Mar 20, 2019 Whether you own your own business or you’re just trying to track expenses as part of your job, the following 10 apps will help you scan, track, and manage your receipts. The criteria used to choose the best receipt scanning apps included ease-of-use, quality of.
Being a businessperson is tough! Do you know what’s even tougher? Keeping all the business cards you collect, especially after a networking event or a conference. Thankfully, there are some business card scanner apps that can help you digitize all these cards.
The Problem with taking Pictures
Before using business card scanner apps; I used to take a picture of the business card and set it as the picture for the contact. This seems like a nice idea at first, but when I’d like to make a call, I would have to manually type that number. Business card scanner apps, on the other hand, can automatically extract name and number for the card and save it as a contact. So, you are not just saving some space in your wallet. but, you also have the option to export it as CSV.
Sounds cool, right?
But, there is one small problem, not all business cards are made the same. So, we tested some of the popular business card scanner apps for Android. After trying out 15+ apps dedicated for business card scanning, we have narrowed down the list to 5. So, you can count on these apps if you are tired of stuffing all those thick cards inside your small wallet.
Read: CamScanner vs. Adobe Scan vs. Office Lens – Which One to Use and Why
Business Card Scanner Apps for Android
1. Haystack
Haystack for Android is a great choice if you are looking for a quick way to digitize business cards. You can use this app to scan, store and access a variety of business cards. In addition to that, Haystack lets you create your own digital business cards and share them via NFC, Email, text, etc. If you often attend networking events, you can use Haystack to easily share your business identity with others.
As far as business card scanning goes, Haystack offers basic features. It has an advanced camera interface, clubbed with inbuilt OCR. However, OCR isn’t perfect. You may have to make some edits even after the OCR scan is done. That having said, once scanned, Haystack arranges all the business cards — including digital ones — in an easy-to-use interface.
Pros: Advanced sharing options, Easy-to-use UI, Cloud Sync of Contacts
Cons: OCR is faulty at times
If you need a simple app to take care of printed and digital cards alike, Haystack is a great option indeed. It offers a bunch of basic features such as OCR and Cloud Sync, though they aren’t perfect. The best part we find about Haystack is that it can seamlessly create, accept and share digital cards, which is the next big thing. Moreover, it’s ad-free.
Install Haystack (Free)
2. ScanBizCards Lite
ScanBizCards Lite is another awesome business card scanner app for Android you can try. It does not have the most-modern UI or anything. However, when it comes to scanning and storing business cards, it is quite effective. More importantly, the OCR is almost perfect, even at lower light. Just scan the card and the app will include every bit of data from the card.
Scanning any business card using ScanBizCards Lite is an easy task! Just click on the Capture button and boom — you have digitized the card. Of course, there are options for editing and organizing your cards. It offers an awesome feature named Email Capture, which captures email signatures and save them as contacts. You’d be able to connect your Microsoft, Exchange and Google email providers.
Pros: Straightforward UI, Better integration with CRM, Email Capture
Cons: Lite version is limited
You can count on ScanBizCards Lite if you need an ultra-simple app to scan business cards. While it does not offer many features, OCR and integrations are just awesome. Even with this simple UI, it packs a few advanced features like Email Capture and Export options. By the way, there is a feature-rich Pro version and paid Manual Transcription features you can check out.
InstallScanBizCards Lite (Free, Pro version available)
3. WorldCard Mobile Lite
You would find WorldCard Mobile Lite as a great option if you need better OCR options. This simple app will be able to recognize 25 different languages, which is great. In the case of English, the recognition is quick as well as almost accurate. It also offers a better arrangement of scanned business cards, which is a great feature too. In addition to all the necessary features, there are some advanced ones too.
WorldCard Mobile Lite is also the Android business card scanner app that offers the best customizability. It even allows you to set reminders to contact newly-added people. Options such as auto-format and order of name display make the app even more impressive. More importantly, you can use WorldCard Mobile to get the backups stored in local storage as well as online services.
Pros: Feature-rich, Better Customizability, and Sync options
Cons: Limited number of cards
If you need a customizable and feature-rich business card scanning app, WorldCard Mobile Lite is the best choice. You can alter almost everything in the app, making it suitable for every user. In addition, you get a more powerful OCR system and better organization options. That having said, we wish WorldCard Mobile Lite was allowing more contacts.
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Install WorldCard Mobile Lite (Free, Pro version available)
4. CamCard
CamCard for Android is one of the quickest and most effective ways to digitize business cards. In just seconds, the app will capture the card, arrange it and squeeze out information. Just hit the Save button and you can access the card data as if it’s a contact. For data sync and multi-device access, you can create an account at CamCard, free of cost.
For most people, the free version should be enough as it can store up to 200 business cards. We were really impressed by the speed of the OCR engine. It’s supposed to work in 17 languages too. CamCard also lets you receive and share e-cards using QR codes and other modes. Thanks to the minimal UI, you won’t have any problem in accessing the data from stored cards.
Pros: Simple UI, Quick and accurate OCR, Card-sharing options and Digital Card support
Cons: The free version can store up to 200 cards only
If you’re an entrepreneur or a small business owner, CamCard is the perfect choice for you. The free version lets you store up to 200 business cards in digital form. Not only that, using the app is really quick and accurate. Considering its support for digital cards and card sharing, CamCard becomes an optimal choice for future business conferences as well.
Install CamCard (Free, Pro version available)
5. Wantedly People
Wantedly People is probably the best business card scanner app for every Android user. It is noted for simple UI and powerful features. What we love about Wantedly People is that it can scan multiple business cards at once. You just have to place all the business cards side by side. The app will capture a big image, split the image into pieces and bring you details of each business card. It’s also one of the most innovative app here.
This makes Wantedly People one of the best-suited apps for professionals. You can scan up to 10 cards once, which is great. In addition, it also packs a moderately quick OCR option. Apart from being a simple scanning app, Wantedly also lets you use the platform. While signing up, you can set up your profile. You can also add your own business card, as a part of your profile.
Pros: Straightforward UI, Multiple card scanning, Optimized scanning
Cons: None worth mentioning.
I repeat Wantedly People is the perfect option for scanning business cards and storing them as contacts. Although it lacks advanced sharing and customization, every businessperson will love the app. It has a simple UI that lets you go through the contacts with an amazing easiness. Altogether, we will suggest this app for those who need clean scanning as well as a sharing platform.
InstallWantedly People (Free)
Some Other Apps to Scan and Digitize Business Cards
Here are some other apps you can use for digitizing your business cards collection. Some of these might not be dedicated business scanners, but they are good.
- Evernote: As you know, Evernote is a complete solution for storing things. The app can even detect what you are scanning. If you have the premium subscription of Evernote, you can easily scan, store and share business cards. The basic version, however, does not let you do that. It costs $5.99/Month though.
- FullContact: It’s not really an app dedicated to business scanning. It’s actually an address-book app that comes with business card scanning. That is, by scanning the business cards, you can keep all the data in your Contacts list. It’s a free app for Android that may come in handy for people who socialize a lot. It can even bring social media updates to one place.
- ABBYY Business Card Reader Free: You should consider this only if you are planning to upgrade to its paid version. As such as ABBYY BCR is really limited. You can’t even store more than 10 cards. That having said, if you can upgrade, ABBYY offers some cool features, such as compatibility with other apps from the same developers.
So, if you need a multi-purpose app, you can consider the above-mentioned choices.
Wrapping Up: Business Card Scanner Apps
We have included a diverse set of apps in both sections. For instance, if you need a quick & easy app for scanning cards, you can go for Wantedly People. On the other hand, if customization is your thing, apps like WorldCard Mobile Lite also becomes an option. Before you finalize, consider the number of cards you can store in the free version. By the way, do you think any other business card scanner app for Android deserves a space here? Do let us know via comments.
Read: How to add business email to Android
Even though digital media reigns supreme for most things, business cards aren't one of them. Whether you're at a conference for networking and getting professional contacts, or looking to stay in contact a local store, business cards are still a thing, and they still make it easy for others to keep in touch with you.
But what about keeping track of all of those cards you receive? The easiest way to organize your business cards is to scan them digitally and extract the contact info so you don't need to search for and type everything in manually. Here are some apps that help you scan and organize the business cards that you'll accrue, especially if you tend to go to conferences often.
ABBYY Business Card Scanner
ABBYY Business Card Scanner is one of the leading apps in the industry because of its Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. With ABBYY, users are able to scan and store contact information directly from business cards, and there's support for up to 25 languages. With the OCR tech, it'll accurately find and recognize names, organizations, phone numbers, and email addresses.
As you scan cards in with ABBYY, the app intelligently detects the edges of cards and crops out unwanted backgrounds, so all you have is a clean copy of the business card itself. ABBYY also fills in missing bits of data, such as country codes, extensions, and typos. All data that you scan and save into ABBYY may also be backed up automatically or manually, and data can be shared via email as VCard or JPEG files.
For the most part, you can try out ABBYY's powerful features for free. There is a limit of 10 cards though, and you'll have occasional ads. To get the most out of ABBYY, you'll need to pony up for a Premium account, which starts at $8 a month. You can also buy features a la carte, with prices starting at $3 and up.
CamCard
CamCard gives users access to an expansive feature set for free, though there are some extra bonuses if you opt for a premium subscription, starting at $5 a month or $47 a year.
With CamCard, users are able to scan in business cards either one-at-a-time or in batches. All of the contact information is stored and saved on your smartphone, and you can even add notes and reminders to these contacts to help jog your memory. And if you have your own secretary, you can even invite them to scan and save contact details on your behalf, which is a truly nice feature.
If you have your own business card, you can store that inside CamCard as well. When you run out of paper cards to hand out, just send them an e-card version through CamCard. The app also intelligently keeps track of stored contacts, so that when a contact gets promoted or changes jobs, you'll get a notification about it. CamCard also keeps all of your data securely stored in the cloud, so you can access everything from multiple devices when necessary (no limitations with a Premium account).
ScanBizCards
If you work in a company that uses SalesForce or SugarCRM, ScanBizCards is the app you'll want to use. While you can use ScanBizCards for individual use, it is mostly geared for enterprises.
With ScanBizCards, you get unlimited scans for business cards, and the contact information pulled from these can be either added to existing contacts in the system or new ones. The information it pulls is transcribed via the app's OCR tech, and if there is any detail that's incorrect, you can manually fix it.
Again, the biggest pull for ScanBizCards is the enterprise use case. It integrates seamlessly with services like SalesForce, SugarCRM, and more. Two-sided business cards may also be scanned without issue into ScanBizCards, and forwarding pulled information to other users is an easy task.
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Wantedly People
When you have to deal with hundreds of business cards, you definitely do not want to be scanning those in one-by-one. You'll definitely need to check out Wantedly People, which allows you to scan in up to 10 business cards at a time.
The best part about how Wantedly handles batch scanning is that you don't even need to lay out the cards in a certain way for it to pick them up. Just have them all scattered on a flat surface, tap the button, and Wantedly handles the rest. The app utilizes OCR tech and artificial intelligence to analyze and detect text and contact information on every card to generate new contacts for you. Over time, the AI improves accuracy so it just gets better the more you use it.
As you accumulate saved contacts in Wantedly People, you can search for a specific contact via the search field, which lets you look through any field. Call and message contacts in just a few taps, or even communicate with them through Wantedly's own business chatting platform. You can also make your own profile and share your information with others right in the app.
CardHQ
CardHQ is a superb option to consider if you want something that's packed with a ton of features while being super lightweight on your storage capacity (only 12MB), and is completely free. That's right, you don't have to ever pay a dime, and it has everything you'd need, including multiple language support.
With CardHQ, you'll get an unlimited number of scans, even batch scanning, and each card gets scanned in as little as three seconds. It also has fairy accurate OCR recognition, so text gets detected pretty well and contacts are stored accurately. Any saved contact in CardHQ can easily be shared with others through a myriad of ways, such as traditional email, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook.
Scanbot
Free personal weather station software. Scanbot is probably best known as an app that scans documents you want digital copies of, but it's fairly versatile and also works great for business cards.
Mac Business Card Template
I've personally used Scanbot for years, and it's fast with getting the camera up and ready for scanning what you need. Just hold it over the document or business card, and Scanbot automatically detects what you're trying to scan, giving you hints like 'Move closer' or 'Don't move' when it is capturing the document.
For business cards, Scanbot uses OCR to extract text for you, and then you can copy it to your device's clipboard to import the data or use it to search. Scanbot integrates with a large selection of third-party cloud services, so all of your scans can be automatically uploaded to the service of your choosing.
This software uses the advanced photo weaver and it provides for efficient cropping and addition of multiple images at once which thereby gives the efficient output. In case the photo weaver is unable to crop the photos automatically, then an option for manual cropping is also provided. Best Photo Stitching Software for Mac. Free photo stitching software mac.
The only issue is that since Scanbot is not a dedicated business card app, contacts from business cards aren't automatically saved--you'll need to do a bit of legwork yourself. But it's a great overall scanner app that should be on every device for plenty of other reasons.
Microsoft Office Lens
Microsoft Office Lens is another one of those multipurpose scanner apps, but it has a dedicated mode just for business cards, so it sets itself apart from other apps like Scanbot.
With Office Lens, the app can automatically detect business cards, whiteboards, documents, and more in the viewfinder, and then it will trim, enhance, and turn those images into easy-to-read scans. For the business card mode, the app extracts contact information from the card and saves it automatically in your device's Address Book as well as OneNote.
Keep in mind that the business card functionality of Microsoft Office Lens works best with the following languages: English, German, Spanish, and Simplified Chinese. Microsoft claims that support for more languages is coming in the future.
All scans with Office Lens are saved as images, but you can convert them into Word (.docx), PowerPoint (.pptx), or PDF, and everything is automatically saved into OneDrive as well. If you are invested in the Microsoft Office suite of products, then Office Lens is a great option to consider.
Get those business cards scanned!
There are quite a few apps out there that are specifically designed for scanning business cards, but these are some of the best we've seen, and then some. What are you currently using for scanning business cards? Did we miss your favorite? Let us know in the comments!
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