# ByteCake vs SmoothOCR

The clearest difference is price: ByteCake at Free against SmoothOCR's $3.99. ByteCake also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). SmoothOCR's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and update cadence (fortnightly vs every 5 months). On ads and device support there is nothing between them.

ByteCake is free to download; SmoothOCR costs $3.99 up front. ByteCake sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. SmoothOCR asks for nothing beyond the download.

ByteCake ships an update every 5 months, SmoothOCR fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on May 17, 2026 and August 6, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | ByteCake | SmoothOCR |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | **Free** | $3.99 |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| In-app purchases | Yes | **No** |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | **Fortnightly** |
| Monetization | — | Paid |
| Size | 282 MB | 1 MB |
| Requires iOS | **15.0** | 17.0 |
| Devices | **iPhone, iPad, iPod** | iPhone, iPad |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [帅 杨](https://appshunter.io/developer/1050541431) | [Shinya Saito](https://appshunter.io/developer/1716313060) |

## What reviewers say

### ByteCake

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bytecake/id6448614302)

**Features:** macOS Compatibility

**In-app purchases (1)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| ChatFiles | $0.99 | one-time |


### SmoothOCR

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/smoothocr/id6476489172)

This application converts camera-captured text into editable digital text. It supports continuous scanning, multi-page management, and multilingual recognition, including Japanese vertical writing. Output options include text files, PDFs, and iCloud synchronization.

**Highlights:** Continuous text scanning, Multi-page management, Text editing, TXT and PDF file export, iCloud data synchronization, Multilingual support

**Features:** macOS Compatibility, Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases:** none


## Frequently asked questions

### Is ByteCake free?

ByteCake is free to download, with in-app purchases available.

### Is SmoothOCR free?

SmoothOCR costs $3.99, with no in-app purchases.

### Do ByteCake or SmoothOCR have ads?

Neither ByteCake nor SmoothOCR shows ads.

### Which is updated more often, ByteCake or SmoothOCR?

ByteCake ships an update every 5 months, and SmoothOCR fortnightly. Most recently, ByteCake was updated on May 17, 2026 and SmoothOCR on August 6, 2026.

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*Compared by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/) from daily US App Store data. Review summaries are generated from verbatim App Store reviews.*