Is there a PDF Expert alternative for searching many PDFs at once?

Last reviewed: October 1, 2026 · Markdown version

For reading, marking up, signing and editing a PDF, you probably do not need to replace PDF Expert at all. The gap people run into is narrower: its search, as Readdle documents it, works inside a document, so it will not tell you which of two hundred files mentions a name. That second job needs an index of every file, and you can add one beside PDF Expert rather than instead of it. We make DocFind, the search-only app described below, so weigh that section accordingly; its limits are listed in it.

What PDF Expert is built for

Readdle's App Store listing sums the app up as a way to "read, annotate, fill and sign PDF forms, convert files to PDF, and merge, split or compress documents". Its reading tools include Day, Night and Sepia modes and text to speech, and one subscription is meant to "work across all your Apple devices" (PDF Expert: Editor & Reader, App Store listing, read 1 October 2026). If most of your time with a PDF is spent working on it, that is a strong toolkit, and nothing here suggests giving it up.

What its search covers

Readdle's help article on search says you can find text "if your files have selectable and recognizable text", with two options, Match Case and Whole Words. It then draws a line between platforms: "While the version on Mac allows you to search in the current tab or all tabs, the iOS version of PDF Expert can search in text or thumbnails" (Use Smart Search, PDF Expert Help Center, read 1 October 2026). The phone feature page describes the same scope from the other side: "PDF Expert scans every inch of the opened PDF file and saves relevant discoveries into the search history" (PDF reader for iPhone, PDF Expert, read 1 October 2026).

Neither of those two pages describes a search that looks through a folder of PDFs you have not opened. So if you know which contract the clause is in, PDF Expert finds it. If you only know the clause, you are opening files one by one.

One more thing the pages we read are silent on: Android. PDF Expert's homepage presents it as an editor for Apple's phones, tablets and Mac (PDF Expert homepage, read 1 October 2026), and neither that page nor the App Store listing quoted above mentions an Android version.

A workaround inside PDF Expert

If the files are few and you already pay for it, you can merge them into one document and search that. The listing offers to "Merge and combine multiple PDF files into one", under its premium features heading (PDF Expert: Editor & Reader, App Store listing, read 1 October 2026). Our view of the trade-offs, not Readdle's: a hit then points to a page of the merged file rather than to the original file's name, the merged copy goes stale as soon as a source file changes, and a scan with no text layer still finds nothing. It works for a one-off bundle, not for a library that keeps growing. Other ways to combine PDFs.

DocFind (ours): search only, across the lot

DocFind searches inside many PDFs at once. Each result shows the file, the page and the text around the match, and tapping it opens that PDF at that exact page with your keywords highlighted. Scanned PDFs are read on your device first and then searched like any other document; a match that came from that reading is labelled, and pages that could not be made searchable are reported. If a file cannot be opened, has not been read yet, or has changed since it was indexed, DocFind tells you which ones and why.

Indexing runs in the background, shows its progress, can be cancelled and picks up where it left off. Searching, indexing, reading scanned pages and exporting all work with no internet connection, and your documents never leave your device. No account is needed, and there are no ads, no analytics and no tracking. It runs on iPhone and Android.

Why you might still pass on it:

It is not an editor. DocFind finds and opens; annotating, signing and editing stay with PDF Expert or whatever you use now.
PDFs only. Word, Excel and plain text files are not indexed.
No stemming. Searching for "running" won't find "run".
Printed text only on scans. Handwritten pages stay unsearchable. On Android the recognition covers Latin-script print, and scanned Hindi or other Devanagari pages do not become searchable on either platform.
One phone, one index. The index stays on the phone that built it, and a second phone builds its own.
The free tier has limits. One library of up to 25 documents, 10 scanned pages and 10 exports every month, with unlimited keywords and unlimited results. Prices differ by platform and are on our homepage.

Putting the two together

You may well end up using both: DocFind to answer "which file, which page", then PDF Expert, or any reader, to work on the page once it is found. If your PDFs fit in one merged file and rarely change, the merge workaround above may be all you need. If they are a growing folder with scans mixed in, an index is the tool for it.