A TurboScan alternative that is free to keep using

TurboScan gets a lot right

TurboScan by Piksoft is one of the best rated scanner apps on the App Store. It processes pages on the device, says it collects no data, and sells a one-time unlock instead of a subscription. There is no weekly plan, and no ads. If you dislike subscriptions, that is a refreshing model.

So why look for a TurboScan alternative at all? Mostly because of the free version. TurboScan Free works as a trial: the Android listing says you can scan and send up to three multi-page documents, and iPhone reviewers describe being locked out after a couple of scans until they pay for the Premium unlock. Some users say they did not expect that from an app called Free. Others want features TurboScan does not list, such as text recognition or PDF editing tools.

TurboScan vs Scanfone at a glance

Competitor details are from the US App Store, Google Play and recent reviews, at the time of writing (November 2026).

Free forever versus paid once

TurboScan Pro asks for $12.99 once. Scanfone asks for nothing to scan, save, share, print or read the text, and offers an optional yearly Pro plan. Which is better depends on what you need.

If you want a no-frills scanner and like paying once, TurboScan Pro is a reasonable choice. If you want to keep using a scanner without paying anything, or need OCR and PDF tools, Scanfone gives you that for free. The only mark on free PDFs is one small line under each page reading "Scanned free with Scanfone", never over your content.

What Scanfone adds on top of scanning

• Text recognition (OCR) on the phone, so you can search inside every PDF and copy text.
• Search across all documents, including their text, and folders to keep them tidy.
• Sign PDFs, add text, page numbers, footer text and watermarks.
• Redact or hide areas before you share.
• Merge, split and compress PDFs.
• Convert PDF to JPG or text, and photos to PDF.
• ID card mode (front and back on one page), passport mode and a QR code reader.
• A Safe folder locked with a PIN and Face ID.

Where TurboScan stands out

TurboScan has some thoughtful touches Scanfone does not copy: SureScan, which takes three shots for sharper scans in low light, a one-tap "email to myself" button, and tiling several receipts or business cards onto one PDF page. If your day is mostly receipts in dim restaurants, those might matter more than OCR.

Keeping your scans safe

A common worry with any offline scanner is losing everything when you change phones. Scanfone keeps files on your iPhone by default and you can save them to Files at any time. If you want automatic protection, Pro adds sync between your phones and a 1 TB cloud backup on EU servers. Nothing is uploaded unless you turn Pro sync on, and Scanfone has no ads, tracking or analytics. Details on the privacy page.

How to switch from TurboScan

1. In TurboScan, export the documents you want to keep as PDFs to the Files app.
2. Install Scanfone. There is no account to create.
3. Import the PDFs; text recognition makes them searchable.
4. Put them in folders, and lock private ones in the Safe.
5. Keep scanning, with no document count to watch.

More comparisons

Scanner Pro, Tiny Scanner, TurboScan, Adobe Scan, CamScanner, Genius Scan, iScanner and Apple Notes are trademarks of their respective owners. Scanfone is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any of them.