Comparison

Cut Calculator vs PDF

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Cut Calculator

This app helps you plan cuts for various materials to minimize waste and save money. It accommodates different units of measurement and material sizes, factoring in saw blade width for optimal planning. Save, print, and export your cutting plans.

Highlights
  • Minimizes material waste
  • Supports various units (feet, inches, cm, mm)
  • Accommodates multiple material sizes
  • Accounts for saw blade width (kerf)
  • Optimizes sheet goods cuts (with/without grain)
  • Save, load, and print cutting plans
  • Export shopping lists
Features
Read full description

*** Winner of This Old House's Top 100: Best New Home Products *** "Enter the lengths of lumber, sheet goods, crown molding, pipe, and other materials for a project and this app produces a cutting plan that gets the most out of your stock, minimizing waste. Invaluable. " - This Old House Magazine Ever get to the end of a project and you don't have a piece big enough to finish the job? Guess what, you didn't plan the cut combinations and now you're heading back to the home improvement store to buy more material. Not any more with Cut Calculator! Don't get caught with wrong material estimates again. Cut Calculator will help minimize the amount of material you need to buy, accommodating all of your cut sizes. Perfect for linear cuts such as baseboard molding, crown molding, pipe, lumber AND area cuts such as plywood or drywall. Cut Calculator will plan your cuts to save you money! Cut Calculator is a contractor's, a carpenter's and do-it-yourself'ers must have!! FEATURES: * Add all of your cuts in feet, inches, centimeters, and millimeters. You can use fractions or decimal. Even mix between imperial and metric * Add multiple available material sizes. Cut Calculator is going to figure out how to minimize waste with any combination * Add your saw blade width (kerf) and Cut Calculator is smart enough to know that a 3 ft. cut and a 7 ft. cut will no longer work on the same 10 ft. board * For sheet goods, Cut Calculator allows you to factor in wood grain or ignore it, all while optimizing your cut plan * Save your Plans for later, load up old Plans is fast and easy * View and print a PDF of your plan design * Export your shopping list to email, iMessage, or copy into any App Avoid one mishap using this App, and Cut Calculator has paid for itself, and then some!! Don't just take our word for it: "Some people have a hard time visualizing the best way to utilize materials, and Cut Calculator creates a picture illustration of your materials and your cuts to help you best utilize what you have" - MacNewsWorld, June 2013 Featured by Apple as a New and Noteworthy App - Utilities

About

PDF

Features
Read full description

PDF: Viewer - Editor is your all-in-one solution for viewing, editing, and managing PDF documents on iPhone and iPad. Designed with professionals and students in mind, this powerful app combines intuitive design with advanced features to make working with PDFs effortless. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

PDF4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: PDF at Free against Cut Calculator's $1.99. PDF also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 18.6). Cut Calculator's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and update cadence (every 4 weeks vs every 4 months). On ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

PDF is free to download; Cut Calculator costs $1.99 up front. PDF sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Cut Calculator asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Cut Calculator ships an update every 4 weeks, PDF every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Cut Calculator versus PDF: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCut CalculatorPDF
Price$1.99Free — better
Rating4.3 (124 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews80.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings124 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 4 weeks — betterEvery 4 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS18.615.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size52 MB45 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBugfoot Studios LLCBeshoy Nabil

Bugs and requests

Cut Calculator

Reported bugs

9 issues
  • Print function crashes and produces blank pages
  • Export file function crashes app
  • App incompatible with iOS 14 and later
  • Calculator UI elements disappear after entering first dimensions
  • No auto-save functionality
Show 4 more
  • App crashes when switching grain direction
  • PDF creation produces blank output
  • Kerf width setting doesn't actually affect calculations
  • Dimension input validation issues with metric/imperial mixing

Requested features

18 requests
  • Support for multiple material thicknesses in single project
  • Ability to manually rearrange and snap pieces to grid
  • iPhone/Universal app version
  • Edit descriptions and quantities without deleting entries
  • Batch delete functionality for cuts
Show 13 more
  • Ability to input existing inventory/scrap material
  • Cost per board foot calculations
  • Pricing optimization based on material availability
  • Parametric parts with quantity adjustments
  • Default auto-rotate setting option
  • Color-coded cut pieces for clarity
  • Improved help documentation and training videos
  • Better optimization for table saw cutting patterns
  • Support for angled cuts
  • Ability to handle pieces longer than available material
  • Larger, more readable printed output with wider layout
  • Mac/macOS version
  • Better kerf width integration in calculations

PDF

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Cut Calculator

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

PDF

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Premium$4.991 Month
  • Yearly Premium$39.991 Year

Questions

Is Cut Calculator free?
Cut Calculator costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is PDF free?
PDF is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Cut Calculator or PDF have ads?
Neither Cut Calculator nor PDF shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Cut Calculator or PDF?
Cut Calculator ships an update every 4 weeks, and PDF every 4 months. Most recently, Cut Calculator was updated on October 23, 2026 and PDF on October 5, 2026.

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