Note: PaperSurvey.io software supports the recognition of documents scanned on any scanners. However, you may want to improve the efficiency of the scanning process. Take a look at the scanners we recommend for the use of paper-based surveys.

You may also scan the documents using a mobile phone scanning app and upload it or email it to us. This collection method is much slower as the scanner may be able to scan 60 pages per minute, where, on the other hand, using the phone you may only scan up to 6 pages per minute.

Many consumer-level scanners do not have a document feeder feature which makes the scanning process much slower as you would need to change the pages every so often. To make the scanning process as efficient as possible you should consider purchasing a scanner with a document-feeder. The best scanners are capable of scanning up to 60 pages per minute.

We have reviewed several scanners ourselves that we would like to recommend for you. However, if you do not find these available to purchase, you may buy a similar model as we noticed that in different geographical regions the available to purchase scanners slightly vary.

Best Budget

Budget scanners with document feeders often include printing capacity and in exchange, you also get to buy expensive ink cartridges.

In this category, we review the scanners that are cheap and are suitable for both printing and scanning paper-based surveys.

Choose this device if you have a relatively small budget and planning to both print and scan up to 500 pages/month.

On average, the ink cartridges last for about 1000 pages and the cost to replace is slightly less than what it costs to buy the device.

You may scan an unlimited number of pages using this multifunction device and choose a more cost-efficient way (e.g. laser printer) to print the pages to avoid the costly cartridges.

HP OfficeJet Pro (8610 , 8710, or any similar model)

• Scans up to 10-20 pages per minute (depending on model)
• Can print pages too
• Scans A3 format pages too
• Scan to email feature is available *
• Very cheap
• Rather bad reviews on Amazon

Epson WorkForce (WF-7710, WF-7720 or any similar model)

• Scans up to 18 pages per minute
• Can print pages too
• Scans A3 format pages too
• Scan to email feature is available *
• Very cheap
• Rather bad reviews on Amazon

Best Quality

In this category, we list the devices that are more expensive, faster and produce better quality scans. The scanners in this list do not have printing capacity and are well suited to scan a large number of paper surveys.

Epson WorkForce ES-400

• Scans 35 pages per minute
• Scan to email feature is available *

Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500

• Scans 25 pages per minute
• Scan to email feature is available *

Enterprise level

The scanners here are suitable for processing over 5 thousand pages per day. Choose this if you want the best performing and want to take the paper survey scanning to the next level.

Epson DS-860

• Scans 65 pages per minute
• Very expensive
• Designed for high performance

Panasonic KV KV-S1027C

• Scans 45 pages per minute
• Very expensive
• Designed for high performance

* - Scan to email feature

We found scan to email function useful as you can immediately send the scanned documents by typing your uniquely generated my-address@upload.papersurvey.io email address.

This way, you do not need to transfer the files back to your computer or go to papersurvey.io to upload.