Best business card scanner apps – Are you in possession of a large number of business cards that you need to swiftly scan? Does your business require a program to handle all of its contacts?
Interested in making personalized business cards to use in your company’s promotional efforts? There are more features than just scanning available in today’s business card scanner applications. They can assist you in being more efficient, more organized, and more ready to exchange contact information in any setting.
We put dozens of applications through their paces to help you pick the best business card scanner software, including those that come preinstalled on your phone, customer relationship management apps that also function as card scanners, and apps made for both broad and niche audiences. With so many choices coming to provide similar benefits, we had to narrow our selection down to just five for 2018.
The top five business card readers are shown below. To find out more about the business card readers we recommend, click on the appropriate app below or read on.
Is there a business card reader app that stands out from the rest?
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How we test and evaluate software
All of our app reviews are compiled by real people who have dedicated their lives to learning about, and then discussing, various software programs. We put in many hours of study and testing, using each app in its intended setting and comparing it to our predetermined standards. To keep the confidence of our readers and provide honest assessments of the categories and applications we evaluate, we never accept payment for placement in our articles from any app or for connections to any site.
Business card scanning apps often use optical character recognition (OCR) technologies if could see inside. This method, which dates back several decades, is used to translate visual content into text. The program begins by scanning the card’s layout, then separates the information it finds into text and picture blocks before dragging and dropping the data into the app’s corresponding contact fields. Everything on the card should be correct, including contact information.
However, applications have varying degrees of scanning accuracy, which is a key distinction between the stellar and the just adequate. The OCR in the app may have trouble processing data from cards with unusual typefaces, backgrounds, or layouts. No matter how elaborately made a business card may be, a high-quality scanner will be able to read and retain the vast majority of its information. (However, even when relying on human transcribers, no program can guarantee a perfect transcript.)
We weren’t only concerned with getting the facts right.
- Efficiency of usage
- Card trading in the digital age
- Opportunities for cooperation and combining resources (e.g., with email and CRM platforms)
- capacity to tag, categorize, and group contacts
Lastly, we searched for programs that have advanced functionality, such as the ability to record several business cards at once, an integrated suite of design tools, or a database for managing firm contacts.
Superior precision makes this business card scanning software the best.
- BizConnect (Android, iOS)
BizConnect’s scans are the most precise I’ve found. It’s the only program that reliably captured fuzzy and odd typefaces, located and linked social media accounts, and correctly detected terms that the others missed. BizConnect is feature-rich without being overbearing, thanks to its intuitive interface and well-considered layout.
You may view your whole contact list, along with photos, names, job titles, companies, and additional dates, from the Holder screen. Quickly dial, email, or share a contact without ever opening the card thanks to the choices menu conveniently located next to each entry. Various operations, such as exporting, importing, and adding to CRM, are indicated by different colors in the menu bar at the top of this display. At the very bottom, in large, bold letters, is the scan button.
When you click Scan, you can choose to scan either a single card (front and back) or a QR code, or to scan many cards sequentially. After scanning, a confirmation message will appear, and the contact will be processed and ready in a matter of minutes. It may be a little slower than the other applications above, but it’s worthwhile. I put BizConnect to the test with some really difficult business cards, and they performed quite flawlessly.
In addition to its excellent scanning capabilities, it has a task manager, an activity monitor, and reports detailing the number of leads acquired on a daily and monthly basis. You can add transaction stages, tasks, and activities to a basic CRM, and it even has a revenue tool for keeping track of closed sales. Connect your accounts and choose which contacts to export from your CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho, or Pipedrive) in a matter of minutes.
BizConnect also has Zapier connectors, so you may link it to other apps. Through Zapier, you can link BizConnect to tens of thousands of other applications, allowing you to do things like automatically transfer scanned business cards from BizConnect to Google Sheets or make a new contact in Copper from a scanned business card.
BizConnect’s free plan allows for up to 600 card scans each month, while subscription plans start at $6.99 per user, per month.
The top business card reader for groups and enterprises
- Sansan (Android, iOS, Web)
Sansan, founded in Japan, is a business card scanner giant with a presence in more than 7,000 enterprises across 60 countries. The software is geared for groups and organizations that amass a large number of connections regularly and need a centralized hub to organize and exchange those contacts amongst employees.
Several features stand out for this purpose: the ability to scan numerous cards at once with the app; the use of human transcribers to decrease data entry while increasing accuracy; departmental and permission-based contact management; and bulk emailing reminders, and sharing. Virtual cards for contactless sharing are now available for individuals who would want to forego paper altogether.
You may scan up to four cards at once by simply stacking them vertically and pressing the shutter release when the blue circles pause on each card. Precision is high, and if necessary, human “digitization” may be used to review and alter the fields. Digitizing takes roughly 12 hours for each batch (about four hours for a single card), but once you have a contact, you may start working with them straight immediately.
You may see who else in your organization is related to them, add comments and tags to the contact card, and send it by text or email. Your online account also allows you to make lists and send out mass emails using individualized templates. The number of times your emails have been opened after they’ve been sent may be monitored (other activities tracked include meetings and calls).
Since the epidemic has resulted in fewer in-person interactions, Sansan now includes a virtual card function that allows you to offer your contact data through a link or QR code instead. You may include these in your email signature, Zoom presentation, calendar invite, website, etc. The receiver can choose to receive the card in vCard or CSV format, or they can copy the content.
Departments may be made, users can be added (either one at a time or in bulk), and administrators can decide what privileges each user has about making changes to contacts, downloading information, and seeing reports. In the privacy settings, you may decide who of your team members can see and edit which contacts. Then, workers may go through the firm’s database of contacts by keyword, position within the organization, and more.
In addition, you can automate tasks like putting new business cards as leads in your CRM or email marketing tool with the help of Zapier Integrations with Sansan.
Sansan’s free plan scans up to 99 cards; paid plans are tailored to the number of users or the volume of business cards scanned.
The top business card reader software for making digital business cards from paper cards.
- L-Card Pro (Android, iOS, Web)
Create and distribute digital business cards instead of paper ones, and you’ll be helping the environment and cutting down on germ transmission during the epidemic. You can achieve both of these aims with L-Card Pro because it allows you to make a digital card that can be shared across several channels.
When you initially use the app, you’ll be given the option to either generate a quick card, scan a paper card, or construct your custom card. If you select the first option, you’ll be taken to their template site, where you can select a pre-designed version from hundreds of categories like health, marketing, and real estate, or you can go all out and create a unique design right there on the spot by uploading your images and choosing from a wide variety of colors and fonts. Links to video, social media, and other resources, such as material, might be included in addition to contact information. The card template gives you the freedom to place images, text, and social media symbols wherever you choose. This adaptability would allow you to make any kind of card you could imagine. In the picture above, I simulated a realtor’s business card by including a listing of available homes.
Create a card on your mobile device, or sign in on a bigger screen to access more features. It took me a few minutes to decide on a design, fill out the necessary information, download an image, and adjust the layout on my phone. Then I fiddled about with my laptop a little bit. The program saves your information and generates a QR code, a calendar link, and an email signature card. Then disperse by quick response code (QR), conventional texting, email, WhatsApp, and other channels.
To be fair, this card reader isn’t the best in the shop, but it does its job. In a short amount of time, the software launches locate the card, and do an automated scan before prompting you to make changes or continue. Because one scan was cropped too much, I had to choose Edit and redo the cropping so that the address dark strip at the bottom would be visible. This is a solved problem. For instance, when storing numerous cards, I appreciate how easy it is to just click into a field and begin making changes. If it’s one of your cards, you’ll be given the option to add it to your Library, Favorites, Groups, or My Cards.
Your contacts may be exported to several other platforms, including Salesforce, Outlook, Google Contacts, and your phone’s address book. The ability to generate a QR code as a backdrop image in Zoom is also available.
With L-Card Pro, you may get started for free, and premium options start at $3 per month per user.
Top business card scanner app
- Wantedly People (Android, iOS)
Wantedly People is not just the only free program I tried that could scan numerous cards at once, but it was also the only one I liked. Up to ten cards may be shown simultaneously, which is at least five or six more than can be viewed in any other app.
It took me a few tries to figure out how to arrange the cards so that they could all be scanned at once, but I was able to get ten of them in. Two vertical columns of five worked best, with an inch’s worth of breathing room between rows of cards. The scanning process may be initiated by opening the app and swiping the screen downwards or by tapping the button at the bottom of the screen. The moment you launch the app and point your camera at a deck of cards, the purple and blue circles will begin searching for the cards. When you’re ready to import all of the marked cards at once, touch the shutter button.
Having to scan 10 cards at once caused a little decline in scan quality, and it was especially challenging to catch details from cards with bigger graphics, handwritten annotations, or unique typefaces. To strike a balance between number and quality, I found that scanning eight cards were ideal. When the problematic cards were removed from the deck and scanned separately, the scanner’s accuracy improved.
You can’t import business cards from Wantedly People into your contact book or any other applications. To accomplish this, use the Wantedly People companion web app, export your contacts to a.CSV file, and then import it into your phone or other apps, such as a customer relationship management system. There will be plenty of people willing to go through all of that trouble in exchange for a free option that can scan many cards at once.
Price of Wanted People: Free
The app that reads business cards the simplest
- CamCard (Android, iOS, web)
Compared to competing apps, CamCard significantly simplifies the process of scanning, authenticating, and keeping business cards. Human transcribing services with above-average accuracy are also available.
As soon as you photograph a card (or a group of cards), its image will be displayed at the top of the corresponding record. To facilitate verification, we have highlighted all of the card information in red. If a change has to be made, just press the area (phone number, address, etc.) that has been highlighted on the card’s image. If additional space is required, click the “Add Field” option at the footer. To have a real typist do the transcription instead, choose Proofread at the very end.
After contact is saved, you may choose to add them to a group, schedule a reminder for later, export their information to Excel, or share it. Quick Response (QR) codes, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and SMS messages are all viable choices for spreading the word. At the top of the contract, the record is a picture of the contact’s card, which contains all of the card’s information. Simply tapping this area will reveal the actual scanned card.
Use the ellipsis (three dots) in the top right corner to switch to another contact action. Use the available tools, such as making notes, setting reminders, and joining groups. You may set up alerts on your phone to serve as gentle reminders. The facts of a meeting, as well as pictures and audio recordings, can be recorded and saved in the form of notes. A contact’s logs are then organized by date in the associated record.
Use the Smart Sync button at the bottom to log in and connect your account with Salesforce, Google Contacts, or Outlook for automated contact syncing. Create your digital business card and distribute it by QR code or any of the previously stated methods.
A free version of CamCard is available, while subscription plans start at $5.99/month per user.
Business card scanning isn’t the only option
Does business card scanning need to be done rarely? A specialized card app may be unnecessary. An alternative is to utilize the app’s built-in scanning capabilities to copy information from business cards and manually add contacts to the app’s address book.
- Evernote. In addition to being a great note-taking program, Evernote is also a top choice for scanning business cards. The document scanner option in Evernote will often detect papers and business cards when you add a new photo as a note, allowing you to quickly and easily capture them. It will be saved in Evernote as a Business Card note with fields for the contact information, an image of the card, and any notes you choose to add. Then, you can either add them to your address book or set up a reminder in Evernote to contact them.
- OneNote. There’s also OneNote, Microsoft’s answer to Evernote. Scan business cards and other documents for free into your OneNote notebook with the Microsoft Office Lens companion app. You can then right-click the digitized business card images in OneNote, copy the text, and import it into your Mac or Windows contact book.
- Lens by Google. You can scan QR codes with the camera on most new Android phones thanks to Google Lens. Snap a photo of the card, then add the image to your phone’s contacts by tapping the Lens symbol.
- Use of Google Drive or another OCR tool. Another option is to utilize Google Drive’s optical character recognition (OCR) tool or a third-party scanning program. When it comes to text recognition, those applications can be useful; nevertheless, you’ll still need to manually copy the detected text and put it to use.
- If your company makes use of customer relationship management (CRM) software to keep track of leads and clients, that app can automatically scan business cards whenever you use the app on the go. Business card scanning is a feature available in several customer relationship management (CRM) programs, including HubSpot CRM, Zoho CRM, Insightly, Nutshell, and noCRM. The scanner in Zoho is quite accurate and has vastly improved over the last year, however, it is a separate software and not integrated with the CRM system. However, HubSpot’s app is always free and includes a scanner in its mobile CRM software, just like Nutshell and noCRM.
Whether you’re looking to expand your app stack, it’s a good idea to evaluate if whatever you already have would do the job.
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