The Importance of OCR in SharePoint Online Document Management

Having robust OCR integrated with SharePoint Online ensures that every document – whether it’s a scanned contract, an old archive image, or a faxed form – becomes text-searchable and discoverable. OCR Solutions for SharePoint improves employee productivity (users can quickly find information by keyword search) and strengthens compliance (all content can be indexed for oversight and eDiscovery). It also enhances knowledge management: decisions are better informed when you truly have all the data at your fingertips, rather than 1 in 5 documents hiding in plain sight. Moreover, OCR contributes to accessibility (Section 508 compliance) by providing text that screen readers can interpret from scanned PDFs, an important requirement for government websites. In short, integrating OCR in a SharePoint Online DMS is critical to ensure no document remains “invisible” in your repositories – a point that directly impacts compliance, transparency, and efficiency in both public sector and mid-sized business environments. For more on the broader benefits of SharePoint, check out our detailed overview.

Aquaforest Searchlight OCR: From SharePoint Add-On to Nutrient’s Platform

One of the pioneering solutions for SharePoint OCR was Aquaforest Searchlight OCR, a product many SharePoint administrators will recognize. Aquaforest Searchlight was historically a go-to add-on for SharePoint (including SharePoint Online and on-premises) to automatically identify image-based files and convert them into searchable PDFs. It would crawl document libraries, OCR any scanned PDFs or images it found, and replace or tag them so that SharePoint’s search index could pick up the text. This was a huge boon for organizations that had large archives of scanned documents in SharePoint. Aquaforest Ltd., the UK-based company behind Searchlight, built a reputation in the SharePoint community for solid OCR performance and useful features like scheduled library audits (to find files lacking searchable text) and multi-language text recognition.

focused on conversions like PDF/A; under Nutrient’s consolidated platform, organizations can achieve OCR + PDF/A in one workflow if required.

Scalability and Batch Processing:

The solution was built for enterprise scale – it supports batch OCR on large volumes of documents and can be scaled by adding more processing power. Running it on an Azure VM means you can choose a machine size that handles your throughput. It’s also multi-threaded to process several documents in parallel. Nutrient’s platform even offers an Azure Marketplace appliance for easy deployment. Administrators can schedule OCR jobs during off-hours or run continuous monitoring. In short, it’s enterprise-ready for large SharePoint content libraries.

Vendor reliability:

With Nutrient (formerly PSPDFKit) at the helm, the Searchlight technology is backed by stability, which is important for agencies and businesses considering a long-term solution.

Takeaway: The Aquaforest Searchlight OCR solution – now Nutrient’s Document Searchability – remains a top choice for SharePoint Online OCR needs. It brings a Microsoft-aligned, SharePoint-specific approach, with deployment flexibility for high-security environments. With the backing of Nutrient’s broader platform, it has continued to evolve (and integrate with things like Power Automate and Azure services) while retaining the core value: automatically ensuring all your SharePoint content is 100% searchable. Next, we’ll look at how it compares to other well-known OCR options in the market.

Alternative OCR Solutions Integrating with SharePoint Online

While Nutrient’s solution is tailored for SharePoint, organizations should also consider other OCR options that work well in Microsoft cloud environments. Below, we explore several leading vendors and tools – including Adobe, ABBYY, Microsoft’s own offerings, and others – and how they stack up in terms of features, Microsoft integration, pricing, and suitability. Each of these solutions can help fill the OCR gap in SharePoint Online, but their approaches and strengths differ:

Adobe Acrobat and Adobe PDF Services OCR

Adobe’s tools are so common, staff familiarity is high – many users know Acrobat, and IT knows Adobe’s enterprise support.

When to consider Adobe: If your organization already heavily uses Adobe Acrobat or has a strategic Adobe partnership, and you want an OCR solution that can be embedded into your Microsoft 365 workflows, Adobe PDF Services is worth a look. It’s especially fitting if you have broader document workflow needs beyond just OCR (e.g., you also want to do conversions, redactions, PDF generation in the cloud – Adobe’s API bundle can handle all of that). For a pure OCR automation need, Adobe might be on the pricier side, but it brings a trusted name and quality output. Mid-sized enterprises with moderate volume might use Adobe’s pay-go model via Power Automate for convenience. Government agencies, on the other hand, would need to weigh the fact that data would transit to a third-party cloud (Adobe’s) – some federal agencies might prefer on-prem or Azure-contained solutions instead for sensitive data.

ABBYY FineReader Server

Feature Set: 

ABBYY is often regarded as the gold standard in OCR technology. Their OCR engine (FineReader) is known for top-tier accuracy, especially on difficult images or variances in fonts. ABBYY FineReader Server (formerly ABBYY Recognition Server) is their enterprise offering for automated, high- volume OCR and document conversion. It can ingest image files, PDFs, emails with image attachments, etc., and output searchable PDFs, PDF/A, or other text formats. Key features include: support for 200+ languages, including OCR on documents with mixed languages; excellent retention of document structure (they even OCR tables, retaining table structure in output PDF or exporting to Excel); PDF/A and PDF/UA (accessible PDF) compliance options; and the ability to do things like separate documents via barcodes or cover pages in scan workflows. ABBYY can also perform some metadata extraction or classification if configured (though for advanced data extraction, ABBYY has a different product line). FineReader Server is often used to make large backlogs of scanned records searchable and to handle ongoing OCR for incoming documents in an organization.

Vendor Reliability and Presence: 

ABBYY is a well-established company (over 30 years in OCR), with a strong presence in the enterprise and government market globally. In the U.S., ABBYY’s technology has been used by many federal and state agencies (often through integrators) for digitization projects. The company itself is international (with offices in North America, Europe, etc.). As a vendor, ABBYY is known for its focus on OCR/ICR (intelligent character recognition) and continues to be a leader in accuracy benchmarks. From a data security standpoint, deploying ABBYY FineReader Server on-premises or in your private cloud means all processing stays within your control, satisfying stringent privacy requirements. (ABBYY does have cloud services too, but you have the option to keep everything self-contained, which is a big plus for government clients.) ABBYY has also undergone various certifications via partners, and while not an out-of-the-box FedRAMP service, its on-prem software can be used in federal secure environments as part of a larger accredited system.

When to consider ABBYY: If your organization places a premium on OCR accuracy, especially for things like processing old documents, degraded images, or a wide array of languages, ABBYY is hard to beat. Government archives or libraries doing mass digitization, for example, often use ABBYY for quality results. Additionally, if you have needs beyond just making PDFs searchable – such as extracting metadata or integrating OCR into a complex capture workflow – ABBYY’s ecosystem (FineReader for OCR, FlexiCapture or Vantage for data extraction) provides a comprehensive toolset. However, for purely SharePoint-centric OCR needs, ABBYY might be more feature-rich (and costly) than necessary; a simpler SharePoint-focused tool might suffice unless you require that top-tier recognition or are already using ABBYY elsewhere. In summary, ABBYY FineReader Server is an enterprise-grade solution delivering excellent OCR and broad capabilities, best suited for organizations with large volumes and demanding OCR tasks – it will certainly get the job done, but you’ll need the budget for it.

Microsoft SharePoint Syntex and Power Automate (AI Builder)

It’s worth mentioning that Microsoft has begun addressing the “OCR gap” in its own ecosystem through Project Cortex/SharePoint Syntex, as well as AI capabilities in Power Platform: - SharePoint Syntex: Syntex is Microsoft’s AI-based content services offering in M365. One of Syntex’s features is automated content understanding, which includes OCR of files in SharePoint libraries. For example, Syntex can be configured to automatically extract text from image files and PDFs and even to capture specific information (like invoice numbers, dates, etc.) using AI models. In a Syntex-enabled library, images (like JPG

Feature Set:

Microsoft’s own solutions cover the basics: text extraction, some ability to identify fields (with Syntex models), and integration with broader workflows (Syntex can trigger workflows or apply retention labels, etc., based on content). They also benefit from continuous improvements in Azure AI – for instance, new language support or better handwriting recognition might roll into these services over time. However, features like PDF/A conversion, advanced image cleanup, or multi-page document assembly/splitting are outside the scope of Syntex or AI Builder alone. Those would require additional services or custom logic.

Integration: 

By nature, Syntex and AI Builder are integrated with SharePoint and the Power Platform. Syntex is applied directly in SharePoint libraries – you configure it in the SharePoint interface. AI Builder OCR is a component inside Power Automate – so integration with SharePoint triggers/actions is straightforward. If you’re already a heavy Microsoft shop, leveraging these might mean a shorter deployment time (no additional servers to install or external procurement).

Reliability and Compliance:

Microsoft’s services are obviously backed by Microsoft – they meet high compliance standards (including FedRAMP High for the GCC High cloud variant, if using that). From a reliability perspective, you won’t be dealing with a small vendor – but you also have less direct control (it’s a cloud service black box to you). Some agencies might prefer owning the process (hence leaning to Nutrient or ABBYY on-prem), but others will trust Microsoft’s cloud given its track record and security.

When to consider Microsoft’s built-in options:

If you want the most integrated experience and to reduce third-party dependencies, and your OCR needs are moderate (or you want AI-powered classification on top of OCR), SharePoint Syntex is a strong contender. It’s especially useful if you are already exploring Microsoft’s broader content understanding and compliance features. It can not only OCR but also help with labeling and extracting info – valuable for forms processing or auto-tagging of records. For a mid-sized business already paying for M365, adding Syntex might be simpler than vetting a new vendor. However, if the primary goal is straightforward OCR of a high volume of legacy documents, Syntex could turn out more costly or less flexible than a specialized solution. It’s all about the use case: Microsoft’s solution shines for intelligent content management with a bit of OCR on the side, whereas dedicated OCR solutions shine for heavy-duty, high-volume text recognition tasks.

Foxit PDF Automation Tools (PhantomPDF, Rendition Server, Maestro OCR)

Integration with Microsoft:

Foxit provides a SharePoint integration for its PDF Editor – for example, you can open/share PDFs from SharePoint in Foxit’s app. However, for automated OCR, Foxit’s server solutions typically run independently. You would integrate them by, say, having the Foxit Rendition Server watch a folder or queue that your SharePoint content is dropped into. Foxit does have REST APIs, so theoretically a Power Automate connector or custom Azure Logic App could call Foxit’s service if it’s exposed. There isn’t an out-of-the-box Foxit connector for Power Automate as of now, so integration may require custom scripting or using Foxit’s command-line tools on a VM that connects to SharePoint via Graph API or network share. Some organizations use Foxit’s tools in conjunction with Nintex or K2 workflows in SharePoint, for example, to offload OCR conversion as part of a business process.

Pricing:

Foxit’s enterprise solutions are generally licensed per server/CPU and may have throughput add- ons. They often position themselves as a more cost-effective alternative to Adobe/ABBYY. For instance, Foxit might offer a flat server license for unlimited processing at a price point below ABBYY’s. Exact pricing requires contacting Foxit for a quote, but anecdotal evidence suggests it can be tens of thousands of dollars for a full enterprise server license. For smaller deployments, Foxit might be cheaper than ABBYY. They also have volume licensing for their desktop software if that route is considered (e.g., equipping a team with Foxit PDF Editor to manually OCR as needed, which is less ideal but sometimes done in smaller orgs).

Vendor Reliability:

Foxit is a globally known vendor (with headquarters in the U.S. and other locations; it has been used by enterprises and even some government agencies as an Acrobat replacement). Their OCR technology, while strong, is often thought to be based on licensed engines (in the past Foxit incorporated the OCR from Nuance OmniPage or similar in some products). Over the years, Foxit acquired some companies to enhance their offerings (e.g., LuraTech for compression/PDF/A, and more recently a company called ActivePDF and others). As a company, Foxit has a solid presence and is likely to be around for the long haul, with a focus on PDF workflows. Security-wise, using a Foxit server on-prem is as secure as your environment, and Foxit does offer support to configure their solutions securely.

Use case fit: Foxit’s OCR solutions are a good fit for organizations that perhaps already use Foxit PDF tools or those looking for a potentially lower-cost alternative to ABBYY for server OCR. For SharePoint integration, Foxit might require a bit more custom work, but it can definitely accomplish the goal of making SharePoint- stored documents searchable. For instance, a county office might use Foxit Rendition Server to automatically convert any incoming scans to searchable PDF/A before they are uploaded into SharePoint. The advantage is you also get a robust PDF conversion toolkit (not just OCR) – Foxit’s server can handle Office-to-PDF conversion, image compression, etc., which can complement a SharePoint DMS. If evaluating Foxit vs. something like Nutrient’s Searchlight: Foxit is more of a generalist tool (broader file support, possibly serving multiple systems), whereas Searchlight is specialized for SharePoint. Enterprises that want a single document conversion/OCR service feeding multiple repositories (e.g., SharePoint, file shares, legacy systems) might lean toward Foxit or ABBYY running centrally.

For a detailed comparison of SharePoint versus OneDrive for your company’s file storage needs, see our OneDrive vs. SharePoint: Which Is Better for Your Company? guide.

Other Noteworthy Solutions

Beyond the big names above, there are a few other OCR solutions that often come up for SharePoint and cloud environments:

• KnowledgeLake and Other Capture Solutions: KnowledgeLake (a company with roots in the SharePoint world) and similar providers (e.g., Kofax with its Kapow and RPA integrations, or Ephesoft Transact, etc.) offer broader document capture platforms that include OCR components. For instance, KnowledgeLake’s cloud platform can ingest scans, OCR them, and route them into SharePoint with metadata. These solutions are often positioned for organizations looking to implement scanning workflows or forms processing in tandem with SharePoint. They may be overkill if your only goal is background OCR for search; however, if you have a use case like “scan paper forms, OCR, extract key fields, and save to SharePoint with metadata and maybe kick off a Power Automate workflow,” then a capture solution could be the right fit. Pricing and complexity vary widely here – these tend to be enterprise software packages or cloud services that you’d engage a vendor or integrator for. Examples include Kofax Capture/TotalAgility (which can tie into SharePoint), Ephesoft (an IDP platform that can export to SharePoint libraries), or OpenText Capture solutions. These are reliable vendors (Kofax and OpenText are big in government), but again they bring a lot more than just OCR for search – they are about full content ingestion pipelines.

Comparison of OCR Solutions for SharePoint Online

(Table legend: “$” = relatively low cost, “$$” = moderate, “$$$” = high cost investment. Cost impressions are generalized; actual quotes will vary.)

As the table shows, each solution has its strengths. Nutrient’s Document Searchability stands out for SharePoint-specific integration, Adobe for convenience in M365 workflows and brand trust, ABBYY for superior OCR accuracy in heavy-duty scenarios, Microsoft Syntex for native AI capabilities, Foxit for a balance of broad PDF features and cost, and Symphony OCR for simplicity and affordability.

Key Features Missing Natively in SharePoint Online DMS

It’s useful to highlight which capabilities these OCR solutions bring that SharePoint Online does not provide out-of-the-box, especially those frequently requested by government and enterprise clients:

• Automatic OCR & Search Indexing: By default, SharePoint Online does not OCR scanned documents or images uploaded to document libraries. If you put a scanned PDF or a TIFF image into SharePoint, the platform’s search cannot “see” any text inside – thus it’s not searchable. Solutions like the ones above fill this gap by adding a text layer or extracting text for search. (Note: Microsoft Syntex can now do this with an add-on license, but it’s not included in standard SharePoint subscriptions.)

• Automated PDF Manipulation: Government agencies frequently have needs such as combining multiple scans into one PDF, splitting documents, stamping a watermark like “Scanned on 2025/05/21” on each file, or adding a digital signature stamp. While not pure OCR features, these often come hand-in-hand. SharePoint cannot do these things natively. However, many OCR solutions come as part of a suite that includes these capabilities (for instance, Muhimbi – now part of Nutrient – had features for PDF splitting/merging and watermarking in SharePoint). This means by adopting one of these OCR solutions, organizations often get these bonus features. For example, Adobe’s API or Foxit’s server can not only OCR but also apply watermarks or merge files as needed. Such features are often requested by enterprises to automate document prep steps that would otherwise be manual.

In summary, SharePoint Online by itself leaves a lot on the table when it comes to advanced document processing. Government and enterprise clients typically find they need one or more of the above capabilities to meet their business requirements – whether it’s ensuring everything is searchable for FOIA requests, auto-tagging content for easier retrieval, or making sure records are stored in compliant formats. That is why third-party OCR and document processing solutions are in high demand to augment SharePoint Online DMS implementations.

Real-World Examples (Case Studies)

Recommendations: Choosing the Right OCR Strategy

Given the range of options, how should a U.S. government agency or mid-sized enterprise go about selecting the best OCR solution for their SharePoint Online environment? The answer will depend on organization size, budget, and specific requirements. Here’s a recommended approach:

1. Assess Volume and Complexity of Documents: Determine how many documents (and pages) you need to OCR on an ongoing basis, and how complex they are (different languages, poor scan quality, etc.).
2. If you have millions of pages per year and many are critical records, an enterprise solution like ABBYY FineReader Server or Foxit may be worth the investment for its superior accuracy and throughput.
3. If volume is more modest (say, a few thousand pages a month) and mostly standard office documents, a targeted solution like Nutrient Searchlight or Microsoft Syntex could handle the load at lower cost.
4. Identify Key Use Cases: Are you simply trying to make sure everything in SharePoint is searchable? Or do you also need to extract specific data and automate classification?
5. For simply making documents searchable (full-text), a product focused on that (Nutrient’s Document Searchability, Symphony OCR, or a basic Foxit/Adobe flow) will suffice and be easier to implement.
6. For intelligent processing (data extraction, forms recognition), consider Microsoft Syntex if you want to stay in-platform, or ABBYY/Foxit if you need more customizable data capture. For example, a state agency processing permit applications might use Syntex to pull out applicant names and permit types automatically in addition to OCR.
7. Consider Microsoft Ecosystem Alignment: Given these solutions will work alongside Microsoft 365, there is value in choosing one that aligns well. 
8. If you prefer to minimize third-party dependencies, evaluate SharePoint Syntex first. Microsoft is continually improving it, and it might cover your needs natively. Just be mindful of the licensing model changes and test its accuracy on your documents (you can do a pilot in a small library).
9. If you are open to third-party but want something built for SharePoint Online, Nutrient’s Document Searchability (Aquaforest) is a top candidate. It’s literally designed with SharePoint in mind, offers tight integration, and runs within your Microsoft Azure environment if needed. Many Microsoft-focused integrators (such as Communication Square LLC) have experience deploying it for clients, which can accelerate project timelines.
10. Budget Constraints and Cost of Ownership: Budget isn’t just the software license – consider the effort to implement and maintain.
11. Smaller organizations or agencies with limited budgets: A lower-cost solution like Symphony OCR might be attractive. It provides the essential OCR-for-search with minimal configuration. Just ensure the support is adequate (small vendor) and that it can handle your content volume.
12. Mid-sized enterprises: Investing in Nutrient’s solution or Microsoft Syntex could be cost-effective.Nutrient will likely quote a price that scales with your user count or server usage – which for a mid- size business should be manageable (often a few thousand dollars per year range for medium volumes). Syntex, if you already have Microsoft 365, might end up being an incremental cost that is feasible per month if usage is not extreme. Also factor in that these solutions can reduce manual labor (no more staff manually opening PDFs to search them or tag them), which is a cost saving.
13. Large enterprises / Federal agencies: Enterprise solutions (ABBYY, Adlib, etc.) with higher price tags might be justified by the sheer scale and the risk of error in mission-critical contexts. The cost of missing a document in a legal discovery or a FOIA search can be far greater than the cost of an OCR system. Also, larger entities often have the IT infrastructure to self-host solutions and integrate them – making something like ABBYY or Foxit viable. Just ensure to negotiate government pricing and consider multi-year contracts for better rates.
14. Data Security & Compliance Needs: This is often the deciding factor for government agencies: 
15. If you handle sensitive or classified information that cannot leave your secure network, eliminate pure-cloud services. That would steer you toward on-premises or private cloud deployments: Nutrient on a VM in Azure Government, ABBYY on a local server, Foxit on an internal server, or a custom solution in Azure Gov with Cognitive Services (if allowed). For example, a defense agency might opt for ABBYY FineReader Server installed in their data center to ensure absolute control.
22. For a large government agency or Fortune 500 company: you might even deploy a combination. For example, use ABBYY FineReader Server as a centralized OCR engine for bulk processing (for archives or legacy migration), while also enabling Syntex or Searchlight for day-to-day new content in SharePoint. This layered approach ensures both new and old content is covered in the most efficient manner. However, consolidating on one enterprise solution can reduce complexity – if the volume is there, ABBYY or Foxit could handle both archive and ongoing OCR. Ensure whichever vendor you choose has strong support and training, since large deployments need tuning and oversight (e.g., ABBYY allows training its OCR for specific forms, etc., which could be useful). 
23. If budget is extremely tight but you have a tech-savvy IT team, exploring a custom Azure Cognitive Services OCR solution might be worthwhile. This could involve using Azure Functions and the Computer Vision API. It can work out cheaper for small volumes and gives full control within your Azure tenant. The downside is the maintenance of custom code – something to consider if you don’t have developers to maintain it long-term.

Conclusion

By systematically evaluating needs and options, you can craft an OCR strategy that ensures 100% of your SharePoint Online documents are searchable and usable. For many government agencies and mid-sized firms, a Microsoft-aligned solution (like Nutrient’s or Syntex) strikes the best balance of integration, capability, and cost. These solutions fill the native gaps in SharePoint Online – from OCR to auto-tagging – and bring your document management to an enterprise-grade level. Always remember to pilot first, secure stakeholder buy-in (e.g., records managers will love the new search capabilities once they see it in action), and plan for user communication (users should be informed that search results will improve as OCR is implemented). With the right solution in place, you’ll significantly enhance your SharePoint Online DMS – boosting findability, compliance, and productivity across your organization.

If you need help deciding on the right plan or implementing these solutions, feel free to reach out.