21 Best OCR Software in 2023 (2024)

Do you remember the last time you enjoyed filling out a PDF form? Me neither.

If you’re stuck with a pile of bills and invoices, OCR is your rescue call. It detects and categorizes the text of your document, exports it to an editable file, and saves it on your computer.

Going paperless has become the new normal as businesses seek to reduce their paper consumption.

OCR's built-in mechanism is designed to optimize a company’s resources and create green data centers that reduce carbon emissions in the outside world.

We all know that searching a pile of documents to find a specific one can be quite monotonous. Further, scanning and rewriting original content can also take up a lot of bandwidth. OCR combines the power of word processors like Google Docs or Microsoft Word with PDF processors like Adobe Reader to automate content creation and collaboration.

Let’s delve deeper into the numerous options for OCR software to see which platform is best for your team.

Back in the day, businesses used to scan and enter data manually. The flatbed and sheet-fed scanners outputted a raster image of the document that was a reference point for the data operator. OCR software enables you to transfer document content while maintaining the essence of the original content.

Some common use cases of OCR include multiple document scanning, automated data entry, speech-to-text conversion, and data mining.

You can easily integrate OCR with your existing company stack to maintain steady bus traffic, prioritize automation of content, and ensure smoothly-flowing processes. The accuracy rate of modern OCR software falls somewhere between 98% to 99%.

1. FineReader PDF for Windows and Mac

FineReader PDF for Windows and Mac is an all-in-one OCR, document management,and PDF converter. It unlocks, captures, retrieves, and shares data from physical paper to the cloud in the same workspace.

ABBYY FineReader PDF features

Enterprises that deal with PDF documents a lot specifically search for a PDF editor. Multiple users can collaborate over one or multiple PDF documents and edit information at the same time using ABBYY FineReader PDF. Some other features include:

• Easy navigation and access to PDFs in a centralized location.
• Creation of new editable PDFs so you can add, modify, delete, or sort information.
• Merging multiple documents or splitting a document to suit your business workflows.
• Built-in cloud-based typing assistant developed with AI and machine learning (ML) algorithms to correct grammatical errors.
• Collaboration tools to discuss and exchange ideas directly in PDFs.
• Keyword search to make your documents easy to find.
• Text overlays to annotate any part of your document.
• Maximum transparency and visibility across departments to make informed decisions.
• Insertion of clip art, footnotes, stamps, and other drawing shapes in your document.

ABBYY FineReader PDF pros and cons

Given the PDF-based nature of the software, it isn’t a good idea to use it for critical processes. But if you’re looking for a viable solution for PDF scanning and conversion, ABBYY FineReader has it all for you.

Watch the full video review

ABBYY FineReader PDF pros:

• Simple user interface (UI)
• Easy OCR of the full image and PDF scanning
• Advanced document protection and authentication
• Real-time collaboration across multiple users
• Multi-user collaboration for quick suggestions and approvals

ABBY FineReader PDF cons

• Limited Mac version compared to the Windows version
• No drag-and-drop functionality for documents in the form of icons in the dock
• Doesn’t work for every file format
• No handwriting recognition

ABBYY FineReader PDF pricing

ABBYY FineReader PDF has two separate pricing modules for individuals and businesses. Students or other users can easily install this software on their home PCs and optimize their PDF documents.

The pricing plans for individuals to choose from are:

For businesses, ABBYY FineReader PDF offers a 1 and 3-year license-based subscription model of three types:

1. Per seat
2. Remote user
3. Concurrent

Note that a minimum subscription of five licenses is required for the above-mentioned professional plans. The pricing varies on the business requirements of different private, public, and educational entities.

To learn more about pricing plans for ABBYY FineReader PDF, you can get in touch with their sales department.

ABBYY FineReader PDF paid plan

ABBYY FineReader PDF offers three versions of their product for different operating systems with different prices listed below:

1. FineReader PDF Standard for Windows: $117 per year
2. FineReader PDF Corporate for Windows: $165 per year
3. Fine reading PDF for Mac: $69 per year

2. Laserfiche

Laserfiche is a leading document management and content management solution that provides powerful features like advanced analytics, electronic forms, smart content capture, landing pages, and workflow automation to make your marketing and overall product workflows more efficient.

As an end-to-end OCR solution, Laserfiche combines cloud computing, ML, and AI to digitally transform the way you write, edit, and share.

Laserfiche features

Laserfiche scans, analyzes, sorts, and routes your documents based on the information present in them. Smart character recognition through Laserfiche helps you arrange your data and retrieve it whenever and however you want.

Some other features include:

• Automatic data recognition and extraction from documents to business applications.
• Automatic data labeling while structuring content.
• Global word processing support, namely Google Docs, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Office, and Wordpad, among others.
• Direct compatibility with accounting software through smart scanning of hard copies.
• Easy Importing and archiving of emails.
• Tracking changing versions of the same file.

Laserfiche pros and cons

Laserfiche has been improving content management cycles for enterprises since the beginning of time. However, as with any software, it comes with its set of pros and cons.

Watch the full video review

Laserfiche pros

• Intuitive record-keeping and data retrieval
• Keyword search capability in documents
• User-friendly navigation
• Workflow automation
• Automated filing or tagging processes

Laserfiche cons:

• No criminal justice information system (CJIS) compliance for some US states
• Costly license-based subscriptions
• Difficult automation setup and form creation

Laserfiche pricing

Laserfiche offers two types of application platforms: Laserfiche cloud and self-hosted. Both of these platforms have different pricing modules with varying features for you to explore.

Visit the official website of Laserfiche for more info about features at each price point.

Laserfiche paid plan

Laserfiche cloud has three different monthly packages which are billed on an annual basis.

1. Starter: $50 per user per month (Starts at one user)
2. Professional: Billed annually at $69 per user per month (starts at five users)
3. Business: Billed annually at $79 per user per month (starts at 25 users)

allows you to You can independently manage your data on your company server instead of the cloud with Laserfiche's self-hosted platform. It facilitates easy maintenance, upgrades, and security of your servers. There are four pricing models for self-hosted platforms based on different business requirements.

1. Starter: $45 per user per month (Starts at one user)
2. Professionals: $59 per user per month (Starts at 10 users)
3. Business: $69 per user per month (Starts at 25 users)
4. Enterprise: Custom pricing available.

3. Nanonets

Nanonets is an intelligent document processing tool that uses deep learning techniques to read data from paper documents or images and export it to Excel or customer relationship management (CRM) software via standard application programming interface (API) connectors.

Nanonets features

From handling multipage invoices, licenses, and passports to customizing column headers and page numbers, Nanonets is an accurate OCR solution that provides automated data workflows without much manual intervention. Its features include:

• Compatibility with Linux and Mac operating systems.
• Built-in AI mechanism to identify latent or unstructured data in documents.
• Automated data entries in the company database to slash turnaround times.
• Validated content type and format from source documents to avoid errors.
• Simple cross-team collaboration and document sharing.

Nanonets' pros and cons

The applicability of Nanonets depends on your company’s needs. For instance, Nanonets is great for retail because it can scan invoices, bills, and receipts. But it might not be a match for your industry.

Nanonets pros:

• Super simple and intuitive UI
• Custom data extraction without any manual intervention
• Responsive customer support
• Simple to build automation workflows
• Robust and accurate invoice parser
• Affordable services

Nanonets cons

• Steep learning curve
• Not available documentation upon canceling
• Not enough tutorials or instructional videos within the application
• High computing power is required to parse data

Nanonets pricing

Nanonets has two simple pricing models and a free plan for processing up to 100 pages. For more detailed information, connect with their dedicated sales team

While speaking to the sales representative, have a fair idea of your custom business requirements and data specifications for them to better assist you.

Nanonets free plan

The free plan, also known as a starter plan, is a great option for individuals or businesses looking to try out the platform. You can sign up for free on their website and process up to 100 pages without spending anything. However, the free plan limits field options and may not support all types of data during form creation.

Nanonets’ paid plans

Nanonets has two sorts of pricing modules:

• Pro: This plan is suitable for teams searching for advanced ways to automate their data-centric operations and expedite the time and labor spent on documentation. Pro comes with a free trial of 7 days and stars at $499 per model per month, with $0.1 per page. Features are:
  • Auto-capture line items
  • Up to 20 data fields
  • Data annotation services for PDFs
  • Approval and compliance rules
  • Collaboration across departments
  • Limited scanning of up to 5000 pages

• Enterprise: Companies that want an additional layer of security to encrypt their documents can opt for this plan. To get an estimate, contact Nanonets’ sales team. Apart from everything in the pro plan, this plan offers:
  • Single sign-on login
  • Security assertion markup language (SAML) login
  • Service-level agreements
    
  • Dedicated account manager
    
  • Custom integrations and API responses
    
  • Customized client onboarding
    
  • White-labeled UI
    
  • Custom data retention
    
  • Multiple licenses models and workflows
    
  • Personalized 1:1 team training

4. CamScanner

CamScanner is a widely-used document scanning and OCR software that processes paper documents into digital files and archives them neatly. Apart from document scanning, you can convert Word to PDF or PDF to Word within seconds and save hundreds of files on the secure CamScanner cloud.

CamScanner features

CamScanner is affordable and easy to understand. Whether you’re in the office or on the go, a portable mobile scanner can convert your files anytime, anywhere.

• Supports iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and other web versions
• Converts images into RTF files like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
• Offers multiple HD scan
• Converts PDF into editable Word, Excel, and Powerpoint documents
• Merges splits, compresses, and edits electronic signatures with a built-in drawing tool.
• Translates across 40 international languages

CamScanner pros and cons

While CamScanner is an affordable document management tool for smaller firms and higher educational institutions, it might not be a wise pick for enterprise-sized firms that work with tons of data.

CamScanner pros

• Secure data
• Easy document backup on cloud storage
• User-friendly application
• Document sharing in different formats over multiple platforms

CamScanner cons

• Inconsistent offline mode
• Costly cloud services
• Watermark in the free version
• Lots of random access memory (RAM) storage required

CamScanner pricing

Users can have three different types of CamScanner accounts at different price points: Basic Account, Premium Account, and Business Version.

You can easily download the free version of CamScanner on your cell or desktop. For other plans, sign in with your membership account on the CamScanner website and fill in the details. For more information, you can get in touch with a sales representative.

CamScanner free plan

The free version of CamScanner comes with the following features:

• Auto OCR for easy keyword search within documents
• 200M of free cloud space for document storage
• Document sync across different gadgets like smartphones, tablets, and computers.
• Customized watermarks
• Compatibility with Evernote, Google Drive, Dropbox, or Outlook

CamScanner paid plans

Camscanner offers two types of paid accounts that you can subscribe to on a monthly or yearly basis.

• Premium account: $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year
• Business Version: $6.99 per month or $69.99 per year

5. Ephesoft

Ephesoft is an intelligent document processing tool that scans, captures, and identifies multiple documents in one go. Coupled with the power of AI, it calls on the power of data extraction and automation to expedite HR, payroll, and other processes.

Ephesoft features

Ephesoft scans different types of documents like proof of ID, invoices, loans, records, and transcripts to optimize standard workflows in a company. Directly below are some of its other features:

• Data entry optimization to eliminate manual processing of documents
• Data exporting across different enterprise resource planning (ERP), CRM, or content management software
• HR task automation to make employee onboarding and payrolls easier
• Increased business productivity by trimming down HR and employee onboarding processes
• Digital mailrooms to eliminate tedious work like indexing or classification
• Compliance feature to protect the privacy and security of documents
• Structured extracted file data.
• Online submission of transactional documents like invoices, claims, loans, and insurance.
• Patented ML technology to validate the data as it enters your workflow or document application.

Ephesoft pros and cons

Ephesoft fetches relevant data from paper-based documents and transforms it into a systematic digital archive of information. It’s great, but let’s look at some of its more challenging aspects as well.

Ephesoft pros

• Simple configuration
• Extraction of single characters, tables, and barcodes
• Label mapping of data into relevant columns
• Customizable document management options based on what your business needs

Ephesoft cons:

• Complex user interface
• Missing “version” feature to view document history
• The longer learning curve for non-technical users

Ephesoft pricing

You and your budget can choose from three different types of flexible pricing plans, either for the cloud or on-premise solutions.

Ephesoft pricing plans offer annual or consumption-based options that start at 120,000 pages per year. To get a customized quote, contact their sales team.

6. OpenText Capture Center

OpenText Capture Center is a cloud solution that simplifies content production for diverse stakeholders within a business setting, allowing everyone to access and share content with ease.

OpenText Capture Center features

OpenText Capture Center focuses on making the entire content lifecycle in organizations easier from capture to consumption. You can use this application to create relevant, editable documents, and share them across departments to remain connected at all times.

• Intra-business communication to achieve set objectives
• Accurate and on-time document solutions to foster long-term customer relationships
• Tight security and compliance guidelines to safeguard the organization’s sensitive information
• Hybrid integration platform to automate different workflows on the same cloud
• Scalable business integration to collaborate with internal systems or external traders
• Automated HR and payroll operations for a reliable employee experience
• Rich media assets and personalization options to make the workplace a secure premise

OpenText Capture Center pros and cons

OpenText Capture Center is ideally used for intelligent data extraction and cross-departmental collaboration. Evaluating its pros and cons in detail can help you analyze different aspects of this OCR solution with respect to your business requirements.

OpenText Capture Center pros

• Immersive user interface for easy interpretation
• A dedicated open-source platform for content management
• Easy to configure and implement
• Advanced tools to recognize and classify document or image text

OpenText Capture Center cons

• Rare application crashes
• Time-consuming launch setup
• Closed source page codes that cannot be modified

OpenText Capture Center pricing

You can explore OpenText Capture Center’s pricing plans by talking to the relevant sales team.

OpenText also has a customized price list for different document services that you can refer to.

7. Rossum

Rossum’s 1intelligent AI engine is known to mimic the human mind while parsing documents. It captures the document data, runs it through human processors to spot and eliminate errors in seconds, and validates your content for further work.

Rossum features

Rossum is a cloud-native platform that automates document capture and communication without any scope of formatting error. Total documentation also removes the hassle of business workflows and eliminates back-and-forth correspondence. Its features include:

• Scan and transfer documents to any business application
• Validate content through AI processing for further collaboration
• Eliminate spam or unnecessary documents
• Prioritize your tasks to refine your document work sequences
• Auto-adjustment of document layout in case of variations
• Improvement with each round of human operator processing
• Easy configuration and serverless or webhook automation workflows
• Granular data visibility with advanced analytics and user metrics
• Detailed event logs and audit trails for each document

Rossum pros and cons

Built on a robust AI framework, Rossum aims to solve all content and document operational challenges. However, navigating through this application sometimes might require a certain level of technical expertise.

Rossum pros

• Supportive customer success team
• Automated follow-up with collaborators
• Accurate OCR in various types of documents

Rossum cons

• Potential system crash when processing large files
• Late service updates
• Automatic document splitting which causes problems

Rossum pricing

To know more about Rossum’s pricing, you can get in touch with its sales. However, Rossum does include a 30-day free trial for users looking to explore the platform.

Contact Rossum’s dedicated customer service team for info about their pricing modules.

8. IntSig OCR Solution

IntSig OCR solution is a leading document OCR package with six different products: Cam ID, Cam BizCard, Cam BankCard, Cam Doc, Cam Invoice, and image enhancement. CamScanner and Cam BizCard have over a billion downloads worldwide.

IntSig OCR features

InstSig OCR is a powerful package featuring the power of six different OCR tools to produce accurate and robust document capture and conversion.

• Remote account opening and document management to ease financial procedures
• Editing history and versions as PDFs for enterprise users
• Business software integration for accounting and HR information systems
• Smartphone compatibility to capture, edit, analyze, and share documents
• Instant verification of IDs, licenses, and claims through image enhancement and face recognition
• Integrated print and image-based content with the database
• OCR for automating manual logistics and supply chain forms
• Auto-adjustment of document layouts as per new file formats

IntSig OCR pros and cons

IntSig OCR is a product that allows businesses to integrate their web applications remotely and automate database workflows. But different software within this package have different use cases, which might confuse some users.

IntSig OCR pros

• Easy and fast data extraction
• Efficient training dataset to recognize text and images
• Club multiple documents on the go without manual intervention

IntSig OCR cons

• Watermark on the page
• Large files that eat up memory space
• Complicated configuration

IntSig OCR pricing

IntSig OCR doesn’t mention its specific pricing plans on the internet. To receive a custom quote, fill out their online form and register yourself.

Bear in mind that the pricing options of each software application vary as per each tool’s features and your company size.

9. Square9 Softworks

Square9 Softworks is a common cloud platform that simplifies document-centric work to achieve favorable outcomes. Facilitating the value of content in every running task gives employees access to any piece of information they need.

Square9 Softworks features

Square9 Softworks is a customer-centric solution that manages the content and handles files to an extent that everyone can use the data efficiently.

• Centralized and secure document management and retrieval for ease of content access
• Information accessible from multiple locations
• Global web forms that can be integrated across different business software for easy routing and information retention
• Cloud-based storage for scanned documents distributed across clients and vendors
• Workflow automation to scale and expedite your process execution

Square9 Softworks pros and cons

Software 9 softworks reduces manual paper filings and maintains electronic folders catering to different business activities. However, as a software provider, it does fall short of a few concerns.

Square9 Softworks pros

• The dedicated customer service team
• Friendly and responsive UI
• Easy automation features that eliminate manual entries
  

Square9 Softworks cons

• Slow bulk data import
• Prone to system crashes
• Broken user experience

Square9 Softworks pricing

Square 9 Softworks charges an additional fee for every add-on feature that you opt for. To receive a customized quote or to discuss the pricing options, connect with a representative.

You can also request a personalized demo or a virtual experience by filling out the form on their website.

10. Veryfi Receipts OCR & Expenses

is a document processing solution that interprets handwritten forms and makes them editable. You can payroll, expenses, reimbursem*nt, and other HR processes through intelligent document capture and sharing with it.

Veryfi Receipts OCR & Expenses features

Veryfi is an all-in-one document processing medium for businesses looking to scale their HR, taxing, and accounting workflows. Whether you’re on mobile or laptop, Veryfi is your go-to application to view, modify, and share documents across dispersed teams.

• User-friendly mobile application for added flexibility and reliability
• Workflow automation, OCR API, user permissions, and added tools to optimize team productivity
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance to ensure tight privacy
• User management to establish department-wide authorization of access
• Intelligent document scanning and automation to eliminate human errors

Veryfi Receipts OCR & Expenses pros and cons

Veryfi delivers quick, efficient, and reliable data transfers. Powered with AI-based techniques, it intelligently processes data of all sorts and converts it into structured documents that can be shared with anyone and everyone.

Veryfi Receipts OCR & Expenses pros

• Quick and easy invoice formatting
• Comprehensive API feature to push the data in the company’s ERP
• Smooth integration with different software for further data analysis
• Accurate document conversion results from handwritten to editable files

Veryfi OCR & Expenses cons

• Manual entry of transactions in the web form
• Wait time of 45 seconds in response to requesting an OCR action

Veryfi Receipts OCR & Expenses pricing

Veryfi Receipts OCR & Expenses offers a 14-day free trial where you can try out the OCR and other document integrations of this software platform.

Veryfi Receipts OCR & Expenses also allows you to schedule a product demo via Calendly. Simply go to their official website and schedule a meeting at your convenience.

11. Hyperscience

Hyperscience is an ML-backed document management software that helps you capture and transcribe data in a flexible manner to lessen your dependency on other word-processing software.

Hyperscience features

Hyperscience smartly captures the content of documents like invoices, reports, checks, or passbooks and uses accurate OCR for digital storage. Some more features include:

• Intelligent automation for content and application processing
• Search feature for keywords within a PDF document
• Automated mortgage application processing for customers
• Data detection and conversion from bank statements and IDs
• Reliable downstream processing with different customization options
• Automated data entries to optimize team bandwidth for customer-oriented tasks

Hyperscience pros and cons

The software marketplace is crowded with numerous accounting and bookkeeping solutions. To know whether Hyperscience can stand up against the competition, here is a detailed breakdown of the software's pros and cons.

Hyperscience pros

• Simple invoice processing extraction
• Easy account and client information handling
• Accurate handwriting OCR recognition

Hyperscience con

• Limitation of license-based features

Hyperscience pricing

Hyperscience hasn’t displayed its price on its website. Reach out to their dedicated sales team or fill out an online form.

You can also request a personalized demo to get an idea of how the software automates your document and content development lifecycles.

12. MyQ X

MyQ X is an eco-friendly application that cuts down on unnecessary paper printing and consumption by automating document management. It also provides document queue scheduling, endpoint security, and easy remote access to focus on what to do next in terms of goals.

MyQ X features

MyQ X is an end-to-end print management solution that streamlines the content and document printing and management processes of your organization to free up mental bandwidth and optimize productivity.

• Cloud scanning and storage of invoices, bills, and reports
• Remote sync feature to connect far-away printers with employees’ systems
• Easy and flexible printing layouts to re-structure your documents
• 100% secure and encrypted storage of data on your cloud server
• One-click scanning and sharing to email, a shared OneDrive, or Google Drive folder
• Workflow automation to manage your document cycles
• User-friendly and responsive interface for mobile, laptop, and desktop
• Mobile application that can be downloaded to print, copy, and scan documents

MyQ X pros and cons

Even though MyQ X promises secure authorization of data, the slightest misstep caused during any stage of the document lifecycle can cause data infringement. By learning about the pros and cons of this solution, you can easily prevent such disastrous outcomes.

MYQ X pros

• Simple and ingenious user management
• Cloud printing and scanning from a single server
• Personalized and user-friendly interface
• Responsive mobile application to scan and print documents on the move
• Add-on tools for easy modification of documents

MyQ X cons

• Few customization options for different user accounts
• Slow response on the printer panel
• Complicated software licensing

MyQ Xpricing

MyQ X claims to be 35% less expensive than other document management and OCR providers. However, they don’t talk about their pricing on their site.

MyQ X anticipates a company’s business requirements better than any other software, through a broad range of plug-and-play add-ons. For more information, reach out to the MyQ sales representative.

13. Ascend Software

Ascend Software enables you to scale your invoice processing workflows and refine accounts payable (AP) in a unified platform with OCR document mapping.

Ascend Software features

Getting a comprehensive view of your balance sheet has never been easier. With Ascend Software, you can parse your financial statements and log each transaction in a central place. Whether it’s accounts payable, other liabilities, expenses, or income, it automates document workflows to achieve work goals.

• Smart keying in of invoices and bills
• Centralized repository of purchase orders, supply and inventory costs, and other liabilities
• Smart AP integration with expense management software
• Smart imaging of financial statements to provide the most relevant information
• Auto-adjust for invoice layouts
• Data exported in bulk to your ERP via API connectors

Ascend Software pros and cons

Ascend allows you to automate your account payables and total expenses of the company. Along with several add-on features, it also comes with a few pros and cons listed below:

Ascend Software pros

• Builds long-lasting relationships with vendors
• Self-evolve AI technology to classify invoices better
• Workday human capital management integration for your payroll and HR management systems

Ascend Software cons

• No priority scheduling for invoice processing
• Inability to tie purchase orders to Workday
• Not able to distinguish between similar invoices

Ascend Software pricing

Ascend Software doesn’t explicitly mention its pricing options online. To find out more, you can either schedule a demo or get in touch with a sales representative.

As Ascend is a dedicated solution for your accounts payable, you can also get product support to assess the particular requirements of AP automation for your company.

14. Docparser

Docparser is a cloud solution that parses different kinds of documents into computer-readable formats and data types. Smart data extraction and analysis are two main aspects of Docparser cloud that empower you to go green.

Docparser features

Digitization of important documents is crucial if you wish to cater holistically to your vendor and customer needs. Extracting text from images or printed documents and re-arranging it for further analysis is the core purpose of Docparser. This solution is mainly apt for small businesses looking to scale their business workflows.

• Automatic data extraction from recurring documents like invoices, client proposals, bank statements, and surveys
• Easy shipping of documents over a cloud server for remote collaboration
• Custom parsing of documents as per your business requirements
• Fast bulk import of data from source to destination
• Barcode and QR code detection through pattern matching
• Safe and encrypted application to store important company documents
• Document verification from Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive, among others
• Sharing parsed data across any cloud application for end-user access

Docparser pros and cons

Docparser identifies patterns in existing content and predicts its a category for further use. For example, Docparser can automatically scan supplier invoices and add them to your inventory cost database in seconds.

With a solution as fast and reliable as Docparser, going a step further with pros and cons can nudge you in the right direction.

Docparser pros

• Easy to use and flexible to operate
• Simple UI with distinguished features for different processes
• Dedicated to streamlining retail operations and purchase orders

Docparser cons

• The learning curve for data handling
• Complicated setup of manual parses

Docparser pricing

Docparser offers four pricing plans for different editions and features. To figure out which best fits your needs, analyze each plan closely in comparison to your requirements.

In case you wish to know more detail about these plans or want to see a demo, you can get in touch with Docparser’s customer service department to get started.

Docparser paid plan

Docparser can be used in two ways - either on a monthly basis or an annual basis. The yearly subscriptions are listed below:

• Starter: $32 per month which includes:
  • 1200 Parsing Credits Per Year (one parsing credit equals one document up to five pages)
  • Parse PDF, Word, and image files
  • Download to Excel, HTML, and Google Spreadsheets
  • Google Sheets export integration
  • Access to hundreds of other integrations
  • Beginners webinar, articles, and support
  • Multifactor authentication
  • Priority support
  • Extended document retention
  • Multi-layout parser
    
• Professional:$61.50 per month which includes everything in the above plan, plus:
  • 3000 parsing credits per year
  • Multifactor authentication
  • Teams and managed users
  • Free parsing setu
  • Parser version control
• Business: $133 per month which includes everything in the above plan, plus:
  • 12000 parsing credits per year
  • Parser version control
  • Multi-layout parsers
  • Priority support
  • Priority parsing access
  • Custom Parsing credits per year
  • Extended Document retention
  • White labeling license
  • Unlimited parsers
• Enterprise: Contact the sales team to learn more about features such as
  • Starter: $39 per month (100 parsing credits)
  • Professional: $74 per month (250 parsing credits)
  • Business: $159 per month (1000 parsing credits)
  • Enterprise: Contact sales

Docparser also provides two different kinds of add-ons called Parsing Assistant and Extended Reduction, which you can directly explore from their website.

15. Amazon Textract

Amazon Textract captures, analyzes, and processes data to create open-platform documents. Equipped with a supervised machine learning algorithm, it intelligently reads the content from paper documents and arranges it in a new format before storing it online.

Amazon Textract features

Along with the standard features of OCR software, Amazon Textract’s cloud intelligence allows you to scan PDFs, images, tables, and forms, plus it also analyzes them deeply, outlines relationships, and designs business workflows.

• Smart data extraction and storage on a cloud server
• Augmented AI engine to interpret parsed data
• Improved security standards and HIPAA compliant
• Integration of document cloud with third-party business ERP for further collaboration and analysis

Amazon Textract pros and cons

Amazon Textract’s global solution stores all your data in a single open-source web server which keeps stakeholders informed of the current modifications. A downside of this solution is that everyone can view everything, which makes the data vulnerable to invasion and theft. Here are more pros and cons:

Amazon Textract pros

• Auto extraction of data from offline invoices, business loans, and tax forms
• Smart integration with ERP and other business applications
• Responsive UI
• All data organized in the original form
• Ready to use without custom training

Amazon Textract cons

• Time-consuming response to action triggers
• Lack of product documentation to understand the modules better

Amazon Textract pricing

Amazon Textract lets you pay for the number of document credits you use, but it doesn’t discuss specific pricing plans on its site.

Visit the official website and request a pricing quote. The sales representative will get back to you with more details.

Amazon Textract free plan

You can use Amazon Textract for free for a certain period of time. Coming as a part of the overall Amazon Web Services Free Tier, here’s what the free plan offers:

• 1000 pages for text OCR per month for three months
• 100 pages API for Forms or Tables OCR for three months
• 100 pages per month for SQL plug-in
• 100 pages per month to analyze Expense API
• 100 pages per month to analyze ID API

16. Kofax Capture

Kofax Capture is a repository of intelligent OCR and document identification tools that analyze the data at hand and converts it into an editable format to make life easier for your teams.

Kofax Capture features

A simple way to get each and every team member equally invested in their daily agendas, Kofax is an easy-to-use cloud service that comes to your rescue whenever you find a document waiting to be digitized.

• AI-programmed interface and cognitive capture to retain important insights
• Automated workflows to design document frameworks and set custom logic for actions
• Smart API integrations to align your documents with any application within your tech stack
• Powerful analytical assistance to create reports and dashboards
• Visually appealing set of tools to eliminate confusion
• Powerful robotic process automation (RPA) for contextual understanding
• Modernized document processing with intelligent OCR for 100% accuracy
• Information governance, compliance, and security are covered by the software

Kofax Capture pros and cons

Kofax’s intelligent document automation feature helps companies design and predict their everyday work agendas and share information over an open-source cloud server.

Kofax Capture pros

• Easy to configure
• Quick to understand
• Complete document management experience

Kofax Capture cons

• Fewer customization options

Kofax Capture pricing

To know more about Kofax pricing structure, you can fill up a form on their official website and wait till an official representative gets in touch with you.

Since Kofax doesn’t mention its pricing online. However, this is a common protocol followed by software companies.

17. IBM Datacap

IBM Datacap helps with scanning text in images and aligning it into a machine-readable format. Built on natural language processing (NLP) techniques and pattern matching, it automatically detects data entries and categorizes them.

IBM Datacap features

IBM Datacap has received accolades within the software vendor market as the best document capture provider. Here’s why:

• Smart data capture for digitizing text from handwritten documents

• Multi-level source tracking from scanners, faxes, emails, digital files, PDFs, images, and mobile devices
• NLP-based intelligent document processing
• Decoding capabilities for complex or unknown formats from highly diverse documents
• Bulk export data across other business software or content repositories from IBM and others
• Automated operational work sequences using a simple point-and-click interface

IBM Datacap pros and cons

IBM Datacap is a subsidiary of IBM, which has ancient roots in the software market. Driven by brand promise and reliability, IBM Datacap rules out any potential data leakage issues in the bank vaults.

IBM Datacap pros

• Low-code or no-code data environment
• Human-like abilities to compile text and classify errors

IBM Datacap cons

• Extended update time
• Unclear navigation

IBM Datacap pricing

It’s easy to connect to an IBM representative by scheduling an appointment online. The customer service team will get back to you with the details.

You can also get access to their information source report or watch a live demo of their product by heading to their official website.

18. DocuClipper

DocuClipper, as the name suggests, imports relevant data from online or printed documents and clips it in a way that makes the most sense before transferring it to editable word processors like Excel or Microsoft Word.

DocuClipper features

DocuClipper can capture, analyze, and extract data from different types of documents, and store it in a digital format for further modification and tabulation. A popular choice for small businesses, the premium features of DocuClipper can also be used by mid-market companies and enterprises.

• Automated data push from printed or PDF financial statements
• Optimum OCR conversion accuracy while populating data in a new file
• Automatic digitized account forms, invoices, and other financial papers
• Automated workflows for document conversions and storage
• Advanced security compliance and protocol to ensure data remains masked
• Zero installations of configuration hassles
• Affordable pricing based on department usage

DocuClipper pros and cons

Docuclipper, as the name suggests, clips the document in an intelligent way that makes more sense to the user. As businesses are prone to operational changes, it might be difficult for Docuclipper to keep track of each and every change. Understanding the pros and cons can give us a better idea of DocuClipper's major use cases in the business sphere.

DocuClipper pros

• Multiple download format options
• Seamless PDF to Excel conversions
• Less manual effort bandwidth
• Dedicated customer support team

DocuClipper cons

• Inability to support multiple PDFs
• Fewer page credits per subscription plan
• Minor integration glitches

DocuClipper pricing

DocuClipper has four kinds of pricing packages which you can explore with its 14-day free trial. You can always cancel in case it doesn’t match your needs.

The plans are divided into monthly and yearly subscriptions.

DocuClipper paid plans

Here are four major DocuClipper paid plans for you to choose from:

• Starter: $29 per month
  

• Professional: $59 per month
  

• Business: $99 per month
  
• Enterprise: Contact the sales team to get a quote

You can save 20% of your budget if you opt for the annual plans instead, which are priced at:

• Starter: $23 per month
• Professional: $47 per month
  
• Business: $79 per month
  
• Enterprise: Contact the sales team to receive a quote.

19. DocDigitizer

DocDigitizeris a document automation tool that uses human intelligence to capture and convert text from handwritten documents or images. It extracts relevant information in relation to external scanning and attaches data to other business software via APIs.

DocDigitizer features

With a simple setup and learning process, DocDigitizer is a go-to document processing and OCR solution for the small market segment as it guarantees 100% data accuracy and 60% better cost efficiency. Using it gets you:

• Automated data extraction and export to information systems
• Near 100% OCR accuracy while identifying the data and its purpose
• Powercapture to analyze data as well as a human brain
• Zero setup or configuration hassles due to plug-and-play APIs

DocDigitizer pros and cons

The best part about DocDigitzer is that it doesn’t require the user to have any prior technical background to get started. Simply launch the setup, process your documents, and store them on a secure cloud for everyone else to access.

\Since it’s popular with small market businesses, you need to consider whether you think your business will outgrow DocDigitizer. Keep reading for more info about the pros and cons.

DocDigitizer pros

• No implementation manual required
• User-friendly and responsive interface
• Intelligent document processing and business process automation

DocDigitizer cons

• Time-consuming
• Lack of dashboards to view current progress

DocDigitizer pricing

DocDigitizer is a no-code cognitive data capture platform that can be set up at zero cost, and from there, they have three different pricing structures based on a company’s needs and size.

DocDigitizer doesn’t provide any free plan for users.

DocDigitizer paid plan

With paid plans, users can automate and optimize all of their financial processes with a specific number of document credits that the platform has. You can explore these three tiers:

1. Standard converts handwritten or printed data into simple documents with few fields. This plan starts at $164 per month with a credit of 1000 documents.
2. Advanced offers unlimited fields for documents that are captured and integrated with the office cloud, plus everything from the standard plan The advanced plan is priced at $510 per month, again with a credit of 1000 parsable documents.
3. Enterprise can be explored by larger business segments or enterprises. As the price isn’t explicitly mentioned, you have to reach out to the relevant sales team for a custom quote.

20. FreeOCR

Free OCR is one of the best free OCR tools available for both Windows and macOS. This software can open any kind of PDF file or image file.

FreeOCR features

FreeOCR is a free-of-cost word and document processing engine, which works on the latest version of the Tesseract OCR engine. Some features include:

• Friendly, interactive UI
• Ability to scan and store the text from multi-page documents, Adobe PDFs, and faxes in a searchable format
• Accurate OCR to eliminate discrepancies in data
• Auto-adjusting page layouts

FreeOCR pros and cons

FreeOCR is an ideal solution for medium-sized businesses and enterprises, but free isn’t always better. Take a look at the pros and cons section to see how it measures up to your business needs.

FreeOCR pros

• Converts PDFs into readable and usable content
• Intuitive UI

FreeOCR cons

• Multi-line spacing between texts
• Slow image processing – one image at a time

FreeOCR pricing

FreeOCR is free of cost.

21. Hypatos

Hypatos is an end-to-end data automation platform that captures, scans, and interprets data from your offline documents as a part of a patchwork automation process.

Hypatos features

Hypatos is usually deployed to automate your back-end document processes to maximize back-order efficiency. It provides features like:

• Smart classification by type and region to stay updated on payments, submissions, orders, payslips, or rent rolls
• Deep learning neural networks to analyze text over many levels and match it with stored text
• Document checker to rule out tax information, duplicates, or fraud
• Human operators to apply for custom entries and adjust data in apple-pie order

Hypatos pros

• Simple departmental workflows
• Enhanced knowledge sharing
• Fairly simple and intuitive user interface

Hypatos cons

• Documentation can be improved
• The limited function of the community edition
• Fairly simple and intuitive user interface

Hypatos pricing

Hypatos has three pricing options, namely Subscription, Enterprise, and Community edition. The plans range from $0 to $495 per month. You can also sign up for a free trial of their services.

Get in touch with Hypatos through their official website or drop an email for more pricing information.

Learn more about OCR and OCR software

OCR software is used to recognize and label information from physical documents and transfer it to an editable file format. With OCR software, you can create, edit, retrieve, and save digital copies of physical documents on your computer.

But wait, doesn’t it sound a bit similar to a PDF reader? It does. To differentiate, OCR goes a step further to let you edit and modify documents at any stage of the business lifecycle. Let’s look at this in more detail.

What is optical character recognition?

Optical character recognition (OCR) is a technology that captures and analyzes data from physical or portable documents and determines their relevance for other business workflows. From a non-editable document, OCR singles out letters to identify their type and transfer them to a new destination, which can be .xlsx, .ppt, .docx, and so on.

OCR has been used by companies such as Xerox and Vistaprint for decades to create electronic copies of papers. As digital transformation progressed, OCR solutions gotbetter at reading data in documents and putting it in a different memory location.

With OCR, not only can you scan a copy of a document, but you can also edit and share its content with others over a secure internet connection. It doesn’t change the nature of the content but cleans it up for the sake of clear interpretation.

OCR takes the functionality of word processors like Google Docs or Microsoft word a step further and auto-creates files without any manual intervention.

Benefits of OCR and OCR software

OCR isn’t just software that you can install and put to work. The proper working methodology of OCR combines a compatible software and hardware device.

Hardware like copiers or smart scanners helps OCR software create machine-readable input and process documents for multiple recipients. The following are the major benefits of OCR:

• Automates optimizes and manages data entries from manual registers or logbooks.
• Accurate circuit boards, copiers, or scanners produce top-resolution scans.
• Intelligent character or word recognition of 6-point size fonts creates quick data translation results.
• Accurately routes data to other business software.
• The system doesn’t lag or consume too much time as you edit an OCR document.
• Email collaboration with peers over electronic documents – not just snapshots – becomes much easier.
• Maps the correct data type with alphabetic or numeric text.
• Optimizes opportunity costs, like time, money, and labor spent doing manual entries.
• Re-creates tables, columns, pivots, or charts just like the original layout of the document.
• Reduces original calculation errors with its AI-based OCR system.
• Script recognition supports and converts documents written in multiple languages.

How to effectively use OCR software

Optical character recognition software distinguishes darker characters in the document from the light color of the blank background. The darker areas are identified and labeled by the software as letters or numbers and then transferred into a new file.

OCR software runs on iterative conditional loops to continue the above process for all the characters in the document. The accuracy of an OCR technique depends on the versatility of training data that has been fed to the computer. The more versatile the data is, the more accurate the prediction of the algorithm will be.

Let’s go over two ways OCR software works.

Pattern recognition

Feature hypothesis

Feature hypothesis identifies characters by analyzing their features. It creates a number of different hypotheses of what the character could be based on its physical attributes. It checks for closed lines, bent angles, edges, and dots in the letters, and assigns the K-nearest neighbor to it.

Tips and tricks

OCR can perform multiple content operations at the same time and optimize productivity. Apart from automating data entries, it plays the part of a human operator to ensure zero content errors in your document.

Because OCR is a technical process that needs to be learned, certain tricks can make the entire OCR learning experience more enjoyable. Use these tricks to make the correct decision for your OCR solution so you can train your employees more easily.

• Use Intelligent character recognition tools. These tools not only convert physical stacks of non-editable files in seconds but also reinstate a belief in you that the information is 100% accurate and in safe hands.

• Don’t work with rigidity. Loading all your PDFs at the same time in your OCR software may result in a longer event response, which might delay your ad-hoc tasks and lead to operational inefficiency. Work with one software at a time so you have more control.

• Take advantage of API integration. A high-quality OCR solution can easily connect to ERPs via API connectors, packages, or other means. Having an end-to-end document suite saves you from filling in data cabinets and audits, thus optimizing bandwidth.
• Assess your return on investment. You have to analyze your ROI with the accuracy of each document conversion. If you’re able to consume your document credits with minimum to zero challenges and maximum throughput, you’ve made the right choice.

Best practices of an OCR software

OCR software is not just known for converting documents from PDF to an editable format, but can also auto-adjust errors, sort data intelligently, and proofread your documents in seconds!

While OCR software can automate the majority of your document and content processes and simplify workflows, certain best practices incentivize its working efficiency and output accuracy:

• Design a rough prototype of your overall OCR workflow at the outset. Break the project into smaller segments, and list your business requirements and project goals. For example, if you’re using OCR software for check processing, the timeline of payment and account holder expectations need to be kept in mind.

• Determine the intentions of the project. There are OCR applications for diverse business-related tasks. For example, if you wish to convert a document that’s in a different language, going for “multi-language” OCR is a goodchoice. If you only want to scan a QR code or a checkbox, go for optical marker reader (OMR) software.

• Reconsider policies. Sometimes, framing a set of legal documents with OCR is a tricky affair since the information mentioned in them is highly confidential. Ensure that your OCR software doesn’t breach any legal writing guidelines, licensing, or copyright laws. Acquire the necessary permission from the concerned department before proceeding with your conversion.

• Enlist your employees. OCR software can only do so much without human operation. Notifying your team members in real-time when a certain document process is complete with OCR can smooth out potential business processes. OCR can be integrated with different domain-based software to improve business operations.

• Distribute the heavy lifting equally. An OCR project may cost you a significant amount of time, effort, and resources depending on the strength of the documents at your disposal. Ensure equal labor distribution among team members to produce, edit, and convert high-quality documents for further analysis.

• Optimize your file format. Select the best way your organization views, edits, or shares the document content. If the content is to be converted and sent to an HR or payroll department, then a .csv or .xlsx file is best for the best visual and cognitive understanding. If it'sgoingto be sent to the analytics team or other IT departments, then a plain .txt file does the trick.
• Maintain preprocessing settings. The structural elements of a document, like headings, fonts, borders, or tables, affect the accuracy of an OCR document conversion. While someAI-based OCR engines replicate your documents in the context of the original document, it’s a goodidea to keep minimum image preprocessing settings to ensure timely action.
• Deskew and crop. Reduce the image size of your document before scanning it under OCR. Text from image PDFs might be a little difficult to read and trace. Configuring your OCR in a way that the image doesn’t hyper pixelate itself can lead to more accurate results.

• Eliminate inconsistencies. Ensure you have a document with a constant font style and shape throughout. The use of disparate font sizes decreases overall conversion accuracy.

Choosing the best OCR software for your company

From cost concerns to use cases, many parameters need to be scrutinized for OCR cloudbusiness. Before goingahead with your purchase decision, take a step back and ensure your prospect can match all the business requirements at stake. To err is human, but not when you make expensive software decisions.

While you’re shopping around trying to find the perfect solution to your business problems, keep the following points top of mind.

• Training data: Ensure the OCR software you go for can feed your company’s data to its algorithms, using linear regression or other prediction analysis. Using your own data to train algorithms can tailor your OCR software according to your needs.

• Adaptability: A low-code OCR platform can be an ideal choice since it doesn’t take too much effort and technical expertise to configure it. Also, auto-configured OCRs that adjust to multiple variations of document layouts speed up the process at hand.

• Scalability: OCR software should be diverse and intelligent to support diverse document types. Supporting every kind of document (handwritten, typed, or printed) and different file formats (.pdf, .png, .bmp, .mp3, etc.) with proper API connectivity are two main criteria that anticipate the robustness and scalability of OCR software.
• Cost: Allocate your company budget toward your OCR infrastructure with caution A lot of affordable options are available that have the same applicability across industries as the expensive ones. Don’t fall for marketing gimmicks when shortlisting your choices.
• Personalized conditions: Look out for OCR solutions that aren’t preconfigured with document templates. Ideally, they have an open-source platform for you to set custom validation fields and personalize your own forms.
• Post-processing analytics: Post-processing is an important stage while sampling OCR software. The software at this stage should be able to eliminate outliers, reduce junk, arrange data into categories, and map correct labels. The ultimate goalof an OCR is to make a document editable and readable so that it doesn’t need further review.

OCR software: Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

What is OCR used for?

OCR is used for converting text from images or physical documents into a readable and editable format. For example, if you scan an offline test report, the resulting document will be an image file. OCR processes the components of the image so that you’re able to edit, truncate, or search for words from the file.

How do I use OCR with an image-only PDF?

OCR software can extract unknown features from the image and compare them with known feature descriptors that it has stored in its algorithm. Once there is a match, it automatically parses the text and converts it into an editable copy. Upon completion, you’ll be able to click on the document and make changes.

What is the difference between OCR and OMR?

OMR is an object detection technology while OCR is a character recognition technology. OMR detects the presence of an object in a physical document, like checkboxes, circles, or QR codes while OCR singles out and interprets the characters written inside a document one by one. However, OMR is more accurate than OCR because it helps label and visualizes the data present in the document.

What is the relationship between OCR and RPA?

OCR is a part of RPA that uses conversational intelligence to automate business workflows and eliminate the need for human operators.

Does Windows 10 have built-in OCR software?

Yes, Windows 10 has a built-in tool that makes document-related operations very quick and easy for small documents.