OCR (Optical character reader/recognition) is the electronic conversion of images to printed text. There are many OCR software which helps you to extract text from images into searchable files. These tools accept numerous image types and converts into well-known file formats like word, excel, or plain text.

Following is a handpicked list of OCR Software, with their popular features and website links. The list contains both open source(free) and commercial(paid) software.

BEST OCR Software: Top Picks

NanoNets is an AI-based OCR software that digitizes data from all kinds of business documents/images. Automate manual data extraction workflows by capturing just the data/information you need. Increase productivity by automating time-consuming & error-prone manual document processing tasks.

#1 Top Pick

Nanonets

5.0

Batch Processing: Yes

Audio Files conversion: Yes

Barcode Recognition: Yes

Free Trial: Lifetime Free Basic Plan

Visit Nanonets

Features:

• Extract data from invoices, tax forms, purchase orders, bank statements, insurance forms, medical forms, id cards & much more.
• Searchable PDF abilities
• Fast API response times
• GDPR compliant
• On-premise deployment available
• It provides customer support via Contact Form, Email, Phone, and Live chat
• Seamlessly integrates with Quickbooks, Yardi, Xero, Sage, Oracle Netsuite, and Google Sheet
• Works with 32+ multiple languages like Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, and Filipino
• Supports Word files as a Input option
• You can export your file in Excel, JSON, PDF, and XML formats
• Store your extracted file in cloud storage platforms like Drive, and Dropbox
• Offers Customized client onboarding, White-labelled UI, Custom Data Retention, and more
• Scanner Integration: No
• Combine PDF: Yes
• Screenshot Translation: Yes
• Split PDF: Yes
• Supported Platforms: Windows, Mac, and Ubuntu
• Price: Plans start at $0.1 per Page.
• Free Trial: Lifetime Free Basic Plan

👍 Pros
👎 Cons

Easy Setup with AWS Services.
Cannot convert into different languages

No-code Platform

Visit Nanonets >>

Lifetime Free Basic Plan

Adobe Acrobat is an OCR system that helps you to convert scanned PDF files, images into searchable/editable documents. It provides custom fonts that look similar to printouts.

#2

Adobe Acrobat

4.9

Batch Processing: Yes

Audio Files conversion: Yes

Barcode Recognition: Yes

Free Trial: 14-Days Free Trial

Visit Adobe Acrobat

Features:

• You can instantly edit any printed document.
• It enables you to easily cut and paste the text into other applications.
• Acrobat enables you to export the file to Microsoft office.
• You can convert scanned documents to PDF file and move the data from one location to another.
• This tool helps you to keep the look and feel of documents like the original one.
• It provides customer support via Phone, Live Chat, Contact Form, and Call request
• Seamlessly integrates with Conga Composer, Apttus, Selectica, Drawloop, Zuora, Emptoris, Salesforce, Servicenow, Workday, and Veeva
• Works with 20+ multiple languages like English, French, and German
• Supports XML files as a Input option
• You can export your file in Word, PPT, Excel, XLS, JPG, and TXT formats
• Store your extracted file in cloud storage platforms like Creative Cloud, Lightroom, and Document Cloud
• Offers Security and password-protected PDF files, Turn scanned documents into editable, searchable PDFs, and more
• Scanner Integration: No
• Combine PDF: Yes
• Screenshot Translation: Yes
• Split PDF: Yes
• Supported Platforms: Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android
• Price: Plans start at $22 a month. 10% Discount on Yearly Payment.
• Free Trial: 14-Days

👍 Pros
👎 Cons

OCR feature is very easy to use
Limited Options in Free Version

Seamless integration with other Adobe Products

Visit Acrobat >>

14-Days Free Trial

Filestack Capture is a document digitization service that identifies printed text characters or image qualities through digital image analysis. It can extract and organize data from credit cards, passports, driver’s licenses, and tax receipts. It offers reliable, responsive, and secure service to deliver your files with unparalleled control and speed.

#3

Filestack Capture

4.8

Batch Processing: Yes

Audio Files Conversion: Yes

Barcode Recognition: Yes

Free Trial: Free Basic Plan

Visit Filestack Capture

Features:

• Provides AI and Machine-Learning based image and form recognition services.
• It is equipped with security policies to safeguard your applications.
• Offers fast data transfer and supports uploading files via drag and drop
• You can automate your data capture process with Filestack’s OCR API.
• Audio Files Conversion: Yes
• Bardcode Recognition: Yes
• Screenshot Translation: Yes
• Deployment: Cloud, SaaS, and Web-Based
• Supported platforms: Windows, Mac, and Linux.
• Price: Plans start at $59 per month.
• Free Trial: Free basic plan
• Language Support: Filestack OCR can recognize German, English, French, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Turkmen, Chinese (Simplified).

👍 Pros
👎 Cons

You can integrate it with your website or application to allow for quick uploads and accurate data entry.
Does not offer a dashboard for file conversation.

Offers an advanced network intelligence feature for fast and guaranteed uploads.

It helps you to personalize your file URL using the Custom CNAME feature.

Visit Filestack >>

Free Basic Plan

ABBYY Cloud Reader is a tool that recognizes a full printed or handwritten page. It can detect more than 200 languages. This tool helps you to transform PDF/image to searchable MS Word, Excel, PDF, etc. format.

Features:

• It supports Mobile devices and desktop PC.
• This tool can recognize receipt and business cards.
• ABBYY Cloud Reader provides REST (Representational State Transfer).
• It converts recognized data into XML (Extensible Markup Language).
• This tool provides a library for Java, .NET, iOS, and Python.
• It provides customer support via Contact Form, Email, and Phone
• Seamlessly integrates with Microsoft® Office
• Works with multiple languages like Russian, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Farsi, Vietnamese, Thai, and many others.
• Supports Doc, Html, Txt, Odt, Xls, Ods, Ppt, and .PDF files as a Input option
• You can export your file in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint formats
• Store your extracted file in cloud storage platforms like Google Drive
• Offers Mark up and annotate, Apply password protection, Certify with digital signatures, Remove hidden data, and more
• Scanner Integration: No
• Batch Processing: Yes
• Audio Files Conversion: Yes
• Barcode Recognition: Yes
• Combine PDF: Yes
• Screenshot Translation: No
• Split PDF: Yes
• Supported Platforms: Mac, Android, and Windows
• Price: Plans start at $29.99 a month.
• Free Trial: 7-Days

👍 Pros
👎 Cons

Automatically recognize tables and charts.
Could be pricey

High-quality editing and document comparison tools.

Visit ABBY >>

7-Days Free Trial

OmniPage Ultimate is software that can convert your document easy to edit and search. It can scan files to any format with minimal effort.

Features:

• Provide ready-to-use document formats.
• You can integrate this application with mobile and printers.
• It supports a wide range of applications, including Microsoft Office, HTML, and more.
• You can open this application from the network.
• It provides customer support via Live Chat, Phone, and Contact From
• Seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, SharePoint, Outlook, Visio, and Dynamics AX
• Works with 20+ multiple languages like English, French, and German
• Supports Bitmap, DCX, GIF, JB2, JBIG, JP2, JPEG, HDP, PCX, PDF, PNG, TIFF, and XIFF files as a Input option
• You can export your file in XLS , docx, xlsx, pptx, HTML, XML, RTF, and ePub formats
• Offers Annotate, Automatically Create and Fill Forms, Secure Documents with Heavy-Duty Encryption, and more
• Scanner Integration: No
• Batch Processing: Yes
• Audio Files Conversion: Yes
• Barcode Recognition: Yes
• Combine PDF: No
• Screenshot Translation: No
• Split PDF: Yes
• Supported Platforms: Mac, Linux, and Windows
• Price: Plans start at $156 a month.
• Free Trial: Life Time Free Basic Plan

👍 Pros
👎 Cons

Very strong in data extraction from documents.
Customer Support is lacking

Comprehensive ScanSnap software

Visit Omnipage >>

Life Time Free Basic Plan

#6) OnlineOCR

OnlineOCR recognizes characters and text from PDF documents and images. It allows you to convert more than 15 images per hour into editable text formats.

Features:

• It supports more than 46 languages, including English, Chinese, French, etc.
• OnlineOCR can handle BMP (Bit Map), PNG (Portable Network Graphics), zip files, etc.
• This service allows you to integrate converted files into your website.
• It provides customer support via Email
• Works with 44+ multiple languages like English, Afrikaans, and, Albanian
• Supports PDF, TIF/TIFF, JPEG/JPG, BMP, PCX, PNG, GIF, and ZIP files as a Input option
• You can export your file in PDF, Word, Excel, RTF, and Text formats
• Offers Image to text, Secure conversion, and more
• Supported Platforms: iOS, Android, Windows, Linux, and MacOS
• Price: Plans start at $29.95 a month.
• Free Trial: Life Time Free Basic Plan

👍 Pros
👎 Cons

Supports OCR in multiple languages
Batch conversion is not possible

It allows you to convert any number of image files and extract their text

Link: https://www.onlineocr.net/

Cisdem is an easy-to-use PDF converter tool. The tool also allows you to retain texts, images, tables, elements and keep them in the original formatting. It allows you to convert PDF to MS Office, iWork, image, and more.

Features:

• It helps you to scan PDF into searchable documents.
• You can convert multiple PDFs to various document formats.
• Create PDF from Word, PowerPoint, HTML, EPUB, etc.
• It provides customer support via Email
• Seamlessly integrates with Subtitles, and Fixed-layout
• Works with 190+ multiple languages like English, Chinese, Japanese, Russion, Korean, and Spanish
• Supports DOC, HTML, TXT, RTF, ODT, XLS, ODS, CSV, PPT, WMF, JPG, GIF, PNG, and PDF files as a Input option
• You can export your file in CSV, vCard, Html, Docx, Pages, Numbers, and Excel formats
• Store your extracted file in cloud storage platforms like Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Amazon Drive, and iCloud
• Scanner Integration: No
• Batch Processing: Yes
• Audio Files Conversion: Yes
• Barcode Recognition: Yes
• Combine PDF: Yes
• Screenshot Translation: Yes
• Split PDF: Yes
• Supported Platforms: Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS
• Price: $59.99 One-time Payment, No Time Limit
• Free Trial: Life Time Free Basic Plan

👍 Pros
👎 Cons

Files can be loaded via a simple drag-n-drop
Execution of tasks sometimes takes a long time

Monitor activities on tablets, phones, and computers

Visit CISDM >>

Life Time Free Basic Plan

Easy Screen OCR enables you to turn images into an editable text file format. It helps you to capture screenshots to extract text in an efficient way.

Features:

• It supports drag and drop facility to upload files.
• Easy Screen OCR deletes uploaded files within 30 minutes.
• You can extract text from images without registration.
• This service uses Google learning service to keep your cloud data safe.
• You can add up to five pictures for the conversion.
• Easy Screen OCR enables you to set a shortcut for easy access.
• It provides customer support via Email
• Seamlessly integrates with Multi-column Document
• Works with multiple languages like English, Japanese, German, Korean , Arabic, and chinese
• Supports JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIF, and JPG files as a Input option
• You can export your file in Text, PDF, and Docx file formats
• Offers Cross Platform, Two OCR Modes, HotKeys Setting, Text Scanner, and more
• Scanner Integration: No
• Batch Processing: Yes
• Audio Files Conversion: Yes
• Barcode Recognition: No
• Combine PDF: No
• Screenshot Translation: Yes
• Split PDF: Yes
• Supported Platforms: Windows, Mac, and Android
• Price: $15 One-time Payment, No Time Limit
• Free Trial: Life Time Free Basic Plan

👍 Pros
👎 Cons

Quick extraction of images to text formats.
The free account has limited storage space.

Quality conversion without errors.

Visit Easy Screen >>

Life Time Free Basic Plan

Readiris is a simple software package that automatically transforms text from paper documents or images. It helps you to make changes in the file without retyping it.

Features:

• It supports numerous output formats.
• Readiris can listen to your books with a format specified by you.
• Compatible with Windows and Mac operating systems.
• Chronoscan helps you to edit the embedded text in an image.
• It provides customer support via Contact From
• Seamlessly integrates with Verbal recognition
• Works with multiple languages like English, French, and German
• Supports XML, iHQC, JPG, JPEG, TIF, BMP, PNG, .DOC, XLS, PPT, and .PPTX files as a Input option
• You can export your file in XML, iHQC, JPG, JPG2000, TIFF, BMP, PNG, .DOCX, .XLSX, .PPTX, HTML, and EPUB formats
• Store your extracted file in cloud storage platforms like MS SharePoint®, Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive
• Offers Annotate, 20% faster document opening, Hyper Compression of PDFs, PDFA creation, Electronic signature, and more
• Scanner Integration: Yes
• Batch Processing: Yes
• Audio Files Conversion: Yes
• Barcode Recognition: Yes
• Combine PDF: Yes
• Screenshot Translation: Yes
• Split PDF: Yes
• Supported Platforms: Mac, Windows, Linux, and iOS
• Price: Plans start at $59 a month.
• Free Trial: 17-Days

👍 Pros
👎 Cons

Lightning-fast OCR software
Less accurate results, especially with lower quality documents.

Wide support for scanner hardware.

Visit Readiris >>

17-Days Free Trial (30-Day Money Back Guarantee)

#10) Ocr.space

Ocr.space is a service that converts images containing text into an editable file format using OCR. This website also helps you to get a text from PDF files.

Features:

• It allows you to choose a specific language for your document.
• This service can also transform a screenshot of text documents.
• You can use Ocr.space without any registration.
• Ocr.space enables you to get an editable file into a multi-column text format.
• It does not store your confidential data on the server.
• It provides customer support via Contact From, and Email
• Seamlessly integrates with OCR Engine 2
• Works with 15+ multiple languages like Arabic, Chinese, Bulgarian, Croatian, and Czech
• Supports JPG, PNG, PDF, Text file, Word document GIF, and PDF files as a Input option
• You can export your file in PDF, JSON, Text file, and Word formats
• Offers Fastest, Supports larger images, Multi-Page TIFF scan support, and more
• Scanner Integration: Yes
• Batch Processing: Yes
• Audio Files Conversion: No
• Barcode Recognition: Yes
• Combine PDF: No
• Screenshot Translation: Yes
• Split PDF: No
• Supported Platforms: Windows, Mac, and Linux
• Price: Plans start at $30 a month.
• Free Trial: Life Time Free Basic Plan

👍 Pros
👎 Cons

The processing of OCR information is fast.
No Native Apps

Flatbed scanners are very accurate and may produce reasonably top-quality images.

Link: https://ocr.space/

#11) Symphony

Symphony is a back-end OCR engine which ensures that the text of the scanned file is searchable. This service enables you to extract text from PDF, TIFF (Tagged Image File Format), e-faxes, email, etc.

Features:

• Symphony OCR helps you to detect text from PDF files containing scanned images.
• You can copy and paste text from the documents.
• It enables you to search text in the document.
• It provides customer support via Contact Form, Email, and Phone
• Seamlessly integrates with Email
• Works with multiple languages like English, Spanish, and Brazil
• Supports HTML, TEXT, and PDF files as a Input option
• You can export your file in Excel formats
• Offers Custom Cover Sheets, Email notification and Specifying Page Counts, and more
• Scanner Integration: No
• Batch Processing: Yes
• Audio Files Conversion: Yes
• Barcode Recognition: Yes
• Combine PDF: Yes
• Screenshot Translation: Yes
• Split PDF: Yes
• Supported Platforms: Windows
• Price: Request a Quote from Sales
• Free Trial: 30-Days

Link: https://trumpetinc.com/products/symphony-ocr/

#12) Text Fairy

Text Fairy is the Android OCR app. This app can scan text from images or photos taken from the camera. It can recognize print from more than 50 languages.

Features:

• It can extract text from scanned images.
• This app automatically adjusts the image accurately for a better result.
• You can edit the resulted file.
• It can convert images into PDF files.
• Text Fairy does not show any advertisement while using it.
• It provides customer support via Email
• Seamlessly integrates with C++
• Works with 100+ multiple languages like English, and German
• Supports TEXT, and PDF files as a Input option
• You can export your file in TEXT, and PDF formats
• Offers Filters to cropping screen, Fixed PDF generation, Improved performance of cropping screen, Stability improvements, and more
• Scanner Integration: Yes
• Batch Processing: No
• Audio Files Conversion: Yes
• Barcode Recognition: No
• Combine PDF: Yes
• Screenshot Translation: Yes
• Split PDF: Yes
• Supported Platforms: Android, Windows, and Mac
• Price: Plans start at $0.82 a month.
• Free Trial: Life Time Free Basic Plan

👍 Pros
👎 Cons

It takes minimal time to recognize texts from scanned or printed documents.
Hand Written Text are not supported

This OCR scanner software doesn’t have ads and is completely free. Users also get a text-to-voice feature.

Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.renard.ocr&hl=en_IN

#13) Scanbot SDK

Scanbot SDK helps you to scan and create documents from your phone. It provides SDK (System Development Kit) that can be easily integrated into Android and iOS projects.

Features:

• It automatically recognizes text from scanned images.
• You can extract text from documents and transform it into searchable and editable files.
• This app supports all major operating systems.
• You can use it offline.
• You can scan PDF files having a multi-page.
• It provides customer support via Contact Form, and Email
• Works with 90+ multiple languages like German, English, Cyrillic, Arabic, and Asian
• Supports TEXT files as a Input option
• You can export your file in PDF, TIFF, and JPEG formats
• Offers Automatic Scanning & Cropping, Local storage encryption, Blur Detection, Filters, Perspective Correction, and more
• Scanner Integration: Yes
• Batch Processing: Yes
• Audio Files Conversion: No
• Barcode Recognition: Yes
• Combine PDF: No
• Screenshot Translation: No
• Split PDF: No
• Supported Platforms: iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and Linux
• Price: Request a Quote from Sales.
• Free Trial: 7-Days

👍 Pros
👎 Cons

Easy to use.
Poor results with damaged codes, low-quality prints, or unusual surfaces.

Fast recognition.

Link: https://scanbot.io/en/sdk/scanner-sdk/ocr-text-recognition-sdk

#14) Google Cloud

Google Cloud Vision is an API that can detect text in images. It allows you to convert PDF, PNG, JPEG, etc. file format to machine-readable text.

Features:

• It can detect handwriting in images.
• This tool can extract and save text from uploaded images.
• It triggers cloud function in order to save text to online storage.
• Google Cloud automatically detects image files located in the cloud.
• It provides customer support via Phone, Chat, and Contact Form
• Seamlessly integrates with AudioCodes, Avaya, Genesys, SignalWire, and Twilio
• Works with 100+ multiple languages like Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, and Armenian
• Supports files as a Input option
• You can export your file in CSV, and JSON formats
• Offers Face detection, Landmark detection, Logo detection, Label detection, Text detection, Object localization and Crop hint detection, and more
• Scanner Integration: Yes
• Batch Processing: Yes
• Audio Files Conversion: Yes
• Barcode Recognition: Yes
• Combine PDF: Yes
• Screenshot Translation: Yes
• Split PDF: Yes
• Supported Platforms: Windows, and Linux
• Price: Request a Quote from Sales.
• Free Trial: 90-Days

👍 Pros
👎 Cons

It is easy to use and has a very familiar interface.
Relatively fewer global data centers

Affordable

Link: https://cloud.google.com/vision/

#15) Amazon Textract

Amazon Textract is a service that helps you to extract text from scanned documents. You can use it to automate document workflow, process numerous documents quickly.

Features:

• It identifies content written in form or table.
• This tool uses API to get data from documents.
• It automatically extracts data from forms.
• Textract can read virtually any documents.
• Automatically identifies key information.
• You can adjust document quality in percentage.
• It is integrated with Amazon Augmented AI service for document processing.
• It provides customer support via Contact Form
• Seamlessly integrates with ThousandEyes, Pindrop, ACQUEON, eGain, Dialogtech, ChoiceView, Deloitte, and Servicenow
• Works with multiple languages like German, English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Arabic, Chinese, and more
• Supports JPEG, PNG, PDF, and TIFF files as a Input option
• You can export your file in .zip, and JSON formats
• Offers Optical character recognition, Form extraction, Table extraction, Query based extraction, Handwriting recognition, Identity documents, Bounding boxes, and more
• Scanner Integration: Yes
• Batch Processing: Yes
• Audio Files Conversion: Yes
• Barcode Recognition: Yes
• Combine PDF: Yes
• Screenshot Translation: Yes
• Split PDF: Yes
• Supported Platforms: Linux, macOS, and Windows
• Price: Plans start at $0.60 a month.
• Free Trial: 90-Days

👍 Pros
👎 Cons

Robust Compliance Adherence
High Learning Curve.

Software is frequently updated

Link: https://aws.amazon.com/textract/

FAQ

❓ What is OCR?

OCR stands for Optical character reader/recognition. It is the electronic conversion of images to printed text.

🚀 Which are the Best OCR Software?