EasyOCR vs OCR.space

EasyOCR is a Python module that extracts text from images, including natural scene text and dense document text. The project says it supports more than 80 languages, and compatible languages can be processed together. Its readtext method can return recognized text with bounding-box coordinates and confidence values, or provide text alone. Inputs can be image paths, NumPy arrays, bytes, or URLs. The Reader can use a GPU when available or run in CPU-only mode. Pretrained models download automatically during use, with manual downloads available for offline environments. The API also allows custom recognition networks and settings for detection, recognition, decoding, and text-box merging. Installation options include pip, source, and Docker; Windows users may need to install PyTorch manually first. A web demo is available, and the repository says EasyOCR is integrated into Hugging Face Spaces through Gradio. The public repository identifies the project as Apache-2.0 licensed. There is no paid plan listed. Handwriting recognition is not supported; the README lists it as planned work.

OCR.space converts images and PDF documents into editable text through an online OCR service and API, and can create searchable PDFs. The web service accepts JPG, PNG, GIF, and PDF files without registration; its free web uploads are limited to 5 MB per document. The API returns extracted text in JSON and supports images and multi-page PDFs. It offers three OCR engines: Engine 2 is the default, while Engine 3 supports handwriting, tables, and more than 200 languages. An `isTable` option is recommended for receipts, invoices, and other table-structured documents. The free plan is free, with 25,000 monthly requests and a searchable-PDF watermark; Engine 3 has an additional 2,500 conversions, but cannot produce searchable PDFs. PRO costs $30 a month, PRO PDF costs $60 a month, and Enterprise starts at $999 a month. OCR.space Local runs offline in self-hosted environments; its license price is available from sales.