PDF Reader vs PDF Craft
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PDF Reader
Easily scan, read, edit, and manage PDF documents on your iPhone and iPad. Convert images to PDF, extract text with OCR, and sign your documents. Organize files with merging, splitting, and password protection.
- Scan documents with camera
- Convert photos to PDF
- Extract text with OCR
- Edit and annotate PDFs
- Sign documents
- Merge and split PDFs
- Password protection
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PDF Reader is your all-in-one app to read, scan, edit, and manage PDF documents on iPhone and iPad. SCAN & CREATE • Scan paper documents with your camera and save them as crisp PDFs • Convert photos and images into PDF files • Extract text from scans and PDFs with OCR READ & VIEW • Smooth, fast PDF viewer with page thumbnails and search • Open PDFs from Files, email, and other apps EDIT & ANNOTATE • Highlight, draw, and add text to any PDF • Add your signature to sign documents • Rotate, delete, and reorder pages ORGANIZE YOUR TOOLS • Merge multiple PDFs into one • Split a PDF into separate files • Lock and unlock PDFs with a password • Manage files with search and a recycle bin PDF READER PREMIUM Upgrade to Premium to remove ads and unlock the full toolset: • OCR text recognition • Edit & sign without limits • Unlimited access to all PDF tools • An ad-free experience Subscription details: • PDF Reader Premium is a weekly auto-renewable subscription. • Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. • The subscription renews automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. • Manage or cancel anytime in your App Store account settings. • Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ • Privacy Policy: https://goldenboat.io/policy
PDF Craft
This app provides a local-first PDF workspace for creating, merging, organizing, and protecting documents on your iPhone and iPad. It allows you to scan paper, convert photos to PDFs, recognize text, and manage your files securely.
- Scan documents and photos into PDFs
- Convert photos to PDF
- Import and merge PDF files
- On-device text recognition (OCR)
- Organize documents with filters and search
- Password protection and Face ID lock
- Local-first document workflows
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PDF Craft is a local-first PDF workspace for creating, merging, recognizing, organizing, viewing, and protecting documents on iPhone and iPad. Use PDF Craft when you need to capture paper pages, turn photos into PDFs, import existing files, combine documents, recognize text, or keep sensitive PDFs organized in one place. Key features: - Scan paper documents, notes, receipts, and everyday pages into PDFs. - Convert selected photos into a single PDF document. - Import PDF files from Files into your local document library. - Merge multiple PDFs into one new document and keep the selected order clear. - Recognize text from a camera scan or selected image using on-device text recognition. - Review and edit recognized text, copy it, or create a text-based PDF. - Manage documents with recent files, favorites, filters, search, sharing, and deletion. - Open PDFs in a native viewer with page navigation, thumbnails, sharing, page insertion, and protection actions. - Protect sensitive documents with a password workflow and App Privacy Lock with Face ID where available. - Keep core document workflows local to the device; export or share files only when you choose. PDF Craft is designed for daily document work: class notes, receipts, forms, travel documents, contracts, invoices, and personal archives.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: PDF Reader at 50% against PDF Craft's 0%. PDF Reader also leads on rating (4.3 vs 3.7) and ratings volume (93 vs 9). PDF Craft's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1). On price, update cadence, ads 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
Both are free to download. PDF Reader sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $14.99 per 7 days. PDF Craft asks for nothing beyond the download.
PDF Reader holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PDF Reader has 93 ratings behind it against 9, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 50% of PDF Reader's written reviews are positive against 0% of PDF Craft's.
PDF Reader ships an update every 3 weeks, PDF Craft monthly. Both last shipped on October 25, 2026.
| Parameter | PDF Reader | PDF Craft |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (93 ratings) — better | 3.7 (9 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 93 — better | 9 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Monthly |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Ad-supported — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 21 MB | 91 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | +4 |
| Developer | Duc Duong Tran | Fuzhou Zhiyue Interactive Technology Co.,Ltd |
Customer experience
PDF Reader
PDF Craft
In-app purchases
PDF Reader
- Premium Weekly$14.997 Days
PDF Craft
No in-app purchases









