Comparison

DEVONthink To Go 4 vs Scan Things

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

Head to head
About

DEVONthink To Go 4

Manage your entire knowledge library on your iPad and iPhone. Organize, edit, and annotate documents, notes, and more. Leverage generative AI for summaries, content creation, and advanced search. Syncs privately and securely across devices.

Highlights
  • Document organization and management
  • AI-powered summaries and content creation
  • PDF annotation and editing
  • On-device OCR for searchable documents
  • Cross-device secure synchronization
  • Custom metadata and tagging
  • Shortcuts automation
Features
Read full description

Your entire knowledge library. Always with you. Always private. DEVONthink To Go is your document repository when you're not at your Mac. Collect, organize, edit, and annotate. Use generative AI to work with your stored knowledge or create new documents. Automate with Shortcuts. Our time-tested technology keeps all your data in sync between your Mac, iPad, and iPhone, privately and securely. The professional document and information manager for iPad and iPhone. From DEVONtechnologies, driving innovation since 2002. - Students: Annotate research papers with AI-powered summaries - Teachers: Organize your materials, use AI to create handouts and tests - Researchers: Have your data with you in a robust, powerful knowledge manager - Lawyers: Keep all case files organized and encrypted Have your important documents with you at all times: - Never lose an important document again, keep everything organized - Store PDFs, notes, images, bookmarks, just about any type - File your documents in groups, even more than one group at a time - Use tags, mark documents with flags or as unread, give them a star rating - Versioning lets you return to a previous state of a document - Revision-proof databases prevent edits to documents with special requirements - Sync your data between Macs, iPads, and iPhones, securely and privately Work with your documents: - Edit texts, Markdown files, or rich text documents - Annotate and edit PDFs with common tools - Make scans, scanned PDFs, or images searchable with the built-in, on-device OCR - Add custom, searchable metadata fields to enrich your documents Use generative AI: - Work with your favorite provider and model - Chat with your documents, analyze or summarize them - Transform text or extract text from images and even handwritten notes - Create new images from your data - Find documents using natural language with the AI-powered search assistant - Let the AI make order from chaos, rename documents, add tags, or label or rate them DEVONthink To Go is well-integrated with other apps: - Link to your documents from other apps with universal links - Access all your documents also through the Files app - Clip data from almost any app with the Clip to DEVONthink extension - Use drag-and-drop, inside DEVONthink To Go or between apps - Automate repetitive tasks with Shortcuts actions DEVONthink To Go is great standalone but also works perfectly with DEVONthink for Mac and across multiple devices. Synchronize your databases securely and privately over the local network or through a cloud service of your choice. You decide what data is synced, when, and where. Strong encryption makes sure that your data belongs to you, not to your service provider or us. Privacy policy: https://www.devontechnologies.com/r/privacy End user license agreement: https://www.devontechnologies.com/r/eula

About

Scan Things

Extract objects, people, pets, and artwork from images, URLs, or PDFs. Capture books and documents with searchable, selectable text embedded in PDFs. All processing is done on-device for maximum privacy.

Highlights
  • Extract objects from images
  • Extract text from images and PDFs
  • Save as searchable PDF
  • On-device processing
  • No account required
  • Offline functionality
Read full description

With Scan Things, you can extract objects, people, pets, artwork and just about anything else from any image, image URL, or PDF document.  Scan Things can also capture books and documents with the original images intact and the text extracted and embedded. You can save your scan as a single- or multi-page PDF with all its text fully searchable and selectable. You don't need an account to use Scan Things. You don't need internet access. Your scans never leave your iPhone or iPad as Scan Things does all of its processing on-device. Because your privacy is important (not to mention none of our business), we collect no data whatsoever and we don't use any third-party code. Your privacy is yours, and we think it should stay that way. You can get Scan Things for a one-time purchase and share it with your family at no extra cost. No subscriptions. No adds. No shenanigans. Privacy Policy: https://scanthing.app/privacy-policy/ Terms of Use: https://scanthing.app/terms-of-use/

Screenshots

DEVONthink To Go 44 screens
Scan Things1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: DEVONthink To Go 4 at 4.7 against Scan Things's 3.9. DEVONthink To Go 4 also leads on ratings volume (260 vs 7). Scan Things's advantage is monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and iOS requirement (17.6 vs 26.0). On price, review sentiment, update cadence and 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

Both are free to download. DEVONthink To Go 4 sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and Scan Things sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

DEVONthink To Go 4 holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: DEVONthink To Go 4 has 260 ratings behind it against 7, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 39% of DEVONthink To Go 4's written reviews are positive against 38% of Scan Things's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

DEVONthink To Go 4 ships an update every 3 weeks, Scan Things every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 8, 2026 and November 4, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
DEVONthink To Go 4 versus Scan Things: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDEVONthink To Go 4Scan Things
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (260 ratings) — better3.9 (7 ratings)
Positive reviews39.4% of reviews — better37.5% of reviews
Number of ratings260 — better7
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterEvery 6 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS26.017.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size193 MB222 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperDEVONtechnologies, LLCOperates Spaceships LLC

Customer experience

DEVONthink To Go 4

All ratings242 ratings
Positive92.6%
Neutral2.5%
Negative5.0%
Written reviews33 reviews
Positive39.4%
Neutral21.2%
Negative39.4%

Scan Things

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews8 reviews
Positive37.5%
Neutral0.0%
Negative62.5%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

DEVONthink To Go 4

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly1 Month trial$2.991 Month
  • Yearly1 Month trial$19.991 Year
1 purchases

Scan Things

One-time1
  • Unlimited Scans$6.99

Questions

Is DEVONthink To Go 4 free?
DEVONthink To Go 4 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Scan Things free?
Scan Things is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, DEVONthink To Go 4 or Scan Things?
DEVONthink To Go 4 is rated higher. DEVONthink To Go 4 averages 4.7 out of 5 from 260 ratings, while Scan Things averages 3.9 from 7 ratings.
Do DEVONthink To Go 4 or Scan Things have ads?
Neither DEVONthink To Go 4 nor Scan Things shows ads.
Which is updated more often, DEVONthink To Go 4 or Scan Things?
DEVONthink To Go 4 ships an update every 3 weeks, and Scan Things every 6 weeks. Most recently, DEVONthink To Go 4 was updated on November 8, 2026 and Scan Things on November 4, 2026.

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