Is there a good app for scan documents to PDF?
Too Expensive: 60 apps already serve this, and 29 data points mined from real user reviews across 3 sources show where they fall short. The job is solved but priced beyond a segment. Undercut with a cheaper tier.
Data refreshed July 20, 2026 · scores recompute weekly as new reviews are mined, so re-check before you build.
What users complain about
The most common complaints behind apps that try to scan documents to PDF, mined and clustered from real reviews:
| Complaint area | Type | Mentions | What a user said |
|---|---|---|---|
| no OCR text extraction to PDF | missing-feature | 2 | no te lo va a pasar escrito en pdf solamente es como si pegara la imagen en pdf |
| email/send scanned document fails | reliability | 2 | it will never email you the documents. Complete waste of time |
| expensive subscription for basic scan-to-pdf | price | 1 | now u have to pay for it an insane amount of money for an app that just takes pictures |
| sharing scanned documents | missing-feature | 1 | нельзя отсканированные документы отправить |
| PDF scanning buried deep in menus | ux | 1 | the pdf scanning menu gets buried deeper into menus with every update |
| too many steps just to scan and save | ux | 1 | like 50 steps to literally just scan and save a document |
| removed scan-to-email pdf for paying subscribers | missing-feature | 1 | That option has been removed for paying evernote subscribers |
| cannot email scanned PDF even after subscribing | reliability | 1 | you will not email a PDF. It forced me to subscribe. I did it still doesn’t work |
| cannot send scan to photos or email | missing-feature | 1 | Just can’t send to photos or email the scan from the app. |
| paywall to share scanned documents | price | 1 | I can’t stand this paywall to share my scanned documents |
| cannot convert web page to PDF | missing-feature | 1 | I used to be able to save recipes from taste of home online by converting it to Acrobat and now I am unable |
| charging to share a scanned document | price | 1 | Costing money now to literally share a scanned document? |
Apps that already serve this
| App | Rating | Ratings | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| PDF Scanner - Document Scanner | 4.8 | 508,588 | Free |
| Scan to PDF－Document Scanner | 4.7 | 61,296 | Free |
| Scanner Pro・Scan PDF Documents | 4.9 | 332,278 | Free |
| PDF Document Scanner | 3.3 | 40,011 | Free |
| PDF Scanner AI: Scan Documents | 4.7 | 6,591 | Free |
| PDF Scanner App: TapScanner | 4.7 | 26,388 | Free |
| PDF Scanner & Document Scanner | 4.6 | 27,641 | Free |
| Scan Hero: PDF Scanner | 4.7 | 241,639 | Free |
Should you build it?
The job is solved but priced beyond a segment. Undercut with a cheaper tier. Opportunity here scores 58 out of 100 — a function of demand, how crowded the field is, and how badly the existing apps perform. Use the live map to compare it against adjacent tasks.
Who has tried building this
4 attempts, all active and well-starred including a 4.3k-star project; a mature space with a strong incumbent already.
| Project | Status | Stars | Stack |
|---|---|---|---|
| cyanfish/naps2 | active | 4,251 | C# |
| pynicolas/FairScan | active | 617 | Kotlin |
| stapelberg/scan2drive | active | 171 | C |
| jachzen/cunning_document_scanner | active | 110 | Kotlin |
Open-source projects that attempted this task — active ones show today's bar; abandoned ones are a signal to validate why earlier attempts died.
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