PDFOptim vs PDFora
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PDFOptim
Easily compress and optimize PDF files on your iPhone and iPad. Reduce the size of large documents, saving storage space and transmission time. Offers both automatic and manual compression modes with advanced settings for image and vector graphics.
- Compress PDF documents
- Optimize PDF files
- Automatic compression mode
- Manual compression mode
- Adjust image resolution and quality
- Optimize vector graphics
- Support for password-protected PDFs
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PDFOptim is a simple and intuitive way to compress, optimize and reduce PDF documents on iPhones and iPads. PDFOptim provides easy and effective ways to compress large image and graphics heavy PDF files. Inbuilt side-by-side preview to compare original and compressed PDF. * * * PDFOptim for Mac is also available on the Mac App Store. * * * Compressed PDF documents requires less disk space for storage and faster uploads and downloads saves transmission time and cost. PDFOptim rewrites the entire PDF documents using selected compression options as efficiently as possible without compromising the document's integrity. If your PDF documents are in another app (For Example Mail, DropBox or SkyDrive etc.) that uses the Open In… button, tap the button to open the PDF document in PDFOptim. You can also transfer PDF documents from your desktop computer via iTunes into PDFOptim application on your iPhone or iPad. KEY FEATURES: AUTO COMPRESSION MODE - PDFOptim analyze document’s contents and apply algorithm to generate a smallest possible PDF by maintaining the document’s visual quality. Choose one of the four predefined Auto compression methods and let the app do the hard work for you. No further user interaction required to provide technical compression options. MANUAL COMPRESSION MODE - Change compression options manually to generate optimum sized PDF of your need. You can choose compression options to set from Image Color Model, Image Resolution, JPEG Image Quality, Optimise vector graphics level and Advance option. - Image color model to choose from RGB, Gray and Mono. Selecting Monochrome color model option converts raster PDF contents into black and white which helps reduces PDF file size to greater extent. It is very helpful when compressing scanned books mainly containing text. - Image resolution ppi (pixels/inch) control to resize raster image contents. Downsampling at lower resolution decrease the file size dramatically. - Quality control. Set quality from lossless to least for resampling all raster images into PDF. It allows you to control compressed PDF size and viewing quality. -Advance options to remove PDF content properties like alternate images, page thumbnails, documents structure hierarchy and output intent. - Optimize vector graphics option removes superfluous information to reduce vector graphics heavy PDF. Increase in optimize vector from 'Level 1' to 'Level 5' reduces output PDF file size less to more respectively. This option is very useful when PDF content mainly consist of high precision vector graphics, Usually PDF drawing, note-taking and PDF markup apps creates large vector graphics heavy PDF files which can be compressed by this option efficiently. - Password protected PDF documents supported for compression using correct password. - Single or multiple compressed PDFs can be shared as single ZIP (*.zip) file. - Allows Compressed PDFs to Open In… another application, Mail, Message, Print, share PDFs to nearby iOS devices via AirDrop. - Use Copy to iTunes to save and share compressed PDFs on your desktop computer. PDF VIEWER: - Inbuilt PDF viewer with fully selectable and searchable text contents. Select and copy text to clipboard for further use. - Pinch out and Pinch in to ZoomIn and ZoomOut view and search feature to find a character, word and sentence. - Scroll through your document by thumbnail view or Go to page feature. Note: PDFOptim is standalone application running natively to compress PDF documents securely on your iOS device. You can refer User Manual for any assistance Or Contact Support. *The free version has limitation to export one compressed PDF per week. Get Premium to remove all restrictions and start exporting an unlimited number of compressed PDFs. Privacy Policy: http://rootrisetech.com/pdfoptim-privacy-policy Terms of Use(EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
PDFora
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PDFora – Scan, Read & Edit PDF All-in-one PDF toolkit designed for speed, simplicity, and control. PDFora helps you scan, read, organize, and edit PDF documents in one powerful app. Whether you’re managing work files, study materials, contracts, or personal documents, everything you need is right here. * Powerful PDF Scanner Turn paper into high-quality PDFs in seconds. • Smart edge detection • Auto crop & perspective correction • Multiple page scanning • Export in high resolution • Convert photos to PDF * Smooth & Fast PDF Reader Read documents comfortably anytime. • Lightning-fast rendering • Night mode & eye-friendly reading • Bookmark important pages • Quick file search • Continuous and single page modes * Easy PDF Editing Tools Edit your documents with precision. • Highlight, underline & annotate • Add text and comments • Draw or sign with your finger or Apple Pencil • Reorder, rotate & delete pages • Merge and split PDFs • Compress file size * Smart File Management Stay organized effortlessly. • Create folders & tags • Rename and sort files • Quick access to recent documents • Secure important files * Designed for Productivity PDFora is built for people who work with documents daily. Clean interface. No clutter. Just powerful tools that get the job done. Perfect for: • Students • Professionals • Freelancers • Remote workers • Business users * Privacy First Your files stay on your device unless you choose to share them. Premium Features • AI Tools: Chat, summarize, count, and extract data from documents • Scan & OCR: Convert documents and images into editable text • Edit PDFs: Compress, lock/unlock, and add smart signatures Free usage included: • AI chat (5 messages), AI counting (3 uses) • OCR, compression, lock/unlock (3 uses each) • Smart signature (3 signatures) • Scan first 3 pages On-device AI is free. Upgrade to Premium for unlimited access and advanced AI. AI features may process your documents securely. On-device AI runs locally on your device, while some advanced features may use cloud-based AI. Download PDFora today and take full control of your documents. Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: PDFora at every 2 months against PDFOptim's every 5 months. PDFOptim's advantage is iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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. PDFOptim sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and PDFora sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
PDFOptim ships an update every 5 months, PDFora every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PDFOptim | PDFora |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (295 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 75.6% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 295 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 19 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | RootRise Technologies Pvt. Ltd. | Hien Nguyen |
Bugs and requests
PDFOptim
Reported bugs
11 issues- App not launching on iOS 18.0.1
- App freezes during launch
- App won't take purchases
- Cannot optimize certain PDFs
- Compression not effective on marked-up PDFs
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- App no longer works after updates
- File compressed to a slightly smaller size with no significant reduction
- Graphics become unreadable or highly degraded
- App crashes
- Multitasking, drag and drop not working
- Doesn't use full screen on new iPads
Requested features
6 requests- Support for iOS shortcuts
- macOS version integration/cross-platform compatibility
- Improved handling of specific file types like GoodNotes
- Better optimization for handwritten notes within PDFs
- Cloud storage for compressed documents (iCloud)
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- Update for latest OS versions and multitasking features
PDFora
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
PDFOptim
- Premium : Monthly Access$0.991 Month
- Premium : Yearly Access3 Days trial$2.991 Year
- Premium : Lifetime Access$4.99
PDFora
- Premium Pro Monthly$5.991 Month
- Premium Pro Yearly$39.991 Year









