Bookends vs Easy Smart Scanner
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Bookends
Manage your research references and PDFs on your mobile device. Search online databases, import metadata, annotate PDFs, and organize your library. Offers basic functionality for free with optional one-time purchase and yearly subscription for advanced features like cloud sync and unlimited imports.
- Search online reference databases
- Import metadata and PDFs
- PDF annotation and markup
- Barcode scanning for references
- Cloud sync across devices
- Share online libraries
- Create multiple libraries
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Bookends is the reference management app you've been looking for. The basic version offers: • Search online sites directly (arXiv, Google Books, Google Scholar, JSTOR, the Library of Congress, PubMed, PubMed Central, and Semantic Scholar) or use the built-in browser (EZProxy-compliant) to download reference metadata and PDFs (access privileges required). Searches can return a maximum of 20 references, and only 50 references can be stored in your personal database. • Use unique identifiers such as DOI, PMID, ISBN, or arXiv id to autofill references. • View the text of PDF annotations in a note stream, and create your own with our powerful PDF markup engine. • Barcode scanning, one per day. • And many more features designed to help you discover, organize, and use reference information. Standard, one-time purchase ($14.99): • No limit on searches or importing. Premium, yearly subscription ($14.99). Requires a Standard purchase. • Cloud sync with all your iOS devices and Bookends for Mac (separate purchase). • Share online libraries with colleagues. • Scan documents with Mellel Mobile*. • Create multiple libraries. • Unlimited barcode scanning. • Extract PDF annotations with deep links to annotations and text. • Convenient UI to add PDF notes to the library. • Automate your actions with Shortcuts. * iPad-only. Requires a Mellel Mobile Premium subscription. Subscription is for one year and has an auto-renew option. The subscription can be managed in iOS -> Settings > [your name] > Subscriptions. A subscription will renew if it isn't canceled at least 24 hours before the renewal date. If the subscription is not renewed, Premium will be disabled but Standard will continue to work. Terms of Service: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Easy Smart Scanner
Transform your iPhone or iPad into a powerful portable scanner. Digitize documents, photos, and receipts with high-quality, multi-page scanning and easy sharing options. Enhance your scans with custom filters and enjoy all features for free.
- High-quality scanning
- Multi-page document scanning
- Share and export in PDF
- Customizable enhancement filters
- User-friendly interface
- Completely free to use
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Scan documents with your iPhone or iPad — as many pages as you need. Easy Scanner finds the page in front of the camera, captures it as soon as you hold it steady, and straightens it into a clean, readable scan. Put down the next page and it captures again, so a whole stack goes in one page after another. Every scan is kept as a document you can name, reopen and add to whenever you like. Features • No page limit — scan a receipt, a contract, or a whole folder in one go • Automatic capture: the page is taken as soon as it's held still, hands free • Edges found for you, with the perspective straightened out • Adjust the corners by hand whenever a crop needs fixing, while scanning or later • Filters that whiten paper and sharpen text: Enhanced, Grayscale, Black & White, or the untouched photo • Searchable PDFs — text is recognised on your device, so you can search the PDF and copy from it • Copy the text of any page straight from the app • Drag to reorder pages, rotate them, delete them, or change several at once • Export as PDF, sized to your scan or to A4 or US Letter, in three file sizes • Share pages as images or save them to Photos • Import photos you have already taken Everything stays on your device. There is no account to create, nothing to sign in to, and nothing is uploaded.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Easy Smart Scanner at none against Bookends's 2. Easy Smart Scanner also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs every 2 months) and rating (4.9 vs 4.7). Bookends's advantage is ratings volume (398 vs 13). On price, ads and device support 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. Bookends sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $14.99 per year. Easy Smart Scanner asks for nothing beyond the download.
Easy Smart Scanner holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bookends has 398 ratings behind it against 13, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Bookends ships an update every 2 months, Easy Smart Scanner every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 4, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bookends | Easy Smart Scanner |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (398 ratings) | 4.9 (13 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 76.4% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 398 — better | 13 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 114 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Sonny Software, LLC | Christophe Pereira |
Customer experience
Bookends
Easy Smart Scanner
Bugs and requests
Bookends
Reported bugs
3 issues- Incompatibility with iCloud Optimized Storage
- Unreliable sync between desktop and mobile versions
- Occasional data loss or corruption
Requested features
4 requests- Nested folders and tags for better organization
- Automatic PDF metadata extraction
- Improved search and filtering capabilities
- Seamless integration with third-party services
Easy Smart Scanner
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Bookends
- Premium3 Months trial$14.991 Year
- Standard$14.99
Easy Smart Scanner
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Bookends free?
Is Easy Smart Scanner free?
Which has better reviews, Bookends or Easy Smart Scanner?
Do Bookends or Easy Smart Scanner have ads?
Which is updated more often, Bookends or Easy Smart Scanner?
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