Comparison

KBReader vs Banana Viewer

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

KBReader

This app allows you to view, organize, and share PDF documents. It supports encrypted files, custom folders, and easy transfer from computers. Export your PDFs to various cloud storage and email services.

Highlights
  • View, navigate, and zoom PDFs
  • Organize documents into folders
  • Support for encrypted PDFs
  • Transfer files via iTunes
  • Export to cloud services
  • Open PDFs from other apps
Features
Read full description

KBReader is the free, amazing and the smartest ever PDF reader. Store and view your documents, transferring them easily from any Mac or PC. Export to Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote, Gmail, Copy, Yahoo! and many others. VIEW PDFs • Quickly open PDF documents from email, the web, or any app that supports “Open In…” • Navigate, scroll, zoom in and out • Usual, iBooks-like document navigation • Device rotation and all orientations ORGANIZE & REVIEW PDFs • PDF documents can be organized into folders including custom folders • Work with encrypted (password protected) PDFs STORE AND SHARE FILES • iTunes File Sharing for file transfers • Easily access your recent files always stored in RECENT folder • Store and share files in email apps such as Evernote, Gmail, Yahoo! etc. DO AS MUCH AS YOU CAN WITH PDF FILES • Support of the PDF links • Support of the PDFs with rotated pages EXPORT PDF FILES EVERYWHERE YOU NEED • Universal: designed for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch • Export files in email apps such as Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, Copy etc.

About

Banana Viewer

Read full description

Banana is a fast, private PDF viewer and editor for iPhone and iPad. View, edit, mark up and organise your PDFs — all offline, all on your device. Nothing is uploaded. There is no account to make and no cloud to sign into. Banana works exactly the same with the network off. FREE FOREVER • PDF viewer — smooth scrolling, pinch to zoom, thumbnails and a page grid • Search inside a document, with highlighted results, and Go to Page • Rotate, reorder, delete and extract pages • Merge several PDFs into one, or split one into many • Compress a PDF down to a size you can actually email • Add page numbers, or copy a page out as an image • Sign documents — draw your signature, place it, save it for reuse • Notes — add timestamped notes to any document • Password protection — lock with open and owner passwords • Group share — select several PDFs and send them by AirDrop, Mail or Messages • Open from anywhere — Banana appears in the Open In menu across iOS • Undo and redo any change, from the buttons beside the back arrow • Revert to the original — discard every edit and go back to the file as you imported it • Export the original untouched, whatever you have done to your copy Signatures and notes are written into the PDF itself, so they open the same way in Preview, Acrobat or anything else. ON iPAD AS WELL • Split View with side-by-side PDF comparison • Highlight, underline and strike through text WHAT COSTS MONEY Four things. Everything above stays free. • Document Scanner — camera scanning with edge detection and multi-page capture, $0.99 • Fill Forms — fill in form fields and keep the result, $0.99 • Text to PDF — comes with the unlock • Version history — save a version by name and restore it later; comes with the unlock Open a document and all four are free to try for 30 days. After that, one $2.99 purchase unlocks all of them, forever. It is a Universal Purchase: buy it on your iPhone and it is already unlocked on your iPad and on the Mac app, and the other way round. Already bought the Document Scanner or Fill Forms? You pay only the difference to move up to the full unlock, and you keep what you bought. No subscriptions. Ever. PRIVACY • 100% offline — documents never leave your device • No analytics, no tracking, no cloud uploads • No account required 14 LANGUAGES English, Deutsch, Français, 简体中文, 日本語, Español, 한국어, Português (Portugal), Português (Brasil), Italiano, Nederlands, Türkçe, Polski, Русский Also available on Mac, with more tools, workspaces, and split view with PDF comparison. The unlock covers both.

Screenshots

KBReader4 screens
Banana Viewer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Banana Viewer at every 5 weeks against KBReader's every 4 months. KBReader's advantage is iOS requirement (7.0 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. KBReader sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Banana Viewer sells 12 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

KBReader ships an update every 4 months, Banana Viewer every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
KBReader versus Banana Viewer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterKBReaderBanana Viewer
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews80.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 5 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS7.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size12 MB4 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperVLADYSLAV YERSHOVFrank Pimenta

In-app purchases

1 purchases

KBReader

One-time1
  • Remove ADs$0.99
12 purchases

Banana Viewer

One-time12
  • Upgrade to Everything$0.99
  • English2 variants$0.99
  • Filling Form Feature$0.99
Show 9 more
  • Upgrade to Everything$1.99
  • Crop and Flatten feature$1.99
  • Annotate Feature$1.99
  • Redact Feature$1.99
  • OCR feature$1.99
  • batch processing feature$1.99
  • Unlock Everything$2.99
  • Password protection feature$4.99
  • Full Version$4.99

Questions

Is KBReader free?
KBReader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Banana Viewer free?
Banana Viewer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do KBReader or Banana Viewer have ads?
Neither KBReader nor Banana Viewer shows ads.
Which is updated more often, KBReader or Banana Viewer?
KBReader ships an update every 4 months, and Banana Viewer every 5 weeks. Most recently, KBReader was updated on November 1, 2026 and Banana Viewer on October 28, 2026.

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