Comparison

ABBYY Business Card Reader Pro vs Handheld Contact Api

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

ABBYY Business Card Reader Pro

This app quickly scans and stores contact information from business cards using advanced OCR technology. It offers features like auto-focus, data verification, and integration with device contacts and other services, supporting 25 languages.

Highlights
  • Quick and accurate OCR scanning
  • Auto-click photo feature
  • Easy check of recognized data
  • Apple Watch app integration
  • Automatic phone number normalization
  • Address autocompletion
  • Export to Excel and Salesforce
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

ABBYY Business Card Reader Pro –The World’s Fastest Business Card Scanner & Contact Management App for iPhone and iPad! Recommended by The New York Times, CNN, The Telegraph, Computer Business Review, Macworld. Winner of the RISING STAR Award in the Mobile Star Awards ABBYY Business Card Reader Pro easily & simply captures & stores contact from business cards in 25 languages to your iPhone and iPad. The recognized data can be saved in either your device contacts or the app digital storage. KEY FEATURES • QUICK AND ACCURATE SCANNING ABBYYs optical character recognition technology provides quick & accurate recognition of all contact information: names, organizations, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, etc. • AUTO-CLICK PHOTO FEATURE Automatically focuses on the business card, detects its edges, crops any extraneous background & captures an image of the card all by itself. • EASY CHECK OF RECOGNIZED DATA The app highlights “unusual” characters with blue color and displays the original image so that you can quickly confirm the output of the app. • APPLE WATCH APP. You won’t need to reach for your iPhone or iPad to remember somebody’s name. View contacts and make phone calls right from BCR on your Apple Watch! • AUTOMATIC NORMALIZATION OF PHONE AND EXTENTION NUMBERS BCR will automatically put in all the missing parts so that you can reach the contact even if the country code was omitted in print. • AUTOCOMPLETION OF ADDRESSES BCR corrects any typos and fills in the missing address fields so you can easily find it on the map. • MANUAL BACKUPS. Manual backups to archive and restore to another device. • Export contacts to Salesforce Leads (premium account required). BCR can export business cards to Enterprise, Unlimited, and Performance Editions of SF license. Professional Edition does not allow BCR export. • Set up voice commands in Siri Shortcuts app to open business cards by voicing the name of the owner. • Spotlight Search to find business cards from BCR • Export business cards to MS Excel in .CSV format. • Smart Facebook and LinkedIn search: connect social media account to the business card and auto upload photo of contact from Facebook. • Search in iPhone Maps for the address of your contacts. • Exchange digitally and forward recognized contacts via e-mail as VCard or JPEG files or via SMS as a plain text. • Share your contacts using QR code. • Support 25 languages including recognition of multilingual cards. - French - German - Greek - Japanese - Indonesian - Italian - Korean - Norwegian (both Bokmal and Nynorsk) - Polish - Portuguese (Portugal) - Portuguese (Brazil) - Russian - Spanish - Swedish - Turkish - Ukrainian Read us: abbyy.com/blog/mobile Facebook.com/ABBYYsoft Twitter @ABBYY_Software YouTube.com/ABBYYvideos Privacy Policy abbyy.com/privacy Terms of Use abbyybcr.com/en/eula Looking forward to your feedback on the App Store!

About

Handheld Contact Api

Access and manage your Act! CRM data, including contacts, calendars, and opportunities, wirelessly from your iPhone or iPad. Enjoy fast, frequent syncs and offline access to your business information.

Highlights
  • Manage Act! contacts, calendars, and opportunities
  • Secure wireless sync via Act! WebAPI
  • Call, email, and SMS contacts with history recording
  • Automatic syncing while app is running
  • Offline access to Act! data
  • Record notes and histories
  • Customizable field mapping
Features
Read full description

+Description: Handheld Contact – API is the mobile extension to your Act! software, as it wirelessly syncs and manages your Act! CRM Contacts, Calendar, Opportunities, and Notes/Histories from your iPhone or iPad. Unlike our Handheld Classic, this version syncs through the WebAPI for faster, more frequent updates of more data across more devices. It's like having Act! with you anywhere, anytime! +Features: • View and manage Act! contacts, calendars, Task Lists, and opportunities from anywhere, anytime. • Secure wireless sync with iPhone or iPad & Act! via the Act! WebAPI • Call/Email/SMS Act! contacts with all Histories recorded and synced back to Act! • Automatic syncing in coverage while application is running. • Act! data stored locally for fast access without Internet connection • Take notes & record Histories in Handheld Contact. • Easy setup on your device with no desktop software required • New modern interface • Customizable contact & opportunity field mapping • Easy contact sharing for one-click referrals • Alerts of upcoming annual events like Birthdays & Anniversary +Requirements: • You must have a Handheld Contact account. System Requirements • iPhone or iPad with IOS11 or higher • A current Act! subscription with Act! v18 or higher • Act! WebAPI v1.1.54.0 or higher • Act! user account must have “Standard” security privileges or higher, and be assigned WebAPI permission

Screenshots

ABBYY Business Card Reader Pro4 screens
Handheld Contact Api4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Handheld Contact Api at Free against ABBYY Business Card Reader Pro's $59.99. Handheld Contact Api also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 80%) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.0). ABBYY Business Card Reader Pro's advantage is rating (4.6 vs 3.0) and ratings volume (2.6K vs 4). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Handheld Contact Api is free to download; ABBYY Business Card Reader Pro costs $59.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

ABBYY Business Card Reader Pro holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ABBYY Business Card Reader Pro has 2.6K ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 80% of ABBYY Business Card Reader Pro's written reviews are positive against 100% of Handheld Contact Api's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
ABBYY Business Card Reader Pro versus Handheld Contact Api: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterABBYY Business Card Reader ProHandheld Contact Api
Price$59.99Free — better
Rating4.6 (2.6K ratings) — better3.0 (4 ratings)
Positive reviews80.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings2.6K — better4
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#71 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size75 MB45 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperABBYY USA Software House IncKeystroke Quality Computing Inc

Customer experience

ABBYY Business Card Reader Pro

All ratings2,551 ratings
Positive90.0%
Neutral4.9%
Negative5.1%
Written reviews455 reviews
Positive80.0%
Neutral6.6%
Negative13.4%

Handheld Contact Api

All ratings4 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

ABBYY Business Card Reader Pro

No in-app purchases

None

Handheld Contact Api

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is ABBYY Business Card Reader Pro free?
ABBYY Business Card Reader Pro costs $59.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Handheld Contact Api free?
Handheld Contact Api is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, ABBYY Business Card Reader Pro or Handheld Contact Api?
ABBYY Business Card Reader Pro is rated higher. ABBYY Business Card Reader Pro averages 4.6 out of 5 from 2.6K ratings, while Handheld Contact Api averages 3.0 from 4 ratings.
Do ABBYY Business Card Reader Pro or Handheld Contact Api have ads?
Neither ABBYY Business Card Reader Pro nor Handheld Contact Api shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ABBYY Business Card Reader Pro or Handheld Contact Api?
ABBYY Business Card Reader Pro ships an update every 2 months, and Handheld Contact Api every 2 months. Most recently, ABBYY Business Card Reader Pro was updated on October 26, 2026 and Handheld Contact Api on October 19, 2026.

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