PDF nano vs PinNote
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PDF nano
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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PDF nano is a comprehensive, professional PDF reader, editor, translator, and manager engineered for speed and privacy. Combining powerful on-device tools with Apple Intelligence, PDF nano delivers a unified workflow tailored for iPhone, foldable iPhone Duo, and iPad—handling your contracts, reports, and paperwork with top-tier security. Key Features: 1. Foldable iPhone Duo & iPad Experience: • Seven Postures Adaptation: Automatic layout across foldable and dual-display devices. • Dual-Screen Book Mode: Side-by-side reading with automatic hinge isolation to prevent content clipping. • Tabletop Mode: Bottom screen transforms into a control deck for drawing, signing, and scrubbing without covering the document. • Dynamic iPad Sidebar: Instant browsing of thumbnails, outlines, and bookmarks beside your canvas. • High-Contrast Navigation Pill: Prominent back button for effortless touch accessibility and zero status-bar overlap. 2. AI Document Assistant (Beta): • Instant executive summaries of lengthy reports, extracting decisions and action items. • Precision risk analysis and contractual obligation detection. • Verifiable Q&A with answers grounded in direct textual citations from your document. • Encrypted Cloud Privacy: Powered by Apple Intelligence and Private Cloud Compute (PCC) to process documents securely without logging or storing data. *Note: AI features require Apple Intelligence-compatible devices. 3. Offline Document Translation (Beta): • Full-document PDF translation entirely offline while preserving layouts, fonts, and tables. • Batch approval to accelerate processing for files up to 100 pages. • Granular paragraph review with selective editing for each translated block. *Note: Translation operates fully on-device. Machine translations may contain errors. 4. Advanced Reading & Viewing: • Dual-Page Continuous View: True book-like reading with native RTL Arabic and LTR layout. • Distraction-Free Guard: Locks editing overlays during reading mode to prevent accidental markups. • Fast-Scrub Vertical Scroll: High-velocity thumb scrubber for jumping through hundreds of pages. • Full Interface Adaptation: Precision safe-area integration around the Dynamic Island and status bar. • Smart Double-Tap Zoom: Rapid focus scaling with an intuitive floating navigation capsule. • OCR Visual Search: Direct in-document search across scanned PDFs with fuzzy and multi-word query support. 5. Conversion & Smart Scanning: • High-Fidelity PDF to Word (.docx) conversion preserving tables and formatting. • Accurate Table Extraction to Excel (.xlsx) with automatic data type inference. • Camera Document Scanner to digitize receipts and paperwork into clean PDFs. • High-quality PDF-to-Image and multi-image-to-PDF conversion pipelines. 6. Editing, Signing & Organization: • Digital signatures: Create, position, and cryptographically sign contracts and forms. • Complete markup suite: Freehand drawing, highlighters, custom text boxes, and annotations. • Page management: Reorder, rotate, extract, or delete pages with fluid drag-and-drop. • Merge & Split: Combine multiple PDFs into one or split large documents into individual files. • Smart PDF Compression: Reduce file size for rapid sharing via email and messaging apps. 7. Industry-Leading Privacy & Security: • 100% On-Device Processing: Reading, editing, translation, OCR, and conversion run locally without uploading files to external servers. • Cryptographic Apple Privacy: AI Assistant requests are strictly restricted to Apple Private Cloud Compute (PCC). • Visual face and sensitive data blurring with hidden metadata sanitization. • Password encryption, native AirPrint support, and Home Screen widgets. Free tier includes daily tool quotas. Unlock unlimited access via in-app purchase. Standard Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/sla/
PinNote
This app places your essential notes directly on your iPhone's Lock Screen, Home Screen, and StandBy. Access important information like passwords, to-dos, or reminders at a glance without unlocking your device. Customize your notes with adjustable font sizes and backgrounds, and utilize privacy mode to blur sensitive content.
- Lock Screen, Home Screen, and StandBy widgets
- Adjustable font size and background colors
- Privacy mode for sensitive information
- iCloud sync across devices
- Pinning and sorting of important notes
- Paper-inspired design
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PinNote — pin what matters most to your screen. Some things you just need to see at a glance: door codes and gate passwords, Wi-Fi name and password, parking spot number, to-dos and shopping lists, a daily dose of motivation. Standby Note is built for exactly these glance-and-go moments. It puts your notes directly on your iPhone's Lock Screen, Home Screen, and StandBy — no unlocking, no opening apps, just look. Key features: Lock Screen, Home Screen, and StandBy widgets Supports Lock Screen rectangular, Lock Screen inline, Home Screen widgets, and StandBy widgets — keeping your notes always in view. Minimal editor, huge type Notes are shown in extra-large bold type, with adjustable font size (16–56pt) and paper, white, yellow, blue, or black backgrounds. Privacy mode Enable it and your Lock Screen widget blurs automatically — sensitive info stays hidden from prying eyes. iCloud sync Notes sync automatically across iPhone and iPad via iCloud. Pin & sort Pin important notes so they always stay on top. Paper-inspired design Warm cream paper, ink-black type, and an amber accent — clean, high-contrast, and unobtrusive, like a real sticky note on your screen. Who is it for? Anyone who forgets door or Wi-Fi codes; anyone who needs to jot down parking spots fast; anyone who wants a daily reminder always in sight; anyone who loves minimal, glanceable tools. Standby Note — keep what matters, always in view. We welcome your feedback and suggestions. We will add or optimize features based on your requests. Support Email: sunjun20141@qq.com Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://docs.qq.com/doc/p/1467c8fe80745c7beac61d87faf270f4ce650a31
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: PDF nano at 5.0 against PinNote's 4.6. PinNote's advantage is ratings volume (5 vs 1). 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. PDF nano sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and PinNote sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
PDF nano holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PinNote has 5 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
PDF nano ships an update every 3 days, PinNote every 2 days. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.
| Parameter | PDF nano | PinNote |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | 4.6 (5 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 94.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 5 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 25 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Thamer Mohammed | 军 孙 |
Customer experience
PDF nano
PinNote
In-app purchases
PDF nano
- PDFnano Pro Lifetime$19.99
PinNote
- PinNote Premium$3.99








