Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

GoodReader vs iFiles of the iPad

richimages

richimages

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 20, 2008
128
4
Southeastern US
If you've had an iPad for very long, you probably have GoodReader ... and for good reason ... it does a lot of things, and does them well.

The UI is not very organized in my opinion, but, one gets used to it very quickly.

However, there seems to be a new kid on the block, and seems to be maturing quite nicely: iFiles. Grant it, I've only had this app for a few days now, but I find the UI much nicer! And it seems to be doing everything that GoodReader does with no problems at all.

One thing I really like, is that you can customize the appearance of files with a background color ... kind of like color-coding the files, just a nice extra organize thing.

I would love to invest the time in a side by side comparison of these two wonderful apps, they are both so much more than mere file managers in that they can view and edit tons of formats, and can access sources like DropBox, etc ... but my life is busy busy busy these days, too busy to sit down and research the exact differences in them. So ... I wanted to start this thread, to see if the community wouldn't mind making a comment here and there to collect comparison points between the two.



If you contribute comparison tidbits, may I say in advance, "Thanks" ... I look forward to following this thread.
 
Last edited:
Just looked it up in iTunes. Doesn't look like it supports grabbing files from Email attachments. That's a big one for me. I'll pass for now, but I'll keep my eyes on it.
 
FileBrowser is another option. It's a great networking app and makes mounting shared volumes a breeze, including an AirPort Extreme USB drive or Time Capsule.
 
Thanks for the tip - I'll have to check it out. I've been using Goodreader for ages and it's a capable program but the interface is a bit of a mess. Does iFiles support syncing files and folders from online services such as Dropbox?

I've used FileBrowser in the past, but it only seems to support SMB shares, not online services such as Dropbox
 
iFiles is a great app that allows the iPad to be used as a File Browser. Goodreader also does that but from a different perspective. It isn't a file manager. It is just a reader app.
iFiles is a File Manager that allows copying, renaming, deleting and moving files that are stored on the cloud. Goodreader cannot do that. It allows managing file that are locally stored on the iPad.
Having said that, I wouldn't compare the two. Goodreader is a great file reader, while iFiles is a file manager. I use both for different reasons.
 
richimages said:
However, there seems to be a new kid on the block, and seems to be maturing quite nicely: iFiles.

If you haven't heard of iFiles, it's rather pricey ( as far as apps go ) but still cheap for capabilities it delivers;
.
Click to expand...

New kid on the block? this app has been around before the iPad existed... :rolleyes: Although, I admit, I don't know how long it has been a universal app.

And pricey?? it's $4. You are comparing it to goodreader which is... $5. PLUS iFiles is universal and goodreader is iPad only. (plus $5 more for the iPhone version)

Sorry, I'm not trying to be a jerk or a troll, but I just felt that would be relavent information for people comparing these apps.
 

File Browsing, from any source (local app's files, DropBox's files, custom FTP files etc ) is the uniform in iFiles, and it's much more intuitive. In GoodReader, the UI and navigation is different depending on whether it's local files in the app, or files from another source. It's not intuitive.

Here's a challenge / exercise to see what I mean: Use GoodReader and iFiles to navigate your DropBox for example ( any source's directory structure will be the same, whether it's DropBox, a custom FTP site that you use, etc ) .

With GoodReader, the app's local directory structure is ALWAYS DISPLAYED on the left. If you want to display the directory structure of something else, it will open on top of that in a pop-up. Not only that, but getting to the source of what you wish to open requires you to find the correct section on the right, "Connect to Servers". Kind of a clunky process - and gets messy looking during the navigation of external directory structures.

With iFiles, the source of any directory structure is displayed on the left half. If you'd like to switch sources, it's easy, just hit the button at the top to select a different source.

I know GoodReader has been around for quite some time. People get used to the way things work. But, still, even if someone were used to GoodReader, would they still not prefer the UI layout of iFiles better? Curious to get responses to this one point.

Thanks for sharing if you have a comment towards this point. GoodReader is great, but it could stand a UI overhaul IMPO.
 
petvas said:
iFiles is a great app that allows the iPad to be used as a File Browser. Goodreader also does that but from a different perspective. It isn't a file manager. It is just a reader app.
iFiles is a File Manager that allows copying, renaming, deleting and moving files that are stored on the cloud. Goodreader cannot do that. It allows managing file that are locally stored on the iPad.
Having said that, I wouldn't compare the two. Goodreader is a great file reader, while iFiles is a file manager. I use both for different reasons.
Click to expand...

Curious ... what can GoodReader do that iFiles can not do? Could help us start to compile a list? Thanks. I find that iFiles does do most of what GoodReader does ... but I'm sure I'm missing things.
 
Mad Mac Maniac said:
New kid on the block? this app has been around before the iPad existed... :rolleyes: Although, I admit, I don't know how long it has been a universal app.

And pricey?? it's $4. You are comparing it to goodreader which is... $5. PLUS iFiles is universal and goodreader is iPad only. (plus $5 more for the iPhone version)

Sorry, I'm not trying to be a jerk or a troll, but I just felt that would be relavent information for people comparing these apps.
Click to expand...

Thanks for point that out. I'm glad to learn that it has been around for a while. Guess I am advertising some ignorance. I said that because I only recently noticed the app. I love it.

Thanks again.
 
I love DropBox. Since Apple will not allow one app to access the files of another app ... DropBox has become a critical part of different people's workflow!

So, I have the DropBox app for sure. But I often find myself using iFiles instead of the native DropBox app to do file management there.

Especially when it concerns PICTURES. iFiles gives a thumbnail of the image next to it's name. Boy! That is NICE! Try using DropBox, or even GoodReader, to get the right image in a folder fill of images with the same template filename differing by a unique number as digital cameras default name: DSC_????.jpg. You'll find yourself hunting through all of the images. With iFiles, there's no need to flip through each one's download-to-display process, just look at the thumbnail and you have the file you were going after!

Love that one feature alone!
 
I prefer ReaddleDocs over anything else I've seen. Goodreader is nice.. but... ugly as crap and slow
 
gks said:
I prefer ReaddleDocs over anything else I've seen. Goodreader is nice.. but... ugly as crap and slow
Click to expand...

yep, Readdledocs is clean, simple and fast.

I stopped using Goodreader months ago.
 
richimages said:
I'll have to check that one out, thanks for the tip. What features to you love about it?
Click to expand...
I believe it's the only iPad app that can access an AirDisk, i.e. a USB drive plugged into an Airport Extreme. Or at least, it does it the easiest. I can keep files on a USB drive and don't need to clog up my iPad's limited space to access them quickly.

FileBrowser may even be the only iPad app that can do SMB sharing? I know iFiles still doesn't do that, and won't for some time (according to the developer's forum).
 
I use Goodreader with Dropbox and Air Sharing for File collecting...

This all works fine.
 
ZenViewer looks like it was written by someone who played a little too much Quake II. Very un-Apple looking. GoodReader's UI looks like a fish finder computer on a trawler. Way too many buttons.

iFiles looks promising.
 
richimages said:
You may want to try it ... iFiles opens files from email just fine. :)
Click to expand...

Just to clarify...

Like GoodReader, you can add your Gmail account as a source and download the files that come in as attachments?

If so, you should update your app store listings. I think that's a big deal for a lot of people. I remember people making a big fuss about it when Good Reader first introduced this feature.
 
What I like about GoodReader (the iPhone version) is that it extracts/displays text from PDF and reformats it to fit the screen, which makes PDF reading on the iPhone so much easier (like reading an e-book). Can iFiles do that?

Boy, wouldn't that be nice if the iPhone would allow file exchange (at least a system-wide "Share" folder (other than the camera roll) and you could delete an app w/o losing all the associated data...
 
ReaddleDocs might be a better solution if you prefer easy and intuitive interface. It creates flawless work process as a professional file manager/viewer.

In addition, ReaddleDocs lets you save email attachments, access 2-way Dropbox sync, provides 512mb of free storage (ReaddleStorage). You can even use AirPlay. Moreover, you can share your files from iPad to iPad ( or iPhone) if both people have ReaddleDocs installed on their iDevices.

We always listen to people, that's why we have been working on improvements of ReaddleDocs for more than 3 years. Of course, this paid off: top position in business category of the AppStore, favourable reviews of tuaw, app modo, app advice, MacWorld and so on. Our iPhone version of ReaddleDocs was awarded by Gizmodo as a best file sharing app.

I hope this info helped you a bit.

Should you have any questions, I will gladly answer all of them ;)
 
Last edited:
Mawal said:
yep, Readdledocs is clean, simple and fast.

I stopped using Goodreader months ago.
Click to expand...

readdledocs is slow, unresponsive when rendering pictures and slow with PDFs as well. not to mention that it almost never gets updated.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back