Try ScanLens
Privacy-first document scanning for iPhone. Free to start, no account required.
A privacy-first document scanner for iPhone, built by a small team that believes your documents should stay yours.
Most document scanner apps treat your private documents as data to be uploaded, processed, and sometimes monetized. We don't think that's right. ScanLens was built around a simple idea: scanning a passport, a contract, or a medical record should not require trusting a third-party server with your information.
Every core scanning operation in ScanLens runs on-device using Apple's Neural Engine and Vision framework. Documents only leave your iPhone when you explicitly choose to share them or sync them to a cloud service you control.
ScanLens is developed by BITFORGE PTE. LTD., a private company registered in Singapore. We are a small, independent software team focused on building useful iOS apps that respect user privacy.
We are not venture-backed, we don't sell user data, and we don't run ads inside the app. ScanLens is funded entirely by users who choose to upgrade to a premium plan or buy a lifetime license.
ScanLens is currently our only public product. It is a native iPhone document scanner with the following capabilities:
The app requires iOS 18.0 or later and is designed for iPhone first, with iPad support.
On-device processing is not an opt-in privacy upgrade. It is how the entire app is built. There is no cloud OCR option that quietly uploads your documents for "better accuracy." Recognition runs locally.
You can install ScanLens and use it without ever creating an account. We do not have an analytics SDK that records what you tap, how long you stay, or which documents you scan. We use Apple's standard subscription receipt validation through StoreKit and that is the extent of identifiable data we touch.
The free tier is genuinely useful. The premium tier exists because building, testing, and supporting the app costs money — not because we want to gate basic functionality. The lifetime option exists because subscriptions are not for everyone, and we want users to have a non-recurring choice.
We do not buy fake reviews, we do not invent user counts, and we do not claim ratings we have not earned. If you see a number on this site, it represents something real.
For support, feedback, partnership inquiries, or press requests, use our contact form. We read every message and typically respond within 24 hours.
For privacy-specific questions, see our Privacy Policy. For terms of use, see our Terms of Service.
ScanLens was born from a specific frustration: existing scanner apps either required accounts, uploaded documents to external servers, or were loaded with ads. Some did all three. We tried many of them — apps that wanted access to our contacts for no clear reason, apps that routed OCR through remote servers with vague data-retention policies, apps that inserted watermarks on free scans to pressure upgrades. None of them felt right for scanning a lease agreement, a medical form, or a passport.
We wanted a scanner that processes everything on-device, does not require sign-up, and treats your documents as none of our business. So we built one. Development started in late 2025, and ScanLens launched on the App Store in early 2026.
The app is built by BITFORGE PTE. LTD., a software company registered in Singapore. We are a small, independent team. There is no parent company, no external investors dictating product decisions, and no pressure to monetize user data. The people who build ScanLens are the same people who decide what it does and does not do.
Our goal was not to build the scanner app with the most features. It was to build the one you can trust with sensitive documents — and then make it genuinely good at scanning too.
Privacy claims are common in app marketing. What matters is the technical architecture behind them. Here is how ScanLens is actually built, and why each decision matters for the security of your documents:
Every core operation — scanning, edge detection, perspective correction, OCR text recognition, and image enhancement — runs locally on your iPhone using Apple's Neural Engine and Vision framework. Your documents never touch our servers during scanning or OCR. This is not a privacy toggle you can enable; it is the only way the app works. There is no cloud OCR fallback. The benefit is straightforward: if your documents never leave your device during processing, they cannot be intercepted, stored, or leaked by a third party during that process.
ScanLens does not require you to create an account. You can install the app and use every scanning feature without providing an email address, phone number, or any other personal information. From a security perspective, this means we have no user database to breach. There is no central repository of user credentials, email addresses, or profile data associated with ScanLens accounts — because ScanLens accounts do not exist.
We do not embed third-party analytics SDKs (such as Firebase Analytics, Mixpanel, or Amplitude) inside ScanLens. This means there is no third-party code running inside the app that we do not fully control. Every line of code that executes on your device was written or explicitly chosen by our team. We use Apple's StoreKit for subscription validation and that is the only external service the app communicates with.
ScanLens supports AES-256 encryption for sensitive PDFs, allowing you to password-protect documents before sharing or exporting them. The app also offers App Lock using Face ID, Touch ID, or a device passcode, so that even if someone has physical access to your unlocked iPhone, they cannot open ScanLens without biometric authentication or your code.
For a detailed explanation of how ScanLens protects your documents, see Document Security on iPhone. For the full privacy policy, see our Privacy Policy.
We believe in being transparent about how our business works, because it directly affects how we treat your data.
ScanLens is free to download with a generous free tier. Free users get full access to document scanning, on-device OCR, PDF export, and basic PDF tools — with no watermarks, no scan limits, and no ads. The free tier is designed to be genuinely useful on its own, not a demo that pressures you into paying.
Premium features — including cloud sync to iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive; DOCX and XLSX export; advanced PDF tools like merge, split, compress, annotate, watermark, and e-signatures — are available through paid plans:
There are no ads inside the app. We do not sell user data. There is no "free trial" that silently converts into a paid subscription. If you subscribe, you do so through Apple's standard in-app purchase system, and you can cancel at any time through your iPhone's Settings. For full pricing details, see the pricing page.
This model is simple: we make money when users decide the premium features are worth paying for. That is the only revenue stream. It means our incentives are aligned with building a better product, not with collecting more data.
We are reachable and accountable. If you have questions, feedback, or a problem with the app, we want to hear about it.
We read and respond to every message, typically within 24 hours.
For legal and policy documents:
Privacy-first document scanning for iPhone. Free to start, no account required.