How to Choose the Best Barcode Scanner SDK for Your App

You probably scoured Reddit threads or pinged ChatGPT about choosing the best barcode scanner SDK before landing here. Still searching for real answers? Here, we’ll break down the technical criteria to look for, and how to relate them to your development needs and business goals.

Skip guesswork and hallucinations. Our advice is built on hard-earned experience from the front lines of over 2,100 deployments in retail, logistics, transportation, healthcare, manufacturing, and more.

To get the best barcode scanner, you also need the right combination of software and hardware—often procured separately. (For guidance on device selection, read our guide on choosing the best barcode scanning hardware.)

You may be asking, “Why should I pay for a commercial license, when there are open-source options?”

That’s a valid question. But not all barcode scanning SDKs are equal. Not all use cases are equal, either.

Here's a topline table of the typical differences between free/open source and commercial barcode scanner SDKs. This is based on our testing of two popular free/open source libraries.You can see our detailed comparison of the ML Kit barcode scanner and the Scandit SDK for an in-depth look at performance, accuracy, features, and support.

For some scenarios, open source is good enough, and you have options to choose from. For other scenarios, you’ll need the best enterprise barcode scanner SDK you can get.

To ensure your choice is the right one, reframe that question to, “How do the barcode scanner SDK’s features match my intended use case?” Read on to learn more about how to do that.

The top ten features to evaluate when choosing a barcode scanner SDK are scanning performance, symbology support, UI support, security and privacy, scalability, development environments, documentation, developer support, licensing and pricing, and software releases.

Some areas will be more important than others to you, so it’s important to understand your scanning workflows and business requirements before downloading and evaluating software.

1. Barcode scanning performance

Why it matters

Performance covers a range of criteria that affect user experience, business metrics, and device resource usage. Prioritize these criteria based on use case, and measure how well an SDK achieves them through empirical testing.

Things to look for

• Total time to scan
• Scan accuracy (often described as false positive rate)
• Maximum scan range
• Performance in low light
• Battery consumption
• Ability to scan difficult barcodes (torn, obscured, poorly printed, etc.)

Our blog on how to measure barcode scanning performance explains these criteria and recommends test cases to determine if an SDK meets your needs.

For software specifically, we also recommend testing these additional metrics to see the impact on runtime performance:

• Load time: The time it takes for the runtime library to fully function after the app executes it.
• Memory usage: The amount of memory the runtime library consumes during execution.
• Application footprint: The amount of memory the runtime library takes up on user devices.

You can use your existing profiling tools, such as Android Studio's Profiler or Xcode Instruments, to measure and analyze these numbers.

2. Barcode symbology support

Why it matters

A barcode scanner is only as good as the symbologies it supports. If users attempt to scan an Aztec Code and your SDK only handles EAN barcodes, they’ll have to enter data manually.

Things to look for

• Ensure the SDK supports all barcode symbologies your business uses.
• Verify support at the version level of the symbology standard (for example, the most commonly used version for EAN is EAN-13, but there are also EAN-2, EAN-5, and EAN-8 versions).
• Check the performance of your chosen SDK for the specific symbologies you need. Performance within a given SDK can vary widely between symbologies — some libraries have up to a 5% false positive rate for certain symbologies.
• An API that allows you to restrict supported symbologies to improve performance.
• Consider SDKs that handle a broader symbology range to support future needs.

3. Barcode scanning user interface support

Why it matters

Easy-to-use UI components, helpful guidance, and real-time feedback make scanning more effective and improve user adoption rates.

The user experience is really important, because that platform is the product they are working with. If they don't adopt your product, you've lost.

Lonneke Pezie, E-Commerce Consultant at Lekkerland Netherlands

Some SDKs include UI features, and some don’t. The questions to answer are:

1. How much development effort do you want to spend?
2. Does your team have the skills and experience necessary for effective UX design?

Things to look for

• Individual UI components built in, such as scan start/stop buttons, on-screen overlays, and error feedback (audio and haptic).
• Pre-built components that combine multiple UI components into a complete user experience and make integration easier.
• An API that allows you to customize the UI’s look and feel.
• Advanced UX technologies, such as context-based scanning (improves barcode capture using AI) and augmented reality, to help users perform their tasks.
• Sample apps that demonstrate different UI implementations.

4. Security and privacy

Why it matters

Barcode scanning software requires access to device resources, such as the camera, storage, and networking. If not secured correctly, these accesses can potentially expose sensitive data to malicious actors, both on the device and in transit to back-end servers.

Things to look for

• Compliance with general data protection and privacy standards, such as GDPR and the ISO 27000 family.
• Alignment with application-specific standards, such as PCI DSS and HIPAA.
• Barcode processing performed on-device to minimize the chances of network interception. This also improves performance.
• Encryption of all data stored on device and transmitted over a network.
• Vendor clouds certified to industry standards and, if required, hosted in your jurisdiction.
• Regular security updates as new vulnerabilities and security techniques are discovered.

5. Scalability to business needs

Why it matters

Scalability is defined by the ability of the barcode scanning SDK to adapt to increasing amounts of work or changing business needs. This comes in three flavors:

1. Increased workloads resulting from factors like more scans per day or more devices running on the network and vendor cloud.
2. New use cases that require different features or workflows. For example, shifting from scanning single barcodes per package to scanning multiple barcodes across an entire shelf.
3. New development or runtime environments as technologies change and requirements evolve.

Things to look for

• Barcode scanning software that meets your performance needs (see criteria above) even under increased workloads.
• Features that indicate the SDK can adapt to future needs, such as support for multiple barcodes, optimizations for specific use cases (e.g., stock counting or customer self-scanning), and a UI you can extend to improve workflows over time.
• Advanced capabilities that increase efficiency and adapt to changing needs and user behaviors without development effort.

6. Development environment support

Why it matters

Choosing a barcode scanner SDK that supports your existing development environment (programming language, IDE, build chain, and runtime) makes it easier to integrate, test, and deploy.

For example, ZXing is natively implemented in Java, and the community has built versions for languages like JavaScript and Python. These aren’t necessarily as fully featured and tested as the native library. Commercial SDKs tend to support more languages and platforms, with full or close to full support.

Things to look for

• Native implementation for your programming languages and target platforms (e.g., iOS, Android, Linux), or a community-supported fork/version.
• Compatibility with your existing IDE, build chain, and target environment, including specific versions.

The easiest way to see if an SDK will work is to download and run one of their sample apps—see a Scandit sample now in your browser. This will also give you an idea of how easy or hard it is to work with.

7. Developer documentation

Why it matters

If you’ve encountered an API reference with no docs or search results with no filters, you know the importance of a good developer documentation portal.

Implementing barcode scanning effectively can be harder than you think. Without solid documentation, your integration could take way longer than it should.

Things to look for

• Completeness and clarity, so you’re not left wondering how a feature works. Look for tutorials (getting started, advanced features, troubleshooting, etc.), API references, code samples (incl. code documentation), demos, migration guides, knowledge base, known limitations, and a glossary.
• Verify that the guides and API references match the latest SDK release.

8. Developer support

Why it matters

Having good support during development is the difference between getting a bug fixed now and users saying, “It’s a feature, not a bug” later.

Things to look for

• Does the SDK provider offer support for initial configuration and deployment?
• Do they provide ongoing maintenance, updates, and patch support?
• Do the support hours match your needs (e.g., office hours only or 24/7/365)?
• Is expert training available for your team, if needed?
• Is technical support included in the license cost?

9. SDK licensing and pricing

Why it matters

To run a barcode scanning SDK, both in development and production, you must have valid legal permission from its provider. Licensing and pricing models vary, so it's best for you and your IT team to understand how they work and your obligations for software use.

Things to look for

• For open source licenses, you must understand your rights and obligations. For example, the GNU General Public License (GPL) requires anyone using GPL code in their app to make all the app’s source code available under the same GPL license.
• For commercial products, the following table explains the most common types of licensing and pricing models:

10. Barcode scanning software releases

Why it matters

Regular software updates demonstrate that the vendor is committed to providing you with the latest features, bug fixes, and security updates. It also extends the lifetime of your barcode scanning SDK.

Things to look for

• Release notes that explain the history of software updates and fixes.
• A documented release plan (either publicly available or accessed through a sales rep) that shows a commitment to new features and improvements.

The SDK best suited to your use case is one that matches your operational requirements (performance, symbology support, etc.) and organizational needs (security, privacy, licensing, etc.) while supporting your existing development environment.

These requirements vary across industries and teams — scanning in a high-volume retail operation is very different from scanning in a manufacturing facility that assembles parts once per week.

The following table illustrates how a barcode scanning SDK’s features and performance directly impact a grocery item’s supply chain, from production to the online shopper’s home. We’ve also shown how Scandit does it, demonstrating how our features can match your use case.

Integration time can range from a few hours to several months, depending on the system complexity and the support provided by the barcode scanner SDK. Critical factors include the alignment of SDK features with your use case, the availability of developer resources (pre-built components, documentation, samples, etc.), team expertise (including UX expertise), and the scope of back-end changes.

Pre--built components such as Scandit SparkScan can dramatically reduce integration time. With only a few lines of code, developers can access both Scandit’s industry-leading scanning performance and optimized scanning user experiences (UX).

The SparkScan shutter button and camera preview layer floats on top of your existing interface, without requiring app redesign. Colors, sizes, and positions of UI elements can be easily customized to fit your app’s existing UI, as per the examples below.

Scandit's integration options

In addition to SparkScan, Scandit provides options to suit every enterprise application and level of effort. Our portfolio ranges from turnkey, no-code apps deployable in hours through pre-built components to customizable, feature-rich native and web SDKs.

Barcode scanning is the backbone of our business. If we couldn’t read it, our business would be unsustainable. That’s why Scandit’s scanning speed and accuracy are such an important technology that supports our marketing research business.

Yuji Konno, Consumer Data Management Department, Data Management Division, Intage Inc.

Scandit supports thousands of barcode scanning customers across enterprises ranging from retail and logistics to travel and healthcare.

• Scandit AI Engine: Computer vision techniques are used to understand the barcode data being captured, the environment around the barcode, and the user intent behind each scan. This enables significantly improved performance in cluttered, fast-moving environments and captures complex product labels with multiple barcodes and accompanying text.
• Enterprise-grade features: Scandit maximizes the available computing power and camera capabilities of today’s smart devices for unmatched performance and usability. From basic barcode scanning to complex AR-guided workflows, the Scandit Barcode Scanner SDK is customizable to fit your unique use cases.
• Enterprise-level support: High-quality support from concept to live operations and maintenance. Our Enterprise-Level Success Team partners with you every step of the way, ensuring your barcode scanning software integrates and deploys successfully..
• Broad development support: Scandit software supports various operating systems, programming languages, frameworks, 3rd party systems, and OEM devices, including React Native, Native iOS, Native Android, JavaScript, Xamarin/Xamarin.Forms, Flutter, .NET (Android, iOS, and MAUI), Cordova, Capacitor, and Titanium, Linux/C, IBM MobileFirst, SAP Fiori, and Oracle Xstore.