17 Best OCR software in 2024 for popular business use cases

For over 5 many years now, optical character recognition or OCR software program has mostly been used to digitize information and digitally archive paper paperwork. OCR functions convert non-editable doc codecs resembling PDFs or photographs to machine-readable codecs which are each editable & searchable. With developments in AI and machine studying, a number of the finest OCR software program out there immediately may even automate information seize workflows finish to finish from numerous enterprise paperwork. 

OCR softwares are fairly the commodity immediately, with quite a few gamers flooding the market. And assigning the title of “finest OCR software program” to anybody specific OCR utility or software with none context on the use case or objective can be a shot at midnight at finest. It simply would not make any sense.

So how does one go about selecting one of the best OCR software program that is applicable for his or her use case? We have got you lined… properly principally.

On this article, we’ve rounded up the main OCR functions for a choose record of fashionable use instances (handwriting recognition, accounts payables and so forth.) and doc varieties (invoices, receipts, financial institution statements and so forth.). In case you do not discover your use case or doc sort lined beneath, take a look at the part on the right way to go about deciding on an acceptable OCR software program or simply talk to us to get a good evaluation and your finest choices.

And here is why this record is unbiased, reliable, and primarily based on real-world OCR experience:

So let’s bounce proper in.

Here is the record of finest OCR software program grouped by particular use instances or fashionable enterprise paperwork:

What’s OCR?

OCR or Optical Character Recognition is a know-how that identifies & acknowledges textual content inside scanned paperwork, photographs or photographs. OCR know-how powers instruments that may extract data from PDFs or scanned paperwork by changing it into machine-readable textual content/information that may be edited, displayed, searched electronically & saved extra conveniently for additional processing.

Over time, OCR has been more and more adopted in lots of document-processing workflows that beforehand relied on guide information entry. OCR is used to extract information from all kinds of paperwork and ship it to different enterprise functions for additional processing. Here is a deep dive into how optical character recognition works.

A quick historical past of OCR

Within the early Seventies, Ray Kurzweil based Kurzweil Laptop Merchandise, Inc., whose OCR product might acknowledge textual content printed in any font. He rapidly realized that one of the best utility for this know-how can be a text-to-speech studying machine for the visually challenged. Later, within the Nineteen Nineties, OCR was extensively used to digitize historic newspapers and authorized paperwork. 

At this time OCR applications and products powered by AI & machine studying can be found on-line and as APIs that may combine seamlessly with different functions – e.g. Tesseract OCR, Google Imaginative and prescient and Nanonets.

They’re used for automated data entry, sample recognition,  text-to-speech companies, indexing documents for engines like google, cognitive computing, textual content mining, and machine translation amongst numerous different functions.

Why is OCR software program vital for companies?

Whereas organizations are striving to show paperless and automate enterprise workflows, a big portion of enterprise communication remains to be performed via paper paperwork, PDFs or scanned information.

Necessary enterprise paperwork resembling invoices, POs, receipts, financial institution statements, contracts, authorities paperwork, massive survey information, static paperwork and extra are routinely obtained as bodily paper paperwork or as PDF attachments through e-mail. What follows is a tedious, typically guide, strategy of digitizing them after which ingesting related information into ERP or different enterprise software program. This takes lots of time, assets and is extraordinarily error-prone

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So here is the roundup of one of the best OCR software program for a choose class of use instances and doc varieties. This record is predicated on the most recent inner benchmarking analysis and inputs from prospects/customers as of Could 2024.

We are going to try and maintain this record up to date every quarter. We’re additionally trying to make this evaluation as open and honest as potential. Extra on this quickly!

Greatest OCR software program for automating complicated enterprise processes

Google Doc AI

Doc AI permits builders to construct exact processors for extracting, categorizing, and splitting paperwork. These processors automate mundane doc processing duties, improve information extraction, and supply deeper understanding of each unstructured and structured doc information.

It permits companies to cut back guide entry, enhance information accuracy, and speed up workflows, in the end driving smarter decision-making and operational effectivity throughout numerous industries.

Execs:

• Buildings and digitizes info from paperwork to drive deeper insights utilizing generative AI
• Powered by the most recent basis fashions, tuned for doc duties
• Works out of the field and doesn’t require any coaching or customization
• It might successfully acknowledge and course of quite a lot of doc varieties, together with handwritten notes, printed textual content, and sophisticated layouts

Cons:

• Google’s pricing construction can change into costly as the quantity of paperwork improve
• Not suited to use instances that require customized AI algorithms
• Restricted variety of pretrained fashions

IBM Watson Discovery

IBM Watson Discovery is a sophisticated AI-powered clever doc understanding and content material evaluation platform platform designed to unlock insights from unstructured information from paperwork, emails, experiences, and web sites effectively.

With options like content material mining, development evaluation, and anomaly detection, Watson Discovery enhances decision-making by offering actionable intelligence.

Execs:

• Extremely correct, notably for clear and structured paperwork
• Really enterprise-grade, trusted and scalable
• Saves lots of time in analyzing paperwork and generates fascinating insights from them
• Extracts complicated info inside acceptable accuracy charges

Cons:

• Pricing might be prohibitive for small to medium-sized companies
• Wants higher predefined queries to rapidly analyse information
• The OCR tends to battle with information that accommodates photographs
• Efficiency can lag when coping with extremely unstructured or noisy paperwork

Azure AI Imaginative and prescient

Azure AI Imaginative and prescient is a sturdy, cloud-based laptop imaginative and prescient service leveraging deep studying algorithms to investigate visible content material. Azure AI Imaginative and prescient permits companies to automate workflows, improve safety, and extract actionable insights from visible information.

It affords superior picture and video evaluation capabilities, together with object detection, facial recognition, optical character recognition (OCR), and spatial evaluation.

Execs:

• State-of-the-art OCR capabilities that usually produce excessive accuracy
• Helps a variety of languages, making it versatile for international functions
• Simple to combine with different Azure companies like Azure Cognitive Providers, Azure Blob Storage, and Azure Capabilities, permitting for seamless end-to-end options
• Sturdy security measures, together with compliance with numerous worldwide requirements
• Superior options resembling format evaluation, desk recognition, and the flexibility to extract textual content from photographs with complicated backgrounds

Cons:

• Not be essentially the most cost-effective answer for smaller organizations or low-budget initiatives
• Coaching customized fashions might be complicated and should require specialised data, which might be a barrier for groups with out AI experience
• Relying closely on different Azure companies can create a tightly coupled ecosystem, making it difficult if you happen to resolve to change platforms sooner or later
• The accuracy of OCR outcomes can considerably degrade with poor-quality photographs, resembling these with low decision or excessive noise ranges
• ertain options could be region-specific and never out there globally, which might restrict its utility for worldwide functions

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Greatest OCR software program for handwriting recognition

Transkribus

Transkribus excels at changing historic handwritten paperwork into digital textual content with spectacular accuracy. Its capabilities prolong to a variety of scripts and historic manuscripts, making it indispensable for researchers, archivists, and students.

Execs:

• Helps a variety of languages and scripts
• Permits customers to coach the OCR mannequin on particular handwriting kinds or fonts, which considerably improves the accuracy for these specific texts over time
• Affords a collection of superior options, resembling format evaluation, named entity recognition, and key phrase recognizing, that are helpful for researchers coping with massive volumes of texts

Cons:

• It could not carry out in addition to different OCR instruments when coping with trendy printed paperwork
• The UI might be higher and extra intuitive

Handwriting OCR

Handwriting OCR excels in digitizing numerous handwriting kinds and is especially adept at recognizing cursive, printed, and blended scripts. It helps numerous functions, from digitizing historic manuscripts to streamlining information entry processes in instructional {and professional} settings.

Execs:

• Can deal with quite a lot of doc varieties, from letters to notes to scanned kinds

Cons:

• The accuracy can drop considerably with poor handwriting, different writing kinds, or unconventional characters and symbols
• Struggles with paperwork which have complicated layouts, resembling tables, multi-column codecs, or handwritten notes with interspersed drawings

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Greatest OCR software program for kinds or tabular information

Amazon Textract leverages superior machine studying to mechanically extract textual content and information from scanned paperwork, precisely figuring out and processing structured information, resembling fields in kinds and cells in tables. This permits companies to effectively digitize and analyze paperwork like invoices, tax kinds, and contracts.

With help for numerous doc codecs and seamless integration with different AWS companies, Amazon Textract is a strong software for streamlining doc processing workflows. For extra info take a look at this detailed breakdown of Textract.

Execs:

• Very reasonably priced and very scalable
• Simple to make use of and setup when used together with AWS Providers – seamlessly integrates with different AWS companies, resembling Amazon S3, Amazon DynamoDB, and AWS Lambda

Cons:

• May battle with very low-quality paperwork or closely skewed/rotated textual content photographs, which may have an effect on the general accuracy of the OCR outcomes
• Not potential to retrain customized or pretrained options in case of low accuracy
• At present solely helps English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French & German
  • Handwriting, Invoices and Receipts, Id paperwork and Queries processing are in English

ABBYY Finereader

ABBYY FineReader is a strong optical character recognition (OCR) software program that transforms scanned paperwork, PDFs, and pictures into editable and searchable codecs.It might additionally assist evaluate paperwork, add feedback and annotations and a number of different conventional PDF editor options.

ABBYY’s FineReader PDF streamlines doc digitization, retrieval, modifying, safety, sharing, and collaboration inside a unified workflow – something it’s good to flip scanned paper paperwork into their digital variations.

Execs:

• Permits for direct modifying of acknowledged textual content
• Identifies variations between totally different variations of a doc, which is efficacious for proofreading and auditing objective
• One time perpetual license

Cons:

• The cell app doesn’t match the desktop model by way of performance and accuracy

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Greatest OCR software program for accounts payable

Nanonets

Leveraging superior machine studying fashions, Nanonets excels in extracting and decoding textual information from invoices, POs and receipts, automating information entry and validation with excessive accuracy. This reduces guide workload, minimizes errors, and accelerates AP workflows.

Nanonets seamlessly integrates with present ERP techniques, providing real-time information synchronization, analytics, and compliance in monetary doc administration. Automate information seize, construct workflows and streamline present AP processes utterly

Execs:

• The flexibility to fine-tune and prepare customized OCR fashions on the platform
• Supplies learnable resolution engines to unlock enterprise intelligence and make quicker, extra knowledgeable choices

Cons:

• Restricted out of the field integrations with accounting and ERP software program

Rossum

Rossum excels in extracting information from numerous bill codecs with excessive accuracy and minimal guide intervention. By leveraging machine studying, Rossum’s OCR intelligently captures and validates information, considerably decreasing processing time and errors. Its seamless integration with present monetary techniques ensures clean information stream and enhanced productiveness.

Execs:

• Excessive accuracy in information extraction
• Stable integration capabilities

Cons:

• Much less efficient for extra complicated or non-standard doc varieties (aside from invoices or receipts)
• Preliminary setup might be considerably complicated

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Greatest OCR software program for invoices

Nanonets

Leveraging AI and machine studying, Nanonets can precisely extract, classify, and validate information from numerous bill codecs, considerably decreasing guide information entry and error charges. Its sturdy platform seamlessly integrates with present workflows and enterprise techniques, making certain swift and environment friendly processing of huge volumes of invoices.

With easy-to-use APIs and customizable options, companies can automate their bill administration, optimizing operational effectivity and accuracy.

Execs:

• Extracts significant info from unstructured information utilizing zero-shot or zero-training information extraction algorithms that may be educated/retrained
• Appropriate for companies of varied sizes, from small enterprises to massive firms

Cons:

• Whereas just about any integration might be arrange, native integrations are fairly restricted out of the field

Veryfi

Veryfi captures, extracts, and processes information from invoices with outstanding accuracy and velocity. The platform helps numerous codecs, immediately changing textual content from photographs and PDFs into structured information. Veryfi ensures seamless integration with accounting techniques, making it a super software for companies in search of to streamline their bill administration processes.

Execs:

• It successfully extracts information from receipts, invoices, and different paperwork with minimal errors
• Integrates seamlessly with fashionable accounting and bookkeeping software program out of the field
• Affords a cell app to scan paperwork on-the-go

Cons:

• A bit costlier than some opponents
• Limitations on the subject of much less frequent doc varieties

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Greatest OCR software program for receipts

Taggun

Taggun excels at precisely extracting and decoding information from numerous receipt codecs, making certain seamless integration into digital workflows. Taggun’s receipt OCR engine is on the core of fashionable spend/expense administration software program.

Different fashionable use instances for its receipt OCR embrace loyalty programmes, cash-back campaigns and something associated to leveraging zero-party buyer buy information.

Execs:

• Excessive accuracy in extracting information from receipts and invoices
• Handles recognition of area particular information factors in receipts – e.g. the Australian Enterprise Quantity or the Brazilian CNPJ
• Affords real-time information extraction
• Fairly cost-effective, offering good worth for cash

Cons:

• Cannot deal with paperwork aside from receipts or invoices with comparable accuracy ranges
• Restricted room for personalization by way of the info extraction fashions

Veryfi

Veryfi affords cutting-edge optical character recognition (OCR) know-how tailor-made for receipt processing. The platform seamlessly converts textual content from photographs into structured information, categorizing bills and offering real-time analytics. By streamlining expense administration, Veryfi helps customers preserve exact monetary information effortlessly, making certain compliance and decreasing the danger of human error.

Execs:

• Excessive OCR accuracy on receipts – most likely probably the greatest within the trade
• Actual-time information extraction
• Expense categorizations

Cons:

• A bit costlier than some opponents
• Customization choices could be restricted to be used instances past receipts or invoices

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Greatest OCR software program for financial institution statements

Ocrolus

Ocrolus focuses on automating banking and lending workflows with. Notably adept at processing financial institution statements, pay stubs and IDs, Ocrolus leverages AI-driven OCR know-how to precisely seize and interpret information from scanned paperwork and digital information. This streamlines the extraction of transactional info for monetary establishments, lenders, and repair suppliers.

Execs:

Cons:

• The associated fee issue generally is a vital barrier for some potential customers

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Greatest OCR software program for generic PDF paperwork

Adobe Acrobat DC

Adobe Acrobat DC is a number one PDF administration software program that gives complete instruments for creating, modifying, signing, and sharing information. A part of the Adobe Doc Cloud platform, it ensures easy accessibility and file administration, together with cloud storage options. Acrobat DC contains superior options like OCR for textual content recognition, file conversion, and sturdy collaboration instruments.

It might convert scanned paperwork and pictures into absolutely searchable and editable textual content. It is going to even acknowledge fonts and formatting, so the brand new PDF matches your authentic paper doc. Customers can edit paperwork inside seconds of scanning them, add feedback and suggestions on them, evaluate two paperwork aspect by aspect, and way more.

Execs:

• The go to alternative for something PDF associated or for anybody utilizing Adobe apps/software program
• Permits customers to go looking the textual content in PDFs to seek out phrases or phrases and make edits on the spot

Cons:

• Might not be one of the best for freshmen with its overwhelming interface and have set
• Can get costly when in comparison with different PDF administration instruments with OCR capabilities

Tesseract OCR

Tesseract OCR is a number one open-source optical character recognition engine famend for its excessive accuracy in textual content extraction. Tesseract helps over 100 languages and numerous output codecs like plain textual content, searchable PDFs, and hOCR. With steady community-driven enhancements, Tesseract stays a best choice for builders and enterprises searching for dependable OCR options to digitize and automate doc workflows effectively.

Execs:

• Open-source and freely out there
• Helps a lot of languages proper out of the field
• Extremely customizable – can prepare it with new languages or enhance the accuracy of present languages utilizing your individual datasets
• Sturdy group of customers and builders

Cons:

• Could not at all times present the very best accuracy, notably with extra complicated paperwork involving particular characters, uncommon fonts, or poor-quality photographs
• Typically performs poorly with handwritten textual content
• Might be slower in comparison with some industrial OCR options, notably with massive volumes of textual content or high-resolution photographs

Simple OCR

Simple OCR supplies excessive accuracy and velocity in recognizing textual content throughout numerous fonts, languages, and doc varieties. It is notably efficient on generic PDF paperwork, the place it excels in changing scanned pages, pictures, and sophisticated layouts into editable and searchable textual content. Simple OCR helps multi-language recognition and affords sturdy options to deal with noisy, low-resolution photographs.

Execs:

• Easy, user-friendly interface, ultimate for customers with various ranges of technical experience
• Excessive accuracy, particularly for printed textual content, making it dependable for a lot of frequent use instances

Cons:

• Could battle with precisely studying handwritten textual content
• Has bother precisely processing paperwork with a number of columns, tables, or embedded photographs

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How to decide on one of the best OCR software program in your use case?

In case you’re studying this part, I am assuming that your use case hasn’t been lined in any of the classes above or you’ve already checked out our OCR software program suggestions and are searching for another.

In case you are searching for another OCR software program to any of our suggestions, we’d strongly recommend that you simply benchmark any alternate options you take a look at towards our suggestions in that specific class. Evaluate any OCR software program alternate options of your alternative towards our suggestions on evaluate platforms like G2 or Capterra.

Or simply talk to us to get a good evaluation and your finest choices ahead.

In case your use case hasn’t been lined in our record above, here is a guidelines that can assist you come to decide:

• Examine if software program evaluate websites like G2, Capterra or Gartner curate software program in your class (e.g. spend administration, medical coding, order processing).
• Subsequent take a look at the comparative matrix, if any, revealed for that class – basically evaluating all software program throughout key efficiency indicators.
• Shortlist people who point out information extraction, OCR, information seize and so forth. as a key characteristic.
• Or shortlist by means to combine with particular software program – e.g. EHR software program for medical coding/billing, or WMS functions for order processing workflows.
• If in case you have a really particular finances or a minimum of a variety, filter out all of the OCR software program or functions with OCR options that exceed that determine.
  • If info on pricing is not public, simply drop a message to the respective gross sales group alongside along with your finances particulars. In case your finances matches their worth factors – you will you should definitely hear again from them. If not, you are most likely not a proper match for that OCR service with respect pricing or use case.
• Negotiate a POC-type engagement with all of the OCR software program that you’ve filtered to this stage. If a supplier is unwilling to do a POC – share the record of opponents/alternate options which have agreed to do a POC or negotiate a minimum of for a paid POC.
• As soon as the POC is about up concurrently take a look at every software program throughout a typical pattern of paperwork and attempt to combine with ERPs and enterprise software program which are pertinent to your specific use case.

On the finish of the POC interval you need to have a transparent understanding of the next:

• The OCR software program or functions with the very best accuracy charges, or with the quickest information extraction charges. Accuracy charges reported by OCR functions on their web sites are most of the time merely advertising and marketing fluff.
• The extent, high quality and nature of help that the OCR vendor can provide.
• The technical experience required in-house to handle the OCR answer shifting ahead.
• The quantity of documentation out there to keep up the answer in addition to the efficiency attained throughout the POC.

How we take a look at or benchmark towards different OCR functions

For all sensible functions we will not actually take a look at ALL the OCR software program on the market. So we limit ourselves to a most of 30 software program to function our consideration set every time we do that train – this contains the 17 software program featured within the record above.

We preserve a complete pattern information set containing over 200+ different paperwork resembling invoices, receipts, financial institution statements, ID playing cards, medical prescriptions, materials security information sheets, totally different sorts of kinds and experiences and so forth. Every of those pattern paperwork both tie again to a well-liked use case resembling accounts payable or mortgage processing or fashionable doc varieties resembling invoices or receipts.

We then put our consideration set of OCR software program to check on your entire information set talked about above and report the output. Confidence scores are usually assigned to every output. A spherical of human evaluate is completed to match precise OCR output towards anticipated/ultimate outcomes. We assign scores for OCR accuracy, information extraction throughput, and processing time.

Broadly that is the methodology adopted to measure/benchmark the OCR software program listed above. Whereas we do that train most usually (each month) for the accounts payable use case, and doc resembling invoices and receipts particularly – we cowl all 30 OCR software program within the consideration set each 3-6 months.