PDF Cabinet vs Folia
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!
Folia
This app allows users to annotate any document type from any device, organize work into projects, and capture ideas with intuitive tools. It facilitates real-time sharing with collaborators and recording ideas on the go.
- Annotate any document type
- Organize work into projects
- Capture ideas with intuitive tools
- Real-time collaboration
- Integrates with cloud storage
- Cross-device support
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Folia is the all-in-one way to annotate any document, from any device. Open a single file and start marking it up, or organize your work into projects and share with collaborators in real time. Folia lets you record your ideas wherever you are, whether at your desk or on the go. Use Folia to: - Open recent and favorited documents right from Home. - Work with individual documents on their own, or group them into projects. - Pull in files from any storage connection like Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox and Box. - Annotate files of any type — PDFs, MS Office documents, images, and more. - Scan and OCR paper documents with your camera. - Record audio annotations from your microphone. - Share securely between colleagues. - Record ideas from desktop, phone or tablet. Learn more at www.folia.com Privacy Policy: https://www.folia.com/legal/privacy Support: help@folia.com
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: PDF Cabinet at 66% against Folia's 0%. PDF Cabinet also leads on ratings volume (57 vs 2) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.1). Folia's advantage is rating (4.5 vs 3.8). 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Folia holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PDF Cabinet has 57 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 66% of PDF Cabinet's written reviews are positive against 0% of Folia'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, Folia monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PDF Cabinet | Folia |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.8 (57 ratings) | 4.5 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 66.1% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 57 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Monthly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 75 MB | 64 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Bright Nine SIA | Branchfire, Inc. |
Customer experience
PDF Cabinet
Folia
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
Folia
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
PDF Cabinet
No in-app purchases
Folia
No in-app purchases
