Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

PDFsam VS OCR.Space Free OCR API

Compare PDFsam VS OCR.Space Free OCR API and see what are their differences

PDFsam logo PDFsam

PDFsam Basic, a free, open source, multi-platform software designed to split, merge, extract pages, mix and rotate PDF files

OCR.Space Free OCR API logo OCR.Space Free OCR API

Free OCR web service that takes a JPG, PNG or PDF file and converts them to text or searchable PDF.
  • PDFsam Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-27
  • OCR.Space Free OCR API Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-11

PDFsam

Website
pdfsam.org
$ Details
free
Platforms
Windows Linux Mac OSX

OCR.Space Free OCR API

Website
ocr.space
Pricing URL
-
$ Details
-
Platforms
-

PDFsam features and specs

  • Cost
    PDFsam Basic is free and open-source, which makes it highly accessible for individual users and small businesses.
  • User Interface
    The interface is simple and straightforward, allowing users to easily navigate and use the essential features without a steep learning curve.
  • Functionality
    PDFsam includes essential features such as merging, splitting, rotating, and extracting PDF pages, which can cover most common PDF editing needs.
  • Cross-Platform
    PDFsam is available on multiple operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux, ensuring broad compatibility and usability.
  • Community Support
    Being an open-source project, PDFsam has a community of users and developers who contribute to its improvement and troubleshooting.

Possible disadvantages of PDFsam

  • Advanced Features
    The free version lacks advanced features like OCR, which are available in the paid versions such as PDFsam Enhanced.
  • Performance
    Some users report that the application can be slow when processing large documents or performing complex tasks.
  • Interface Design
    While functional, the user interface is not as modern or visually appealing compared to some other PDF software.
  • Commercial Use
    For businesses, the licenses for the advanced features in PDFsam Enhanced can be costly, especially for small enterprises.
  • Customer Support
    While there is a user community for support, professional customer support is limited to the paid versions, which might be a hurdle for those needing quick assistance.

OCR.Space Free OCR API features and specs

  • Free Tier
    The OCR.Space API offers a free tier that allows users to utilize OCR capabilities without any initial cost, which is beneficial for small projects or evaluation purposes.
  • Multiple Language Support
    The API supports OCR in multiple languages, making it versatile for global applications and users who need text recognition in different languages.
  • High Accuracy
    OCR.Space is known for providing high accuracy in text extraction from images, which is crucial for applications that require precise text data.
  • Barcode Scanning
    Apart from text recognition, the API includes functionality to scan barcodes, adding to its utility for various business applications.
  • Simple Integration
    The API is designed for easy integration, with clear documentation and sample codes available, which helps developers quickly implement OCR features into their applications.

Possible disadvantages of OCR.Space Free OCR API

  • Rate Limit
    The free tier of the OCR.Space API has rate limits on the number of requests, which may not be sufficient for high-demand applications or continuous use.
  • Limited Customization
    The API may offer limited options for customization in terms of OCR processing, limiting how developers can tailor the service to specific needs.
  • Image Size Restrictions
    There are restrictions on the size of images that can be processed with the free API, which could be a constraint for applications needing high-resolution image processing.
  • Data Privacy Concerns
    As with any cloud-based service, there can be data privacy concerns since images are sent to and processed on external servers.
  • Occasional Downtime
    Users might experience occasional downtime or maintenance periods, which can disrupt service availability and reliability.

Analysis of PDFsam

Overall verdict

  • PDFsam is considered a good tool, especially for users who need a straightforward and cost-effective solution for managing PDFs. Its open-source background ensures transparency and community support, while its user-friendly interface appeals to those without advanced technical skills.

Why this product is good

  • PDFsam (PDF Split and Merge) is a popular tool for handling PDF documents due to its simplicity, open-source nature, and ability to perform a range of common PDF tasks like splitting, merging, rotating, and extracting pages. It offers both a free basic version and a more advanced version with additional features, making it accessible and flexible for different user needs.

Recommended for

    PDFsam is recommended for individuals and small businesses looking for an easy-to-use, cost-efficient PDF tool capable of handling everyday PDF manipulation tasks without the complexity or expense of more advanced software. Itโ€™s particularly suitable for users who require basic features and occasional PDF editing.

PDFsam videos

How to Use PDFsam

More videos:

  • Demo - PDFSamVisual Demo

OCR.Space Free OCR API videos

No OCR.Space Free OCR API videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to PDFsam and OCR.Space Free OCR API)
PDF Tools
97 97%
3% 3
PDF Creator
100 100%
0% 0
OCR
0 0%
100% 100
PDF Editor
97 97%
3% 3

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare PDFsam and OCR.Space Free OCR API

PDFsam Reviews

15 PDF editors quick review
This is a simple open source Java pdf editor. The basic version allows you to edit the content and structure of pdf documents. Builds of this version are available for Windows, MacOS and Linux. PDFsam Enhanced version provides all the basic tools needed for the pdf editor. Special utilities for securing files and converting their contents are only available in the Pro version.

OCR.Space Free OCR API Reviews

We have no reviews of OCR.Space Free OCR API yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, PDFsam seems to be a lot more popular than OCR.Space Free OCR API. While we know about 32 links to PDFsam, we've tracked only 2 mentions of OCR.Space Free OCR API. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

PDFsam mentions (32)

  • JavaFX In Action with Pedro Duque Vieira, aka Duke, about Hero, PDFSam, FXThemes, FXComponents,...
    He shares insights into a few applications, like Hero (CAD application to calculate energy efficiency) and PDFSam (powerful and professional PDF editor). PDFSam had 100.000 downloads in April '24! - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Pdftool.org: modify pdfs offline in the browser
    I find pdfsam to be the perfect offline tool for me on Windows. https://pdfsam.org And it's open source as well: https://github.com/torakiki/pdfsam. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
  • Free pdf editor?
    That might be fit for your purpose PDFSam. Source: over 2 years ago
  • My 2023 Bingo Card
    Use pdfsam.org to split the pdf into individual sheets fyi. Source: over 2 years ago
  • What's the best tool to merge pdf files?
    PDFsam - merge, split, extract pages, rotate and mix your PDF files. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

OCR.Space Free OCR API mentions (2)

  • Searchable PDFs
    We scan everything with ocr functionallity by an office all-in one printer by canon. So a big portion of the files will be searchable anyways. The rest of the files can be uploaded to https://ocr.space/ocrapi. To extract the text in a filemaker textfield I use the MBS Plugin which is highly recommended anyway with the following call: MBS( "PDFKit.GetPDFText"; MEDIEN::Container_m ). Source: about 3 years ago
  • Anybody know how I could do this?
    Are you okay with paying for APIs? If so fair enough: https://ocr.space/ocrapi or browse https://rapidapi.com/marketplace for a good OCR API. As far as I know the only way to do it within python is with tesseract, which you could look into. Here's a resource on dealing with the PDF part. Source: over 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing PDFsam and OCR.Space Free OCR API, you can also consider the following products

PDF-XChange Editor - The smallest, fastest, most feature-rich PDF editor/viewer available

i2OCR - i2OCR is a free online Optical Character Recognition (OCR) that extracts text from images so that it can be edited, formatted, indexed, searched, or translated.

PDF24 PDF Creator - Create PDF and convert documents to PDF for free with the free PDF24 PDF Creator.

FlexiCapture - ABBYY FlexiCapture brings together the best NLP, machine learning, and advanced recognition capabilities into a single, enterprise-scale platform to handle every type of document. Available in the Cloud, on premise or as SDK.

PDFShift - Convert any HTML documents to high-fidelity PDF using a single POST request

NewOCR.com - NewOCR.com is a free online OCR (Optical Character Recognition) service. NewOCR.