AWS Textract is a cloud OCR + form/table extraction API — powerful but engineering-led. You need an AWS account, IAM keys, code to call the API, and per-page metered pricing that gets expensive on long documents. PDFExcel does the same job in the browser: describe the fields, smart AI extracts them, no code, finance-document tuned, free 10 docs/month.
AWS Textract is a powerful cloud OCR + structured-extraction API. The trade-off is that it's built for developers integrating into custom pipelines: you create an AWS account, set up IAM roles and access keys, write Python or JavaScript to call the API, handle async job submission for multi-page documents, and parse the JSON response. Pricing is per-page (~$1.50 per 1k pages for table extraction), which adds up fast on long bank statements or financial reports.
It's also general-purpose — Textract extracts tables and forms but doesn't know that this is a 1099 box 1, that this is the 'allowed amount' on an EOB, that this is the running balance on a bank statement. Mapping the raw output to structured fields per document type is your engineering job. For a finance team or solo bookkeeper who just wants Excel out of a PDF, that's overkill.
PDFExcel reads bank statements, invoices, receipts, tax forms, financial statements, brokerage statements with smart AI tuned specifically for finance documents. Describe the fields in plain English — invoice number, vendor, line items, total — and the AI maps them correctly per document type. No JSON parsing, no IAM keys, no code.
Sign in with Google or Microsoft. 10 documents/month free, forever. Pricing is per-document, not per-page: $69/month for 50 docs (Starter), $199 for 200 (Pro), $699 for 1,000 (Business). A 47-page bank statement counts as one document, not 47 — which is dramatically cheaper than Textract's per-page model on long financial documents. API access available for engineering teams who do want programmatic integration; pipeline automations for finance teams who don't.
Textract is the right call for engineering teams building custom document-processing pipelines into a larger product. PDFExcel is the right call for finance/accounting teams who want a browser tool that just works — and who don't need to assemble extraction logic from raw API output.
Both extract structured data from PDFs. The difference is who's using it and how they get to value.
Vendor invoice batch — line-item-level extraction with vendor, invoice #, line description, qty, unit, total. Textract returns this as raw form/table JSON; PDFExcel returns Excel directly.
| # | Vendor | Invoice # | Line Description | Qty | Unit | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Acme Logistics LLC | INV-2025-0481 | Freight forwarding — Q1 service | 1 | $3,200.00 | $3,200.00 |
| 2 | Globex Manufacturing | GMI-77231 | SKU-4421 industrial widget | 240 | $18.40 | $4,416.00 |
| 3 | Initech IT Services | INI-2025-019 | Managed services — March | 1 | $2,840.00 | $2,840.00 |
| 4 | Stark Office Supply | 1842-A | Bulk printer toner restock | 12 | $84.50 | $1,014.00 |
| 5 | Wayne Enterprises | WE-2025-0315 | Consulting — diligence support | 16 | $285.00 | $4,560.00 |
Finance teams who tried Textract for AP automation and realized they'd be writing more pipeline code than the value justified, plus engineering teams looking for a finance-document-tuned alternative.
Was scoping AWS Textract for an AP automation buildout. Estimated 4-6 weeks of engineering work to map Textract output to NetSuite AP fields. PDFExcel covered the same use case in a week — pipeline automation runs the daily AP batch, exports CSV to NetSuite import.
Tried Textract via boto3 for client bank-statement extraction. Per-page pricing on long small-business statements made it cost-prohibitive. PDFExcel's per-document model is 10× cheaper at the same volume, with no code.
Embedded Textract for user-uploaded statement extraction. Mapping raw table JSON to a usable structured-finance schema was the bulk of the work. Switched to PDFExcel's API — finance-document-tuned output structure ships out of the box.
Textract is the right call if (1) you're building a custom document-processing pipeline as part of a larger AWS-native engineering product, (2) you need offline raw OCR/form/table extraction for downstream custom logic, or (3) you're already on AWS for everything else and consolidating to one provider matters. PDFExcel is right for everyone who just wants finance documents → Excel without engineering work.
Textract is ~$1.50 per 1k pages for table extraction (more for forms/queries). PDFExcel is $0-$0.69 per document regardless of page count. On a typical 12-statement-per-month bookkeeping workload averaging 15 pages each (180 pages = $0.27 in Textract pricing), PDFExcel free covers it. On 1000 invoices/month averaging 3 pages each (3000 pages = ~$4.50 in Textract), PDFExcel Business at $699 covers 1000 docs of any length.
Yes. POST a PDF, get JSON or CSV back. Same accuracy as the browser tool, finance-document tuned. Best fit when you want structured-finance output without building the field-mapping layer yourself.
PDFExcel processes in the cloud and deletes files immediately after extraction (never stored, never used to train AI). For strict offline requirements (air-gapped environments, on-premise mandates), Textract running in your AWS account or a desktop tool (ABBYY) fits better. For typical compliance posture (SOC 2, custom DPA), PDFExcel covers it on Enterprise — contact us.
10 documents per month, free, forever. No credit card. No AWS account required. No metered billing surprises.
Yes — and they count as 1 document, not N pages. A 47-page bank statement is 1 doc. Textract meters per page. The pricing math diverges quickly on long financial documents.