The compatibility, and security features of the PDF format make it the preferred choice for keeping and processing information. Nowadays, there are multiple vendors offering PDF solutions with a wide range of services.
If you’re reading this article, it means you researched alternatives to Tabula. While Tabula is a great tool, it may not have everything.
Within this informative guide, we will compare Tabula and PDF.co and learn about their similarities and differences.
- What is Tabula?
- What is PDF.co?
- Tabula vs PDF.co: Comparison Table
- Compare Tabula vs PDF.co Workflows
- Tabula vs PDF.co: Integrations
What is Tabula?
Tabula is a free tool for extracting data from PDF files into CSV and Excel files. Tabula works on Mac, Windows and Linux.
Tabula Features (PDF Extractor)
- PDF to CSV,
- PDF to JSON (Dimension),
- PDF to JSON (Data),
- PDF to TSV,
- PDF to Script,
- PDF to Zip of CSVs.
What is PDF.co?
PDF.co is an on-demand web API for easy data extraction, form filling, document conversion, document parsing, pdf manipulation, barcode reading/generation, and much more with over 300 integrations.
PDF.co Features
Document Parser
- Lots of pre-made templates based on different types of documents.
- Easy to use template creator for your document.
- Easy-to-use macros,
- Download your parsed data as CSV, JSON, or XML.
PDF Tools
- Merge and Split PDF,
- Delete pages from PDF,
- Fill out PDF Forms,
- Read detailed PDF information,
- Make PDF searchable/unsearchable,
- Convert HTML codes or URLs into PDFs,
- Search and Replace text in PDF,
- Translate PDF to another language,
- Compress PDF.
PDF Extractor
- PDF to CSV,
- PDF to XML,
- PDF to TEXT,
- PDF to JSON,
- PDF to XLS,
- PDF to XLSX,
- PDF to IMAGES (JPG, PNG, TIFF, and WEBP).
Generate PDF
- Create PDF from scratch or from PDF templates.
- Convert other documents such as Doc, DocX, RTF, TXT, XPS, HTML, Images (JPG, PNG, TIFF), XLS, and XLSX into PDF.
Barcode Tools
- Can generate 1D or 2D barcodes.
- Can read barcodes from PDF documents, images, and remote documents using the link.
Business-oriented Features
- Email to PDF transformation. Supports emails with attachments including tools to extract important data from emails separately.
- Auto detector and remover of sensitive data.
Tabula vs PDF.co: Comparison Table
Here is a breakdown of Tabula and PDF.co, outlining their similarities and differences.
| Tabula | PDF.co | |
|---|---|---|
| PDF Extraction | Designed for extracting table data from PDF documents | Offers various PDF extraction functionalities, including extracting text, images, tables, and metadata from PDF files. It supports extracting data from both structured and unstructured PDFs |
| Data Export | CSV, TSV, JSON (Dimension and Data), Zip for CSVs, and Script | JSON, CSV, and XML |
| Automation | Desktop application and requires manual interaction for table extraction. | Offers RESTful APIs to allow developers to automate PDF processing tasks and incorporate PDF.co functionalities into their software. |
| Collaboration | No | Yes |
| OCR | No | Yes |
| Pricing | Open-source project and free to use | Offers free and paid plans |
| User Interface | User-friendly Interface | User-friendly interface |
| Customer Support | Github repository and online community forum | Email support, tutorials, and documentation |
| Security | Don’t have built-security features | SSL, TLS security, and File encryption |
| API | No | Yes |
Compare Tabula vs PDF.co Workflows
Here are several workflows demonstrating effective ways to handle PDF documents using Tabula and PDF.co:
Tabula Extract Table Data
Tabula is an open-source tool that allows users to extract structured table data from PDF documents.
Here’s how you can use Tabula to extract table data from PDF invoices.
Tabula Specific Text Extraction
Tabula is an open-source tool designed to extract data from PDF documents. It provides a user-friendly interface for selecting and extracting texts from PDF files.
Here’s how you can use Tabula to extract specific text from PDF documents.
PDF.co Extract Table Data
PDF.co is a powerful software tool designed to extract structured data from tables within PDF documents.
Here’s how you can use PDF.co to easily extract table data from PDF documents.
PDF.co Specific Text Extraction
PDF.co is a versatile software solution that enables the extraction of various types of data from PDF documents.
Here’s how you can use PDF.co to extract specific text from PDF documents.
Tabula vs PDF.co: Integrations
PDF.co Integrations
PDF.co has over 3000+ integrations available:
- Zapier plugin: pre-made Zaps with Zapier, all tutorials to integrate PDF.co and Zapier;
- Make plugin (formerly Integromat): all Make automation guides;
- Salesforce, Dynamics 365, Zoho, and other CRM systems;
- Airtable;
- Microsoft Power Automate;
- Google Apps Script;
- SharePoint, Office 365, Box, Egnyte, Dropbox, SignNow plus ready-to-use 3000+ integrations;
- RPA UiPath, BluePrism, Automation Anywhere;
- RapidAPI.
Tabula Integration
- Tabula integration is not supported.