Pasteboard Viewer vs Anvil
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pasteboard Viewer
This developer utility allows you to inspect system pasteboards, ensuring your app correctly places data. It provides live previews of text, RTF, images, and other content with Quick Look support. The app also hides outdated pasteboard types for a cleaner experience.
- Inspect system pasteboards
- Live content refresh
- Preview text, RTF, and images
- Quick Look preview support
- Hides obsolete pasteboard types
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Inspect the system pasteboard while developing your app. This is a developer utility that lets you inspect the system pasteboard. This can be useful to ensure your app is putting the correct data on UIPasteboard. The app refreshes the pasteboard contents live and can preview text, RTF, images, and anything that has a Quick Look preview. Note that this is not a clipboard manager. If you're not an iOS developer, you probably don't want this app. It hides obsolete system pasteboard types that have modern equivalents. This includes `CorePasteboardFlavorType`, `NSStringPboardType`, `NSFilenamesPboardType`, etc. Known issue: When the app runs on visionOS in compatibility mode, the system may show a lot of “pasted” notifications. This is a system bug.
Anvil
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Anvil is a pocket-sized toolbox of 17 everyday developer utilities. Every tool processes its input on your device. No account, no ads, no tracking, and no app backend. FORMAT & DECODE • JSON Formatter — beautify, minify, validate • Base64 — encode / decode text • URL — percent-encode / decode • JWT Decoder — inspect header & payload (local only) GENERATE • UUID — batch v4 identifiers • Hash — MD5 / SHA-1 / SHA-256 / SHA-512 • Random String — passwords & tokens • QR Code — share or save CONVERT • Number Base — bin / oct / dec / hex • Unix Time — epoch ↔ human date • Cron — explain expressions • Unicode — text ↔ \u escapes TEXT • Regex Tester — live matches & groups • Text Diff — compare two snippets • Case Converter — camel / snake / kebab … • Text Analyzer — characters, words, lines • List Comparer — intersection, union & diff SMART PASTE Copy something, open Anvil, and it points you to the right tool with your content already filled in. PRIVACY FIRST Tool inputs are processed on-device and are never uploaded. Anvil has no account, ads, analytics, or app backend. Optional Pro purchase and restore use Apple StoreKit. ANVIL PRO — one-time unlock, no subscription • Share Extension — run tools on text shared from any app • Shortcuts & Siri • Clipboard History • Optional Smart Paste auto-open (off by default) One-time purchase, no subscription.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Pasteboard Viewer at none against Anvil's 1. Anvil's advantage is update cadence (every 6 days vs every 5 months) and iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Anvil sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Pasteboard Viewer asks for nothing beyond the download.
Pasteboard Viewer ships an update every 5 months, Anvil every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pasteboard Viewer | Anvil |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (19 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 19 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Every 6 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 7 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Sindre Sorhus | 武汉回到未来科技有限公司 |
In-app purchases
Pasteboard Viewer
No in-app purchases
Anvil
- Anvil Pro$4.99









