Are you looking for an OCR software that will accelerate and automate extraction of information from any document structure? In this guide, I ranked and reviewed the 9 best OCR software, along with my top 4 choices, so that you can pick the best one.
The best OCR software are:
- ReadIRIS
- ABBYY FineReader
- Kofax OmniPage
- Adobe Acrobat Pro DC
- Tesseract
- SimpleOCR
- Parascript
- FreeOCR
- Docparser
Having spent the past 14 years in the document management field, we have gained extensive experience in utilizing various OCR engines with international companies. Based on this wealth of experience, we have carefully crafted this review and are particularly enthusiastic about sharing our recommendation.
Let’s now review why we have chosen these 9 against others.
Best OCR software for your business
| Languages | Free Trial | Price | Deployment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ReadIRIS | 130+ languages | 30-day | $129 | Windows and Mac |
| ABBY FineReader | 198+ languages | 7-day | $117 / year | Windows, iOS, Android, and Mac. |
| Kofax OmniPage | 128 languages | 15-day | $156 one time license | Windows |
| Adobe Acrobat Pro DC | 100+ languages | 7-day | Starting 14.99$/month | Cloud |
| Tesseract | 120+ languages | FREE | FREE | Windows |
| SimpleOCR | 100+ languages | FREE | FREE | Windows, and Mac |
| Parascript | 100+ languages | No | not disclosed | Windows |
| FreeOCR | 120+ languages | FREE | Windows | Windows |
| Docparser | 120+ languages | FREE | Free version $39 starter | Cloud |
1- ReadIRIS
ReadIRIS is a powerful and accurate OCR engine that can be used to convert scanned documents and images into editable and searchable text. It offers a wide range of features and options, making it a versatile and robust OCR solution for a variety of needs.
ReadIRIS considered one of the best for scanned documents and invoices. It is a fast and accurate optical character recognition software that can recognize text in over 130 languages and easy to use.
This document digitization software works on both Windows and Mac, and you can try out all of the features for free for 30 days.
Why I Picked ReadIRIS: After trying out this product and seeing the high speed, high accuracy, languages supported, and easy to use API for integration, it is easy to recommend it to our readers.
Reasons to use:
- 20% faster document processing
- Edit texts embedded in your images
- Zone selection tool
- Annotate and comment
- Protect and sign PDFs
- Integration with printers (Twain scanners)
- Integration with OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive.
Pricing:
It comes with 3 different plans
- Readiris PDF 17: $129
- Readiris Pro 17: $149
- Readiris Corporate 17: $199
2- ABBYY FineReader PDF
ABBYY FineReader PDF is the best OCR software that can help you convert PDFs into editable text files with ease. This powerful tool leverages AI-based OCR technology that can recognize text in over 198 languages, making it perfect for converting PDFs from all over the world.
Not only does it make converting PDFs easy, but it also offers a number of features that can make your life easier, such as the ability to convert scanned PDFs, the ability to convert PDFs with images, and the ability to convert password-protected PDFs.
It includes a 7-day free trial for individuals and a 30-day free trial for enterprises, as well as support for four distinct platforms, including Windows, iOS, Android, and Mac.
ABBYY’s AI-based OCR and document-conversion technologies ensure high levels of accuracy and maintain layout and structure for further effortless editing.
Why I Picked ABBY: ABBY is a very well-known and has been available in the market for over 20 years. With each release, they keep on innovating and lately with the addition of the artificial intelligence capabilities made it a super powerful information extractor.
Reasons to use:
- Create, edit, and organize PDFs
- Collaborate on and approve PDFs
- High-quality editing and document comparison tools
- Sophisticated and flexible OCR settings/adjustments
- High levels of accuracy
Cons:
- Small fonts processing needs improvements
- Conversion to MS Word and Excel needs improvements
- Initial setup can be difficult and complex
Pricing:
They have 3 different plans including:
- FineReader PDF Standard for Windows: $117/year
- FineReader PDF Corporate for Windows: $165/year
- FineReader PDF for Mac: $69/year
3- Kofax OmniPage
Kofax OmniPage turns paper and PDF documents into digital files you can edit, search and share. It delivers up to 99% accuracy, making it the perfect tool for anyone who needs to turn paper documents into digital files.
With OmniPage, you can scan and convert documents into a variety of formats, including PDF, Word, Excel, and more. This solution also includes powerful features for character recognition and document security. You can easily convert paper documents into digital format, making it easy to store, share, and manage your documents.
OmniPage supports 124 languages with a high level of accuracy. The most appealing feature is that they charge a one-time cost per license, which will undoubtedly save you money in the short and long run.
Reasons to use:
- High percentage accuracy
- Scan and create fillable documents
- Over 120 supported languages
- Batch files support
- OmniPage Server to integrate with different applications
Why I Picked Kofax: Aside from the capabilities, Kofax is relatively cheap when it comes to processing huge amount of documents.
Pricing
They offer 4 plans including
- OmniPage Standard: $156 one time fee
- OmniPage Ultimate: $524 one time fee
- OmniPage Capture SDK: starting at $4999
- OmniPage Server: Contact for pricing
4- Adobe Acrobat Pro DC
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is a program that allows you to convert scanned documents and images into editable and searchable text. It uses optical character recognition to recognize text in images, making it easy to edit and search for specific information.
Adobe has long been known for producing high-quality software, and Acrobat Pro DC is no exception. It has several features, such as the ability to edit PDFs, add comments, identify text, convert Microsoft Office documents, electronically sign PDFs, and so on.
Adobe’s PDF file viewer already offers a multitude of functionality, and it is available for any device. This document digitization software comes with a 7-day trial period so you can see how the program works and offers a 60% discount for students and teachers.
Why I Picked Adobe Acrobat Pro DC: I selected Adobe Acrobat Pro DC as one of the best OCR software options because of its exceptional precision in converting scanned documents into editable text, seamless integration with other Adobe products, and a versatile set of features that enhance overall document functionality and management.
Reasons to use:
- Powerful PDF editing tools
- High OCR accuracy rate
- Digital signature support
- Major platforms are supported
- Cloud-based commenting and sharing
Pricing:
Individuals Acrobat Pro DC license costs $14.99 per user per month.
5- Tesseract OCR
Tesseract is the best free OCR converter for various operating systems. It is free software released under the Apache License.
Tesseract supports over 120 languages and is capable of processing right-to-left written languages such as Hebrew, Arabic, and others. Aside from its high accuracy rate, it may be integrated with program that your business is attempting to create or automate, making OCRing an automated task that requires no human participation.
We have personally tested this tool several times and can confirm that it performs well. The command-line interface is used to run Tesseract. While Tesseract does not come with a graphical user interface, there are alternatives that provide that.
Why I Picked Tesseract: I personally used Tesseract on one of the software for organizing documents for enterprises and we needed an open source OCR engine that is quite fast and with high accuracy. The integration level is not the best, but it does the job.
Reasons to use:
- FREE, no licensing fees
- Can be integrated with your in hose developed apps
- Supports right to left languages
- High accuracy rate
Cons:
- The most significant downside of this tool is that it lacks an interface by default. It is command-line based.
6- SimpleOCR
SimpleOCR is the world’s most popular and easiest to use for scanned documents. With it, you can convert scanned images of text into editable and searchable text files in over 130 languages. It has a noisy document option that improves its accuracy.
This is a popular free OCR converter that has hundreds of thousands of users throughout the world and supports over 100 languages including the right to left languages. It also provides a royalty-free OCR SDK for developers to use in their custom applications.
Why I picked SimpleOCR: I love it for its user-friendly interface, reliable text recognition capabilities, and its ability to effortlessly convert scanned documents into editable text, making it an invaluable tool for quick and accurate tasks.
Reasons to use:
- For both Windows and Mac
- Made with a clean UI and simple navigation
- Batch scanning of files
- Zone OCR
- Supports over 100 languages, even most dead ones
- Completely free, you can use it for any purpose.
Pricing:
SimpleOCR solution is available for free for both commercial and non-commercial use.
7- Parascript
Parascript helps organizations automate the extraction of meaningful data from any image or type of document to support fraud prevention, business processes, and business transactions.
This tool uses advanced technologies to analyze images, extract information with high accuracy, classify information, and automate data entry. Up till today, it has processed more than 100 billion documents from different industries such as financial services, governments, and healthcare.
Why I Picked Parascript: I chose Parascript because of its outstanding accuracy in recognizing diverse document types, advanced machine learning capabilities that enhance recognition performance, and a commitment to delivering reliable and efficient techniques.
Reasons to use:
- Auto learning with AI technologies
- Support recognition of handwritten text
- Automatically configuring image perfection
- Powerful SDK
8- FreeOCR
FreeOCR is designed to be used by individuals, SMEs, and agencies. It provides complete techniques designed for windows offering support for multiple languages. This system is based on the latest Tesseract (v3.01) engine and include a windows installer for easy setup.
Why I Picked FreeOCR: I chose it because of its impressive accuracy in recognizing text from scanned images, its cost-effectiveness as a free solution, and its simplicity, making it accessible for users seeking basic yet reliable optical character recognition functionality.
Reasons to use:
- Import directly from twain scanners
- Page layout analysis
- Zone selection
- Supports tiff documents, pdf, and fax documents.
Pricing
Free for personal and commercial use.
9- Docparser
Docparser utilizes Zonal OCR technology to recognize and extract data from image-based documents. It excels in extracting tabular data, applying customized parsing rules, utilizing smart filters, and showcasing robust image preprocessing capabilities. Users can leverage its barcode and QR code scanning technology for document reading and seamlessly send parsed documents to different Cloud applications directly from the platform.
In addition, it offers a comprehensive set of features. This includes the ability to efficiently extract tabular data, where users can establish custom parsing rules tailored to their specific needs. The platform also incorporates smart filters to streamline the extraction process and enhance accuracy.
Reasons to use:
- Data aggregation
- Contact (phone or email) extraction
- Smart layout
- Document-Specific filters
- Powerful image pre-processing
- Integrate With REST API
- Multi-Layout parsers
Pricing
Docparser comes with a free trial and a free version. The pricing model starts from $39 to $149.