Comparison

Folio vs Folio

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

Head to head
About

Folio

Features
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Every PDF tool you need โ€” and not one byte of your document ever leaves your device. Online PDF tools are convenient until you read the fine print. Your contract, your payslip, your client's financial statement โ€” uploaded to a server you don't control, retained for purposes you didn't agree to, mined for data you didn't consent to share. Folio makes that trade-off unnecessary. Folio is a full-featured PDF toolkit that runs entirely on your iPhone and iPad. No network connection. No account. No cloud sync. No analytics. Your files go in, your files come out โ€” nothing in between. WHAT YOU CAN DO Organise โ€” Merge multiple PDFs into one document โ€” Split a PDF into separate files by page range โ€” Reorder, rotate, or delete individual pages Reduce & Prepare โ€” Compress PDFs to shrink file size without rebuilding content โ€” Add watermarks or page numbers โ€” Flatten form fields and annotations into a fixed document Convert (best-effort, on-device) โ€” PDF to images: export pages as JPG or PNG โ€” Images to PDF: combine photos into a single document โ€” PDF to Word, Excel, or PowerPoint โ€” conversion is handled entirely on-device using Apple's document frameworks; complex layouts may not reproduce with pixel-perfect fidelity, but no file is ever sent to a remote service to achieve it Protect โ€” Password-protect a PDF with your chosen password โ€” Remove password protection from a document you own Fill & Sign โ€” Fill text fields in PDFs โ€” Add your signature to any document Extract & Search โ€” OCR: turn a scanned or photographed document into searchable, selectable text using Apple's on-device Vision framework โ€” Extract all text from a PDF for copying or reference ZERO NETWORK DESIGN Folio ships with no networking capability. It cannot phone home. It cannot upload a file even if it wanted to. Every operation โ€” compression, conversion, OCR, signing โ€” runs on your device's own processor using Apple's built-in frameworks. This is not a marketing claim; it is a technical constraint we built in by design. This matters most when you are handling documents that should never leave your hands: NDAs, medical records, legal filings, HR documents, financial statements, tax returns. NO ACCOUNT REQUIRED Open the app. Use every feature. Close the app. No sign-up screen. No email address. No subscription prompt. No paywall on any v1.0 feature. BUILT FOR PEOPLE WHO HANDLE SENSITIVE DOCUMENTS Folio is built for lawyers, accountants, HR professionals, and anyone else who regularly works with documents that are nobody else's business โ€” and for anyone who is simply tired of feeding their files to free websites that profit from what they read. Your documents are yours. Folio keeps them that way.

About

Folio

Features
Read full description

Folio brings your calendar and your meeting notes together in one app. Open Folio and you see your day: your meetings, synced from your calendar, each one ready for notes. Tap a meeting, start writing. No folders to organise, no hunting for that thing you wrote three Tuesdays ago โ€” every note lives with the meeting it came from. TYPE OR DRAW โ€ข Type your notes, or draw and handwrite them โ€” beautifully at home with Apple Pencil on iPad โ€ข Choose paper styles that suit the way you take notes โ€ข Organise notes into notebooks when you want structure LET AI DO THE BORING PART Powered by Apple Intelligence, entirely on your device: โ€ข Summaries โ€” the TL;DR of any meeting in seconds โ€ข Meeting minutes โ€” decisions and actions, properly formatted โ€ข Follow-up emails โ€” a ready-to-send recap drafted from your notes โ€ข Action items โ€” captured automatically the moment you stop writing YOUR NOTES FOLLOW YOU โ€ข iCloud sync keeps iPhone and iPad in step โ€” through your own private iCloud, never our servers โ€ข Export action items to Apple Reminders โ€ข Search everything, instantly PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your notes never leave your devices. AI runs on-device with Apple Intelligence โ€” nothing is sent to the cloud for processing, and we collect no data at all. ONE PRICE, NO SUBSCRIPTION Try everything free for 14 days, then a single one-time purchase of $5.99 unlocks Folio forever. No subscription, ever. AI features require Apple Intelligence (iPhone 15 Pro or later, or iPad with M1 or later). Note-taking works on any supported device.

Screenshots

Folio3 screens
Folio4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Folio at none against Folio's 1. Folio also leads on iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.2). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Folio sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Folio asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
Folio versus Folio: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFolioFolio
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyโ€”Daily
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo โ€” betterYes
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.0 โ€” better26.2
Further details โ€” not scored
Size1 MB4 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperVuyo NkadimengARUBAI ARAIN

In-app purchases

None

Folio

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Folio

One-time1
  • Folio Full Access$5.99

Questions

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

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