DEVONThink standard vs DEVONThink Pro

Getting ready to press Buy but not finding it easy to decide on version.

There was a discussion back in Oct '19 there was a discussion “Difference between Devonthink 3 and Devonthink 3 Pro” but it did not reach a satisfactory conclusion. The table (and supporting text) at https://www.devontechnologies.com/apps/devonthink/editions really makes my head hurt.

Is there a succinct summary somewhere on the forums or elsewhere?

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I don’t think there is one.

What do you want to do with DEVONthink?

Welcome @grgw

As noted under the matrix on that page, anything listed is not in the Standard edition.

My problem is I don’t know how to “subtract” the matrix items from the free text description on that product page in order to get a clear picture of what’s in the Standard edition. It feels like a Standard vs Pro would be a more useful matrix; the only difference between Pro and Server is a single bullet!

I can’t complain though as there’s the Free Trial so I can work it out. Is the Free Trial for the Pro version?

Thanks for the help.

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Nothing exotic. Don’t want to buy Pro if I don’t need it, equally don’t want to create unnecessary workarounds if I end up with standard edition. Think I need to spend time with the Trial!

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The trial version has the features of the Server edition. And commands in DEVONthink with a blue star are only available in Pro or Server.

Indeed. Here’s a matrix of all editions

Feature Standard Pro Server
Annotations X X X
AppleScript X X X
Classify X X X
Encrypted databases X X X
Feeds X X X
Filters (dates, marks, tags, or geolocation) X X X
Indexing X X X
Item links X X X
Reading List X X X
Reminders X X X
See Also X X X
Smart Groups X X X
Smart Rules X X X
Smart Templates X X X
Synch X X X
Tags X X X
Bookends integration X X
Concordance X X
Custom metadata X X
Download Manager X X
Email archiving X X
Form views X X
Grouping similar items X X
Image Capture X X
Imprinting PDFs and images X X
OCR X X
Scanner integration X X
Web interface X
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Which lies in the eye of the beholder, doesn’t it? For one it might be OCR for Thai, for someone else it might be synchronization across devices, for a third person something else entirely.

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Thanks BLUEFROG,

If I end up purchasing the Pro version, can I just apply the license and keep working on the environment created using the the trial version? Or will I need to re-create my environment (e.g. imports from Evernote)? I saw a previous comment about there not being a direct route between Standard and Pro versions.

There should be no interruption at all. When you use the Pro license, it will just unlock the features of the Pro edition. Nothing more needs to be done.

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In his book Taking Smart Notes with Devonthink, Kourosh Dini uses Custom Metadata throughout. Of course, he’s trying to bend Devonthink into a Zettelkasten, which might not be the direction you want to go.

Thanks for the matrix, exactly the quick info I was hoping they would have on DEVONtechnologies | DEVONthink Editions but they don’t include the standard one.

Much appreciated.

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I know this is over a year old, but this matrix was super helpful. Thank you.

I’d love for it to be on the main marketing website.

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Ditto. My impression is DT’s marketing team want to position the Pro version as the “standard” edition by barely mentioning that there is a standard version on their site.

When comparing features, the only one I recognize between Standard and Pro is OCR, and my Brother scanner and PDF Pen apps already do that.

There’s email archiving and imprinting, too.

And not at all to forget Custom Metadata. Never without.

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And the Concordance, for those who need it.

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