PDF Expert vs PDF Scan
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PDF Expert
This app allows you to edit, annotate, fill out forms, and convert PDF documents. It offers AI-powered summarization and analysis, along with tools to merge, sign, and protect your files. Work seamlessly across Apple devices with a user-friendly interface.
- Edit PDF text and images
- Annotate and highlight PDFs
- Fill out PDF forms
- Convert files to and from PDF
- AI-powered summarization and analysis
- Merge and combine PDF files
- Sign documents with e-signatures
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PDF Expert is a fast and easy PDF app to read, annotate, fill and sign PDF forms, convert files to PDF, and merge, split or compress documents – all in one intuitive app for iPhone, iPad, Mac & Vision Pro. Read PDF files with comfort, highlight and mark up text, fill out forms, sign contracts, create and convert PDFs, and summarize long documents in seconds with AI-powered tools. Unlock unlimited possibilities with PDF Expert Premium and work across all your Apple devices. "PDF Expert is one of my must-have iPad apps and a desktop-class PDF reader." – MacStories "The best app for managing, editing, and reading PDFs on your iPad." – The Sweet Setup ▶ WITH PDF EXPERT, YOU CAN: READ PDFs - PDF reader with Day, Night, and Sepia modes for comfortable reading anytime - Scroll PDFs vertically or horizontally and search text in any document - Open and view PDF files from email, web, Files, or any app via the Share menu - Read PDFs out loud with Text to Speech ANNOTATE AND MARK UP PDFs - Highlight, underline, and strike through text in your PDFs - Mark up documents with pen, shapes, text, notes, and comments - Add stamps such as Approved or Confidential - Record your voice and add audio notes to PDFs FILL AND SIGN PDF FORMS - Fill out PDF forms with text fields, checkboxes, and radio buttons - Sign PDF documents in seconds – draw your signature or add it from an image - Save your signature to sign contracts, agreements, invoices, and applications faster - Fill, sign, and send forms right from your iPhone – no printing or scanning needed - Supports all major form formats, including AcroForms and static XFA forms ***PREMIUM FEATURES*** EDIT PDFs - Edit text directly in a PDF – just as you would in a Word document - Add, replace, and resize images in your PDFs - Add links to other pages or websites - Add outlines to navigate large PDFs CREATE AND CONVERT PDFs - Create PDFs from Word files, images, and other documents - Convert Word to PDF, JPG to PDF, and PNG to PDF in seconds - Convert PDF to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, JPG, PNG, and TXT MERGE, SPLIT AND ORGANIZE PDFs - Merge and combine multiple PDF files into one - Split PDFs and extract pages into a new file - Add, delete, rotate, and reorder pages with thumbnail preview COMPRESS PDFs - Compress PDFs to reduce file size for email and sharing - Shrink large PDF files to save space on your device SUMMARIZE PDFs WITH AI – PDF COPILOT - List Main Points – get key takeaways from any PDF - Summarize – get concise summaries of entire PDFs or annotations - Ask Anything – find details with AI answers and references - Explain – get instant explanations of words or phrases PROTECT YOUR FILES - Password-protect PDF Expert - Redact – permanently black out sensitive information WORK WITH SCANNED DOCUMENTS - Open scanned PDFs to fill out, sign, annotate, and share CONSTRUCTION TOOLS - Scale and measure drawings with the Measure tab - Polygon, polyline, and redline tools MORE FEATURES - Customizable toolbar - Presentation Mode - Print and share PDFs via email or cloud ONE ACCOUNT FOR ALL YOUR APPLE DEVICES One Premium subscription covers PDF Expert on iPhone, iPad, and Mac – no need to buy versions separately. Read more about our terms and conditions here: https://pdfexpert.com/privacy https://pdfexpert.com/terms Don’t hesitate to reach out to us at http://readdle.com/contact
PDF Scan
Transform your phone into a powerful document scanner. Easily scan paper documents, receipts, and IDs, converting them into searchable PDFs. Extract text from images using OCR and manage your files with cloud sync and various PDF tools.
- Document scanning with edge detection
- OCR for text extraction from images
- Image to PDF conversion
- Cloud sync with Google Drive
- PDF editing and signing
- PDF compression, merging, and splitting
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Max Scanner is OCR & PDF scanning app that turns your phone into Document Scanner. Scan paper documents, receipts, IDs, and photos, convert images to PDF, and extract text from images using OCR. Create searchable PDFs in seconds and manage them easily. • PDF Scanner – scan documents with automatic edge detection • OCR (Image to Text) – extract and edit text from images • Image to PDF Converter – create single or multi-page PDFs • Cloud Sync – back up and sync documents with Google Drive • PDF Tools – compress, merge, split, reorder, and protect PDFs • Edit & Sign PDFs – annotate, highlight, and add digital signatures Download Max Scanner – scan documents, use OCR, create PDFs, and sync to the cloud. Subscription Plans Monthly Plan – $5.99 • Unlimited scans & OCR • Ad-free access Yearly Plan – $60.99 • Unlimited scans & OCR • Ad-free access Subscription Info Payment is charged to your iTunes account at purchase. Subscriptions auto-renew unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage or cancel subscriptions anytime in your Account Settings. Any unused free trial will be forfeited upon purchase. Privacy Policy: https://appzys.com/ios/smartscanner/privacypolicy Terms of Service: https://appzys.com/ios/smartscanner/termsofuse
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: PDF Expert at none against PDF Scan's shown. PDF Expert also leads on ratings volume (216K vs 44) and rating (4.7 vs 4.5). PDF Scan's advantage is review sentiment (75% vs 46%). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases and monetization model 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 Expert sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and PDF Scan sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
PDF Expert holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PDF Expert has 216K ratings behind it against 44, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 46% of PDF Expert's written reviews are positive against 75% of PDF Scan's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
PDF Expert ships an update fortnightly, PDF Scan every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 28, 2026 and September 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PDF Expert | PDF Scan |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (216K ratings) — better | 4.5 (44 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 45.8% of reviews | 75.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 216K — better | 44 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #73 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 15.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 307 MB | 116 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Readdle Technologies Limited | Govarthani Rajesh |
Customer experience
PDF Expert
PDF Scan
Bugs and requests
PDF Expert
Reported bugs
4 issues- Corrupted PDFs after editing
- Sync issues with cloud storage providers
- Unexpected loss of annotations and edits
- Unreliable performance on older iPad models
Requested features
5 requests- Improved palm rejection for Apple Pencil
- Customizable toolbar and annotation presets
- Better integration with other productivity apps
- More flexible file management and organization
- Ability to create fillable PDF forms
PDF Scan
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
PDF Expert
- PDF Expert Premium Trial7 Days trial$9.991 Month
- PDF Expert Premium No Trial$9.991 Month
- PDF Expert for Education7 Days trial$39.991 Year
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- PDF Expert Premium7 Days trial3 variants$49.991 Year
- PDF Expert Premium New7 Days trial$49.991 Year
- PDF Expert Premium Existing7 Days trial$49.991 Year
- PDF Expert – Premium Editing1 Year trial$49.991 Year
- PDF Expert Mac & iOS Pro7 Days trial$79.991 Year
- PDF Expert Mac & iOS7 Days trial$79.991 Year
- PDF Expert Basic$9.99
PDF Scan
- Unlimited Scans Monthly$5.991 Month
- Unlimited Scans Yearly$60.991 Year









