Comparison

DEVONthink To Go 4 vs PDFScanner Neo

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

PDFScanner Neo

Easily scan paper documents into searchable PDFs using your device camera or network hardware scanners. Offers features like OCR, automatic page cleanup, and smart saving for efficient document capture and organization.

Highlights
  • Scan from Wi-Fi and network scanners
  • Scan with device camera
  • Optical character recognition (OCR)
  • Automatic page cleanup and correction
  • Fast page organization
  • Compact PDF export
  • Smart Save with presets
Features
Read full description

PDF Scanning reimagined - from hardware scanners on your network or using the device camera on your iPhone or iPad! PDFScanner Neo brings the features you love from the Mac version of PDFScanner to mobile platforms: hardware scanner access, a fast and simple workflow, and minimal file sizes. The App is still very fresh, but its feature set is already larger than that of the Mac version and the whole experience has been completely redesigned around a mobile-first workflow. And of course, all your documents stay completely private: PDFScanner Neo has no tracking, no ads and does not send any information to any external servers. Scan paper documents, letters, receipts and notes directly into compact, searchable PDF files. PDFScanner Neo is built for people who want to capture documents quickly, keep them organized, and find them again later. Even on the go, when the hardware scanner at home is out of reach. Or if you do not have one at all. PDFScanner Neo supports the following features: • Scan from Wi-Fi and network scanners with AirScan/eSCL support • Scan with the built-in document camera on iPhone and iPad, including automatic perspective correction • Optical character recognition to make scanned documents searchable, for example with Spotlight • Invisible OCR text layer inside the PDF, so text can be found, selected and copied in other PDF apps • Automatic page cleanup, including deskewing and rotation correction • Fast page organization with reordering, deletion and more actions for single pages or batches of selected pages • Compact PDF export designed for scanned documents • High compression for black-and-white scans, including very small file sizes for archiving • Open existing PDF files or import additional PDF pages into the current scan workspace • Smart Save with presets, filename patterns, keywords and quick actions for faster recurring workflows • Customizable export filenames, including date-based and document-based naming • Automatic blank page removal for cleaner scan batches • Share or export finished PDFs directly from the scan workspace PDFScanner Neo is not a general-purpose document manager. It is focused on one task: scanning paper documents into clean, compact and searchable PDF files as quickly as possible. Advanced features require PDFScanner Neo Pro. Scanning and saving are always available in the free app, without restrictions.

Screenshots

DEVONthink To Go 44 screens
PDFScanner Neo4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: DEVONthink To Go 4 at 43% against PDFScanner Neo's 0%. DEVONthink To Go 4 also leads on rating (4.7 vs 2.0) and ratings volume (226 vs 4). PDFScanner Neo's advantage is update cadence (every 10 days vs every 3 weeks). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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 PDFScanner Neo sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. 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 2.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: DEVONthink To Go 4 has 226 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 43% of DEVONthink To Go 4's written reviews are positive against 0% of PDFScanner Neo's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

DEVONthink To Go 4 ships an update every 3 weeks, PDFScanner Neo every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 17, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
DEVONthink To Go 4 versus PDFScanner Neo: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDEVONthink To Go 4PDFScanner Neo
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (226 ratings) — better2.0 (4 ratings)
Positive reviews42.9% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings226 — better4
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 10 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.026.0
Further details — not scored
Size191 MB20 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperDEVONtechnologies, LLCFelix Rotthowe

Customer experience

DEVONthink To Go 4

All ratings226 ratings
Positive92.5%
Neutral2.7%
Negative4.9%
Written reviews28 reviews
Positive42.9%
Neutral21.4%
Negative35.7%

PDFScanner Neo

All ratings4 ratings
Positive25.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative75.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

DEVONthink To Go 4

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

PDFScanner Neo

Subscriptions2
  • Neo Pro Monthly7 Days trial$3.991 Month
  • Neo Pro Yearly7 Days trial$44.991 Year

Questions

Is DEVONthink To Go 4 free?
DEVONthink To Go 4 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PDFScanner Neo free?
PDFScanner Neo is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, DEVONthink To Go 4 or PDFScanner Neo?
DEVONthink To Go 4 is rated higher. DEVONthink To Go 4 averages 4.7 out of 5 from 226 ratings, while PDFScanner Neo averages 2.0 from 4 ratings.
Do DEVONthink To Go 4 or PDFScanner Neo have ads?
Neither DEVONthink To Go 4 nor PDFScanner Neo shows ads.
Which is updated more often, DEVONthink To Go 4 or PDFScanner Neo?
DEVONthink To Go 4 ships an update every 3 weeks, and PDFScanner Neo every 10 days. Most recently, DEVONthink To Go 4 was updated on September 23, 2026 and PDFScanner Neo on September 17, 2026.

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