Why people choose Card Scanner
There are plenty of business card apps out there. Here is what makes this one different, and why it is worth the small amount of storage it takes up on your phone.
Free
Card Scanner is not a free trial, and it is not a stripped-down version of a paid app designed to nudge you toward a subscription. There are no premium tiers hiding behind a paywall, no limits on how many cards you can scan per month, and no watermark added to your exports. The app is free the way software used to be free: you download it, and it simply works, forever, at no cost to you.
Reads the details for you
Point your camera at a business card, and on-device OCR reads the name, phone number, email address, and mailing address directly off it — no typing required. The app recognizes English, Spanish, and French text, so it works for cards in any of those languages. Before anything is saved, you can review and edit every field to fix anything the scan got wrong.
Saves to your contacts and to a CSV file
Once a card is scanned, you can add it straight to your phone's own Contacts app — no re-typing, no copy-pasting. Every scan is also logged to a CSV file, which you can open in any spreadsheet app or import into other tools later. A copy of the original card image is saved alongside it, so you always have the source to double-check against.
You control where it's saved
You choose the language the app scans in and the location on your device where your CSV file and scanned images are stored, and you can change either setting at any time. Nothing is decided for you behind the scenes.
Share with one tap
Once you've scanned and reviewed a card, a single share button lets you send the contact details, the card image, or your exported CSV file anywhere you like — by email, messaging app, or any other app installed on your phone.
Offline
Every part of the scanning and organizing process happens locally, directly on your device. You can use Card Scanner on a plane, in a basement with no signal, or with your phone permanently in airplane mode, and it will work exactly the same as it would on a fast home Wi-Fi connection, because it was built from the ground up to need nothing but your camera and your storage.
Secure
Because nothing is uploaded anywhere, there is nothing for a server breach, a misconfigured database, or a third-party data broker to expose. Your cards, contacts, and CSV file live only in the app's local storage on your own device, under the same protections — a passcode, a fingerprint, a face unlock — that already guard the rest of your phone.