Comparison of barKoder wasm with open source The Shape Detection API

Barcodes: From Invention to Ubiquity

Since the invention of the first barcode nearly 40 years ago, the technology has evolved into a cornerstone of modern commerce. Today, barcode symbologies are virtually everywhere—from retail shelves to logistics, healthcare, and manufacturing.

If you’re interested in exploring the various types of barcode symbologies, check out this detaeld blog that breaks down the differences and use cases.

Choosing the Right Mobile Barcode Reader SDK

Selecting the best mobile barcode reader SDK depends on the specific needs of your company and project. Factors like performance, supported platforms, scanning speed, accuracy, and integration flexibility all play a role. Understanding these aspects upfront will help streamline your evaluation process and save valuable time.

barcode scanner library comparison

Barcode Scanner SDK by barKoder for Web is dependable and productive for personal developers and enterprises, with a world-class barcode detection algorithm and camera enhancement functionality. WASM-WebAssembly is a type of programming code that can run in modern web browsers — it is a low-level assembly-like language with a compact binary format that runs with near-native performance and is designed to run alongside JavaScript to enable Progressive Web Apps (PWA).
The Shape Detection API is a set of services exposing image processing like OCR (text detection), barcode/QR scanning, or face detection capabilities. The Shape Detection API exposes these implementations through a set of JavaScript interfaces.
The Vision framework combines machine learning technologies and Swift’s concurrency features to perform computer vision tasks in your app.
AVFoundation combines several major technology areas that together encompass a wide range of tasks for inspecting, playing, capturing, and processing audiovisual media on Apple platforms.

Supported Barcode Types

Barcode Scanner SDK by barKoder for Web Aztec, AztecCompact, QR, QRMicro, Code128, Code93, Code39, Codabar, Code11, Msi, UpcA, UpcE, UpcE1, Ean13, Ean8, PDF417, PDF417Micro, Datamatrix, Code25, Interleaved25, ITF14, IATA25, Matrix25, Datalogic25, COOP25, Code32, Telepen, Dotcode, Databar14, DatabarLimited, DatabarExpanded, Intelligent Mail, Postnet, Australian Post, Royal mail, PostNL KIX, Japanese Post.
The Shape Detection API - Aztec, Code128, Code39, Code93, Codabar, Datamatrix, Ean13, Ean8, ITF, PDF417, QR, UpcA, UpcE.
AVFoundation & Vision - EAN-13, EAN-13, EAN-8, UPC-E, ITF-14, GS1 DataBar, GS1 DataBar Limited, GS1 DataBar Expanded, Code 128, Code 39, Code 39 Checksum, Code 39 Full ASCII, Code 39 Full ASCII Checksum, Code 93, Code 93i, Codabar, Interleaved 2 of 5 (i2of5). Interleaved 2 of 5 Checksum (i2of5Checksum), MSI Plessey, QR Code, Micro QR, Aztec, Data Matrix, PDF417, MicroPDF417

Analyzing the Barcode Scanner SDK by barKoder for Web performance vs other competitors.

While reading rate and accuracy are the most vital metrics for measuring the performance, scanning damaged, low-resolution and blurred barcode samples is just as, if not more vital, since an average scanner can scan 90% of the samples, but the rest 10% that are usually damaged or distorted barcode samples that not every scanner can get the data from, our barKoder mobile barcode scanner SDK and barKoder for Web can do an excellent job with.

This test will be conducted using 27 samples, all of which contain damaged, low-resolution, or blurred barcodes.

Results:

Barcode Scanner SDK by barKoder for Web - 27/27

The Shape Detection API 9/27 - Note: Can detect 4 more samples from the 27, but the results were misread, so they are counted as "not scanned." Additionally, the camera failed to initialize a couple of times, sometimes even freezes for no reason, and there were two crashes when scanning PDF417 samples.

Scanbot websdk - 18/27

Scandit SDK for Web - 11/27

Analyzing the barKoder App performance vs AVFoundation & Vision

For native SDK testing, we will now focus only on comparing barKoder, AVFoundation, and Vision.
This is because we already have more blog posts covering comprehensive test cases where Barkoder was compared against all major competitor apps on the market.

barKoder App - 27/27

AVFoundation & Vision - 20/27 - AVFoundation needs more time to scan a sample in general scenarios and is less CPU-intensive,
Vision, on the other hand, is better suited for more challenging cases (e.g. damaged, distorted, or low-contrast barcodes), though it may be slightly slower and consume more resources.