Nutrient vs. Syncfusion: Complete comparison for .NET developers

The practical difference

Most .NET document processing applications need multiple libraries: a PDF reader/editor (iText, PdfSharp), an OCR engine (Tesseract setup), a barcode reader (ZXing), format converters, and compliance validators. Each library requires separate integration, version management, and maintenance.

Nutrient .NET SDK (formerly GdPicture.NET) combines these tools into a single API. Built on .NET with ML-powered data extraction, it handles more than 100 file formats — from scanner capture to searchable PDFs with intelligent data extraction.

Syncfusion .NET PDF library is part of its Document Solutions product line, offering PDF generation and editing. Syncfusion also provides a separate UI Component Suite with 1,900+ controls for WPF, WinForms, Blazor, and other frameworks.

Feature-by-feature comparison: Nutrient vs. Syncfusion

This section covers Nutrient-exclusive capabilities and standard PDF features available in both platforms.

Nutrient-exclusive capabilities (not available in Syncfusion)

These features differentiate Nutrient from Syncfusion:

These features typically require multiple commercial libraries. Nutrient bundles them in one SDK.

Standard PDF features (both platforms)

Nutrient vs. Syncfusion: Code example comparisons

The examples below show API differences. More importantly, consider the range of capabilities available in a single SDK. Nutrient’s API lets you write invoice processing, document scanning, and data extraction with consistent patterns. With Syncfusion, you need separate libraries (Tesseract for OCR, ZXing for barcodes, custom code for scanning).

Example 1: Generate a simple PDF with text

Syncfusion approach

using Syncfusion.Pdf;
using Syncfusion.Pdf.Graphics;

// Create a new PDF document.
using (PdfDocument document = new PdfDocument())
{
  // Set the page size.
  document.PageSettings.Size = PdfPageSize.A4;

  // Add a page to the document.
  PdfPage page = document.Pages.Add();

  // Create PDF graphics for the page.
  PdfGraphics graphics = page.Graphics;

  // Create the PDF font.
  PdfFont font = new PdfStandardFont(PdfFontFamily.Helvetica, 20);

  // Draw the text.
  graphics.DrawString("Hello World!!!", font, PdfBrushes.Black, new Syncfusion.Drawing.PointF(0, 0));

  // Write the PDF document to file.
  FileStream stream = new FileStream("output.pdf", FileMode.Create);

  document.Save(stream);

  stream.Close();

  // Close the document.
  document.Close(true);
}

• Object-oriented graphics: Create PdfGraphics objects with brushes and fonts
• Drawing API: DrawString() with PointF coordinates
• Memory management: Explicit Close() and stream disposal

Nutrient .NET SDK approach

using GdPicturePDF gdpicturePDF = new GdPicturePDF();

// Create a new PDF document.
gdpicturePDF.NewPDF();
// Add a new A4-sized page to the document.
gdpicturePDF.NewPage(PdfPageSizes.PdfPageSizeA4);
// Set the fonts to be used in the PDF document.
string fontHelvetica = gdpicturePDF.AddStandardFont(PdfStandardFont.PdfStandardFontHelvetica);
// Draw the text.
gdpicturePDF.SetTextSize(20);
gdpicturePDF.DrawText(fontHelvetica, 10, 10, "Hello World!");
// Save the PDF document.
gdpicturePDF.SaveToFile(@"C:\temp\output.pdf");

• Drawing-canvas API: Direct DrawText() with coordinates
• Flexible measurement: Units in millimeters, inches, or points via SetMeasurementUnit()
• Simplified workflow: No separate graphics object needed

Example 2: Extract text from an existing PDF

Syncfusion approach

using Syncfusion.Pdf;
using Syncfusion.Pdf.Parsing;

// Load an existing PDF.
PdfLoadedDocument loadedDocument = new PdfLoadedDocument("input.pdf");

// Load the first page.
PdfPageBase page = loadedDocument.Pages[0];

// Extract text from the first page.
string extractedText = page.ExtractText();

// Save the extracted text to a file.
File.WriteAllText("ExtractedText.txt", extractedText);

// Close the document.
loadedDocument.Close(true);

• Simple API: page.ExtractText() per page
• Straightforward extraction: Direct text retrieval

Nutrient .NET SDK approach

using GdPicturePDF gdpicturePDF = new GdPicturePDF();

// Load the source document.
gdpicturePDF.LoadFromFile("input.pdf");

// Select the first page.
gdpicturePDF.SelectPage(1);

// Extract the text from the page.
string extractedText = gdpicturePDF.GetPageText();

// Save the extracted text to a file.
File.WriteAllText("ExtractedText.txt", extractedText);

• Advanced options: SetTextExtractionOptions() with ExactWordLineMatching
• Page-level control: Explicit iteration for metadata and custom processing

Example 3: Perform OCR on a scanned PDF

Syncfusion approach

using Syncfusion.OCRProcessor;
using Syncfusion.Pdf.Parsing;

// Initialize the OCR processor.
using (OCRProcessor processor = new OCRProcessor())
{
    // Load the PDF document.
    using (PdfLoadedDocument pdfLoadedDocument = new PdfLoadedDocument(Path.GetFullPath(@"Data/Input.pdf")))
    {
        // Set OCR language to process.
        processor.Settings.Language = Languages.English;
        // Process OCR by providing the PDF document.
        processor.PerformOCR(pdfLoadedDocument);
        // Save the PDF document.
        pdfLoadedDocument.Save(Path.GetFullPath(@"Output/Output.pdf"));
    }
}

Syncfusion uses Tesseract (separate NuGet package) with fast/slow performance modes.

Nutrient .NET SDK approach

using GdPicturePDF gdpicturePDF = new GdPicturePDF();

// Load the source document.
gdpicturePDF.LoadFromFile("input.pdf");

// Run the OCR process on all pages with maximum multithreading support.
gdpicturePDF.OcrPages("*", 0, "eng", "", "", 300);

// Save the result in a PDF document.
gdpicturePDF.SaveToFile(@"C:\temp\output.pdf");

• Built-in OCR: 100+ languages, automatic preprocessing (deskew, denoise)
• Scanner integration: TWAIN/WIA support for direct hardware capture
• Unified workflow: Scan → clean → OCR → searchable PDF in one SDK
• Best for — Enterprise workflows (accounts payable, HR onboarding, records management)

Refer to our OCR guide for advanced features.

Example 4: Convert HTML to PDF

Both platforms support HTML-to-PDF conversion with Chromium-based rendering engines.

Syncfusion approach

using Syncfusion.HtmlConverter;
using Syncfusion.Pdf;

// Initialize HTML to PDF converter with Blink rendering engine.
HtmlToPdfConverter htmlConverter = new HtmlToPdfConverter(HtmlRenderingEngine.Blink);

BlinkConverterSettings blinkConverterSettings = new BlinkConverterSettings();

// Set the Blink viewport size.
blinkConverterSettings.ViewPortSize = new Size(1280, 0);

// Assign Blink converter settings to HTML converter.
htmlConverter.ConverterSettings = blinkConverterSettings;

// Convert URL to PDF.
PdfDocument document = htmlConverter.Convert("https://www.example.com");

// Save the document.
document.Save("Output.pdf");

// Close the document.
document.Close(true);

Nutrient .NET SDK approach

using GdPictureDocumentConverter gdpictureConverter = new GdPictureDocumentConverter();

// Convert HTML file to PDF.
gdpictureConverter.LoadFromFile(@"C:\temp\input.html", DocumentFormat.DocumentFormatHTML);
gdpictureConverter.SaveAsPDF(@"C:\temp\output.pdf", PdfConformance.PDF1_5);

Both approaches

• Chromium-based rendering: High-fidelity output with CSS/JavaScript support
• Syncfusion — Platform-specific packages with Blink binaries (auto-managed v21.1.XX+)
• Nutrient — Uses Chrome/Edge or Chrome Portable via SetWebBrowserPath()

Performance comparison: Nutrient vs. Syncfusion

This section compares PDF generation, OCR, and HTML-to-PDF performance between the two platforms.

PDF generation performance

Both libraries handle typical PDF generation well. Differences appear when processing large files or high-volume batches:

Nutrient’s disk streaming processes multi-GB files without loading them entirely into memory, avoiding out-of-memory errors.

OCR performance

Both libraries provide OCR but handle document quality issues differently:

Syncfusion requires manual image cleanup for real-world scans (skewed pages, noise, artifacts) or integration with a separate imaging library. Nutrient handles this preprocessing automatically.

HTML-to-PDF: Both use Chromium engines

Both libraries use Chromium-based rendering engines with similar rendering quality:

Syncfusion bundles the Blink engine for zero-dependency deployment. Nutrient uses Chrome or Edge installed on the system. For HTML-heavy workflows, Syncfusion’s bundled approach simplifies deployment. For document processing where HTML is one of 100+ formats, Nutrient integrates with existing browser installations.

Pricing and total cost of ownership: Syncfusion vs. Nutrient

This section covers each platform’s pricing structure and compares total cost of ownership.

Syncfusion pricing structure

Syncfusion offers two main product lines.

1. Document Solutions (individual SDKs available separately)

• Document SDK — Create, edit, and convert documents (PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
• PDF Viewer SDK — View, annotate, and sign PDFs
• DOCX Editor SDK — Rich Word document editing and collaboration
• Spreadsheet Editor SDK — Interactive Excel-like spreadsheet editing

2. UI Component Suite (team size-based licensing)

• Starter — Teams < 25 developers
• Growth — Teams with 25–100 developers
• Business — Teams > 100 developers

License deployment types (available for both product lines)

• Project license — Single application/project
• Global license — Company-wide access for all development
• Division license — Department or team-based

Community license — $0 for companies under $1M revenue, ≤5 developers, ≤10 employees. Includes all components.

Paid licensing

• Contact Syncfusion sales for a customized quote
• Transferable annual licenses
• Flexible deployment options
• Purchase Document Solutions SDKs individually, UI Component Suite, or both

Additional costs

• Barcode reading: ~$1,000–2,000/year
• Format converters for specialized types
• Integration labor: 4–8 weeks

Nutrient .NET SDK pricing

Enterprise licensing

• Contact Sales for a custom quote
• No per-developer fees
• All features included — OCR, ML-powered data extraction, extensive format support, scanner integration, barcodes
• Enterprise SLA included
• Optional add-on — AI document processing SDK available separately for advanced LLM-powered extraction

Total cost of ownership comparison

Migration guide: Syncfusion to Nutrient

This section walks through migrating from Syncfusion to Nutrient, from assessment to validation.

Migration makes sense if you need ML-powered data extraction, scanner integration, or broader format support.

Step 1: Assess migration scope

• Identify Syncfusion .NET PDF usage in your codebase
• Note dependencies on UI components
• List OCR operations and performance requirements
• Document HTML-to-PDF conversion needs

Step 2: Install Nutrient .NET SDK

Learn more in the Nutrient .NET SDK getting started guide.

Install via NuGet

From the command line:

# Create a new project (optional).
dotnet new console -n <ProjectName>

# Add the package (.NET 8.0 or higher).
dotnet add <ProjectName>.csproj package GdPicture.API

# For .NET Framework 4.6.2, use:
# dotnet add <ProjectName>.csproj package GdPicture

From Visual Studio: Right-click your project → Manage NuGet Packages → Search for GdPicture.API (for .NET 8.0+) or GdPicture (for .NET Framework 4.6.2) → Install

Configure licensing

using GdPicture14;

// Set license key once before using any SDK methods.
// Use empty string for trial mode.
LicenseManager licenseManager = new LicenseManager();
licenseManager.RegisterKEY(""); // Empty string activates trial mode

// After purchasing, replace with your license key:
// licenseManager.RegisterKEY("YOUR-LICENSE-KEY");

Step 3: Convert PDF generation logic

Key API differences

• Syncfusion uses an object-oriented graphics approach (PdfGraphics, PdfBrushes, PdfFont)
• Nutrient uses a method-based approach with explicit positioning (DrawText, SetTextSize)

Migration approach

1. Replace PdfDocument initialization with GdPicturePDF.
2. Convert PdfGraphics.DrawString() calls to DrawText() with coordinates.
3. Update font handling from PdfStandardFont to AddStandardFont().

Refer to example 1: Generate a simple PDF with text for code comparison and the PDF generation guide for complete documentation.

Step 4: Migrate OCR operations

Key improvements with Nutrient

• No separate NuGet package — OCR engine built in (vs. Syncfusion’s separate Syncfusion.OCRProcessor package)
• Automatic preprocessing — Built-in deskewing, denoising, despeckle (vs. manual preprocessing with Syncfusion)
• 100+ languages — Comprehensive language support out of the box

Migration approach

1. Remove Syncfusion.OCRProcessor package reference.
2. Replace OCRProcessor.PerformOCR() with page-level OcrPage() calls.
3. Leverage built-in image preprocessing instead of manual cleanup.

Review example 3: perform OCR on scanned PDF for code comparison and the OCR guide for advanced features like scanner integration and image preprocessing.

Step 5: Leverage new capabilities and test

New features available

• ML-powered extraction: Invoice data, form fields, tables with key-value pairs

• Scanner integration: TWAIN/WIA capture with preprocessing
• Extensive format support: CAD, DICOM, specialized types
• Barcode reading, OMR, MRZ extraction
• Optional — AI document processing SDK for advanced LLM-powered extraction (requires a separate license)

Validation checklist

• Compare PDF outputs (visual fidelity, file sizes)
• Verify OCR accuracy with actual documents
• Test new features (data extraction, scanner integration)
• Validate compliance (PDF/A, PDF/UA if applicable)

Migration effort estimate

Use case recommendations

Conclusion

Syncfusion suits teams qualifying for community licensing (under $1M revenue, 5 developers) with basic PDF generation needs. Nutrient suits teams needing ML-powered data extraction, scanner integration, broad format support, or library consolidation.

Try Nutrient free, or contact Sales for pricing.

FAQ