Set it up once.
Connect the places your documents already land. From then on they arrive filed and understood, every date with what to do.
Everything in Family for your first 14 days, then free forever for your first 100 documents. No card to enter.
Mac document management
Thaw vs DEVONthink
Mac power users with a local DEVONthink database, smart groups, and years of scans.
DEVONthink is deep, local and fast, with real classification help ("See Also & Classify") and OCR. It is also a single-computer, single-person tool at heart. Thaw is hosted, shared across a household, and knows what a document means as well as where it belongs.
Side by side
| Thaw | DEVONthink | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Hosted; the household and a CPA can be invited. | Local databases on your Mac, with optional sync between your own devices. |
| How documents get in | Connected once to email, a scanner, a Google Drive or Dropbox folder, Gmail, and your phone; documents arrive on their own from then on. Forward or drop in anything yourself, and bring the pile you have through an Evernote, paperless-ngx or folder import. | Inbox folder, mail import, scanner integration, clipping. Strong on the Mac. |
| Classification | Taken from the page by Thaw, from a list of kinds; facts, dates, subjects. | Suggests a group from similar documents; version 4 adds a chat that can summarize and tag with an online or local model. Metadata by hand. |
| Dates and checkup | Every renewal, expiry, due date and notice period becomes an item with what happens if missed and what to do, from the document itself. Resolved by the next document. Knows what a person, vehicle, property, pet or business should have on file; lists what is missing, lapsed, expired or duplicated, worst first, with where to get it. | Reminders per item. No checkup. |
| Ownership | Originals in a folder tree named the way Thaw names them, plus every fact as CSV and JSON, and a continuous mirror to your own Dropbox or Drive folder. | Everything local; unrivalled ownership. |
| Price | Free tier, then from $8 a month. | One-time license: Standard $99, Pro $199, Server $499, two seats with a year of updates. |
Stay with DEVONthink if
- You want everything local and you work alone.
- You use its research features far beyond document filing.
Move to Thaw if
- The rest of the household needs in.
- You want to be told what is missing.
Emaila rule you set once3 this week
Google Drivethe Family folder, watched2 this week
Scannersends straight to Thaw1 this week
Phonethe camera, for what only exists on paper
This week: 6 arrived, 6 filed, none touched by hand.