8 Best Free OCR Software to Convert Documents in 2024

Are you and your business still drowning in paperwork? Actual physical paperwork? It’s 2024. Let’s change that.  

Your documents still hold value. You, along with staff and stakeholders, might receive and work on them for a variety of business decisions every day. By switching to a free optical character recognition (OCR) software tool, you can convert non-parsable or post-data format documents into editable file formats and build an organized data repository.  All this without paying another invoice!

Businesses can also switch to the free OCR software to prepare and manage project data for team collaboration.

Let’s look at the list of the 8 best free OCR software to make document scanning, editing, and digitization easy and convenient.

How do we select and evaluate OCR software on G2?

At G2, we rank software solutions using a proprietary algorithm that considers customer satisfaction and market presence based on authentic user reviews. Our market research analysts and writers spend weeks testing solutions against multiple criteria set for a software category. We give you unbiased software evaluations – that's the G2 difference! We didn’t accept payment or exchange links for product placements in this list. Please read our G2 Research Scoring Methodology for more details.

8 Best Free OCR Software in 2024

OCR software provides businesses with all-in-one document support and management services. It enables users to scan, search, edit, and modify images and convert them into editable documents. 

These OCR user reviews come from G2’s best OCR software category page. Please note that in the context of this list, vendors offering a trial are considered free.

To qualify for inclusion in this category, software must:

• Process digital images of various file types 
• Capture data from scanned PDFs and convert them into Word documents
• Identify and parse non-editable plain text and convert it into editable text
• Organize digital files either on-premise or in the  cloud 
• Offer engine compatibility across Mac, iPhone, Linux, Android, and Microsoft Windows

This data was pulled from G2 in 2024. Some reviews may have been edited for clarity. 

1. Laserfiche

Laserfiche, a document creation and storage tool, digitizes your entire paper trail. It’s been a pioneer in providing enterprise content management services to create, edit, modify, and share content across internal and external stakeholders. Laserfiche comes with compatible OCR integrations that you can deploy to your current content infrastructure. 

Laserfiche supports digital files and automates document scanning and processing so that documents can be shared across teams.

What do users like best:

“We love using Laserfiche. It is an extremely safe storage opportunity for employee and donor files that are not to be accessed by anyone unnecessarily. We have staff that use this on a daily basis for their role. Implementing and administering it is very simple, especially when staff accidentally make changes they did not mean to. Customer support is wonderful when we run into something that we have a difficult time supporting ourselves with.”

- Laserfiche Review, Heidi H. 

What do users dislike:

"Non-responsiveness on direct emails. No follow-up by certain employees. No customizable views on the monitor. I want to move to the cloud, but I don't want to lose functionality. Cloud or prem, features should be the same – always. Don't make us choose.”

- Laserfiche Review, DIANNA D. 

2. FineReader PDF for Windows and Mac

FineReader PDF for Windows and Mac converts PDFs into file formats like .doc, .docx, .rtf, or .txt so you can upload, parse, edit, and retrieve text. It also offers online OCR  to process large volumes of documents.

The software also supports existing scanned documents and converts them into machine-readable text. Once parsed, you can store documents securely in your cloud storage or on-premise.

What do users like best:

“I found FineReader’s free version to be a one-stop all-in-one tool when using PDF. To start with, I like the clean interface and how easy it is to use. It is my go-to tool whenever I need to add a digital signature to my documents in PDF format. I also like the fact that I can classify my documents, as this helps me in organizing my confidential documents. As an IT professional, I have had previous experience using ABBYY FineReader OCR solution in projects, and seeing its seamless integration into the tool feels like a game changer for me. I just love the OCR analysis part of the tool.”

- FineReader PDF for Windows and Mac Review, Sreyas V.

What do users dislike:

“In some cases, using Abbyy's PDF to Live PDF conversion may have a bad effect on the document print quality (resolution) and its file size.”

- FineReader for Windows and Mac Review, Yohai C.

3. TextIn 

TextIn processes and aligns texts from non-editable file formats into an easy-to-understand and correctable file format. This document customization and alteration tool captures, extracts, and modifies text files according to the user’s discretion.  It also automates document-based workflows across teams to increase transparency and visibility.

TextIn is known for intelligent image and document processing and can analyze, sort, and classify data across several industries. 

What do users like best:

"I like that it can reduce the amount of paper that you have to carry around – you can just scan everything. I also like that it auto-crops the image and you can edit using filters. I also like being able to save images in different file formats.”

- TextIn Review, Aarifah B. 

What do users dislike:

"It sometimes crops abruptly instead of cropping the required page. It always puts the watermark logo at the bottom of the page. It does not allow optical character recognition, and in the pdf file, it saves the page as an image instead of text.”

- TextIn Review, Dev A.

4. Ephesoft

Ephesoft offers database automation and management services for businesses using artificial intelligence (AI). The end-to-end file automation promotes team collaboration, project management, and team-wide document accessibility. Ephesoft works on soft copies of PDF files and extracts important data from the text. It also has several add-ons like form indentation, text alignment, and citation support.

What do users like best:

"We appreciate several qualities of Ephesoft. In particular, the software is an excellent and user-friendly way to help us organize and interpret data that was less useful in its previous format. The platform also saves time and money by automatically identifying all file types and processing methods, which reduces the need for human intervention. We're also fans of how adaptable the interface is; we've made several modifications to make it work better for our needs. All this makes Ephesoft a valuable asset to our team because it can be adopted quickly without requiring specialist knowledge or experience.”

- Ephesoft Review, Stephanie W. 

What do users dislike:

"It's slower than other online classification and extraction tools. Also, several features that Ephesoft advertises are discouraged by its professional services and support staff. Finally, it takes substantial effort to maximize the solution's potential, and the time required to update can quickly add up.”

- Ephesoft Review,  Shanil K. 

5. Nanonets

Nanonets help scan, upload, edit, re-scan, and re-save documents in an organized repository. It offers AI automation to autocorrect document text and highlight inconsistencies in content. Nanonets also has an intuitive mobile app that allows you to scan, save and edit PDF documents with ease directly from mobile devices. Its large storage capacity and numerous document editing and formatting features make it compatible across platforms.

Nanonets’ intelligent AI automation provides services to 34% of Fortune 500 companies.

What do users like best:

"Thanks to Nanonets we were able to digitally process complex invoices and confirmation orders. The AI’s self-learning capabilities were the most remarkable feature for us – with the model improving consistently as more data was provided.”

- Nanonets Review, Nadim A. 

What do users dislike:

"The model training at first can be a bit tedious and hard to visualize properly, especially for large and complex files, such as financial statements from suppliers from multiple countries. But once everything is set up, it is well worth the training time.”

- Nanonets Review, Charles E. 

6. Rossum

Rossum’s (formerly Elis) AI-assisted data extraction tool captures invoices. This platform can help accounting and bookkeeping professionals refine their workflows. Users can import PDFs or scans of invoices, and Rossum automatically extracts the relevant data into a structured format without the need for templates. Data can then be conveniently validated within the interface, and exported for further processing using one of the tool’s software integrations like  Netsuite or Quickbooks Desktop Pro. 

What do users like best:

"The best thing about Rossum is the saved keystrokes. I mean, that's the whole point of this. From a developer perspective, Rossum's fairly open approach to allow for modification of the UI and how data is processed through Rossum was the true sell point. My company has very specific needs, and the ability to scale the UI up or down on the fly is incredible and easy.”

- Rossum Review, Connor S.

What do users dislike:

"Rossum can be improved by learning how to read Excel documents, and sometimes the repeated behaviors we teach Rossum are ignored. Rossum is also limited to reading "straight" lines of data. If there was a way to tilt the grid to read orders that are misaligned, that would be appreciated.”

- Rossum Review, Steven S. 

7. Base64.ai: automated document data extraction

Base64.ai is an ML-powered data extraction and automation tool that generates editable reports and tables from large documents. Base64.ai intelligently captures data and labels it internally to create newer documents. This simplifies business workflows and speeds up transactional processing between clients and vendors.

Base 64.ai also verifies and validates text before transferring it into a different format. It ensures that the the value and authenticity of the text are maintained.

What do users like best:

"The advanced AI models have enhanced effective adaptation to new document format and data extraction from different forms. It enables my team to make timely decisions from reliable insights obtained from extracted data. I have been able to implement many projects within the set timelines due to accurate data that I obtain from different data sources.”

- Base64.ai Review, Ruth C.

What do users dislike:

“There are downtime incidents that have disrupted data workflows, affecting the entire data pipeline.”

- Base64.ai Review, Andrew S. 

8. DocuClipper

DocuClipper summarizes text from PDF files and inserts it into WORD documents. It supports multiple file variants like .png, .jpg, or other image files and reads inline text. A leading OCR tool, DocuClipper is easy to use and also offers OCR tutorials for beginners to learn more.

DocuClipper can also scan and capture multi-page invoices and physical text files containing critical banking or credit card data.

What do users like best:

“I used DocuClipper for converting my clients’ bank statements and credit card statements to Quickbooks Online format files. It was very smooth and accurate, unlike other software that I have used for similar purposes. Overall, it is a very intuitive, user-friendly software. It is highly recommended if you are working with PDF statements. I haven’t explored it fully, but so far, it's great.”

- DocuClipper Review, Javeria Z.

What do users dislike:

"It would be great to have a pay-as-you-go plan for smaller businesses that don't need it continuously but still need it for occasional projects. I don't need it enough to warrant the cost of the annual plan. I needed DocuClipper for one project and had to pay the monthly fee and then cancel the subscription. I don't need the program much, but when I do, it comes in very handy and saves me a ton of time.”

- DocuClipper Review, Stephanie K. 

Comparison of the best free OCR software

To get a look at which OCR tool best suits your document workflows, check out our comparison table and evaluate your parameters.

Free OCR software: Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

How accurately does free OCR software recognize various fonts and handwritten text?

Free OCR software utilizes machine learning and artificial intelligence to improve accuracy, even with handwritten text. However, the accuracy varies based on the quality of the input image and the sophistication of the OCR algorithm. Lok for OCR software with high accuracy rates and robust preprocessing capabilities to handle diverse data types.

How well does free OCR software integrate with other current document management systems?

Most modern free OCR software is designed to integrate seamlessly with popular document management systems (DMS) and document creation software. This integration allows for the automatic importing, processing, and organizing of documents. Before purchasing, ensure that the OCR software supports the APIs or connectors required by your DMS. Integration capabilities significantly enhance workflow efficiency by automating document processing and reducing manual data entry.

What are the top listed OCR software on G2?

The top-listed OCR software on G2 is Adobe Acrobat, FineReader PDF for Windows and Mac, Rossum, and DocuClipper.    

Is free OCR software safe to use? Does it compromise data privacy?

Free OCR software is encrypted software that allows access via secure authorization. It authenticates users via their authentic account and a one-time generated password that adds more security layers to your app. Further, it prevents unauthorized users from making changes to your file by generating a password Unicode that locks certain documents.

Build your digital ledgers

Free OCR programs create a smooth transition from hard copies to an electronic output format, giving you the power to adjust data according to organizational standards. They eliminate the hassle of paper bills and invoices and automate your data for simple processing. Whether you’re working with vendors, customers, or a new partner, your transactional records need not be scattered into stacks of paper. 

 Learn how free PDF editors can enable you to convert, edit, and modify PDF docs from a non-editable to editable format and ease your work hassles. 

Edited by Aisha West