Platform
Category
Top 20 Scanners and OCR SDKs Used in Android Apps on Google Play
Last update: 23 Mar 2025 CET
Android iconGoogle Play

Top 20 Scanners and OCR SDKs Used in Android Apps on Google Play

We at 42matters have identified the 20 most popular Scanners and OCR SDKs leveraged by Android apps available on the Android app market.

Scanner and OCR SDKs enable apps to scan and process texts and QR codes from images and documents. While Scanner SDKs provide apps with the ability to scan, crop, rotate, and color correct documents and QRs, OCR (Optical Character Recognition) SDKs recognize text in scanned images and documents and convert them into machine-readable texts. These SDKs may also provide tools for language detection, spell checking, and formatting.

This list is based on our analysis of the millions of mobile applications – and the 2,300+ SDKs they use – that constitute the vast inventory of the Google Play Store. The accompanying data provides readers with a glimpse into the rich mobile application insights generated by the 42matters technology. This data is also available via our APIs, file dumps, Explorer, and SDK Explorer.

The intended purpose of this article is to assist app builders in their search for the perfect Scanners and OCR SDK to leverage in their app, as well as to give SDK developers insight into their biggest competitors and potential customers. This data collected by our technology may also serve as a useful tool for folks researching the wider mobile app market.

Among all apps utilizing scanners and ocr SDKs, 76.10% have integrated ZXing. This accounts for 69.29% of app downloads within the scanners and ocr SDK category.

ZXing ("zebra crossing") is an open-source, multi-format 1D/2D barcode image processing SDK implemented in Java, with ports to other languages.

Total Apps
412.39k
Google Play
App Share
76.10%
Google Play
Apps
371.02k
Games
41.37k
Total Downloads
373.67b
Google Play
Download Share
69.29%
Google Play
App Downloads
220.16b
Game Downloads
153.51b

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use ZXing.

Among all apps utilizing scanners and ocr SDKs, 27.59% have integrated ML Kit by Google. This accounts for 39.85% of app downloads within the scanners and ocr SDK category.

Total Apps
149.53k
Google Play
App Share
27.59%
Google Play
Apps
149.10k
Games
428
Total Downloads
214.93b
Google Play
Download Share
39.85%
Google Play
App Downloads
213.19b
Game Downloads
1.74b

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use ML Kit by Google.

Among all apps utilizing scanners and ocr SDKs, 19.78% have integrated ZXing Android Embedded. This accounts for 7.62% of app downloads within the scanners and ocr SDK category.

ZXing Android Embedded is a barcode scanning SDK for Android, using ZXing for decoding.

Total Apps
107.19k
Google Play
App Share
19.78%
Google Play
Apps
106.88k
Games
316
Total Downloads
41.11b
Google Play
Download Share
7.62%
Google Play
App Downloads
40.60b
Game Downloads
508.91m

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use ZXing Android Embedded.

Among all apps utilizing scanners and ocr SDKs, 4.85% have integrated Phonegap Barcode Scanner. This accounts for <1% of app downloads within the scanners and ocr SDK category.

Phonegap Barcode Scanner is SDK that enables barcode scanning.

Total Apps
26.29k
Google Play
App Share
4.85%
Google Play
Apps
26.23k
Games
57
Total Downloads
1.16b
Google Play
Download Share
<1%
Google Play
App Downloads
1.15b
Game Downloads
5.15m

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Phonegap Barcode Scanner.

Among all apps utilizing scanners and ocr SDKs, 4.50% have integrated Barcode Scanner Views. This accounts for 1.30% of app downloads within the scanners and ocr SDK category.

Android library SDK that provides easy to use and extensible Barcode Scanner views based on ZXing and ZBar.

Total Apps
24.39k
Google Play
App Share
4.50%
Google Play
Apps
24.31k
Games
76
Total Downloads
7.03b
Google Play
Download Share
1.30%
Google Play
App Downloads
6.62b
Game Downloads
416.57m

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Barcode Scanner Views.

Among all apps utilizing scanners and ocr SDKs, 3.21% have integrated Code Scanner. This accounts for <1% of app downloads within the scanners and ocr SDK category.

Total Apps
17.38k
Google Play
App Share
3.21%
Google Play
Apps
17.36k
Games
25
Total Downloads
3.49b
Google Play
Download Share
<1%
Google Play
App Downloads
3.48b
Game Downloads
5.30m

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Code Scanner.

Among all apps utilizing scanners and ocr SDKs, 1.25% have integrated ZBar. This accounts for <1% of app downloads within the scanners and ocr SDK category.

ZBar is an open source software suite for reading bar codes from various sources, such as video streams, image files, and raw intensity sensors.

Total Apps
6.80k
Google Play
App Share
1.25%
Google Play
Apps
6.78k
Games
19
Total Downloads
2.44b
Google Play
Download Share
<1%
Google Play
App Downloads
2.36b
Game Downloads
75.16m

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use ZBar.

Among all apps utilizing scanners and ocr SDKs, <1% have integrated Tesseract OCR. This accounts for <1% of app downloads within the scanners and ocr SDK category.

The Tesseract OCR SDK contains an OCR engine — libtesseract and a command line program — tesseract. Tesseract 4 adds a new neural net (LSTM) based OCR engine which is focused on line recognition, but also still supports the legacy Tesseract OCR engine of Tesseract 3 which works by recognizing character patterns.

Total Apps
2.13k
Google Play
App Share
<1%
Google Play
Apps
2.11k
Games
20
Total Downloads
1.24b
Google Play
Download Share
<1%
Google Play
App Downloads
1.23b
Game Downloads
10.24m

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Tesseract OCR.

Among all apps utilizing scanners and ocr SDKs, <1% have integrated tess-two. This accounts for <1% of app downloads within the scanners and ocr SDK category.

tess-two offers a fork of Tesseract Tools for Android (tesseract-android-tools) that adds some additional functions. Tesseract Tools for Android is a set of Android APIs and build files for the Tesseract OCR and Leptonica image processing libraries.

Total Apps
2.04k
Google Play
App Share
<1%
Google Play
Apps
2.02k
Games
19
Total Downloads
1.21b
Google Play
Download Share
<1%
Google Play
App Downloads
1.20b
Game Downloads
10.24m

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use tess-two.

Among all apps utilizing scanners and ocr SDKs, <1% have integrated QRCodeReaderView. This accounts for <1% of app downloads within the scanners and ocr SDK category.

The QRCodeReaderView SDK is a modification of the ZXING Barcode Scanner project for easy Android QR-Code detection and AR purposes. This project implements an Android view which shows the camera and notifies users when there's a QR code inside the preview.

Total Apps
1.97k
Google Play
App Share
<1%
Google Play
Apps
1.97k
Games
1
Total Downloads
1.21b
Google Play
Download Share
<1%
Google Play
App Downloads
1.21b
Game Downloads
159.69k

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use QRCodeReaderView.

Among all apps utilizing scanners and ocr SDKs, <1% have integrated Scandit. This accounts for <1% of app downloads within the scanners and ocr SDK category.

Scandit develops software for mobile enterprise apps with the highest quality barcode scanning, text and objects recognition, and augmented reality solutions.

Total Apps
1.32k
Google Play
App Share
<1%
Google Play
Apps
1.32k
Games
0
Total Downloads
463.05m
Google Play
Download Share
<1%
Google Play
App Downloads
463.00m
Game Downloads
54.63k

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Scandit.

Among all apps utilizing scanners and ocr SDKs, <1% have integrated Genius Scan. This accounts for <1% of app downloads within the scanners and ocr SDK category.

Total Apps
895
Google Play
App Share
<1%
Google Play
Apps
895
Games
0
Total Downloads
115.61m
Google Play
Download Share
<1%
Google Play
App Downloads
115.61m
Game Downloads
0

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Genius Scan.

Among all apps utilizing scanners and ocr SDKs, <1% have integrated PSPDFKit. This accounts for <1% of app downloads within the scanners and ocr SDK category.

PSPDFKit is the best framework for working with PDF files. The PSPDFKit SDK provides first-rate PDF solutions for your application with features like annotating, signing, and form filling.

Total Apps
727
Google Play
App Share
<1%
Google Play
Apps
726
Games
1
Total Downloads
1.48b
Google Play
Download Share
<1%
Google Play
App Downloads
1.48b
Game Downloads
6.85k

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use PSPDFKit.

Among all apps utilizing scanners and ocr SDKs, <1% have integrated Zebra Scanners. This accounts for <1% of app downloads within the scanners and ocr SDK category.

Total Apps
384
Google Play
App Share
<1%
Google Play
Apps
384
Games
0
Total Downloads
12.94m
Google Play
Download Share
<1%
Google Play
App Downloads
12.93m
Game Downloads
14.20k

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Zebra Scanners.

Among all apps utilizing scanners and ocr SDKs, <1% have integrated Scanbot. This accounts for <1% of app downloads within the scanners and ocr SDK category.

Total Apps
287
Google Play
App Share
<1%
Google Play
Apps
285
Games
2
Total Downloads
128.86m
Google Play
Download Share
<1%
Google Play
App Downloads
128.85m
Game Downloads
6.25k

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Scanbot.

Among all apps utilizing scanners and ocr SDKs, <1% have integrated Anyline SDK. This accounts for <1% of app downloads within the scanners and ocr SDK category.

Anyline is a mobile OCR SDK that enables you to scan numbers and short text within your application.

Total Apps
239
Google Play
App Share
<1%
Google Play
Apps
239
Games
0
Total Downloads
25.67m
Google Play
Download Share
<1%
Google Play
App Downloads
25.67m
Game Downloads
327

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Anyline SDK.

Among all apps utilizing scanners and ocr SDKs, <1% have integrated Cortex Decoder. This accounts for <1% of app downloads within the scanners and ocr SDK category.

Total Apps
115
Google Play
App Share
<1%
Google Play
Apps
115
Games
0
Total Downloads
31.47m
Google Play
Download Share
<1%
Google Play
App Downloads
31.47m
Game Downloads
0

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Cortex Decoder.

Among all apps utilizing scanners and ocr SDKs, <1% have integrated ABBYY. This accounts for <1% of app downloads within the scanners and ocr SDK category.

Mobile document capture and on-device text recognition. Create smooth self-service experiences for customers.

Total Apps
89
Google Play
App Share
<1%
Google Play
Apps
89
Games
0
Total Downloads
724.17m
Google Play
Download Share
<1%
Google Play
App Downloads
724.17m
Game Downloads
0

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use ABBYY.

Among all apps utilizing scanners and ocr SDKs, <1% have integrated Docutain. This accounts for <1% of app downloads within the scanners and ocr SDK category.

Total Apps
23
Google Play
App Share
<1%
Google Play
Apps
23
Games
0
Total Downloads
1.52m
Google Play
Download Share
<1%
Google Play
App Downloads
1.52m
Game Downloads
0

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Docutain.

Among all apps utilizing scanners and ocr SDKs, <1% have integrated Dynamsoft Barcode Reader. This accounts for <1% of app downloads within the scanners and ocr SDK category.

Total Apps
18
Google Play
App Share
<1%
Google Play
Apps
13
Games
5
Total Downloads
654.15k
Google Play
Download Share
<1%
Google Play
App Downloads
647.97k
Game Downloads
6.18k

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Dynamsoft Barcode Reader.

Browse iOS and Android SDKs With the SDK Explorer

Browse background top image
  • SDK IntelligenceSDK Intelligence

    See how many apps integrate specific SDKs, how many times these SDKs have been downloaded, developer details, similar SDKs, and more.

  • New Installations and Removals HistoryNew Installations and Removals History

    Analyze installation and removal trends for SDKs. Discover which apps have removed or integrated specific SDKs in a given timeframe.

  • Market Share per Google Play and Apple App Store CategoryMarket Share per Google Play and Apple App Store Category

    See which app categories or genres are most likely to use specific SDKs. Detect SDK market share per category.

Browse background bottom imageBrowse right section image

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How does 42matters collect this data?'

We’ve developed a number of machine learning algorithms that scan millions of mobile and connected TV (CTV) applications on a regular basis. In addition, we collect ground truth app performance intelligence and use this data to build statistical models that estimate the performance of apps for which we do not have ground truth data.

What SDK data does 42matters collect?'

We track over 2,300 of the most popular SDKs integrated in iOS and Android apps. We collect a variety of SDK insights (title, platform, ID, category, and developer website); performance metrics (the number of apps that have installed each SDK, installation and removal trends, and app downloads); market share statistics (including market share per app category); and more!

How can I access 42matters’ SDK data?'

The most direct way is to use our SDK Explorer, which is a visual, web-based research platform that enables you to peruse all 2,300+ SDKs that we track. It’s great for market research, lead generation, competitor analysis, etc. However, more technically-inclined folks might prefer our APIs and File Dumps, which enable you to query info for specific apps or SDKs. You can also use our other research platform (the Explorer) to view integrated SDKs by app.

Can I use 42matters’ solutions to generate app publisher leads?'

Absolutely! We actually wrote about this on our blog. We focused on ad network SDKs, but the examples are applicable to most SDK types. To summarize, you can use the Explorer’s advanced filtering capabilities to home in on best-fit app publishers, leverage the SDK Explorer to see which apps use your competitors’ SDKs, and use our APIs and file dumps to build custom lead generation processes.

What data does 42matters provide on mobile apps?'

A ton! We track 17+ million apps across Google Play, the Apple App Store, Amazon Appstore, Tencent Appstore, and Huawei AppGallery. Our solutions provide access to app details (developer insights, metadata, ASO keywords, contact information, etc.); performance metrics (downloads, MAUs, ratings, reviews, top chart rankings, etc.); technical insights (integrated SDKs, permissions, required capabilities, etc.); content details (categories, genres, IAB categories, content ratings, etc.); compliance information (app-ads.txt, privacy policies, store status, etc.) and much, much more!

Can I use 42matters’ solutions to find SDKs for my app?'

Definitely. The SDK Explorer enables you to sort SDKs by category, identify similar SDKs, analyze SDK reliability, and more. In addition, you can use the Explorer to monitor your competitors, including which SDKs they add and remove, their current tech stacks, and SDK changelogs. This means you use our solutions not only to find the right SDK for a particular purpose, but also which SDKs you might need to keep up with your rivals.