DartPDF vs 42 PDF Editor
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
DartPDF
Edit PDFs directly on your device without uploading. Annotate, fill forms, sign, redact, and rearrange pages. Supports text and image editing, OCR, and password-protected files.
- On-device PDF editing
- Annotate and mark up PDFs
- Fill and sign forms
- Redact sensitive content
- Edit text and images
- Rearrange and export pages
- OCR scanned PDFs
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DartPDF is a PDF editor that runs entirely on your device. Open any PDF to mark it up, fill in forms, sign it, redact content, rearrange pages, or edit the text and images on the page. Changes save back to the original file. Nothing is uploaded. There's no account, no sync, and no ads. Features: • Highlight, underline, strikethrough, and freehand ink • Shapes, arrows, text boxes, notes, and stamps • Edit existing text and add images • Redaction that removes the covered text and images from the file, not just from view • Fill form fields (text, checkboxes, radio buttons, dropdowns), or add your own • Drawn signatures placed anywhere, plus certificate-backed PAdES digital signatures • OCR scanned PDFs so text can be selected and searched • Reorder, delete, and export pages to a new file • Full-text search, text selection, and links • Compare two versions side by side • Open password-protected files Runs on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Opens PDFs from the Files app, share sheets, or drag-and-drop. Light and dark themes.
42 PDF Editor
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42 PDF Editor is a PDF reader and editor for iPhone and iPad. Open a PDF from the Files app, iCloud Drive or any other provider, mark it up, fill it in, sign it, stamp it and rearrange its pages, then save it back to the same file or to a new copy. Everything happens on your device, with Apple's own PDFKit. There is no account and nothing is uploaded. Most of what people need to do to a PDF is small: sign a form, fill in a few fields, fix a typo, take out a page, add the scan of a receipt. 42 PDF Editor puts those jobs on the phone you already have with you, and shows every change on the page as you make it. START WITH A TASK The Home screen lists the jobs: Sign, Fill & Stamp, Scan to Text, Compress, Page Numbers, Split, Edit Text and To Images. Pick one, then the PDF, and the editor opens straight into it. MARK UP Highlight, underline and strike through text. Draw with a pen or highlighter, by finger or Apple Pencil, with smooth strokes, and add shapes, arrows and text boxes. Tap any markup to move or resize it with its corner handles, change its colour, weight or opacity, duplicate or delete it, and undo or redo every change. EDIT TEXT Tap a line and retype it. The font, size and colours are matched to the original, and the page shows the result as you type. Change it or undo it later. FILL, SIGN AND STAMP Type into a PDF's form fields, or drop a check, cross, dot, today's date or saved text (your name, email, address) onto a flat form with one tap. Draw a signature once and keep it on your device, then place and resize it on any page; it stays sharp because it is written as vector ink. Add stamps such as Approved, Paid, Received or Draft, or make your own, with an optional date. Add logos and photos too. SCAN TO TEXT Scanned pages become searchable, selectable and editable with on-device text recognition. The page looks exactly the same; its words can now be found, highlighted, copied and retyped. PAGES Drag to reorder, rotate, duplicate or delete. Select several pages to extract them as a new PDF or export them as images. Split a document into files, add page numbers, and crop pages by hand or automatically to their content. Insert blank pages, pages from another PDF or Word file, scans or photos. SCAN AND CREATE Scan paper with the camera, make a PDF from photos, start a blank PDF, or merge several PDFs into one. PDF AND WORD Turn a Word (.docx) file into a PDF, keeping its styles, lists, tables, links, pictures and page size. Turn a PDF into a Word document with editable text, with scanned pages read by on-device text recognition, or with a picture of each page when the look matters most. WATERMARKS, PASSWORDS AND FILE SIZE Add a text or image watermark with your choice of opacity, angle and position. Open password-protected PDFs, and add, change or remove a password. Make a smaller version of a PDF: pictures are compressed, text and drawings stay sharp. SAVE AND SHARE Save in place, Save a Copy, Save a Flattened Copy with the markup drawn into the pages, Share, Print, or export pages as PNG or JPEG. Open in 42 PDF Editor from the Files app and the share sheet. PRIVATE No account, no ads, no analytics and no servers. Your documents, signatures and saved text never leave your device unless you share them. Good to know: Edit Text and Whiteout cover the original content and place new content on top. The original text is still inside the file, so they are not a way to redact a document.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is device support: DartPDF at 4 against 42 PDF Editor's 2. DartPDF also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
DartPDF ships an update every 3 days, 42 PDF Editor every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | DartPDF | 42 PDF Editor |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 55 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Railway Engineering Solutions Pty Ltd | Mohammed Shehada |
In-app purchases
DartPDF
No in-app purchases
42 PDF Editor
No in-app purchases









