PDF Expert vs ScanLens
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PDF Expert
Edit, annotate, convert, and sign PDF documents with this comprehensive tool. Features include AI-powered summarization, file merging, compression, and secure password protection. Available across Apple devices for seamless workflow.
- Read, annotate, and mark up PDFs
- Fill and sign PDF forms
- Edit text and images in PDFs
- Convert files to and from PDF
- Merge, split, and compress documents
- AI-powered summarization and Q&A
- Password protection and redaction
Read full descriptionHide full description
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
ScanLens
This app functions as a mobile document scanner and PDF editor. It allows users to scan physical documents, convert images into PDFs, add digital signatures and stamps, and perform various PDF editing tasks. Features include OCR for text extraction, file compression, and secure password protection.
- Document scanning with edge detection
- Convert photos to PDF
- Digital signatures and custom stamps
- PDF annotation and editing tools
- Text recognition (OCR)
- PDF compression and password protection
- QR code scanning
Read full descriptionHide full description
ScanLens is a document scanner and PDF editor for iPhone and iPad. Scan documents, convert photos to PDF, add signatures and compress files before sharing. • Document scanner. Scan contracts, receipts, invoices, passports, driver's licenses and business cards. ScanLens automatically detects page edges and corrects perspective. • Photos to PDF. Import photos and combine them into one PDF, or add pages to an existing document. • Sign PDFs. Draw your signature on the screen with your finger, save it and reuse it in other documents. Import an existing signature from a photo or scan it from paper. • Custom stamps. Import a personal or company stamp from a photo, or scan it from paper. Save it and reuse it in other documents. • Annotate PDFs. Highlight text, draw freehand and add arrows, lines, circles or rectangles. Choose colors and line widths. • PDF tools. Merge and split PDFs, reorder pages and add text. • Compress PDFs. Reduce file size by adjusting export quality before sharing. • Text recognition (OCR). Extract text from scans, then copy or edit it. Create searchable PDFs. • Clean up scans. Use Magic Eraser to remove small stains and shadows, or a finger or paper clip at the edge of a page. • QR scanner. Scan QR codes in a dedicated camera mode. Export documents as PDF, JPG, PNG or TXT. Password-protect PDFs and back up documents to iCloud. Scanning and importing documents are free and unlimited. The free version gives you access to the first three pages of each document and adds ScanLens branding to exported files. Premium includes signatures and stamps, PDF merging and splitting, advanced editing, Magic Eraser, searchable PDFs and exports without ScanLens branding. It also includes backups to Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive, smart folders and scan workflows. Privacy Policy: https://scanlens.io/privacy Terms of Use: https://scanlens.io/terms EULA: https://scanlens.io/eula
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ratings volume: PDF Expert at 217K against ScanLens's 2. PDF Expert also leads on chart position (#81 vs unranked). ScanLens's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.7). 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 Expert sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and ScanLens sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
ScanLens holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PDF Expert has 217K ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.
PDF Expert ships an update fortnightly, ScanLens every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PDF Expert | ScanLens |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (217K ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 45.2% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 217K — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Freemium |
| Best chart rank | #81 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 328 MB | 103 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Readdle Technologies Limited | BitForge Pte. Ltd. |
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
ScanLens
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
Show 5 moreShow fewer
- PDF Expert Premium7 Days trial2 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 & iOS7 Days trial$79.991 Year
- PDF Expert Basic$9.99
ScanLens
- Premium Weekly$4.997 Days
- Premium Monthly7 Days trial$9.991 Month
- Premium Yearly14 Days trial$29.991 Year
- Premium Lifetime$59.99









