ScanOnce vs Folio Writer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ScanOnce
This app scans documents directly on your device without using the cloud or requiring an account. It offers automatic edge detection, page straightening, and text recognition for easy searching. Export scans as PDFs or JPEGs, and secure your documents with Face ID.
- Automatic edge detection and page straightening
- On-device text recognition for search
- Export as PDF or JPEG
- Multi-page document capture
- Document organization with folders
- Face ID security
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Scan a page, sign it and send a clean PDF. Your documents stay on your device, never on a server. No account. No ads. Point the camera and ScanOnce does the rest. Available in English, Spanish, French, German, Arabic, Russian, Hindi, Ukrainian, Korean, Portuguese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Japanese and Indonesian. WHAT IT DOES Sharp, automatic captures Point the camera at a page. Edges are detected, the page is straightened, and multi-page documents are captured in one go. Search inside every scan Text is recognized directly on your device, so you can search for a word you remember and land on the right page. Read, titled and filed for you ScanOnce reads each document on the device, gives it a clear title and files it with others of the same kind. Export the way you need Share as PDF, export pages as JPEG, or send straight to a printer. Tidy it up Switch between colour, greyscale, black and white and photo filters. Reorder pages, rename documents and keep them in folders. Business cards to Contacts Scan a card and save the details straight to Contacts. Locked if you want it locked Turn on Face ID and your documents stay sealed behind it. PRO The free library holds 3 documents. Pro adds: Sign and fill Draw your signature with your finger, place it on any page and write in dates and details by hand. It all goes into the PDF. Unlimited documents Keep every scan, however many there are. Receipts to a spreadsheet Turn your receipts and invoices into a CSV spreadsheet for expenses. Clean exports Free exports from 4.2 carry a small “Scanned with ScanOnce” line at the foot of each page. Pro removes it. If you had ScanOnce before 4.2, your exports stay clean and nothing changes for you. PRIVACY, PLAINLY Your documents, their text and your PDFs never leave this device unless you share them yourself. There is no account, no advertising and no tracking. ScanOnce goes online for two things only: purchases, which Apple handles, and, on installs from 4.2, sending anonymous usage counts such as “a scan was saved”. Those counts carry no identifier and nothing from your pages. If you delete the app, your documents go with it. PLANS AND TERMS Pro comes as an auto-renewing monthly or yearly subscription, each with a 7-day free trial, or as a one-time payment. Payment is charged to your Apple Account. A subscription renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel it anytime in your Apple Account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://legal.unreel.ae/privacy/scanonce.html
Folio Writer
This writing studio allows you to work on long-form projects like books and manuscripts on your iPhone and iPad. It supports plain text formats like Markdown and Typst, syncing seamlessly with its Mac counterpart. Features include a special keyboard bar, project organization, and citation management.
- Plain-text writing (Markdown, Typst)
- iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Files integration
- Special Markdown key bar
- Typewriter scrolling and sentence focus
- Binder for project organization
- Snapshots for version control
- Project-wide search
- BibTeX citation support
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Folio Writer is a plain-text writing studio for long-form work — scholarly manuscripts, books, and novels. This is its iPhone and iPad edition: the same projects, the same files, in your pocket. Open a project from iCloud Drive, Dropbox, any Files location, or your Folio Cloud account, and pick up exactly where you left off on the Mac. Everything you write is a plain Markdown or Typst file you own — no lock-in. WRITE ANYWHERE — FREE A Markdown key bar puts #, *, links, code, and $math$ one tap away. Typewriter scrolling and sentence focus for drafting on the go. Live word count and writing targets for each document, the whole draft, and each session. Hardware-keyboard shortcuts on iPad. YOUR WHOLE PROJECT — FREE The full binder: browse, open, rename, reorder by dragging, indent and outdent, and create new documents. Project-wide search with filters — label:, status:, type:, tag: — and saved searches as Collections. Version history: every save is kept and restorable, so nothing you write is quietly lost. Comments, and the Review Inbox for suggestions from co-authors. CITATIONS & PREVIEW — FREE Insert citations from the project's BibTeX files by author, year, or key. Preview the rendered document — headings, tables, images, and LaTeX math — right on the device. SYNC WITH THE MAC AND FOLIO CLOUD — FREE Opens the exact same .folio projects as Folio Writer for Mac, byte-for-byte. Conflict-safe syncing: edits from two devices merge when they don't overlap, and a losing copy is always preserved. Sign in to Folio Cloud and every project your account owns is listed; create projects in the cloud, share by link, co-edit live, and protect encrypted projects with a recovery passphrase. FOLIO PRO — ONE PURCHASE FOR MAC, iPHONE, AND iPAD Pro adds the finishing tools: Preview Manuscript — the whole draft assembled in binder order with its title page. Suggesting — propose edits as tracked changes, then Accept or Reject each one from the review bar, and mark a document as reviewed. Snapshots — named copies to compare side by side and roll back, change by change. Insert Template, with starter snippets for figures, tables, equations, and more. Compile to PDF, Word, or Typst through Folio Cloud, right from the device. Pay once, unlock both platforms. Folio Pro is the same one-time purchase as in Folio Writer for Mac: buy it here and Pro unlocks on your Mac; buy it on the Mac and it unlocks here. It follows your Apple ID — tap Restore Purchases if it hasn't appeared. Every Pro feature is free to try for 7 days. Prefer to pay by the month or year? Pro ($1.99 a month) and Premium ($3.99) are also available as subscriptions, which unlock the tier here and on the Mac for as long as they run and come with complimentary Folio Cloud storage (1 GB or 3 GB), so your projects sync to every device and open in any browser. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No analytics, no trackers. Your manuscripts never leave your own devices except through the cloud service you choose, and Folio Cloud projects are end-to-end encrypted. In-App Purchases (display names) Folio Pro — one-time, universal purchase shared with Folio Writer for Mac Folio Pro Subscription — monthly / yearly (Pro here and on the Mac + 1 GB Folio Cloud storage) Folio Premium Subscription — monthly / yearly (Premium here and on the Mac + 3 GB Folio Cloud storage) Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://foliowriter.app/privacy/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: Folio Writer at free against ScanOnce's free with in-app purchases. Folio Writer also leads on ratings volume (3 vs 1). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence 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. ScanOnce sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Folio Writer sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for ScanOnce against 5.0 for Folio Writer. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 3 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
ScanOnce ships an update every 5 days, Folio Writer every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ScanOnce | Folio Writer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 3 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Andrii Zakharov | Bin Chen |
Customer experience
ScanOnce
Folio Writer
In-app purchases
ScanOnce
- ScanOnce Pro Monthly14 Days trial$3.991 Month
- ScanOnce Pro Yearly14 Days trial$19.991 Year
- ScanOnce Pro$49.99
Folio Writer
- Cloud Pro Monthly1 Month trial$1.991 Month
- Premium Monthly$3.991 Month
- Pro Yearly$19.991 Year
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- Premium Yearly$39.991 Year
- Pro Lifetime$19.99
- Pro to Premium Upgrade$19.99
- Premium Lifetime$39.99
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Unlock Pro Features$39.99









