Barcode scanner recommendation

[Raymond Lin]

Random, but need a barcode scanner. It then need to connect to the computer which spits out into a spreadsheet with it's barcode with the item description. Or a way to know what the barcode means once in the spreadsheet.

Not sure what to go for.

A physical scanner? (preferrable)
An app on a phone?
Subscription (not preferred)
Works on PC and Mac (both preferred)

Point me in the right direction GD!

 

[Raymond Lin]

How much are you going to need it? If it's going to be a long term/heavy use thing then a dedicated handheld is probably the way to go. If it's just going to be temporary/occasional use, then a phone app is probably going to be more convenient/less investment in hardware which isn't going to be used much (saying that, a cheap and cheerful USB one looks to only be ~£20-30).

Re.:



The scanner itself just reads the "code" for the item (e.g. a series of numbers). You still need a database to do a lookup of the item description - is this going to be for a (relatively) fixed set of items you already know the description of, or is it going to be new random items all the time?

Depending on the answer to the above, you'll be fine with just a basic scanner to feed the codes into the spreadsheet and do a lookup locally against data you've populated yourself, or you'll need something with a built-in (and frequently updated) database, or a connection to an online database of some kind (both of which may require a subscription of some kind).

It's for the place i am working for. So I am learning towards a dedicated unit, rather than a phone / app.

As for number of items, it's several thousands and in a way, unlimited as there will always be new products on the market.