Comparison

PDF Cabinet vs PDF Notes S

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 Notes S

This app offers a dual-page PDF viewer with smooth scrolling and fast page turns. It also provides document management, quick previews of various file types, and annotation tools. An upgrade removes ads and unlocks full functionality.

Highlights
  • Dual-page PDF viewer
  • Horizontal/vertical scroll and page turns
  • Document browser for file organization
  • Quick Look for various file types
  • ZIP file preview without unzipping
  • 8 handwriting tools
  • Cache manager for fast page turns
Read full description

PDF Notes S gives you a 2 pages viewer with horizontal/vertical scroll, and cache for fast page turns, and thumbnails scrollbar. PDF Notes S gives you ZIP Preview, Quick Look of documents, images, music, videos, and etc. PDF Notes S gives you Document Browser so that you can organize all your files very easily. PDF Viewer - 1 page or 2 pages, horizontal or vertical fast page turns - Scroll or page turns by tap on sides - 8 handwriting tools that you can adjust color and line width - Horizontal or vertical thumbnails scrollbar - PDF outlines, bookmarks, and annotations list - PDF search - Cache manager supports 3 modes, permanent cache, automatic cache, and no cache Quick Look, ZIP Preview - PDF, RTF, TEXT - iWork documents, Office documents - Images, Music, PiP Videos - Without Unzip, preview ZIP contents (password may be requested if locked) Advertisements before upgrade - Banner ads can be shown at the bottom - Interstitial ads can be shown per 30 minutes Information about the auto-renewable nature of the subscription - Payment will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase. - Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period. - Account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period, and identify the cost of the renewal. - Subscriptions may be managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user's Account Settings after purchase. - Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription to that publication, where applicable. A link to privacy policy and terms of use - http://blog.musebook.com/2017/03/privacy-policy.html The length of the subscription - Monthly or Yearly NOTE: All content contained herein is subject to change without notice.

Screenshots

PDF Notes S4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: PDF Cabinet at none against PDF Notes S's 2. PDF Cabinet also leads on ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (66% vs 53%). PDF Notes S's advantage is rating (4.2 vs 3.8). On price, update cadence, device support and iOS requirement 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. PDF Notes S sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. PDF Cabinet asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

PDF Notes S holds the better App Store score, 4.2 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PDF Cabinet has 56 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 66% of PDF Cabinet's written reviews are positive against 53% of PDF Notes S's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PDF Cabinet ships an update every 5 weeks, PDF Notes S every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and September 20, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
PDF Cabinet versus PDF Notes S: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPDF CabinetPDF Notes S
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.8 (56 ratings)4.2 (5 ratings) — better
Positive reviews66.1% of reviews — better52.9% of reviews
Number of ratings56 — better5
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeks — betterEvery 6 weeks
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.013.0
Further details — not scored
Size75 MB22 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBright Nine SIAAMuseTec 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 Notes S

All ratings5 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews17 reviews
Positive52.9%
Neutral35.3%
Negative11.8%

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 Notes S

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

PDF Cabinet

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

PDF Notes S

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Plan$0.991 Month
  • Yearly Plan$9.991 Year

Questions

Is PDF Cabinet free?
PDF Cabinet is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is PDF Notes S free?
PDF Notes S is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, PDF Cabinet or PDF Notes S?
PDF Notes S is rated higher. PDF Cabinet averages 3.8 out of 5 from 56 ratings, while PDF Notes S averages 4.2 from 5 ratings.
Do PDF Cabinet or PDF Notes S have ads?
PDF Notes S shows ads; PDF Cabinet does not.
Which is updated more often, PDF Cabinet or PDF Notes S?
PDF Cabinet ships an update every 5 weeks, and PDF Notes S every 6 weeks. Most recently, PDF Cabinet was updated on October 6, 2026 and PDF Notes S on September 20, 2026.

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