PDFWise vs VARAK PDF Editor & Scanner
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
Read full descriptionHide 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.
VARAK PDF Editor & Scanner
Read full descriptionHide full description
Edit PDFs. Simply. Click any line in a PDF and type. VARAK keeps the document's own font, size and colour, so your change looks as if it was always there. No account needed — and your files never leave your device. EDIT TEXT THAT LOOKS RIGHT • Retype any line in the document's original font • Paragraphs reflow as you type • Change font, size, colour, spacing and alignment • The fonts already on your device come first, plus hundreds of open-licence fonts • After you edit an invoice, VARAK checks that the totals still add up FILL AND SIGN • Fill in any form — even one that was never made fillable • Draw or type your signature and place it with a tap • Fill forms in one step from the details you saved SCAN AND OCR • Turn scanned pages into real text you can search, copy and edit • Make Editable rebuilds a scan in its own typeface ORGANIZE PAGES • Merge, split, reorder, rotate, insert and extract pages • Add page numbers ANNOTATE • Highlight, underline, comment, draw, add shapes and stamps PROTECT AND SHARE • Password protection with AES-256 encryption • Find personal data and redact it permanently • Compress large files without turning text into images • Compare two versions of a document UNDERSTAND A DOCUMENT • Explain This Document shows deadlines, amounts and what is asked of you • Ask This Document answers questions from the text itself PRIVATE BY DESIGN Everything runs on your device. Nothing is uploaded, and there is no account to create. VARAK never adds watermarks. IN YOUR LANGUAGE English, Deutsch, Français, Español, Italiano, Português (Brasil), Русский, 日本語, 简体中文, 한국어 and Türkçe. VARAK PDF PRO — SUBSCRIPTION Editing text is free. A VARAK PDF Pro subscription unlocks the professional tools on iPhone, iPad and Mac signed in to the same Apple Account. • Monthly: US$1.99 per month • Yearly: US$14.99 per year (about US$1.25 a month), with a 3-day free trial for eligible new subscribers Prices shown are for the United States. Your local price is shown in the app before you buy and may vary by country or region. Already bought VARAK PDF Pro as a one-time purchase? It stays yours — tap Restore Purchases in the app. SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS • Payment is charged to your Apple Account when you confirm the purchase. With the Yearly free trial, the first payment is charged when the 3-day trial ends, unless you cancel before then. • Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the end of the current period. • Manage or cancel at any time in your Apple Account settings. Cancelling stops the next renewal; Pro remains available until the end of the period you paid for. • Any unused portion of a free trial is forfeited when you purchase a subscription. Privacy Policy: https://varak.app/privacy.html Terms of Use: https://varak.app/terms.html Questions? https://varak.app/support.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: PDFWise at none against VARAK PDF Editor & Scanner's 3. VARAK PDF Editor & Scanner's advantage is device support (3 vs 1). On price, ads 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
Both are free to download. VARAK PDF Editor & Scanner sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. PDFWise asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | PDFWise | VARAK PDF Editor & Scanner |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (7 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 7 — better | — |
| Update frequency | — | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 156 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | THI HUE MAI | Erdal Beyoglu |
In-app purchases
PDFWise
No in-app purchases
VARAK PDF Editor & Scanner
- VARAK PDF Pro — Monthly3 Days trial$1.991 Month
- VARAK PDF Pro — Yearly3 Days trial$14.991 Year
- VARAK PRO Lifetime$39.99
Questions
Is PDFWise free?
Is VARAK PDF Editor & Scanner free?
Do PDFWise or VARAK PDF Editor & Scanner have ads?
Other comparisons















