Scan Things vs Context Panel
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Extract objects from images
- Extract text from images and PDFs
- Save as searchable PDF
- On-device processing
- No account required
- Offline functionality
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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/
Context Panel
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Context Panel companion lets you view AI usage limits synced from your Mac on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro. It shows remaining capacity, provider/account status, reset timing, and stale or unavailable sync states from the same local-first Context Panel setup on your Mac. Use the companion app and widgets as glanceable surfaces while setup, diagnostics, provider credentials, and detailed history stay on the Mac app.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Context Panel at none against Scan Things's 1. Context Panel also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs every 6 weeks) and device support (6 vs 3). On price, ads 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
Both are free to download. Scan Things sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Context Panel asks for nothing beyond the download.
Scan Things ships an update every 6 weeks, Context Panel every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Scan Things | Context Panel |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.9 (7 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 37.5% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 7 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 222 MB | 38 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Operates Spaceships LLC | Shiny Computers |
In-app purchases
Scan Things
- Unlimited Scans$6.99
Context Panel
No in-app purchases









