The best alternative to PDF.ai in 2024

Portrait of Neha Gunnoo
by Neha Gunnoo
4 mins read
last updated on

Ever felt like you were drowning in a sea of PDFs and wished for a lifeline? Or daydreamed about AI tools saving you from the dreadful manual data entry?

I'm assuming you found Parseur while looking for a fantastic AI parser or an alternative to PDF.ai. In that case, I can assure you that you won't be disappointed here and by the end of this article, you'll have a new AI buddy.

Parseur vs PDF.ai

We've summarized the similarities and differences between the two in the table below.

logo
PDF.ai
logo
Parseur
Setup Chat-based AI-based
Template-based
Use case Chat with PDFs Automate data extraction
Parsing reliability Good Great
Supported format PDF PDF
Emails
Attachments
Spreadsheets
HTML documents
Text documents
Word documents
Import Upload in app Upload in app
Via email
Via automation
Via API
Table parsing Yes Yes
Automatic parsing No Yes, hundreds of layouts supported
Integrations Only Zoho CRM Download (Excel,CSV, JSON)
Webhook
Zapier
Google Sheets
Power Automate
Make
Mailboxes per account Only one Unlimited
API Yes with limits Yes

Why do we need AI data extraction?

Before we go deeper into the comparison details, let's first understand why manual parsing is not our friend. Apart from the fact that it makes us sad, it also decreases productivity and is time-consuming. We're in 2024 and the only way to achieve greater efficiency is to adopt digitalization.

Luckily, artificial intelligence has given rise to countless applications that can eliminate manual data entry. Parseur and PDF.ai are among those AI data extraction tools that could be your friends. However, one is always better than the other.

Comparing PDF.ai to Parseur

We will dig further into the features and functionality of both AI software.

Round 1: Features

PDF.ai (just like spindoc.ai) is basically just uploading a PDF where you can "chat" with it and ask the AI bot to find specific information within that document. It's like having an assistant and it's super helpful when you have long complex documents and you need to find something quickly.

A screen capture of pdf ai chat
Chat with PDF.ai

What PDF.ai does best?

PDF.ai is best as summarizing and getting insights from large PDFs, like contracts for example within seconds. This make it easy for anyone who needs to retrieve specific data quickly.

However, you cannot download the data or send it to another tool. PDF.ai is not integrated to any other third-party apps.

Compared to PDF.ai, Parseur does things a little differently but is cooler. Once you've uploaded the document, list the fields that you want to extract, and the AI engine will extract data automatically.

What does Parseur best?

And, that's not all! The parsed data can be sent to any application that you want via Zapier, Power Automate and Make. You can also download the data in JSON, or CSV.

A screen capture of parseur integration
Parseur native integrations

Parseur can process millions of documents within seconds. As of now, Parseur has processed 60 documents.

Sign up to Parseur for Free
Try out our powerful document processing tool for free.

Parseur also lets you write simple lines of code to perform advanced manipulations of the parsed data.

Round 2: Use cases

Use cases for Parseur and PDF.ai are different. PDF.ai is great if you have a couple of documents that you need insights from. And, Parseur works best if you have a very large number of documents and you need heavy-duty data extraction and automatic export to other apps.

PDF.ai is easy to set up; you just create an account, and you're redirected to the dashboard. You can upload or drag and drop a document, and within seconds, the document will be available.

Parseur is pretty much the same in terms of setup. The only difference is that when you sign up for an account, you have the freedom to choose which mailbox you want, depending on the type of document you want to parse.

A screen capture of parseur mailbox
Parseur use cases

And, you can also create a custom mailbox if none of the industries match what you need.

Round 3: Pricing

In terms of pricing, let's see which software is the most cost-effective. Spoiler alert - it's Parseur.

PDF.ai has a free plan but you can only upload 1 document (max 10MB) on that plan. There's also a limit on the number of questions you can ask the tool. They have a premium and enterprise version starting at $15/month and $50/month respectively.

Parseur also has a free plan where you can access all the features including integrations with 1500+ applications and unlimited mailboxes. Our subscription plan starts at $39 and is a "pay-as-you-grow" which you can downgrade and cancel at any time.

Read more about our pricing plans

Steine Magne from Proxima Code describes Parseur as an "awesome and easy product":

A screen capture of stein magne review

last updated on

AI-based data extraction software.
Start using Parseur today.

Automate text extraction from emails, PDFs, and spreadsheets.
Save hundreds of hours of manual work.
Embrace work automation with AI.

Sign up for free
Parseur rated 5/5 on Capterra
Parseur.com has the highest adoption on G2
Parseur.com has the happiest users badge on Crozdesk
Parseur rated 5/5 on GetApp
Parseur rated 4.5/5 on Trustpilot