Comparison

FolikPDF vs PDF On

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

FolikPDF

Features
Read full description

Folik is a private, capable PDF workspace for iPhone and iPad. It is completely free: no ads, no subscription, no account, and no in-app purchases. READ AND FIND • Open PDFs from Files or other apps • Search with contextual results and next/previous navigation • Use continuous, single-page, or two-page layouts • Browse thumbnails, outlines, and bookmarks SCAN ON DEVICE • Capture multi-page documents with automatic edge detection • Recognize text locally so new scans are searchable • Keep scans inside Folik unless you choose to share them FILL AND SIGN • Complete standard PDF text, checkbox, radio, and choice fields • Track required fields and jump to the next unfinished field • Create handwritten or typed signatures and initials ANNOTATE AND ORGANIZE • Highlight, underline, strike through, draw, add notes, shapes, text, and stamps • Move, resize, recolor, undo, and redo annotations • Reorder, rotate, duplicate, delete, extract, or combine pages in a new copy EXPORT YOUR WAY • Share the original • Create an editable copy • Export a flattened copy for consistent appearance PRIVATE BY DESIGN Folik processes documents, scans, text recognition, and edits on your device. It has no backend, analytics SDK, or advertising SDK. Compatibility note: Folik supports standard AcroForm fields exposed by iOS. XFA-only forms, certificate-backed digital signatures, JavaScript calculations, and vendor-specific PDF behavior may not be supported. EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Folik is open source under the MIT License. https://github.com/x3n-network/FolikPDF

About

PDF On

Features
Read full description

PDF On turns paper into clean PDFs and lets you finish them right away: fill in, sign, highlight, share. Everything happens on your iPhone. No account, no upload, no tracking. SCAN AND CREATE • Scan documents with automatic edge detection • Take a photo and crop it: the edges are found and straightened for you • Build PDFs from photos, files and other PDFs • Convert Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, text and HTML files to PDF • Choose page size, layout (1, 2 or 4 per page) and quality • Optional date and time stamps • Make PDFs searchable with on-device text recognition • Protect PDFs with a password FILL IN AND SIGN • Tap a form field and type: the text lands inside the box, on the line • Return jumps to the next field • Checkmarks snap into checkboxes, dates follow the format of the form • Your name, address and phone number appear as suggestions above the keyboard • Sign by drawing, or photograph your signature on paper • Place a passport photo on an application form: the photo frame is found automatically • Typefaces, sizes, bold and colors for every language MARK UP • Highlighter, pen with thickness and opacity, lines, arrows, rectangles and circles • Undo and redo READING MODE • Full screen with trimmed margins, so the text is larger • Highlight with one swipe, in four colors of your choice • Name your colors, for example "Important" or "Question", and add notes • A list of all highlights with page jump; share them as text • The app remembers where you stopped reading ID CARD AND PASSPORT COPY • Front and back on one sheet in true original size • Optional enlargement, grayscale, cut lines and a watermark such as "Copy for landlord" PAGES • Reorder, rotate, crop, straighten and delete pages • Merge PDFs, insert scans, photos or other PDFs • Export the text as a Word document (.docx), copy text, search in the document PRIVATE BY DESIGN • Works fully offline • No account, no ads, no tracking, no data collection • Optional app lock with Face ID • Share extension: send photos and PDFs from other apps to PDF On LANGUAGES English, Spanish, German, French, Arabic, Persian, Urdu and more than 40 other languages, with full right-to-left layout.

Screenshots

FolikPDF4 screens
PDF On4 screens

Verdict

The call

FolikPDF and PDF On are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
FolikPDF versus PDF On: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFolikPDFPDF On
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 2 days—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.617.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size9 MB11 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJOSEPH AARON SPEARSAbbas Hoseiny

In-app purchases

None

FolikPDF

No in-app purchases

None

PDF On

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is FolikPDF free?
FolikPDF is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is PDF On free?
PDF On is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do FolikPDF or PDF On have ads?
Neither FolikPDF nor PDF On shows ads.

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