# PDF Cabinet vs PDF Book Reader

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: PDF Cabinet at none against PDF Book Reader's 2. PDF Cabinet also leads on ads (none vs shown). PDF Book Reader's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs every 5 weeks). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume there is nothing between them.

Both are free to download. PDF Book Reader sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. PDF Cabinet asks for nothing beyond the download.

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 3.8 for PDF Cabinet against 3.9 for PDF Book Reader. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 56 and 31 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 66% of PDF Cabinet's written reviews are positive against 61% of PDF Book Reader's.

PDF Cabinet ships an update every 5 weeks, PDF Book Reader every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on July 5, 2026 and September 13, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | PDF Cabinet | PDF Book Reader |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | [3.8 (56 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pdf-cabinet/id764366087/reviews) | **[3.9 (31 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pdf-book-reader/id1576631236/reviews)** |
| Number of ratings | **56** | 31 |
| Positive reviews | **66.1% of reviews** | 61.1% of reviews |
| In-app purchases | **No** | Yes |
| Ads | **No** | Yes |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | **Every 5 days** |
| Monetization | **Free** | Free with in-app purchases |
| Size | 75 MB | 46 MB |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 | 13.0 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Bright Nine SIA](https://appshunter.io/developer/1891636727) | [B TO J PTY LTD](https://appshunter.io/developer/569308231) |

## 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 Book Reader

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pdf-book-reader/id1576631236)

Easily read, manage, and annotate PDF books and documents. This app offers a smooth reading experience, powerful annotation tools, and seamless cloud integration. Organize, search, and share your PDFs with ease.

**Highlights:** Natural PDF reading and navigation, PDF bookmarking and annotation, Text search and OCR extraction, PDF merging and page rearrangement, Cloud storage integration (Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud), File import and export via cloud and Files app, PDF sharing and printing

**Features:** macOS Compatibility, Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases (2)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 Month Subscription | $3.99 | per month |
| 1 Year Subscription | $28.99 | per year |


## Frequently asked questions

### Is PDF Cabinet free?

PDF Cabinet is free to download, with no in-app purchases.

### Is PDF Book Reader free?

PDF Book Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.

### Which has better reviews, PDF Cabinet or PDF Book Reader?

PDF Book Reader is rated higher. PDF Cabinet averages 3.8 out of 5 from 56 ratings, while PDF Book Reader averages 3.9 from 31 ratings.

### Do PDF Cabinet or PDF Book Reader have ads?

PDF Book Reader shows ads; PDF Cabinet does not.

### Which is updated more often, PDF Cabinet or PDF Book Reader?

PDF Cabinet ships an update every 5 weeks, and PDF Book Reader every 5 days. Most recently, PDF Cabinet was updated on July 5, 2026 and PDF Book Reader on September 13, 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.*