Comparison

PDFWise vs Leaf

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

Head to head
About

PDFWise

This app offers a comprehensive suite of PDF tools that operate entirely on your device, ensuring complete privacy. It allows you to read, scan, edit, sign, and organize your documents without uploading them to any cloud service. Generate professional PDFs from templates and perform batch operations for efficiency.

Highlights
  • 100% on-device processing
  • Built-in scanner with OCR
  • PDF editing and annotation tools
  • Handwritten signature support
  • Professional PDF template generation
  • Batch processing for files
  • On-device full-text search
Features
Read full description

PDFWise – PDF Reader & Tools The privacy-first PDF app for people who never wanted to upload their documents in the first place. PDFWise is a fast, complete PDF reader, scanner, editor and signer built for iPhone and iPad. Every feature runs 100% on your device. No accounts, no cloud, no analytics on your documents — your PDFs never leave your iPhone. 100% PRIVATE BY DESIGN OCR, search indexing, compression, encryption — all happen locally on your device. PDFWise has zero servers and zero network calls for any document operation. No tracking, no profiling, no ads. SCAN ANY DOCUMENT Use the built-in scanner to capture pages with auto edge detection and perspective correction. Pages are OCR'd on device so you can search inside scanned documents instantly. Works for contracts, receipts, notes, books and handwritten pages. POWERFUL READER & ANNOTATIONS Smooth PDF viewer with thumbnails, outline (TOC) sidebar, night mode tint and continuous scroll. Add sticky notes, drawings, highlights, shapes and rubber stamps. Search inside the file with a Safari-style find bar. SIGN ANY PDF Save handwritten signatures in a library and apply them to any PDF with full control over position, size, ink color and which pages. Signatures bake permanently into the page so the result holds up in any reader. 14 PROFESSIONAL TEMPLATES Generate Invoice, Receipt, Quotation, Meeting Minutes, Agenda, Letterhead, Sign-In Sheet, Resume, Cover Letter, To-Do List, Travel Itinerary, Certificate, Class Schedule and Flyer in seconds — fill a form, get a polished PDF. ALL THE TOOLS YOU NEED Merge, split, compress, watermark, encrypt with password, add page numbers, convert TXT/Markdown/HTML to PDF, import from URL, combine photos into PDF — every common PDF task in one place. BATCH PROCESSING Compress, watermark or encrypt many PDFs at once with one tap. Perfect for accountants, lawyers, students and freelancers handling stacks of files. POWERFUL ON-DEVICE SEARCH Find any word across your entire library — including scanned documents — in milliseconds. FTS5 full-text search with boolean operators and exact-phrase queries. iOS Spotlight integration so you can search from the home screen. FACE ID / TOUCH ID PASSWORDS Opt in to remember PDF passwords with Face ID or Touch ID. Stored in the iOS keychain under biometric access control — only your face or fingerprint unlocks. SHORTCUTS & SIRI 10 Siri shortcuts: "Hey Siri, scan a document", "Compress a PDF", "Merge PDFs" and more. Automate your PDF workflow without opening the app. 14 LANGUAGES Fully translated to English, Vietnamese, Spanish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, Russian, Arabic, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese. WHY CHOOSE PDFWISE? - 100% on-device — your PDFs never leave your iPhone - No accounts, no cloud, no tracking, no ads - Fast, native, battery-friendly - Free of subscription paywalls - Built for iPhone and iPad with iOS native design - 14 languages, RTL support for Arabic Download PDFWise today and take back control of your documents. We read every review. If something feels off or you want a feature, tell us — we ship updates fast.

About

Leaf

Features
Read full description

Leaf is a document scanner and a PDF editor in one app. Scan, edit and send documents right on your phone — no subscription and no ads. EDIT A DOCUMENT LIKE PAPER • Fix a date, an amount or a name on a scan — the new letters are taken from the document itself, so the edit looks native • Move a line somewhere else or erase it • Add a stamp and a signature at their real size. Take a photo of a stamp or sign with your finger — the background is removed automatically • Add text, a date, a check mark, a cross, a highlighter, an arrow or a box • Pinch to zoom the page — small text is edited precisely PDF WITHOUT QUALITY LOSS • Open PDFs you receive: text stays text and remains searchable, the file does not turn into a picture • Fill in forms — fields, check boxes and lists • Send with the values filled in, or keep the fields fillable for the recipient • Password-protect the file, forbid printing and copying A FILE OF THE RIGHT SIZE Choose where you are sending it — a government portal, email, a bank, a visa application — or set your own limit. The app picks the quality by itself and shows the final size before saving. If the file does not fit, it tells you how to make it lighter. LIKE A REAL SCANNER • Automatic page edge detection and batch scanning • Two-sided documents: scan the fronts, flip the stack, scan the backs — the pages are put in order automatically • Hand shadows, yellowed paper and uneven light are removed • Colour, grey and black-and-white looks — you see the difference on your own document REAL REDACTION What you cover is destroyed, not hidden under a black box: in the file you send there is neither image nor text left under the redaction. The app finds card, passport and phone numbers by itself and offers to cover them with a single tap. ORDER IN YOUR DOCUMENTS • Search the text of all documents, PDFs included • Sort by date, name or page count; list, grid or compact view • Folders, merging and splitting documents, page order • The title is picked up from the page heading • Import from Photos and Files, share and print YOUR DOCUMENTS STAY WITH YOU Documents are stored only on your phone: no sign-up and no cloud. Text recognition runs right on the device. Face ID lock. Free, with no ads and no limit on the number of documents. 11 languages, light and dark themes.

Screenshots

PDFWise4 screens
Leaf4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: PDFWise at 17.6 against Leaf's 26.0. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Scorecard1 real difference · 8 level
PDFWise versus Leaf: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPDFWiseLeaf
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (7 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings7 — better—
Update frequency—Every 3 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS17.6 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTHI HUE MAIIvan Kotlyar

In-app purchases

None

PDFWise

No in-app purchases

None

Leaf

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is PDFWise free?
PDFWise is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Leaf free?
Leaf is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do PDFWise or Leaf have ads?
Neither PDFWise nor Leaf shows ads.

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