DEVONthink 4
research database for documents, mail and scans that stays yours
Paid upgrades
The included year of updates is the thing to understand before buying: when it lapses your licence still never expires and the app is never restricted or deactivated, but you stay on the last version you received unless you pay to extend. The iOS companion, DEVONthink To Go, is a separate purchase - Pro includes five mobile seats and Server 25. Sync is bring-your-own (iCloud, Dropbox, WebDAV or local Bonjour), which is good for privacy and more setup work for you.
Cost over five years
$99 once = 10 months of Readwise. Over five years that is $600 rented against $99 owned — $501 kept, and you still have the app.
Readwise priced at $120 a year — full plan including Reader, at $9.99 a month billed annually. Checked 2026-09-22.
DEVONthink is a database for the documents you expect to need again in five years: scanned contracts, papers, saved web pages, exported email, plain-text notes. It OCRs what comes in, indexes the full text, and its "see also" feature keeps surfacing items you had forgotten were connected — that is the part people stay for. You can import files into a database or index a folder in place and leave your existing structure untouched.
The licence is why it belongs on this site. Ninety-nine dollars for Standard buys the app on two Macs plus a year of updates. When that year ends, nothing is taken away: the app keeps running, the databases keep opening, the licence is never deactivated. You simply stay on the last version you were sent until you decide to pay $49 to move forward again, and you are free to skip years.
It is not a light app. The interface is dense, the concepts — databases, groups, replicants, smart rules — take a weekend to sit with, and sync runs over your own iCloud, Dropbox or WebDAV rather than a hosted service you can blame. If what you actually want is a notes app with backlinks, this is the wrong shape and you will fight it. If you have a decade of files and no way to search across them, nothing else on the Mac does this job as thoroughly.
What it looks like
What it does
- Full-text search and OCR across PDFs, scans, email and notes
- Related-document suggestions via the "see also" engine
- Index folders in place instead of importing them
- Two Macs per licence, with encrypted databases
- Licence never expires and is never deactivated
Cancel instead
Also bought outright in writing
The facts
- Price
- $99
- What you get
- One payment, and the developer charges for major versions on a stated cadence.
- Details
- One-time: Standard $99, Pro $199, Server $499. Every licence covers two Macs and includes one year of updates. Extending updates later costs $49 / $99 / $149 a year, cheaper if prepaid (Standard: $44 for one year, $79 for two, $104 for three, when extended before the current window ends). Extra seats and academic discounts available. Trial is 30 days or 150 hours of runtime, whichever is longer.
- Free trial
- Yes
- On Setapp
- No
- Minimum macOS
- not stated
- Developer
- DEVONtechnologies
- Price checked
- 2026-09-22
Check it yourself - Price band
- $60 to $120