Privascan vs ZipScan
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Privascan
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Scan unlimited pages with free on-device OCR — no account, no watermark, no ads, no cloud upload. Privascan processes your scans on your iPhone. Your documents are never uploaded to us. Upgrade once for advanced PDF tools, export presets, and folders. No subscription. FREE • Unlimited multi-page scanning — no page caps • PDF and JPEG export with no watermark • Automatic edge detection and precise manual crop • Warnings for blur, low light, and glare before you save • Color, black-and-white, and sharpen filters • On-device OCR and searchable PDFs with selectable text • Full-text search across your whole library • Smart file names created from the text on the page • Import photos and turn them into multi-page PDFs PRIVASCAN PRO — ONE-TIME PURCHASE • Merge and reorder PDFs • Extract or split pages • Compress PDFs • Export presets: resolution, quality, file naming, password protection • Folders with smart filing suggestions PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No account or sign-up • No Privascan cloud, no hidden sync • No ads and no third-party tracking • Scanning and OCR happen on your iPhone • Works fully offline — scan in airplane mode For receipts, contracts, IDs, forms, notes, and everyday paperwork. One purchase unlocks Pro. No subscription.
ZipScan
Instantly scan documents into searchable PDFs with automatic cleanup and smart naming. Import from photos, reorder pages, and export in various formats. Your data stays private on your device.
- Instant camera opening
- Import from Photos
- Copy recognized text
- On-device OCR
- Smart document naming
- Small file sizes
- Multi-page scanning
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The 3-second scanner. Open ZipScan and the camera is already pointing at your document. It captures automatically, cleans up the page, and hands you a searchable PDF ready to share — before other apps finish loading. WHY ZIPSCAN • Instant by design — the app opens straight into the camera, so scanning starts before you've tapped anything. • Import from Photos — a photo of a page becomes a searchable PDF, same pipeline as the camera. Share to ZipScan straight from the Photos share sheet. • Your text is yours — Copy Text hands you the recognized words; export as PDF or JPEG; reorder, remove, or add pages anytime. • Sign and mark up — the system Markup tools, with your saved signatures, right on the PDF. • Searchable PDFs, always — on-device OCR embeds real text in every scan, so you can search inside your documents in Files, Mail, or any PDF reader. • Smart names — scans name themselves after what's on the page ("Hashi Market – Aug 13"), not "Scan_0142.pdf". • Small files — a full page is usually a few hundred KB, not several MB. Email-friendly, always. • Multi-page in one pass — keep pointing at pages; they stack into one PDF. PRIVATE BY ARCHITECTURE Everything happens on your iPhone. No account. No cloud. No tracking. Your documents never leave your device unless YOU share them. Scan in airplane mode if you like — it all works. HONEST PRICING 10 free scans every month — full quality, full OCR, no watermark, forever. Need more? One purchase unlocks unlimited scans for life. Prefer monthly? There's a small monthly plan, cancel anytime. No forced trials, no bait-and-switch, no features held hostage. BUILT INTO iOS • Lock Screen widget — scan without unlocking • Control Center button — swap your flashlight for a scanner • Action Button support (iPhone 15 Pro and later) • Siri & Shortcuts — "Scan a document with ZipScan" • Back Tap — double-tap your phone to scan WHAT ZIPSCAN DOESN'T DO No ads. No accounts. No cloud lock-in. No AI chatbots. No 47 features you'll never use. One thing, done fast: paper in, searchable PDF out. Questions? support@swiftlynx.co — a real person answers. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://swiftlynx.co/zipscan/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: ZipScan at every 2 weeks against Privascan's monthly. 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
Both are free to download. Privascan sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and ZipScan sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Privascan ships an update monthly, ZipScan every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.
| Parameter | Privascan | ZipScan |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 2 — better |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | — | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Yoan Gabison | XU ZHENG |
In-app purchases
Privascan
- Privascan Pro$9.99
ZipScan
- ZipScan Pro — Monthly$1.991 Month
- ZipScan Pro — Lifetime$9.99









