PDF Notes Pro vs Fairy PDF Reader
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PDF Notes Pro
Transform your iOS device into a digital notebook for annotating and managing PDF documents. Easily add handwritten notes, highlights, and drawings directly onto PDFs, and organize your files with a built-in management system. Share, print, and search your documents and notes with ease.
- Handwritten notes with audio recording
- PDF annotation (highlight, underline, strikeout)
- Freehand drawing and signing
- Full-text search within PDFs and notes
- Built-in file management
- PDF sharing and printing
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PdfNotes Pro is a notes-taking iOS universal app which provides the capability to make notes on PDF documents. It gives you the ability to take notes by handwriting and make your iOS device a magic notebook. It also enable you to read, annotate, print, manage, and share your notes and PDF files. Using PDF Notes Pro, it is simple to take notes and browse notes, sign a PDF document, annotate PDF documents, add bookmarks, highlight text, search text over all the pages, draw anything with a touch pen or just your finger. PdfNotes Pro has a simple but powerful built-in file management system, so it is very easy to import notes and PDF files into PDF Notes Pro or export them from PDF Notes Pro. Features: 1. Take handwriting notes 1) You can take handwriting notes directly on your iOS device with finger or stylus. 2) You can record audio while you are taking notes by handwriting. 3) The audio recorded is stored together with your handwriting notes so you can review your notes later against the audio. 4) You can zoom in to make more room for your handwriting. 5) You can erase any handwriting notes with the Eraser tool. 6) You can change color or line width of your handwriting. 7) Paper-like smooth and comfortable experience and process of notes-taking. 8) You can add handwriting notes into a PDF document. 9) You can access handwriting notes directly from a PDF document. 10) You can print handwriting notes onto paper via AirPlay-compatible printers. 11) You can turn handwriting notes into a PDF document. 12) Free style drawing 2. Annotate PDF documents 1) Write down notes on your PDF documents and browse them later. 2) Highlight text with different colors, and link text notes with it. 3) Underline text with different colors, and link text notes with it. 4) Squiggly text with different colors, and link text notes with it. 5) Strikeout text with different colors, and link text notes with it. 6) Add sticky notes. 7) Draw anything with a touch pen or just your finger, and link text notes with it. 8) Sign PDF documents. 9) Add bookmarks to remember the important pages. 10) Powerful full text search for your notes on the PDF document. 3. Read PDF Documents 1) Browse a PDF Document using its outlines and bookmarks. 2) Browse a PDF Document using its links. 3) Powerful but simple to use full text search helps you find any text in your PDF document quickly and easily. 4) Browse a PDF Document using the notes you have taken. 5) Open password-protected PDF documents with a valid password. 6) Browse a PDF Document using thumbnail view. 4. PDF document sharing 1) Open PDF files directly from your email. 2) Send out PDF documents by email. 3) Print PDF document with your notes via AirPrint. 4) Print PDF document without your notes via AirPrint. 5) Open PDF files directly from any other apps which provide the ability to open a PDF file in another app. 6) Provide the ability to open a PDF file in another app. 7) Download from Dropbox or upload into Dropbox. 8) Download from GoogleDrive or upload into GoogleDrive. 9) Download from Sky Drive or upload into Sky Drive. 10) Download from Box or upload into Box. 11) Send and receive PDF files via AirDrop from iOS Device nearby made in 2013 or later. 5. File Management 1) Create folder or delete folder. 2) Copy, move, and delete a PDF or notes file. 3) Rename a folder. 4) Rename a notes or PDF file. 5) Display number of files in a folder. 6) Display file size and last modified date for a file. 7) Display statistics of a notes or PDF document, such as last open time, current page, etc. 8) Provide unlimited depth for folders(you can create subfolder of unlimited sub level).
Fairy PDF Reader
This app offers a comprehensive PDF reading experience on iOS devices, mimicking desktop functionality. It includes advanced features like keyboard support, smart zoom, dark mode, and translation saving to enhance document interaction and learning.
- Full keyboard support
- Smart zoom & lock
- Dark mode with color inversion
- Table of contents search
- Translate & save words
- Import from cloud services & zip files
- Organize files in folders
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Fairy PDF Reader is a PDF reader that’s aims to provide you with the best reading experience on your iOS device. I created it for myself at first, and then continued to add features to it to make it more useful. It features full keyboard support for almost anything, including turning pages, opening & closing documents, finding stuff on the PDF document, importing PDF files and more. It tries to imitate the desktop PDF reading experience on your iPad or iPhone for you to take it anywhere you go. Fairy PDF Reader has many other nifty features:- - It remembers the last book you opened, and allows you to continue reading it whenever you want. If the app was closed for whatever reason, the next time you open it, it will reopen the last PDF document where you stopped. This is quite useful in case you own an old iOS device with a low amount of memory. - Zoom & Lock feature:- A lot of PDF books tend to have large margins. The zoom & lock feature makes it easier to zoom in & take advantage of your iPad or iPhone screen real-estate. Once the zoom level is locked, you won’t be able to zoom in or out again until you unlock it again. Fairy PDF Reader will remember the last zoom setting you did separately for each book in your library, and it remembers it for both portrait & landscape modes separately. Other PDF readers allow you to zoom in to view your documents, but they make to harder to turn pages or maintain the page's position on the screen. - Dark Mode support, with the ability to invert the PDF colors to further relief your eyes. - Shows the PDF book table of content, with a search box to find the part you are looking for - The PDF Documents list is sorted based on the last book you opened, making it easier to open one of the last few books you read - Supports importing files from Zip files. If there are multiple PDF files inside the Zip, Fairy PDF Reader will import all of them. - Import PDF files from common cloud services. Like Dropbox or OneDrive. - Stores all the words you translated:- With the Translate & Save feature, any word you translate will be stored automatically, you can view these words and copy them for revision at any time you want to. This can quite helpful to expand your vocabulary or learning new languages. - Share PDF files from other applications:- You can export any PDF file you open in Safari or other apps & they will be directly imported to Fairy PDF Reader. - Find text in the documents you’re currently reading. - Organize files in folders, and copy or move them between them. - Search for books in the current folder. Fairy PDF Reader has a convenient text matching that makes this easier. - Smart tap detection:- Touching the lower part of the page won’t turn the page, this was added so you won’t turn the page by mistake while reading. The same goes to showing the options bar, you can easily hide it by tapping anywhere on the screen, but you need to tap on the upper part of the screen to show it, so you will unlikely show it by mistake. Unselecting text is also easy, just tap anywhere on the screen, and the selection will be gone. Generally speaking, taps & gestures are designed so that they won't interfere with one another, or interfere with you while you're focused on your book. - Go to any page quickly using the pages navigator, you can either type the page number you want or move the slider, or you can simply tap on the left or right arrows to go to the next or previous page. - Scroll To Top disabled:- While in landscape mode, you can't go to the beginning of the PDF document by tapping on the title bar, which is a common feature in iOS. This was done since it's easy to trigger that feature by mistake. The "Go To Page" dialog is there to help you get to the beginning of the book if you like. You can also read the full documentation of the app on my website:- https://Tech-Fairy.com/fairy-pdf-reader-user-manual-how-to-use-fairy-pdf-reader-to-get-the-best-pdf-reading-experience/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Fairy PDF Reader at 100% against PDF Notes Pro's 17%. Fairy PDF Reader also leads on rating (5.0 vs 1.7). PDF Notes Pro's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 2 months). On price, ratings volume, 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
PDF Notes Pro costs $4.99 and Fairy PDF Reader $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Fairy PDF Reader holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 1.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 6 and 3 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 17% of PDF Notes Pro's written reviews are positive against 100% of Fairy PDF Reader's.
PDF Notes Pro ships an update every 3 weeks, Fairy PDF Reader every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 17, 2026 and September 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PDF Notes Pro | Fairy PDF Reader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | $4.99 |
| Rating | 1.7 (6 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 16.7% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 6 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 14.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 40 MB | 27 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | UMateY | Mohannad Daghistany |
Customer experience
PDF Notes Pro
Fairy PDF Reader
In-app purchases
PDF Notes Pro
No in-app purchases
Fairy PDF Reader
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is PDF Notes Pro free?
Is Fairy PDF Reader free?
Which has better reviews, PDF Notes Pro or Fairy PDF Reader?
Do PDF Notes Pro or Fairy PDF Reader have ads?
Which is updated more often, PDF Notes Pro or Fairy PDF Reader?
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