PDFnano vs Maskable
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PDFnano
Edit, translate, and manage PDF documents with a focus on on-device privacy. This app offers tools for scanning, converting, annotating, and organizing your files locally.
- Read, organize, and manage PDFs
- Offline PDF translation with layout preservation
- Scan documents and create PDFs
- Convert PDFs to Word, Excel, or images
- OCR for Arabic and English text
- Add signatures and annotations
- Remove hidden metadata for privacy
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PDFnano is a comprehensive, privacy first PDF workstation engineered for iOS. It combines the power of fully offline document processing with the advanced analytical intelligence of Apple Private Cloud Compute PCC. Whether managing contracts, financial reports, academic research, or scanned archives, PDFnano delivers reliable productivity in one unified workspace. Core Capabilities: 1. Document AI Assistant (Beta): • Executive summaries for lengthy reports and dense documentation. • Instant extraction of decisions, next steps, and action items. • Detection and structured review of contractual obligations and legal risks. • Custom interactive inquiries grounded in verifiable verbatim citations. • Private and encrypted processing: Utilizes Apple Intelligence and Apple Private Cloud Compute PCC for complex reasoning, ensuring your document content is never stored, never logged, and inaccessible even to Apple. *Note: AI Assistant features require devices supporting Apple Intelligence and are currently in Beta. 2. Offline Document Translation (Beta): • Translate entire PDF files locally while strictly preserving fonts, layout, tables, and graphic elements. • One tap batch approval for documents up to 100 pages. • Granular paragraph level editing and translation review. *Note: Translation operates locally on device and is currently in Beta. Machine translation may contain errors. 3. High Performance Reading and Navigation: • Vertical fast page scrubber for instantaneous navigation across hundreds of pages with live page bubble indicator. • Seamless alignment with the Dynamic Island, status bar, and notch areas. • Instant viewport settling returning immediately to your exact reading location. • Double tap smart zoom and floating capsule for effortless navigation while zoomed in. • Visual OCR search on scanned documents and images with multi word phrase matching and typo tolerance. 4. Conversion and Document Scanning: • High fidelity PDF to Word docx conversion maintaining structure and typography. • Extract tables into Excel xlsx spreadsheets with automated data type recognition. • Integrated document scanner with perspective correction and edge detection. • Convert images to PDF and export PDF pages as high resolution images. 5. Editing, Signing, and Organization: • Create, place, and verify digital signatures on agreements and official forms. • Markup toolkit: pen, highlighter, sticky notes, and text annotations. • Reorder, rotate, delete, and extract individual pages. • Merge multiple PDF documents or split pages into independent files. • Smart file size compression for seamless sharing. 6. Uncompromising Privacy Architecture: • True local processing: Core reading, editing, translation, OCR, and file conversions execute entirely on device without an internet connection. • Cryptographically secure cloud intelligence: Any internet connectivity required by the AI assistant connects exclusively to Apple Private Cloud Compute PCC with cryptographic privacy guarantees. • Face blurring and visual redaction to shield confidential areas. • Metadata sanitization to strip author, GPS, and creation timestamps. • Document password encryption, AirPrint support, and interactive home screen widgets. Certain tools include daily usage limits in the free version. Unlimited access and pro features can be unlocked through an in app purchase. Standard Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/sla/
Maskable
This app automatically detects and hides sensitive information like phone numbers, emails, and faces in your photos and screenshots. It offers various masking options and annotation tools, all processed locally on your device for maximum privacy. Edits are non-destructive and reversible.
- Automatic sensitive data detection
- Face and QR code detection
- Multiple masking styles (blur, pixelate, cover)
- Annotation tools (text, shapes, drawings)
- Non-destructive editing with undo/redo
- Metadata removal
- On-device processing
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Maskable helps you find and hide private information before sharing photos and screenshots. Detection and editing happen entirely on your iPhone or iPad. Images are never uploaded or sent to a server. FIND SENSITIVE INFORMATION Detect phone numbers, Chinese national ID numbers, bank card numbers, emails, addresses, tracking numbers, IP addresses, URLs, secret keys, access tokens, amounts, and names. Checksums and valid area codes help reduce false positives. Common look-alikes, such as order numbers and timestamps, are filtered out. Each result shows its confidence and recognized text for review. Maskable also detects faces, chat avatars, QR codes, barcodes, license plates, and status bars. Chat layout analysis helps identify conversation titles and participant names. On supported devices, Apple Intelligence adds context-aware detection using an on-device language model. CHOOSE HOW TO HIDE IT Use solid covers, background-matched covers, blur, pixelation, frosted glass, noise, checkerboard, or text labels. Highly sensitive items use solid covers by default. Blur and pixelation may be partially reversible; styles with recovery risks are clearly identified. Review items individually or hide a whole category with one tap. The Privacy Report updates as you work, showing what still needs attention. ANNOTATE AND PERSONALIZE Add arrows, lines, shapes, freehand drawings, text, numbered steps, magnifiers, highlighters, spotlights, and mosaic effects. Crop images and add your own visible watermark. The User Guide combines animated demos with short instructions and introduces all six annotation tool categories. EDIT WITHOUT LOSING THE ORIGINAL Edits are stored as reversible operations. Undo and redo changes, save a new copy, or update the current photo using non-destructive system editing. Updated photos can be reverted in Photos. CHECK AGAIN BEFORE SHARING Maskable scans the final rendered image before saving or sharing. If it finds remaining risks, it asks you to review them before continuing. Saving removes location, capture time, device details, and other metadata by default. Sharing always removes this information. Export as PNG, JPEG, or HEIC. PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No image uploads or cloud processing. • The app goes online only for StoreKit purchases and anonymous crash diagnostics: a short session record at launch and a crash report after a crash. Neither includes images, recognized text, or personal content. • Crash reporting can be turned off at any time in Settings. • No accounts, ads, third-party analytics, or tracking. • Scans only images you open, never your library in the background. • Supports access to selected photos only. MADE FOR EVERYDAY USE Pinch to zoom the home-screen photo grid. Send feedback through an installed email app, including Gmail. Supports iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 or later, Dark Mode, Dynamic Type, VoiceOver, Reduce Motion, Reduce Transparency, and Increase Contrast. Available in English, Vietnamese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese (Taiwan), Japanese, German, French, Dutch, Swedish, and Turkish. Customize automatic redaction, tap-to-redact behavior, metadata removal, saving preferences, crash reports, and interface language in Settings. MASKABLE PRO Start with free manual covers and basic editing. Free exports include a small Maskable app badge. Pro lets you save without the app badge and unlocks automatic redaction, batch processing, category-based redaction, background-matched covers, advanced redaction styles, and advanced annotation tools. See the app for available plans and pricing. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Take a closer look before you share—with privacy tools that keep your images on your device and you in control.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: PDFnano at 5.0 against Maskable's 4.0. Maskable's advantage is ratings volume (6 vs 1) and iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.6). 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. PDFnano sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Maskable sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
PDFnano holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Maskable has 6 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
PDFnano ships an update every 2 days, Maskable daily. The most recent releases landed on October 11, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PDFnano | Maskable |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | 4.0 (6 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 66.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 6 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days | Daily — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 20 MB | 17 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Thamer Mohammed | 培茂 程 |
Customer experience
PDFnano
Maskable
In-app purchases
PDFnano
- PDFnano Pro Lifetime$1.99
Maskable
- maskable Pro Monthly$2.991 Month
- maskable Pro Yearly$6.991 Year
- maskable Pro Lifetime$1.99









