Comparison

Sternzy vs PDF Scanner AI

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

Head to head
About

Sternzy

Features
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DocScan turns your iPhone into a fast, private document scanner โ€” and a whole lot more. Scan paper, import PDFs and photos, or capture a recipe or article straight from the web, then organize everything into tidy folders you can search, annotate, and share. Everything happens on your device. No account, no ads, no tracking. SCAN & IMPORT โ€ข Scan crisp, auto-cropped pages with the camera โ€” as many as you like per document. โ€ข Import from your Photos, your Files (images, PDFs, even Word documents), or a web link. โ€ข Everything lands in one review screen, so you can mix scans and imports into a single document. CAPTURE FROM THE WEB โ€ข Paste any link and DocScan captures the page in a clean, ad-free "reader" view โ€” split into tidy 8.5ร—11 pages with the source link right on top. โ€ข Save recipes and posts from Instagram and Facebook โ€” the photo and the full caption come through. โ€ข Turn on "Also grab linked pages" to follow a page's links one level deep, with a live progress bar (and a Stop button) and an index of every link at the end. โ€ข Every web capture keeps a clickable Source link, so you can always jump back to the original. REVIEW BEFORE YOU SAVE โ€ข Tap any page to view it full-screen โ€” pinch to zoom right where your fingers are, swipe between pages, and delete a bad scan on the spot. โ€ข Reorder pages by dragging. โ€ข DocScan even suggests a document name from the biggest heading on the page. ORGANIZE & FIND โ€ข File documents into nested, color-coded folders. Rename, move, recolor, or delete anytime. โ€ข Pinch to switch between a clean list and a grid โ€” from compact rows up to one big page per tile. โ€ข Full-text search reads the text inside your scans (on-device OCR), so you can find a document by name or by words written inside it. โ€ข Add private notes to a whole document or a single page โ€” kept in your backups, never printed or exported. EDIT & ANNOTATE โ€ข Rotate, crop, and apply filters to any page. โ€ข Mark up pages with drawing, text, lines, arrows, shapes, and highlights. EXPORT & SHARE โ€ข Export as PDF (with a searchable text layer), a password-protected PDF, a Word document with recognized text, or images. โ€ข Print natively, or share anywhere with the standard share sheet. PRIVATE & SECURE โ€ข Everything stays on your device โ€” nothing is uploaded to us. Data Not Collected. โ€ข Lock DocScan behind Face ID or your passcode. โ€ข Back up to a portable file or your own iCloud, and restore on a new device. Turn on Auto Back Up to save whenever you leave the app. FREE, WITH NO ADS DocScan is completely free โ€” no ads, no subscriptions. If it saves you time, an optional tip helps keep it that way, but it never unlocks anything; the whole app is yours. Scan a document โ€” or paste a link โ€” in seconds. โ€” โ€” Questions or feedback? We'd love to hear from you.

About

PDF Scanner AI

Features
Read full description

PDF Scanner AI is a document scanner app for your iPhone. Scan documents to PDF, clean up blurry or shadowy photos, fill and sign forms, and translate them. Made for receipts, tax forms, leases, school forms, and notes. SCAN TO PDF โ€ข Document scanner: point your camera at a page. The edges are found and the page is straightened for you. Scan many pages into one PDF. โ€ข Image to PDF (JPG to PDF): turn photos from your photo library into one PDF. Pages are straightened, and you can drag the 4 corners. โ€ข ID card scanner (front and back on one page), book scanner, and QR and barcode scanner. FILTERS AND PAGE FIXES (NEW) When you scan to PDF, give each page a look from 9 filters, like Auto, B&W, Gray, and Perfect, which evens out shadows and makes the paper white. Adjust brightness and contrast, and retake, crop, or rotate a page before you save. The Eraser wipes stains and marks off scanned pages. BLURRY PHOTO IN, CLEAN PDF OUT Layout PDF reads your page with AI and rebuilds it: โ€ข Remove Background: the text is retyped in the same layout on a clean white page. โ€ข Sharpen Text: your real page (paper, colors, signatures, handwriting) with blurry print made sharp. โ€ข Keep Background: your original photo with searchable text. Works best on printed pages. AI TEMPLATES (NEW) Snap a handwritten estimate, notes, or a resume, and AI types it up: Estimate / Invoice, Resume, Typed Notes, Meeting Notes, Recipe Card, or Clean Document. It even flags totals that don't add up. Save it as a PDF (most templates also save as Word). FILL AND SIGN WITHOUT A PRINTER Add text and your signature (drawn with your finger) to any PDF. Fill in a school form or sign a lease, then send it right away. FIX A TYPO WITHOUT RESCANNING Scan with Layout PDF, tap Edit text, and change a line. The page is rebuilt in place. IMAGE TO TEXT (OCR) Text Recognition reads the words in your photo in 24 languages. Copy them, search them, or save them as a TXT file, and get a searchable PDF too. Needs an internet connection. TRANSLATE PDFS AND SCANS Translate a scan, a PDF with text, or a Word or TXT file into any of 24 languages, like Spanish, Chinese, and Vietnamese. Save the translation as TXT or Word. PDF TO WORD Turn a scan into an editable Word file (.docx). Tables, headings, bold text, and alignment carry over. BILL REMINDERS (NEW) Scan a bill to track it and get reminded before the due date. See what's due this month, mark bills as paid, and get weekly and monthly summaries. OPEN THE PDFS YOU ALREADY HAVE Open a PDF from Mail, Files, Google Drive, or your browser, search for any word (even in photos of printed pages), and use every tool on it. Save any document to the Files app in one tap. PDF TOOLS AND SHARING See your pages two to a row and drag them into order, add pages to any document, or delete one. Compress a PDF to email it, merge PDFs, split out the pages you need, and lock a PDF with a password. Share as PDF, Word, TXT, images, or a ZIP file. Compress, merge, and split run on your iPhone, so those files are not uploaded. FREE AND PREMIUM Free: 3 scans a week, up to 5 pages each (a short ad adds 3 more pages). After that, a short ad unlocks each extra scan. AI templates read 1 page. You get 1 free try of Translate or AI bill reading. Adding bills by hand is always free, and your scans have no watermark. Premium: unlimited scans up to 20 pages each, no ads, the Perfect filter, Translate, AI templates up to 20 pages, and AI bill reading (up to 30 bills a day). Premium is a subscription (weekly, monthly, or yearly). Cancel anytime in your Apple Account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Sternzy4 screens
PDF Scanner AI4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Sternzy at none against PDF Scanner AI's shown. Sternzy also leads on update cadence (weekly vs fortnightly). On price, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement 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. Sternzy sells 4 one-off in-app purchases and PDF Scanner AI sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Sternzy ships an update weekly, PDF Scanner AI fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
Sternzy versus PDF Scanner AI: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSternzyPDF Scanner AI
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyWeekly โ€” betterFortnightly
AdsNo โ€” betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.617.0 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size3 MB17 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDavid SternPSSD Limited

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Sternzy

One-time4
  • $0.99 Coffee Tip$0.99
  • $1.99 Coffee Tip$1.99
  • $4.99 Coffee Tip$4.99
Show 1 more
  • $9.99 Coffee Tip$9.99
3 purchases

PDF Scanner AI

Subscriptions3
  • Weekly Premium$2.997 Days
  • Monthly Premium$9.991 Month
  • Annual Premium$79.991 Year

Questions

Is Sternzy free?
Sternzy is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PDF Scanner AI free?
PDF Scanner AI is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Sternzy or PDF Scanner AI have ads?
PDF Scanner AI shows ads; Sternzy does not.
Which is updated more often, Sternzy or PDF Scanner AI?
Sternzy ships an update weekly, and PDF Scanner AI fortnightly. Most recently, Sternzy was updated on October 1, 2026 and PDF Scanner AI on October 14, 2026.

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