Comparison

PDF Cabinet vs PDF Reader

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

Head to head
About

PDF Cabinet

This application offers a streamlined PDF experience for reading and annotating documents. It focuses on essential features with an intuitive interface, making it easy to mark up PDFs, share annotations, and collaborate in real-time with others. Optimized for performance, it handles large documents efficiently.

Highlights
  • Effortless PDF annotation
  • Intuitive user interface
  • Fast document review with thumbnails
  • Annotations sharing
  • Real-time collaboration
  • Quick note taking
Features
Read full description

THINGS WE ARE PROUD OF - Really effortless PDF annotation - Only the most essential functionality - don't lose yourself in hundreds of buttons - Intuitive user interface that allows you to do exactly what you want - Fast and easy document skimming and review with thumbnails sidebar - Ultimate performance – optimized for really large documents (within reason, of course) - Annotations sharing - send annotated documents to anyone, and mark up will show up in any other reader - Interaction with other Cabinet users - send annotations only to your friends or colleagues using Cabinet – much faster, less traffic - Real-time collaboration with your friends or colleagues – annotate the same document together from several iPads EVEN MORE GREAT THINGS IN CABINET - Amazing and intuitive dynamic annotation menu - Empty notebooks for quick note taking or doodling - Pen and Paper Games for relaxing during non-working hours - Sending multiple documents attached in a single e-mail - Easy work with various document formats - such as .doc, .xls, .ppt and others Did we tell you already that Cabinet is really easy to use? Try it out yourself!

About

PDF Reader

This app offers a superior PDF reading experience with its innovative Liquid Mode, which optimizes documents for mobile screens. It also provides robust tools for annotating, signing, managing, and sharing your PDF files, catering to both work and study needs.

Highlights
  • Liquid Mode for optimized mobile reading
  • Annotation tools (pencil, text, highlighting)
  • Handwritten signature insertion
  • File management (move, merge, copy, delete)
  • Cloud service integration (Wondershare, iCloud)
  • Create blank PDFs and folders
Features
Read full description

PDFelement - PDF Reader is a PDF reader using the latest technology. The newly connected Liquid Mode function allows you to enjoy the best reading experience. In addition, there are various annotation tools, file management, signature, Various functions such as cloud services can meet your PDF needs in work and study. PDF VIEWER • Liquid Mode gives you the best PDF reading experience • Star files to find them quickly • Easily locate recently accessed files in the "Recent" list. • Enter the page number to navigate to the desired page for viewing LIQUID MODE • Get the best PDF Reading experience with Liquid Mode • PDF document fully fits the mobile phone screen, no need to zoom in and out repeatedly. • Easily adjust brightness, font size,style, and spacing. ANNOTATE • Using Pencil to annotate like writing on the paper • Add text annotations, freely modify the text and background, border colors, choose the appropriate font and font size. • Supports many annotating tools like highlighting, underlining, squiggly lines, or strikethroughs. MANAGE • Move, merge, copy or delete files SIGNATURE • Enables handwritten signatures to be inserted anywhere within the document, while also offering the ability to zoom in and out for greater flexibility. • Built-in commonly used stamps CREATE • Quickly create completely blank PDF documents • Creat blank folders. SHARE • Sharing document content with others is just a click away with capture feature. • Select sentence(s) or pragraph(s) to share CLOUD SERVICE • PDF Reader supports uploading or downloading docs via computer, Wondershare document cloud and iCloud. Please note that this app only supports editing native PDF files. It does not support editing scanned or raster PDF. If you find you cannot edit text in PDF, please check if it is scanned PDF. Thank you! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Need HELP? Please contact us! We'll feedback to you ASAP. Email: pdfelement@wondershare.com Support Center: http://support.wondershare.com Forum: http://forum.pdf.wondershare.com Official Website: https://pdf.wondershare.com If you think this App helps you, your positive review in the App Store would be much appreciated.

Screenshots

PDF Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: PDF Reader at 4.3 against PDF Cabinet's 3.8. PDF Reader also leads on ratings volume (3.9K vs 56) and review sentiment (77% vs 66%). PDF Cabinet's advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.0). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

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

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

PDF Reader holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PDF Reader has 3.9K ratings behind it against 56, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 66% of PDF Cabinet's written reviews are positive against 77% of PDF Reader's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PDF Cabinet ships an update every 5 weeks, PDF Reader every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on July 5, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
PDF Cabinet versus PDF Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPDF CabinetPDF Reader
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.8 (56 ratings)4.3 (3.9K ratings) — better
Positive reviews66.1% of reviews76.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings563.9K — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeks — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size75 MB173 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBright Nine SIAWondershare Technology (Hunan) Co.,Ltd.

Customer experience

PDF Cabinet

All ratings55 ratings
Positive67.3%
Neutral10.9%
Negative21.8%
Written reviews127 reviews
Positive66.1%
Neutral14.2%
Negative19.7%

PDF Reader

All ratings3,923 ratings
Positive83.1%
Neutral3.2%
Negative13.7%
Written reviews1,582 reviews
Positive76.7%
Neutral6.1%
Negative17.2%

User reviews

PDF Cabinet

From 56 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Smooth performance
  • 👍 Intuitive and user-friendly interface
  • 💡 Excellent annotation tools
  • 🚀 Fast and responsive
  • 👍 Simple and clean design

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes and stability issues
  • 💡 Limited highlighter and pen customization
  • 💡 Lack of iCloud/cloud sync support
  • 🐛 Text disappearing issue
  • 🐛 Slow document loading and navigation

PDF Reader

From 3.9K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🚀 Efficient PDF editing
  • 💡 Useful annotation tools
  • 🚀 Convenient for students/professionals
  • 👍 Great value for free app

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and glitches
  • 🔒 Privacy concerns with account requirement
  • 👎 Unintuitive user interface
  • 🐛 Unreliable saving/syncing
  • 👎 Limited functionality compared to paid version

Bugs and requests

PDF Cabinet

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Randomly deleting files
  • Sync issues causing loss of annotations
  • Crashing when opening large documents
  • Navigation problems when zoomed in
  • Annotations not exporting properly

Requested features

7 requests
  • Add more highlighter and pen color options
  • Implement palm rejection for Apple Pencil
  • Add ability to resize and move annotation tools
  • Improve cloud/sync functionality (iCloud, Dropbox, etc.)
  • Implement vertical scrolling for continuous reading
Show 2 more
  • Add text box annotation feature
  • Improve export/sharing options for annotated documents

PDF Reader

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Text boxes appearing randomly
  • Inability to select/edit text in some PDFs
  • Scrolling issues and page loading delays
  • Incompatibility with certain PDF formats

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to edit text formatting (font, size, color)
  • Support for multiple open documents
  • Improved Apple Pencil integration
  • Bookmark/favorite feature for frequently used PDFs
  • Expanded cloud storage integration (OneDrive, Google Drive, etc.)

In-app purchases

None

PDF Cabinet

No in-app purchases

None

PDF Reader

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is PDF Cabinet free?
PDF Cabinet is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is PDF Reader free?
PDF Reader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, PDF Cabinet or PDF Reader?
PDF Reader is rated higher. PDF Cabinet averages 3.8 out of 5 from 56 ratings, while PDF Reader averages 4.3 from 3.9K ratings.
Do PDF Cabinet or PDF Reader have ads?
Neither PDF Cabinet nor PDF Reader shows ads.
Which is updated more often, PDF Cabinet or PDF Reader?
PDF Cabinet ships an update every 5 weeks, and PDF Reader every 2 months. Most recently, PDF Cabinet was updated on July 5, 2026 and PDF Reader on September 23, 2026.

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