# PDF Cabinet vs PDF Reader

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.

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

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.

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.

## The numbers

| Metric | PDF Cabinet | PDF Reader |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | [3.8 (56 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pdf-cabinet/id764366087/reviews) | **[4.3 (3.9K ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pdf-reader-pdfelement/id1150215996/reviews)** |
| Number of ratings | 56 | **3.9K** |
| Positive reviews | 66.1% of reviews | **76.7% of reviews** |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | **Every 5 weeks** | Every 2 months |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Size | 75 MB | 173 MB |
| Requires iOS | **13.0** | 15.0 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Bright Nine SIA](https://appshunter.io/developer/1891636727) | [Wondershare Technology (Hunan) Co.,Ltd.](https://appshunter.io/developer/1721309409) |

## What reviewers say

### PDF Cabinet

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pdf-cabinet/id764366087)

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:** macOS Compatibility

**In-app purchases:** none

**What reviewers like**

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

**What reviewers complain about**

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

**Reported bugs**

- 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**

- 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


### PDF Reader

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pdf-reader-pdfelement/id1150215996)

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:** Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases:** none

**What reviewers like**

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

**What reviewers complain about**

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

**Reported bugs**

- 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**

- 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.)


## Frequently asked 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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*Compared by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/) from daily US App Store data. Review summaries are generated from verbatim App Store reviews.*