp, readable results. - Multi-page documents in one tap - reorder, retake, or delete pages before saving. - ID & card mode scans both sides of a card onto a single page. SEARCHABLE TEXT WITH ON-DEVICE OCR Scanly reads the text in your scans using Apple's on-device Vision engine - in multiple languages - and adds a searchable text layer to every PDF. Find any document later by the words inside it. QR codes in your scans are detected and ready to open or copy. SIGN & ANNOTATE Draw your signature once and place it on any page. Highlight, draw, and mark up scans with built-in annotation tools - everything stays in the PDF. ORGANIZED, PROTECTED, YOURS - Folders and tags keep hundreds of scans tidy; search finds them instantly. - Lock the app with Face ID so only you can open your documents. - Password-protect sensitive PDFs, compress large ones, or split a document into parts. - Print with AirPrint or save straight to the Files app. SMART EXTRAS - Scan a business card and add it to Contacts in one tap. - Turn a stack of receipts into a CSV you can open in Numbers or Excel. - Scanly works with Shortcuts, home-screen widgets, and the share sheet - send images or PDFs from any app straight into your library. NO WATERMARK. EVER. Your exported PDFs are clean and professional, with no stamps or watermarks - even on the free tier. Share to Mail, Messages, Files, or any app. 100% PRIVATE - BY DESIGN Everything runs locally. There is no account, no sign-in, no analytics, and no tracking. Scanly contains zero networking code - your documents and their contents stay on your device, always. HONEST, ONE-TIME PRICING Scanly is free to use and genuinely useful on its own. The free tier lets you keep up to 5 saved documents. Want unlimited documents and the full toolkit? Unlock Scanly Pro with a single one-time purchase - yours forever. No weekly subscriptions, no recurring charges. So many "scanner" apps charge every single week for the same on-device work. We think that's wrong. Pay once, scan forever. DESIGNED FOR EVERYONE - Full Dark Mode and Dynamic Type support - VoiceOver labels throughout - Reduce Motion support and gentle haptics - Works without a camera via Photos and Files import Scan it. Sign it. Search it. Keep it private. That's Scanly.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: ScanWave Pro at none against Scanly's 1. Scanly's advantage is update cadence (daily vs every 2 weeks). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Scanly sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. ScanWave Pro asks for nothing beyond the download.
ScanWave Pro ships an update every 2 weeks, Scanly daily. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ScanWave Pro | Scanly |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Daily β better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No β better | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad β better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 β better | 17.0 |
| Further details β not scored | ||
| Size | 41 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Bhupesh Gurung | Sahil Jain |
In-app purchases
ScanWave Pro
No in-app purchases
Scanly
- Scanly Pro$2.99









