PitStop vs pdfToolbox

[MacTwidget]

I am just getting back on these forums after a hiatus of a few years, so I'm sure I have missed a discussion about this.
In the past +/- 20 years I have only been exposed to Enfocus PitStop. I am now working in an environment that utilizes both PitStop and Callas pdfToolbox. Can you tell me what you like or don't like comparing the two products?

 

[chriscozi]

I think it is Callas pdfToolbox - for those looking on line.

 

[Hell]

They have similarities and differences.
I find both useful as they complement each other.

 

[michaelejahn]

Full Disclosure : I used to work for Enfocus. I loved to demo PitStop Server / Enfocus Action Lists to take a PDF from one condition automatically into another. Very Powerful tools.
I am personal friends with Peter Camps who invented "Tailor" which was the PostScript display editor ( ran on a SUN ) which we used. Brilliant man, great guy.

I also am buddies with Olaf Drummer, founder of Callas. Key take way is that Adobe Licensed Callas code / Libraries' - which is what you see within The Adobe Acrobat Profession Preflight and Fixups. pdfToolBox is also awesome.

Sorry @MacTwidget - my reply probably does not help you decide to acquire one over the other - PistStop and pdfToolBox BOTH are invaluable tools if you live in a world where the PDF files you receive need to be modified BEFORE you print them.

But selecting one or the other gives you more tools than you probably will ever use day to day, so, you can't go wrong no matter which one you select.

 

[abc]

Desktop/Plugin or Server versions?

 

[Tom Peire]

My answer won’t be 100% unbiased either, but abc’s question and some of Michael comments are a good starting point.
The Plug-in/Desktop products follow a somewhat different philosophy. Enfocus PitStop has a point and click approach. You select an element and you can change it. That is great for last minute corrections. pdfToolbox does not offer that. This illustrator like functionality is further completed with GlobalActions and ActionLists which Michael described and allow apply changes to an entire page or a document. Again in the desktop version pdfToolbox offers that as Switchboard Actions and ProcessPlans. I would argue that building a Process Plan in pdfToolbox is less daunting that an ActionList in PitStop, but that comes down to experience I guess. pdfToolbox can be installed as a standalone and a plug-in to Acrobat, while PitStop is only available as a plug-in.
When it comes to automation, if you have many users on PitStop Pro, PitStop Server seems an obvious choice. In reality we see many mixed environments. pdfTtolbox Server has more deployment options. It runs on Linux and Unix (next to and and Mac), has Cloud licensing options which allow you to auto-scale with your cloud environment. PitStop Server these days is bundled with Switch, which adds some additional file moving automation capabilities in there for the price. However there is a Switch configurator/app for pdfToolbox Server so, budget aside, you can easily combine these as well. Further customer feedback tells us that pdfToolbox Server is more stable in high-volume/peak environments in which PiitStop seems to fall over more easily. I would be curious to get feedback from the community on that.
When it comes to individual features, it has become virtually impossible to compare. As Michael says, both technologies give you more probably more functionality than you require. Best is to reach out to separate resellers/integrators for each of the products, as each has their preference, and get a demo based on your requirements.