Comparison

Folio vs leafyard

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

leafyard

Features
Read full description

leafyard is a private, linked notebook where the notes you choose can become a digital garden. Write in a focused, document-first editor. Organize pages into folders, connect ideas with links and backlinks, and find what you need with search. Your workspace remains available on your device so you can keep writing offline and synchronize when you reconnect. When you are ready to share, publish selected pages as snapshots to a real website. Later edits remain private until you explicitly republish. โ€ข Document-first writing and outlining โ€ข Folders, links, tags, search, and backlinks โ€ข Local-first editing with offline support โ€ข Markdown and PDF export โ€ข Selective digital-garden publishing โ€ข Themes, typography, and garden customization โ€ข Account deletion and data-export controls Your notes are private by default. leafyard does not sell your personal information or send note content to analytics providers.

Screenshots

Folio3 screens
leafyard4 screens

Verdict

The call

Folio and leafyard are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters โ€” price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them โ€” neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Folio versus leafyard: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFolioleafyard
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyโ€”Every 6 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad โ€” betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size1 MB24 MB
Age rating4+9+
DeveloperVuyo NkadimengShivam Shekhar

In-app purchases

None

Folio

No in-app purchases

None

leafyard

No in-app purchases

Questions

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

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