A PDF scanner with no ads, no watermark and no account
Three things make a scanner app unpleasant, and they get lumped together even though they are unrelated: an ad between you and the document, a watermark stamped across the page, and a sign-up form before you can scan anything.
This page takes them one at a time and says which ScanCrypt tier removes each, because the answers are different.
The three annoyances, separately
The account is the one that never appears. There is no sign-up, no email field and no login anywhere in ScanCrypt. Install it and scan. Nothing you scan is tied to an identity that outlives the install, and there is no password to lose or account to delete later.
The watermark is the second one that never appears. ScanCrypt does not stamp its own branding on anything you export, on any tier, so a free scan is a clean PDF you can send to a bank or a university without explaining a logo across the page. There is a Watermark tool, but it is for putting your own mark on a document when you want one — it never runs unless you open it.
Ads are the only one of the three that is real, and only on the free tier. A banner appears at the bottom of some screens and an interstitial can appear after a tool finishes. Both are switched off entirely for Pro: the code checks the tier before it even loads an ad, so Pro is not "fewer ads", it is none.
- Account — never required, on any tier.
- Watermark — never applied, on any tier.
- Ads — free tier only, removed by Pro.
Why a free app with no ads usually costs something else
Any app has running costs, so it is worth asking how one that shows no ads and charges nothing is paid for. There are only a few answers, and it is a reasonable habit to work out which one applies before you trust an app with a passport or a payslip.
It may be free for a while and then not be — a trial that ends, a page count that runs out, or a watermark that appears once you pass some threshold. It may be subscription-funded, with the free tier existing to get you to a monthly charge. It may be funded by the documents themselves, through a cloud sync you did not especially want, which turns your scans into stored data on someone's server. Or it may charge once, up front, which is the arrangement where the incentives are simplest.
ScanCrypt is the fourth, plus ads on the free tier. There is no document cloud to fund it, because there is nowhere for documents to go.
- Time-limited free — the cost arrives later.
- Subscription-funded — the free tier is the funnel.
- Data-funded — your documents are the product.
- Paid once — you know the cost at the start.
What Pro costs
Pro Lifetime ₹649 / $7.99 once, or Pro Annual ₹249 / $2.99 per year. Prices vary by region. The lifetime option is a single purchase with nothing recurring, and it is the one the Settings screen describes as "One-time purchase · All features forever · No subscription".
Both options unlock the same Pro tools and both remove every ad. The annual one exists for people who would rather pay less now; nothing in the app pushes you towards it, and nothing forces a subscription on you.
Everything is bought through Google Play, so refunds follow Google Play's policy. The free tier is not a trial: 20 of the 70+ tools are free outright, and several more are free with ads, all with no time limit and no expiry.
What you actually give up on the free tier
Being specific is more useful than "upgrade for more". On the free tier you get scanning, signatures, annotation, doodle, QR and barcode scanning, templates, Read Aloud, backup, image compress and resize, and a set of PDF tools including compress, merge, split, reorder, crop, watermark and page numbers — with ads. Pro removes the ads and unlocks the rest of the catalog, OCR among them.
What you never give up on the free tier: output quality, watermark-free exports, and the fact that the documents stay on your phone.
How to do it in ScanCrypt
- Install and open the app. ScanCrypt runs on Android 6.0 (API 23) and up. There is no onboarding account step to get past.
- Scan something immediately. Tap Scan on the Home screen and capture a page. You are never asked to sign in, and nothing is uploaded.
- Check the export. Save the document and open the PDF in any other viewer. There is no ScanCrypt watermark, banner or footer anywhere on the page.
- Decide whether the ads bother you. Use the free tier for a while first. The banner and the occasional interstitial are the whole difference for the tools you already have.
- Open Settings and pick a plan. In Settings, the account section shows a "Lifetime Pro" row and an "Annual Pro" row when you are on the free tier. Tapping either opens the Upgrade screen.
- Buy Pro Lifetime. The Upgrade screen shows Lifetime selected by default, with Annual as the other card. The purchase goes through Google Play, and the ads stop as soon as it completes.
Questions
Is the free tier limited by page count?
No. There is a 20-page limit on a single scanning session, but it applies to every tier — Pro does not raise it, and it is a limit on one capture run, not on the document or on how many documents you make. Scan again and merge if you need more pages in one file.
Is there a subscription?
There is an annual option, and there is a one-time lifetime purchase that is not a subscription. Nothing forces you onto the recurring one. There is also no free trial that converts into a charge — the app has no trial offer, so the free tier simply stays free until you decide to buy.
Do I have to create an account to use Pro?
No. The purchase is tied to your Google Play account, which you already have in order to install the app. ScanCrypt itself has no account system, so there is nothing to register.
Does the free tier put a watermark on exports?
No. Free exports carry no watermark. The only watermark that can appear on a document is one you add yourself with the Watermark tool.