Choosing the best OCR software is important when you are looking to convert physical documents into digital format. Show
There are many use cases for OCR or Optical Character Recognition. For instance, you might want to extract text from an image of a text file. Or perhaps you want to turn a PDF or an invoice into an editable document. In these and any similar cases, you can enjoy the benefits of OCR technology. An OCR tool can convert a document or PDF to an editable digital format for you in seconds. This is a comprehensive guide to choosing the best OCR software. This guide introduces free tools, bulk conversion tools, paid tools, and more. Disclaimer: This article contains affiliate links at no cost to you. 1. Adobe Acrobat Pro DCImage Credit: AdobeAdobe Acrobat Pro DC is an OCR tool that is specialized in PDF editing. Adobe Acrobat Pro DC supports creating PDFs, converting documents to PDFs and vice versa, digital signatures, and much more. The tool not only extracts text but also detects the formatting and style of the text. Thus, the end result should look identical to your input. One of the great features of Adobe Acrobat is the ability to instantly start editing scanned documents. Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is also a great document management tool. It turns the files into searchable documents where you can find words easily. Also, you can search for the documents from the system. Besides all the great PDF features, the tool also makes collaboration easy. Last but not least, you have some basic document editing features at your disposal too. You can reorder pages, and combine files. Plus you can rotate, delete, and crop pages as well. This tool is not only a desktop application. You can also install the mobile version to read physical documents using your smartphone. Adobe Acrobat Pro DC makes sharing files secure. The files are shared in an encrypted format. Thus, a malicious middleman cannot do much with intercepting the files. Also, you can password-protect your scanned files. Key Features and HighlightsHere are some of the key features of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC:
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2. NanonetsImage Credit: NanonetsNanoNets is an OCR tool powered by state-of-the-art AI algorithms. You can use the tool to convert physical documents to digital editable formats with ease. This tool allows for automating the manual data extraction effort. With NanoNets you can get all the necessary data you need from the document. This saves you a bunch of time and also makes errors much less likely. With a tool like NanoNets, your work becomes more meaningful and you manage to improve your productivity. The NanoNets tool allows you to analyze documents or images and extract textual information into editable format on your computer. NanoNets works perfectly with common documents, like images of physical paper documents or PDFs. Besides you can convert less standard documents, such as invoices, purchase orders, tax forms, and so on. Key Features and Highlights
PricingThe first 100 files you convert are totally free! At this time, you can make a decision whether you want to keep on using the tool or not. The pro plan of NanoNets is $0.1/scanned page. Pros
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3. Google DocsGoogle Docs is a popular web application for handling files and, as the name suggests, documents. The tool has basic word processing tools for easy edits and stylizing of the text. You may have used Google Docs before or might be using it right now. What you may not have realized is that there is a great built-in image-to-text feature as well. The Google Docs OCR algorithm converts PDF files into editable files with text. Better yet, this is completely free. If you are a small-scale user, Google Docs might be enough for you to get images into digitally editable files. To use Google Docs to convert a PDF into an editable format, follow these simple steps:
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PricingGoogle Docs is completely free to use! Pros
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4. OnlineOCRImage Credit: OnlineOCROnlineOCR, as the name suggests, is an online tool for image-to-text conversion. With this tool, you can convert images and PDF files to digital format for free! The tool is super easy to use. Here are the 4 steps you need to follow:
This is how easy it is to use the tool. Better yet, it is completely free. This tool supports more than 30 languages. It can convert your image to Word, Excel, and Plain text formats. Key Features and Highlights
PricingThis tool is entirely free! Pros
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5. Omnipage UltimateImage Credit: KofaxOmniPage Ultimate is an image-to-text scanner for more serious users. This tool allows you to quickly go through a huge pile of papers and convert them into digital format. The tool comes with a bunch of great features, even some of which you might not expect to encounter in OCR software. Although the tool is a bit pricey, you can still consider it to be in the affordable range. OmniPage Ultimate is acknowledged for its great accuracy. The tool is being used by popular companies like Ford, Amazon, and GE. This tool has a custom workflow builder. This allows you to deliver the digitized documents to the right place in the correct format based on what is needed. OmniPage Ultimate has pro features not included in the cheaper OmniPage Standard plan (about half the price). However, if you don’t want to pay too much for the service, consider the slightly less feature-packed Standard plan. Most of the basic OCR needs are fulfilled by the Standard plan already. As a bit of a downside, this tool only works on Windows systems. So if you are an avid iOS or Android user, feel free to scroll past this tool! Key Features and Highlights
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Although a bit pricey, there is a great 15-day free trial you can use before spending any money! Pros
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6. ReadirisImage Credit: IrislinkReadiris is one of the best OCR and PDF solutions for Windows devices. Do you have a business or just otherwise a huge pile of paper you’d like to digitize? This tool has got your back. If you want to get the paperwork sorted out quickly and spend a few bucks to do so, Readiris is perhaps the best tool for you. The tool supports a variety of file formats, such as MS Office formats. Also, the voice-reading option makes a great addition to the tool. After scanning a document, the tool reads it for you using a realistic text-to-speech conversion feature. Not only is Readiris a great OCR tool but it’s also capable of handling other common PDF-related tasks. For example, you can password-protect your PDFs using the password feature. How about different languages? The Readiris algorithms are up to date with more than 138 languages. This makes the tool a great fit for someone working with documents written in less-used languages as well. All in all, ReadIris is an easy-to-use tool. Its simple yet powerful UI consists of dozens of great features to streamline digital paperwork. Key Features and Highlights
PricingReadiris offers a great 30-day money-back guarantee to its plans. In case you are not happy with the tool, you can get a refund. There are three paid packages for Readiris:
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7. SimpleOCRImage Credit: SimpleOCRSimpleOCR is a free OCR tool for converting images and non-digital files to editable digital formats. The tool also comes with an OCR SDK for technically oriented users. This allows programmers to write their own code to perform OCR in their applications. The SimpleOCR dictionary has the power to recognize 120,000+ words in your document. If that’s not enough, add new words to the dictionary to customize the tool to work with less common words in your documents. SimpleOCR also has great “noisy document” features to pick up text from less clear content. For instance, sometimes the document might be dirty, the ink might have spilled badly, or the text can be small to read. This is where the noisy text recognition feature is really helpful. Also, if the image has text in bold, underline, or italic, the tool can still easily get the job done. Not only does it convert the image to text, but also retains the original format. So for example, a bolded word will be bolded in the converted document. As a great extra feature, there is a spell-checking feature in SimpleOCR too. This allows for making the converted document contain correctly spelled text. If there is a grammatical error in the output, the tool points it out for you to fix. With great features like this, you don’t have to worry about having to make any edits to the converted documents. Instead, you can focus on more relevant parts of your work. Key Features and Highlights
PricingThis tool has a completely free version! For more avid users, there are paid plans starting at $25 all the way up to $2500. Pros
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8. TesseractTesseract is a free and open-source OCR tool for software developers and programmers. You can use Tesseract to format output text and do some page layout analysis. Tesseract uses the Leptonica image processing library to support multiple image formats for conversion. The Tesseract library has an Apache License. Tesseract is a great tool for text recognition using a mobile device. You can even pick up texts from videos. One cool feature is image spam detection on Gmail. This allows for filtering emails with suspicious images. Tesseract supports 100+ languages. For example, it supports reading languages that read from right to left, such as Arabic or Hebrew. If you are a more technically oriented person, you can customize the tool with code. There are great tutorials on the internet for developers to work with Tesseract. For instance, you can train the tool to recognize more languages. This can be useful if the tool doesn’t work with the language you are working with. If you are not a programmer, you are not going to make any sense in using this tool. Key Features and Highlights
PricingTesseract is an open-source tool that is 100% free. Pros
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9. Amazon TextractImage Credit: Amazon TextractAmazon Textract, as the name suggests, is a text-extraction program by Amazon. This tool uses the latest advancements in Machine Learning to pick up text from image documents and other non-digital formats. You can use this tool to scan legal documents, resumes, and other similar documents that have no generic form. With Textract, you don’t need to do any manual work. The tool is capable of scanning and converting millions of documents in an hour. The tool is trained to detect the document layout and elements. You can present the extracted data in a tabular format for quicker access and readability. For example, if you are working with a medical report, converting it to a tabular format allows you to quickly analyze it. The Textract is compatible with Amazon A2I for reviewing digitalized documents. Although this tool is not free, there is a free trial that allows for the scanning of 1000 pages of content. With this big trial, you can easily make a decision as to whether you want to continue using the tool or not. Key Features and Highlights
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10. RossumImage Credit: RossumRossum is an OCR tool powered by AI solutions. The tool suits mainly someone who is looking to extract text and other data from invoices without putting in the manual effort. The tool automates the text extraction process which allows you to focus on more important tasks. The value proposition is to catch 98% of the data accurately from any sort of document or invoice. With accuracy like this, chances are the tool makes much fewer errors than you would do when manually scanning the documents. There are no layout limitations to the documents Rossum can process. No matter what type of invoice template or document format is used, Rossum can do the job for you. Every once in a while, there are going to be errors in the scanned documents. If this happens, you can use Rossum’s document editor to fix the errors. There is a built-in warning mechanism in Rossum. This warns you about conversions it is unsure about. So you don’t have to spend time carefully reviewing the scanned documents. In addition, you can give the tool feedback. The tool can use this feedback in the future in being less likely to repeat the same mistakes. Because the tool uses AI, it learns from each document you scan in real-time. Key Features and Highlights
PricingThe pricing is quote-based. So the price depends on the number of conversions you are looking to make. Pros
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11. KlippaImage Credit: KlippaKlippa is a wonderful receipt-scanning tool. This tool specializes in invoices and receipts. In addition to the OCR-based scanning features, Klippa has an invoice management system. This allows you to collect, record, and process invoices. The invoices can originate from email, apps, or the web. You can create an approval flow for a streamlined accounting process. This tool is also great for freelancers. There is expense management for managing expenses and annual tax returns. Klippa is an application that works on desktop devices, Android devices, and iOS devices as a mobile app. So it works where you work. On mobile, you can easily use the camera feature to take pictures of your receipts and convert them into digital files. The tool supports formats such as PDF, CSV, XLSX, and UBL. Key Features and Highlights
PricingThere are two pricing models:
12. PDFpenImage Credit: PDFpenPDFPen is a macOS-only PDF-editing tool. If you are a Mac user who is working with PDFs frequently, you should try PDFPen. This tool can be viewed as a macOS alternative to Adobe Acrobat. The tool comes with a bunch of great features, such as OCR, signatures, AI-based text correction, and more. Besides the tool is easy to use and learn for beginners. As an example use, you can use this tool to convert pictures of text to documents with words. You can even proofread the content using AI to make the necessary fixes to the text being scanned. The only downside to this tool is it’s only for iOS users. If you are looking for a strong PDF tool as a non-iOS user, you should consider Adobe Acrobat, for example. Key Features and Highlights
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13. Devonthink ProImage Credit: Devonthink ProDEVONthink is another macOS-only OCR software for converting and organizing documents. This tool lets you process and organizes documents with ease. Meanwhile, you work with other projects, you can set up the tool to sync up and analyze data between multiple Apple devices. One thing that stands out in document organizing is the group-by-keyword feature. It makes it possible to categorize your documents into logical groups for easier and quicker access. Instead of desperately searching through a large group of files, you can perform a keyword search to narrow down the search results. Needless to mention, the DEVONthink software has great OCR features for digitalizing images of physical documents and PDFs. With DEVONthink, you get to enjoy full encryption and data protection of your documents. If you are an avid Apple consumer working with loads of documents, make sure to give DEVONthink a try. You can use the tool as a desktop application on your Macbook. Alternatively, you can use it as a mobile app on an iPad or iPhone. If you are looking to work with some files here and there, DEVONthink might be a bit pricey. Also, if you don’t use Apple devices, you can forget about DEVONthink. But if you are looking for long-term file management and OCR solutions, consider DEVONthink. Key Features and Highlights
PricingThere are three paid versions of the tool:
14. DocparserImage Credit: DocparserDocparser uses zonal OCR technology to extract textual information from images of physical documents. The tool spits out nice-looking files that are editable, sorted, and filtered. This tool also has a QR reader as well as a barcode reader. The workflow of using this tool is simple. Here are the basic steps to take:
The tool uses the latest advancements in AI to process images. The tool allows for scanning different types of commonly encountered documents, such as invoices, purchase orders, or bank statements. Key Features and Highlights
PricingThere is a completely free version of the Docparser software. In addition, there is a paid plan that you can try for free.
15. VeryfiImage Credit: VeryfiVeryfi is a high-quality data management tool with great OCR capabilities. With Veryfi, you can better arrange your documents by categorizing and grouping them. The OCR features allow you to easily convert bills and invoices to common digital formats, such as JSON. Besides being a great document arrangement tool for freelancers, this tool also favors programmers. If you are looking to build a bookkeeping application, you can use Verify’s OCR APIs and Mobile SDK for secure image-to-text conversions. There is a great timesheet manager feature for invoicing clients any time you like. Also, by using Veryfi, you get to enjoy bank-grade security features for keeping expenses private. Key Features and Highlights
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16. Google Document AIGoogle Document AI is a machine-learning-based OCR tool. You can use the tool to process documents using the DocAI console. You can for example extract data from images of your documents. In addition, the tool allows you to gain insights from the extracted data. If you are a power user of Google’s tools, DocAI makes a great addition to your arsenal. The tool is really easy to set up. Besides, it integrates well with other Google tools. Key Features and Highlights
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17. ABBYYY FlexiCaptureImage Credit: ABBYYABBYY Flexicapture is a great OCR document scanning tool for larger enterprises that work with documents in bulk. With this tool, you have a variety of features for transforming photos and PDF documents into editable digital formats. The tool outputs the scanned documents as editable text, tables, forms, and digital files. Although this tool works for even simpler document scanning tasks, it’s ideal for larger enterprises. The OCR features are powered by modern-day machine-learning algorithms. The OCR feature is built in such a way that it can easily process documents in batches. This is what makes it a great fit for companies with a bunch of documents. Let Flexicapture do the manual work for you! This way you can save time to focus on other more relevant parts of the business. Key Features and Highlights
PricingYou need to contact ABBYY Flexicapture support to learn more about the pricing. The sales team tailors you to the best plan based on how you will use the software. 18. IBM DatacapImage Credit: IBMIn the IBM Cloud Pack, there is an OCR tool that you can use to scan image-based documents into digital format. This tool lets you extract unstructured data from PDFs or image-based documents. This tool is great for businesses looking to automatize the lengthy manual task of digitalizing image-based text documents. The tool has great role-based content management features. This allows personnel to access documents based on their role in the company. IBM’s OCR technology is great at capturing data from complex documents too. The tool can organize the extracted data into fields and tables based on the input. Key Features and Highlights
PricingTo get a price for the tool, you need to contact IBM support. The IBM team will craft you a deal based on how you are planning to use the tool. 19. InfrrdImage Credit: InfrrdAre you working in the real estate or retail industry? If so, you are likely bombarded with all sorts of physical documents and PDFs. Also, there is probably quite a bit of customer data in your physical documents. As a real estate or retail expert, you know how important customer data can be for your business. The only drawback is working with physical documents is a pain. Let me introduce you to Infrrd. This sophisticated document management tool automatizes the scanning phase of the documents. If you had to do this manually, the task would be infeasible and require days or weeks of your valuable time. Enter the OCR features and natural language processing algorithms of Infrrd and this task is completed in a breeze. Instead of manually transforming your documents to digitally editable files, you can let the tool do the work for you. All you need to do is enter the document images into the tool and wait for a second. Infrrd uses clever AI algorithms to extract data and content from your image-based physical documents and PDF files. Besides the useful features, there are also invoice and mortgage processing tools. All in all, the Infrrd tool lets you do bigger customer analyses based on the documents you have. This way you can get a big picture of your clients. For example, you can easily use the data to make predictions for the future with a couple of clicks. Key Features and Highlights
PricingTo start using the tool, contact the sales team. They’ll tailor you a great plan for the best price based on your use case. 20. LightPDFImage Credit: LightPDFAre you looking for an extremely simple PDF processing tool? LightPDF is a user-friendly tool for handling PDFs. This tool comes with a strong OCR feature that allows you to scan PDFs and convert them into editable documents. LightPDF is a web-based application. Thus there is no additional software to install. In addition to converting PDFs, you can manage multiple PDFs with ease. This web-based tool is free to use. Also, there is a pro plan for the more frequent users. Scared to upload documents to a random website? No worries, LightPDF does not backup or store any of your info. When you have completed using the tool, your documents are wiped out from the server. As a great addition, this tool has a nice built-in text-to-speech feature. Besides transforming image-based documents to text, you can thus make the tool speak the text. Key Features and Highlights
PricingThere is a completely free version of LightPDF. For a more rigorous user, there is LightPDF VIP OCR Software for $9.99/100 pages. 21. SmallPDFImage Credit:SmallPDF is another really easy-to-use tool for converting images to editable files. This tool supports converting files to Excel spreadsheets. Besides you can extract data from other common types of file formats, such as JPEG or a PowerPoint presentation. SmallPDF is a separate piece of software you need to install. It works anywhere without an internet connection. This way you can use it where ever you are, as long as you have your laptop with you. There is a web editor version of SmallPDF. When you use the web tool, it doesn’t save your documents. Regardless, it encrypts your files to inaccessible formats to add an extra layer of security. SmallPDF is great for managing and handling PDF files besides scanning and extracting data from them. For example, there is a merge, split, and reorder features that work via drag-and-drop functionality. Also, you can easily sign PDF documents. Key Features and Highlights
PricingThere is a completely free version of the tool. In addition, there is a more professional paid plan for more frequent users for $5/per user. The pro version has more features and you can test them using the 14-day free trial. 22. PicatextImage Credit: PicatextDo you want to convert images to text using a Mac? Picatext is a great image-to-text converter for macOS users. The main focus of the developers of this tool was on user-friendliness. The OCR algorithm can extract text from images easily. However, it has (intentional) limitations. For instance, the tool doesn’t recognize underlined or otherwise strongly formatted text. Also, the tool doesn’t perform well with low-res images. Picatext is great for instantly copy-pasting text content from images. It has a clipboard feature that allows for clipping text from images and other non-editable documents. Then you can easily paste the content to another document and start editing it. If you are looking to quickly extract plain text from an image as a macOS user, try Picatext. If you are looking for a more robust cross-platform solution for bulk scanning, this tool is not for you. Also, if you want to work with PDF files, it’s good to know this tool doesn’t support PDF. Key Features and Highlights
Pricing23. FineReaderImage Credit: ABBYYABBYY FineReader is the second ABBYY tool on this list. This advanced piece of OCR software recognizes characters with state-of-the-art AI algorithms. So if you have a PDF document you wish to edit, just input it into the FineReader and enjoy the document. The tool works really well for editing and enhancing common files such as PDFs. For example, you can leave notes, signatures, or other types of annotations in the scanned files. In addition to using OCR to extract data from image files, the tool has great collaboration and sharing features. If you just scanned a document and made some tweaks to it, this tool makes it easy for you to share the result. Also, sometimes it might be relevant for you to protect your content. There is a great password protection feature in FineReader. You can use it to set a password for your PDF files for example. I know I talked a lot about PDFs related to FineReader. But the tool can convert other types of paper documents to digitally editable files too. So you are not restricted to using PDFs only! Key Features and Highlights
PricingThere is a 7-day free trial for the software. After the trial, you can choose:
FAQHere are some questions and answers related to OCR and OCR tools. What Is OCR?OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition. It is a technology that saves a lot of time when extracting data. For example, if you have a physical document and you want to convert it to a digital piece, OCR can help you. The OCR uses machine learning to recognize characters and other features from physical documents. This is why OCR is sometimes called text recognition. An OCR program extracts data from non-editable text documents, such as PDFs. Your typical OCR tool works by following these steps:
With an OCR program, you don’t need to do any manual work. Instead, you can let the tool do the hard work for you. Modern-day OCR software can use the latest advancements in artificial intelligence to implement intelligent character recognition (ICR) methods. With ICR, the tools can detect a language or work with different handwriting styles. OCR is typically used to turn image-only documents into editable ones. For example, a PDF or a handwritten paper can be turned into an editable document with ease What Features to Look for in an OCR Tool?When you are looking for OCR tools, you are likely looking to automatize manual work. Although OCR and text recognition sound like a simple things to do, it’s not. The algorithms are improving all the time. To make the most out of OCR software, pay attention to at least these features: 1. Layout AnalysisThe tool should be able to tell what is a column of text, table, image, or any other similar object in the document. This way the tool should be able to retain the original format of the document, not just copy the content of it as plain text. For example, your document might be bolded, underlined, or have images. To make the most out of an OCR took, it should be able to handle all these objects and place them into the output document. 2. Word SearchWhen working with a bunch of files, chances are you are going to lose them in the vast ocean of other files. This is why a great tagging and searching functionality is necessary for more serious users of OCR tools. 3. Document SplitterThe output documents should be splittable into smaller documents for easier sharing and uploading. 4. Language DetectionMost OCR tools work well in English documents. However, not everyone uses or even understands English. This is why it is important that the OCR tool you use is multilingual, especially if you plan to extract non-English documents. 5. Support Multiple FormatsIn the world of documents, there is a whole bunch of document formats. Unfortunately, supporting a format cannot be taken for granted. This is because each format needs to be coded into the OCR software carefully. Make sure you use an OCR tool that supports at least the common formats MS Office, PDF, and JPG. Also, if you are working with a more specific format, make sure the tool you are about to try supports that particular format. 7. Digital SignatureMore and more documents get signed online every day. Adding a digital signature sounds like a simple task. Yet many tools and editors don’t make it easy. If you are working with forms and documents as a business person, I recommend ensuring the OCR tool has digital signature features. A digital signature request feature wouldn’t hurt either. This way, you can use the tool to request someone’s signature without moving away from the tool. 8. Collaboration FunctionalityLast but not least, collaboration is one of the important features of OCR apps. Chances are you are not the only person working with your business documents. To make it possible to work on the same files and documents as a team, the OCR tool should support collaboration, such as live editing, comments, and notes. What Is UBL Data Format?UBL stands for Universal Business Language. It is a commonly used data format for streamlining business document processing. You may have seen the UBL format being supported by some of the OCR tools in this list. As a less common data format, you may not know what UBL is. Here is a short explanation. UBL is an XML-based invoice format. A UBL file uses XML in a structured way such that it stores all the necessary invoice information in a structured manner. UBL format can be used for accounting, legal, and record management. It is a business document language that formats and structures business-related documents into an easily processable format. The UBL format was created to simplify invoice processing workflows. With UBL format, you extract the information from the documents without re-keying the data. This reduces manual work. Wrap UpThat is a whole bunch of OCR software for converting documents to text. I’m sure you found a tool that best suits you. To recap, you commonly want to use OCR to convert a hand-written or image-only document into a digital format. Doing this is necessary whether you are running a business, studying, or working on some other personal project. These days you can use the OCR tools to digitize non-text-based documents. Don’t pay much for the software if you are looking for a fundamental OCR tool for a simple use case. You can try out a tool like Google Docs, Tesseract, or SimpleOCR. If you are working with more complex documents, such as business documents, you should use a more advanced tool such as Rossum. How about the best overall OCR tool? Well, in that case, it has to be Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is arguably the best OCR tool because of its versatile features, such as:
If you aren’t ready to pay for these tools, make sure to exhaust the free trials. Most of the paid tools in this list come with a nice free trial period so you don’t end up paying in vain. Thanks for reading. Read Also
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