Microsoft Lens

Best Self Hosted Alternatives to Microsoft Lens

A curated collection of the 2 best self hosted alternatives to Microsoft Lens.

Mobile app for scanning documents, receipts, and whiteboards. Captures and enhances images, applies OCR, and converts scans to PDF, Word, or PowerPoint. Integrates with OneDrive and OneNote for saving, exporting, and sharing scanned content.

Alternatives List

#1
BentoPDF

BentoPDF

Self-hostable, privacy-first PDF toolkit that runs fully in the browser for editing, merging, converting, and processing PDFs without server-side uploads.

BentoPDF screenshot

BentoPDF is a self-hostable PDF toolkit that runs entirely in the browser, enabling PDF editing, organization, conversion, and processing without uploading files to a server. It is designed for privacy-sensitive workflows where documents must remain on the user’s device.

Key Features

  • 100% client-side PDF processing for strong privacy (no server-side file handling required)
  • Large collection of PDF tools, including merge, split, rotate, extract, and page organization
  • In-browser PDF editor with annotations, highlights, comments, shapes, images, and search
  • Redaction tools for permanently removing sensitive content
  • Form workflows including creating fillable forms and filling forms (including XFA support)
  • Utilities such as watermarking, headers/footers, page numbers, metadata viewing, and PDF comparison
  • Optional image-processing capabilities (e.g., deskewing) using OpenCV

Use Cases

  • Internal self-hosted PDF utilities for teams handling confidential documents
  • Browser-based PDF editing and redaction for compliance-oriented environments
  • Converting and preparing documents (splitting, merging, watermarking) without file uploads

Limitations and Considerations

  • Performance depends on the user’s browser and device resources, especially for very large PDFs
  • Some advanced PDF operations may vary in fidelity depending on source document complexity

BentoPDF provides a comprehensive set of PDF tools while keeping document processing local to the user’s device. It is well-suited for organizations and individuals who want modern PDF workflows without relying on third-party cloud processing.

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#2
SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy)

SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy)

SANE provides a portable API, a collection of scanner backends and frontends, and network scanning support (saned/scanimage) for Unix-like systems.

SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy) screenshot

SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy) is an open-source API and project that provides a standardized interface to raster-image acquisition devices (flatbeds, handheld scanners, cameras, frame grabbers) and a collection of device backends and frontends. It includes a command-line frontend, the saned server for network access, and many hardware-specific backends.

Key Features

  • Standardized C API for scanner hardware that separates frontends (clients) from backends (device drivers).
  • Large collection of device backends covering many vendors and models, with per-backend status levels (complete, good, basic, minimal, untested, unsupported).
  • Command-line utilities and frontends (including scanimage) for scripting and GUI frontends for desktop integration.
  • saned daemon and a "net" meta-backend to enable networked scanning and remote access to locally attached scanners.
  • Build and packaging geared for Unix-like systems with traditional autotools/autogen, configure and make workflows.

Use Cases

  • Digitizing documents or photos using a variety of supported scanners from scripts or GUI frontends.
  • Providing a networked scanner service on a server so multiple clients can access a single physical scanner.
  • Integrating scanner support into Linux distributions, imaging workflows, or custom scanning applications via the SANE API.

Limitations and Considerations

  • Device support quality varies by backend; many legacy or vendor-specific features may be unimplemented or labeled "minimal" or "untested."
  • Some backends are unmaintained; users may need to rely on community patches or maintainers for newer devices.
  • Behavior and available options are backend-dependent, so application developers must handle inconsistent option sets across devices.
  • Networked scanning requires proper configuration (authentication, firewall rules) to avoid exposing scanner services unintentionally.

SANE is a mature, widely packaged project used across Unix-like systems to provide scanner access and a sharing service for scanners. It is primarily implemented in C and designed for integration into desktop and server imaging workflows.

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Why choose an open source alternative?

  • •Data ownership: Keep your data on your own servers
  • •No vendor lock-in: Freedom to switch or modify at any time
  • •Cost savings: Reduce or eliminate subscription fees
  • •Transparency: Audit the code and know exactly what's running