A CamScanner alternative that keeps documents on your phone
CamScanner is the app most people mean when they say "scanner app". It has been on Google Play since 2010 and shows over 500 million downloads there. If you are looking for something else, it is usually for one of three reasons: the ads, the sign-up, or not wanting a copy of your documents on someone else’s server.
This page compares the two on those points and says where CamScanner is the better choice, which for several things it genuinely is. Every CamScanner fact here was read off its own Google Play listing on the date given, and the source URL is recorded with the page. Where the listing does not answer a question, this page says so rather than guessing.
ScanCrypt is made by Crypton Studio. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to CamScanner or INTSIG.
CamScanner and ScanCrypt, point by point
Checked on 2 September 2026.
One thing to settle first, because it changes what can be verified at all: CamScanner’s Play listing does not open in the India store. Requesting it with the India region set returns Google Play’s "Not Found" page, while the identical request against the United States, United Kingdom and Singapore stores returns the listing normally. So there is no rupee price for CamScanner to read off Google Play, and the figures below are the ones the United States listing shows, in the currency it shows them in.
- Account: CamScanner — the listing sells cross-device access under the heading "Sync Across Platforms", which opens "Sign up to access documents on all your devices"; ScanCrypt — no account of any kind, with no sign-up, no email field and no login anywhere in the app.
- Watermark on free exports: CamScanner — we could not verify this on 2 September 2026, because camscanner.com refused the connection and en.intsig.com returned a 502 from here, and the Play listing mentions only a watermark you add to your own documents; ScanCrypt — none, on any tier, so a free scan exports as a clean PDF.
- Where documents are stored: CamScanner — its Data safety entry lists "Files and docs" among the data types the app may collect, alongside photos, email address, phone number and purchase history; ScanCrypt — on the phone, in the app’s own library, with no document cloud for them to go to.
- Ads: CamScanner — the listing carries the "Contains ads" badge; ScanCrypt — ads on the free tier only, and Pro removes every one of them rather than showing fewer.
- Price: CamScanner — the listing shows "In-app purchases" with a range of "$0.49 - $399.99 per item" and a subscription "billed weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually"; ScanCrypt — Pro Lifetime ₹649 / $7.99 once, or Pro Annual ₹249 / $2.99 per year. Prices vary by region.
Where CamScanner is better
A comparison that only flatters the app writing it is not worth reading. These are things CamScanner does that ScanCrypt does not, and if any of them is what you need, CamScanner is the right choice.
- Sync across devices. Its listing describes signing in on a phone, tablet or computer to view, edit and share the same documents. ScanCrypt has nothing equivalent — moving a library between phones is a manual backup file you carry yourself.
- A far longer track record. The listing gives a release date of 30 October 2010, over 500,000,000 downloads and a 4.6 rating. ScanCrypt shipped in 2026 and has a fraction of that history behind it.
- A desktop and web app. The listing points to camscanner.com for working with the same documents on a computer. ScanCrypt is Android only.
- Printing and fax. The listing describes wireless printing to a nearby printer without drivers, and remote fax to over 30 countries and regions. ScanCrypt can print through Android’s own print service, and cannot fax at all.
- Search across scanned content. The listing describes tagging documents and searching images by the text inside them. ScanCrypt has on-device text recognition as a Pro tool, but no library-wide search over recognised text.
Where ScanCrypt is better
The differences run the other way on four points, and they are all consequences of the same design decision: there is no server holding your documents, so there is nothing to sign in to and nothing to sync.
Nothing you scan leaves the phone. Scanning, text recognition and every PDF and image tool run on the device. The clearest way to check that is to turn on airplane mode and use the app — every document tool behaves exactly the same.
There is no account. No sign-up, no email, no login. Nothing you scan is attached to an identity that outlives the install, and there is no password to lose or account to delete later.
You can pay once instead of subscribing. The lifetime option is a single purchase through Google Play with nothing recurring. There is an annual option for people who would rather pay less now, and nothing in the app pushes you towards it.
And the list of what the app does send is short enough to print: on the free tier, ads through Google AdMob, including the advertising ID. Crash reports and anonymous usage analytics through Firebase, and analytics can be switched off in Settings → Privacy & Data. Feature flags and pricing through Firebase Remote Config. No document content is included in any of it.
What we could not verify
Three questions this page deliberately leaves open, because answering them would have meant guessing.
Whether CamScanner’s free tier watermarks exported PDFs. Its own site did not respond when we checked on 2 September 2026, and the Play listing does not say either way.
CamScanner’s price in Indian rupees. There is no India Play listing to read it from, and converting the dollar figure ourselves would be an estimate, not a fact.
Whether CamScanner’s cloud sync is on by default or opt-in. The listing frames sync as something you sign up for, but it does not describe the default state of a fresh install, so this page does not claim one.
How to do it in ScanCrypt
- Get your documents out of CamScanner first. While the app is still installed, save or share each PDF to your phone’s storage — Downloads is fine. Do this before you uninstall anything, because a document that only exists in another app’s library is not something ScanCrypt can reach.
- Install ScanCrypt and open it. It runs on Android 6.0 (API 23) and up. There is no onboarding account step to get past — the Home screen is the first thing you see.
- Tap IMPORT PDF on the Home screen. The Home screen has IMPORT IMAGE and IMPORT PDF next to the scan button. Picking a PDF copies it into the ScanCrypt library and opens it in the viewer. Repeat for each file, or import them as you need them.
- Use Gallery Import for loose images. If some pages came across as JPEGs rather than PDFs, the Gallery Import tool takes a batch of images, lets you order them, and writes them out as a single PDF.
- Organise into folders. Create a folder on the Folders tab, then use Move to Folder on a document to file it. Folders can be nested, and a folder can be locked with a PIN if you want one.
- Check that nothing is being uploaded. Turn on airplane mode and use the app for a few minutes. Scanning, editing, exporting and every tool work exactly as before, because none of them needs a network.
Questions
Can ScanCrypt import my CamScanner PDFs?
Yes. Any PDF already on your phone can be imported with IMPORT PDF on the Home screen, and the file is copied into the ScanCrypt library as-is — there is no conversion step and nothing is re-encoded. What ScanCrypt cannot do is reach into CamScanner’s own storage or account for you, so export the files to your phone first.
Does ScanCrypt sync between phones?
No, and this is the clearest thing CamScanner does that ScanCrypt does not. There is no sync, because there is no server. Moving a library to a new phone is manual: Backup & Restore creates one backup file you copy across yourself, and Restore rebuilds the library from it. Restore replaces what is there, so it asks you to confirm first.
Is ScanCrypt available in India?
Yes. It is on Google Play in India, priced in rupees, and the app ships in 15 languages including Hindi.
Does the free tier watermark my scans?
No. Free exports carry no watermark on any tier. The only watermark that can appear on a document is one you add yourself with the Watermark tool.