Offline PDF Viewer vs FolderShelf
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side ā with what reviewers say about each.
Offline PDF Viewer
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Offline PDF Viewer is an app for reading PDF files transferred to your iPad or iPhone. Its main feature is the ability to browse folders transferred through Finder or iTunes File Sharing while preserving their original folder hierarchy. This app may suit you if: - You have a large collection of scanned PDF files - You want to transfer PDFs to your iPad while keeping the same folder structure as on your Mac or PC - Your PDF collection is too large for cloud synchronization, and you prefer to manage it entirely on your device This app focuses on reading PDFs. It does not include editing, annotation, or some other features commonly found in general-purpose PDF viewers. Please review the following list of supported and unsupported features before using the app. ā Features - Browse folders transferred through Finder or iTunes File Sharing while preserving their folder hierarchy - Adjust page-margin cropping and fine-tune rotation for each PDF - Switch to right-to-left page turning, primarily for Japanese books - View two pages side by side - See your approximate position in the PDF with a subtle ā² indicator ā Not Supported - Cloud synchronization of PDF files - Moving or renaming files within the app - Writing to or editing PDF files - Bookmarks, highlights, annotations, or text selection - Page zooming
FolderShelf
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Folder Image Viewer lets you browse the PDFs and images you keep in folders ā on your device or in the cloud ā exactly as you filed them. WHEN IT HELPS ⢠Technical PDFs and textbooks piling up in a folder, with no appetite for loading them into Books one volume at a time ⢠Photos exported from a camera, still sorted into the folders you made ⢠Scanned documents and drawings, opened per project ⢠Reference images and design assets, grouped by category Photos organises by album, not by folder. Books wants each PDF registered individually. Neither will simply open a folder. This app does: pick one folder, and every PDF and image folder inside it lines up. Nothing is imported. WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT ⢠Nothing is copied Your images are never imported into the app. They are read in place, from wherever they already live. No duplicate storage, and reorganising your folders is reflected immediately. ⢠Your folder structure becomes the gallery Pick one source folder and the app finds every subfolder containing images and every PDF inside it, then lays them out one entry at a time. No adding them one by one. ⢠PDFs open as they are A PDF in your folder becomes a single entry ā one file, one volume. Nothing is converted and nothing is imported into the app. Open it and turn the pages. Because PDFs are read through the same viewer as image folders, zooming, two-up view, and resuming where you left off all work the same way. ⢠Cloud friendly Alongside iCloud Drive, you can reference cloud services connected to the Files app. Only the cover is loaded up front; the rest download when you actually open a folder, so opening the gallery never triggers a flood of downloads. ⢠Fast search Search folder names and file names together. Results come from an in-memory index rather than rescanning storage on every keystroke, so it stays quick as your collection grows. ⢠A viewer that gets out of the way Controls stay hidden until you tap. Pinch to zoom, double-tap to reset, and switch to a two-up view when you want to compare side by side. ⢠Pick up where you left off Your position is remembered per folder and shown in the gallery, so even a folder with hundreds of images opens where you stopped. ⢠Sorting that behaves Order folders by number, name, or date. The order of images inside a folder always follows their file names, so sorting never scrambles their contents. ⢠Three languages English, ę„ę¬čŖ, and ē®ä½äøę, switchable at any time in Settings. SUPPORTED FORMATS Images: JPEG, PNG, WebP Documents: PDF PRICING Everything is free for 7 days after install. To keep using the app after that, a single one-time purchase unlocks it permanently. No subscriptions, ever. PLEASE NOTE ⢠This is a viewer and includes no books or images of its own ā only a few samples for trying it out. Please use your own files. ⢠Password-protected PDFs are not supported. ⢠Because of an iOS limitation, some cloud services (such as OneDrive and Box) cannot be browsed in folder-selection mode. For those, use "Add Files" to select image files directly instead.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Offline PDF Viewer at daily against FolderShelf's every 5 days. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Offline PDF Viewer sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and FolderShelf sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Offline PDF Viewer ships an update daily, FolderShelf every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 28, 2026 and October 26, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Offline PDF Viewer | FolderShelf |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Daily ā better | Every 5 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 17.0 ā better |
| Further details ā not scored | ||
| Size | 10 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | takaaki024 | MASAYOSHI SUGIMOTO |
In-app purchases
Offline PDF Viewer
- Support Developer$2.99
FolderShelf
- Unlock Full Version$2.99
Questions
Is Offline PDF Viewer free?
Is FolderShelf free?
Do Offline PDF Viewer or FolderShelf have ads?
Which is updated more often, Offline PDF Viewer or FolderShelf?
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