Extend vs Unstract
A side-by-side comparison of Extend and Unstract, two Data Ops tools, drawn from Ignaite's continuously-verified listings.
Compared from listings verified as of
At a glance
| Attribute | Extend | Unstract |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Data Ops | Data Ops |
| Pricing | FREEMIUM | FREEMIUM |
| License (differs) | Proprietary | Open core |
| Deployment (differs) | Cloud | Hybrid |
| Platforms (differs) | API, Web | Web, API |
| Model support (differs) | Model-agnostic | BYO key / model |
| Vendor (differs) | Extend AI | Zipstack |
| Capabilities (differs) |
|
|
The honest brief
Extend
Ensembles multiple frontier models and pairs the API with a web Studio for schema iteration and evals — tuned for 99%+ accuracy on handwriting and tables.
- Handles handwriting, tables, mixed formats
- Studio UI for schema design + evals
- SDKs for Python, TypeScript, and CLI
- Free credits, then pay-as-you-go
- Used by Brex, Square, Checkr
- Newer than incumbent IDP vendors
- Cloud-first; self-host is enterprise-only
- Usage-credit pricing needs estimation
Unstract
Prompt Studio offers a no-code IDE to build and test per-field extraction prompts, then deploy them as APIs or ETL pipelines — and the whole stack self-hosts.
- Open-source (AGPL-3.0), self-hostable
- Prompt Studio: no-code extraction IDE
- Deploy extractions as APIs or ETL
- Cloud adds SOC 2 / HIPAA / HITL review
- AGPL-3.0 may deter some commercial use
- Self-host setup is involved
- LLM costs scale with document volume
When to pick which
Across the signals we compare, Extend and Unstract differ on license and deployment:
- License
- Proprietary · Open core
- Deployment
- Cloud · Hybrid
Their capability lists differ in recorded depth — compare the full lists above before deciding.