OCR.space vs PdfGen

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.

PdfGen is a cloud platform for generating PDFs from HTML templates, including invoices, reports, certificates, contracts, guides, and proposals. It provides a code editor powered by Monaco, a rich text editor, and live PDF preview. Templates can use plain text, structured object, or tabular variables, and variable definitions can generate data-entry forms. For rendering, users can choose iText for metadata-rich output or Puppeteer/Chromium for web-to-PDF conversion. Its REST API manages templates, variables, and document generation; an MCP server connects with coding agents including Cursor and Claude Desktop. TypeScript and Python client libraries are available. Listed integrations include GitHub template sync, Google Fonts, Stripe, and AI providers Anthropic Claude, OpenRouter, MiniMax, and DeepSeek. Organizations offer Admin and User roles, email invitations, and shared templates, variables, and documents. The site says generation runs in isolated server-side environments, stored content is encrypted at rest, API keys are SHA-256 hashed, and data in transit uses TLS. Plans set monthly document allowances; extra documents use plan-specific credits. Pricing ranges from free to €25 a month.