PDF Cabinet vs BigPaper
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Effortless PDF annotation
- Intuitive user interface
- Fast document review with thumbnails
- Annotations sharing
- Real-time collaboration
- Quick note taking
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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!
BigPaper
This app offers an infinite canvas for note-taking, PDF annotation, and mind mapping. Import various document formats and add text, handwriting, tables, and more. Efficiently organize and edit content without page limitations.
- Infinite canvas for freeform note-taking
- Import and annotate PDFs and other documents
- Mind mapping with element connections
- Handwriting and drawing tools with Smart Shapes
- Table creation and linking
- Multi-format document import and export
- Screenshot mode for quick content capture
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BigPaper is a borderless note taking application. You can import and expand PDFs and other formats in BigPaper and freely take notes in an infinite canvas without being limited by the edges of the document. You can use BigPaper on both iPhone and iPad for efficient editing with iCloud data sync. Whether it's annotating PDFs, making handbooks, or creating mind maps, BigPaper is ready to go. BigPaper's features include multi-format document import, text input, handwriting, mind mapping, tables, scanned documents, free edge screenshots, containers, folder management, search for handwriting and text, etc. We welcome every rating, and we will read every piece of feedback and take notes to incorporate it in future updates. Your 5-star review will encourage us to continue to upgrade BigPaper and introduce new features. —— Introduction of functions —— 「Infinite canvas, freeform add elements」 Canvas can be zoomed and moved for editing. Add documents in multiple formats such as PDF, as well as multiple types of elements such as tables, text, drawings, handwriting, pictures, stickers, paper, scanned documents, and more. These elements can be scaled and rotated. 「Mind Mapping - Easily connect ideas」 Innovative mind mapping mode. Connect elements on the page (text, pictures, tables, etc.) to quickly generate mind maps from inspiration. Also support the step-by-step enlargement of the idea by expanding the mind map. 「Type anywhere」 Customize the font, size and color of the text. To-do list, bullets can be added to the text. 「Brush Tool - Handwritten and Drawings」 Customize brush presets including color, transparency, tip size. Full-screen drawing, freely annotated documents that are not limited by the edges of the document. Smart Shapes: Hold a stylus or fingertip after drawing a graphic on the screen, intelligently recognize and generate the perfect shape. 「Create Table」 Easy create forms. Add row, add column, move row, move column. Tables can be linked to mind maps. 「Import and Export」 Imported document formats: PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Pages, Keynote, Numbers, etc. Expand all pages of the document to easily read and highlight all the content. Select text in the document to copy. Export PDF, export image, and BigPaper format. WYSIWYG, everything can be displayed in the exported document. 「Reading Mode」 Customize the "scrolling direction" to realize the classic reading mode. 「Screenshot Mode - Quickly capture key points」 In screenshot mode, you can continuously select areas to take screenshots, these screenshots will be added to the canvas immediately, and can continue to be edited and added to the mind map. 「Stickers, Paper Templates」 The themes of stickers include weather, three-dimensional geometry, music, etc., saving creation time and improving note-taking efficiency. Use stickers and paper stencils in combination to create beautiful manuscripts. 「Multiple Selection Tool - Efficient Editing」 You can freely select an area on the canvas using the multi-selection tool. The selected content as a whole can be resized, rotated, moved, deleted, and exported.Draw borders to take screenshots freely. 「Manage files with folders」 You can create folders to manage files. Easy personalization includes folder editing, file moving, sticking to the top, and more. 「iCloud Sync」 Continue to create notes on different devices and capture inspiration anytime, anywhere. 「Scan」 Scan documents, OCR text recognition(Available in English, Chinese, French, Italian, German, Portuguese and Spanish.) 「Search and Jump Locations」 Search for handwriting, text, text in documents. Also: OCR text recognition results of scanned documents and recognition of text in pictures. Contact us and send feedback: bp_10happy@hotmail.com
Screenshots
Verdict
PDF Cabinet and BigPaper both sit at 3.8 stars, but that hides the real split: 66% of PDF Cabinet's written reviews are positive against 27% of BigPaper's. PDF Cabinet also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 16.0). BigPaper's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs every 5 weeks). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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. BigPaper sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. PDF Cabinet asks for nothing beyond the download.
BigPaper holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 3.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 57 and 20 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 66% of PDF Cabinet's written reviews are positive against 27% of BigPaper's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
PDF Cabinet ships an update every 5 weeks, BigPaper every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PDF Cabinet | BigPaper |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.8 (57 ratings) | 4.0 (20 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 66.1% of reviews — better | 26.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 57 — better | 20 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 75 MB | 253 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Bright Nine SIA | 10happy Technology Development(Dalian) Co.,Ltd. |
Customer experience
PDF Cabinet
BigPaper
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
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- Add text box annotation feature
- Improve export/sharing options for annotated documents
BigPaper
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
PDF Cabinet
No in-app purchases
BigPaper
- BigPaper - Full Version Unlock$8.99









