Raycast vs PDF Toolbox
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Raycast
This app extends your desktop productivity to your mobile device. It offers AI chat, note-taking, quick links, code snippets, and seamless cloud synchronization. Keep your essential tools and ideas accessible anywhere.
- AI chat with multiple models
- Capture and organize notes
- Save and access Quicklinks
- Store code snippets and templates
- Seamless cloud sync across devices
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Introducing Raycast for iOS: Your all-in-one productivity toolkit with AI, notes, and more – now on mobile as the perfect companion to the macOS app. The app brings your favorite productivity tools from the Mac into your pocket. With Raycast for iOS, you can: • Chat with dozens of AI models from leading providers to get the perfect answers for any task • Capture, organize, and access your thoughts to never lose an important idea again • Save and open Quicklinks for instant access to your most important resources • Store and reuse code snippets and templates to save time on repetitive workflows • Enjoy seamless cloud sync to keep all your content updated across devices Whether you're a long-time Mac user or just discovering Raycast on iOS, you'll have your essential productivity tools always at hand. Raycast for iOS seamlessly extends your desktop workflow to mobile, ensuring you stay productive and organized wherever life takes you. Please note: Raycast for iOS requires a free Raycast account. Premium features available with a Raycast Pro subscription. Terms of Service: https://www.raycast.com/terms-of-service
PDF Toolbox
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Fifteen tools, one app, bought once: - Split a PDF by page ranges (1-3,7,9-12) or every N pages - Merge several PDFs into one — in order, interleaved, or reversed - Compress a PDF and see the real before/after size - Add a watermark — text, angle, opacity, placement - Add Bates numbers — prefix, starting number, zero-padding - Set or remove a password and its permissions - Read the words off a scan, so they can be selected and searched - Run split, compress, watermark, page numbers, Bates, rotate, password or form-fill across many files The real problem with a PDF app is not whether it works offline. It is what it does to your file once you trust it: corrupted files, blank saves, lost annotations, disappearing pages. PDF Toolbox is built around one rule: your file is never modified, and every PDF it writes is checked before you see it. WHAT'S IN 2.0 - Pages — split by ranges or every N pages, extract, reorder, delete, rotate, duplicate a page - Convert — scan with your camera, photos into a PDF, a PDF into JPEG, PNG, or HEIC images - Reduce — compress while keeping text selectable, or rasterize the pages for the smallest file - Mark — watermark, page numbers, Bates numbering, headers and footers - Mark up — highlight, underline, strike through, note, or draw on the page - Sign — draw or type a signature, then place and scale it - Forms — fill in a PDF form, or lock the answers in - Text — copy, search, and extract all the text in a document - Files — open from Files, iCloud, Mail, or Safari; recents one tap away - Home, Tools, Scan and Settings tabs; every tool in its own colour - iPad — full support, either orientation HOW WE PROTECT YOUR FILE Your original is opened read-only and is never the file PDF Toolbox writes to. Every job builds a new file in a private, temporary location, checks it, and only then hands it to you — through the share sheet or Save to Files. If a check fails, you get a plain error and no file — never a broken one labeled as done. What gets checked on every PDF this app writes: it opens correctly in two independent PDF readers, it has exactly the pages it should, no page comes out blank that wasn't blank in your original, the text you had is still there and still selectable wherever the job promises it, and your original is confirmed untouched — the same SHA-256, byte for byte, before and after. Above 64 MB it is checked on size, date and its first and last megabyte instead, and the receipt says "size and date unchanged" when that is what ran. Two things get fewer than nine, and say so: the strongest compression rasterizes the pages, so its receipt reads "pages rasterized — text no longer selectable" instead of the text clause; and page images and extracted text are not PDFs, so they arrive named and sized under "Saved" rather than "Verified". You see it before you export: the file, named and sized, every check ticked off beneath it. HONEST LIMITS Signing draws your signature onto the page. It is not a legal e-signature service — no identity verification, no audit trail, no certificate. Reading the words off a scan is never perfect. PDF Toolbox lays what it read invisibly over the picture and never alters the page you scanned. Locking a form's answers in flattens dropdown fields showing their first choice rather than the one you picked. Type the answer into a text field if the exact wording matters. PDF Toolbox does not convert Word or Office files to PDF, and it never will. iOS has no on-device way to do that correctly, and we will not upload your file to a server to fake it. Compression can only shrink pictures — a document that is already just text and lines has nothing left to squeeze, and PDF Toolbox says which of those it found rather than inventing a percentage. THE TERMS Bought once. No subscription, no in-app purchases, no ads. Fully offline — no account, no analytics, no network requests. Already own PageSplit? It is now PDF Toolbox, and 2.0 is a free update — no new charge.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Raycast at Free against PDF Toolbox's $2.99. Raycast also leads on update cadence (every 11 days vs every 2 months). PDF Toolbox's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 6). On ads, device support and iOS requirement 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
Raycast is free to download; PDF Toolbox costs $2.99 up front. Raycast sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. PDF Toolbox asks for nothing beyond the download.
Raycast ships an update every 11 days, PDF Toolbox every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and September 26, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Raycast | PDF Toolbox |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $2.99 |
| Rating | 4.5 (242 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 54.8% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 242 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 11 days — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 239 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Raycast Technologies | NOSHU, llc |
Bugs and requests
Raycast
Reported bugs
1 issue- Sync feature should be free at least for Raycast notes
Requested features
4 requests- Attach documents via the UI when starting a conversation
- Sync between desktop and iOS chat history
- Create notes quickly from the Share Sheet
- Extensions support
PDF Toolbox
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Raycast
- Pro7 Days trial$9.991 Month
- Advanced AI$19.991 Month
- Max Plan$49.991 Month
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- Pro14 Days trial$96.001 Year
- Advanced AI$191.991 Year
- Max Plan$479.991 Year
PDF Toolbox
No in-app purchases









