Alternatives to Scansnap?

The scan snaps seem great, but they’re just too expensive for me to justify. Any lower cost alternatives out there?

Likely not what you are seeking, but Scanner Pro for iOS is really powerful. Not the same as dropping a stack of paper on a scanner and pressing “the button”, but pretty darn good.

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I have a Brother ADS-2000 that I’m very happy with. It’s a document scanner similar to the Fujitsu ix500 in size and function.

I second your Scanner Pro suggestion. I used a ScanSnap for several years both for new items and to scan my “back catalog”. These days I rarely have more than a dozen documents a month to scan, so I switched to Scanner Pro, and gave the ScanSnap to my brother. The Scanner Pro workflow feature allows me to file most items with a single tap.

I use Scanbot, which I like, but I find it tedious and slow for anything but scanning a handful of documents. I’m in a weird spot where a scansnap is too expensive for how much I would use it but I would love a cost effective desktop document scanner for the more tedious scans.

I bought mine used. The Scansnap s1500m through eBay before the new model came out (ix500) several years ago. Paid $200 and change for it. It’s been a really good scanner.

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Don’t know why I didn’t think of that. Great recommendation, thanks.

Look into all in one printers with document feeders on them. They won’t be as good or as fast as a scan snap, but you can still drop a stack of documents on it, press scan, and have it emailed to you while you get on with things. I had an Epson Workforce (which has since been claimed by my Mum!), which I bought because of the feeder, it was extremely useful.

I use “Scanner for Me”, it has the auto page detection functionality : https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scanner-for-me-scan-documents/id1017261655?mt=8

Maybe not as fast, but the quality of the scans from my Canon MX925 is definitely on par with that of my Scansnap S1300.
I abandoned my Scansnap S1300 when Fujitsu didn’t support it anymore with the newer versions of their software for High Sierra. Now it seems they do (again?), but I’ve already changed my workflow and stored away the Scansnap.
Now we’re on it, contrary to what some people state, I’m not that impressed by the Scansnap software. It does its job, but for example I don’t like the fact that it’s not a proper background app/menu bar item, but was always in my dock. Besides, I don’t like having yet another device on my desk. Less is more!

I also use a Brother scanner, the Brother ADS-1000W. It has full duplex and works very well for my needs. I only paid €150 for it in a sale and it’s never let me down yet after scanning thousands of pages.

I only use DEVONthink, not the bundled software, for scanning.

I use the document feeder on my Brother multi-function printer. It does duplex scanning, and is about as fast as the lower end ScanSnaps.

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Okay, I actually have one of those. What software are you using and how about OCR?

I’m just using Brother’s software. It make OCRd PDFs at the click of a button.

For those who use software, how does it handle OCR (I use Hazel to file stuff)? Also, how do you handle multiple page documents?

For the hardware replacements: Anything less expensive than $300 that’s comparable or better than the Scansnap?

Thank you!

I’ve copied text from multiple PDFs scanned with ScannerPro, and pasted it into documents to verify the OCR. On many documents it was perfect, on others I saw minor errors like 2 or 3 characters represented as an upside down “?”, (signifying an error). Depending on the quality of the original, IMO, this is excellent.

Scanning multipage documents is the same procedure as scanning one page. Tap the + , aim the camera at the page, wait for SP to automatically scan the document, repeat as needed, stop scanning, tap save.

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I just bought an Epson ES-300WR to replace my ScanSnap. The software is a little less intuitive than the Scansnap, but that doesn’t matter because the Scansnap no longer works (it was 32 bit) on Catalina. I’m thinking that I just need to get familiar with it. One of the reasons that I sprung for the Epson is that Office Depot offered a $50 discount when I traded in my Scansnap.

Good to know. I was thinking about rolling out this same solution with a Brother all in one printer. Glad to hear it is working ok.