ForwardThis vs Nanonets
Nanonets reads inside documents. ForwardThis never opens one. Nanonets is a document processing platform: a model is trained on your own invoices, orders or claims, blocks are chained to classify, extract, validate and post, and the pipeline then runs at volume. ForwardThis reads the email's text and the name of the attachment, never the contents of the file, so a figure written in the body of an email can be acted on while a figure that exists only inside the attached PDF cannot be read at all. Extracting fields from documents at volume favours Nanonets; acting on a one-off instruction favours ForwardThis.
ForwardThis and Nanonets, side by side
How it works
What it reads
What comes out
Setup before it works
Runs without you
Pricing unit
Free plan
Paid from
Apps
Undo
Nanonets pricing and limits checked 5 September 2026.
Which one fits how you work?
Choose Nanonets if
The data lives inside the documents. Nanonets reads the file itself, page by page, across invoices, purchase orders, bank statements and claims. This is the one thing ForwardThis cannot do at all, and no amount of instruction changes that.
The same document type arrives constantly. A custom model trains on ten of your own samples, fifty for a better result, and the pipeline built around it repays that effort at volume in a way a per-job tool never can.
Mixed intake has to be sorted before anything else happens. A classification and routing model sends each document down its own path, so scans, emailed PDFs and structured files can arrive in one stream.
It has to land in a finance or operations system. Nanonets posts into SAP, Oracle, NetSuite and Dynamics, with database connectors and custom Python blocks for whatever is not covered.
Cost per document has to be forecastable. Pricing is per block run rather than per seat, volume discounts reach 40 percent, and the pricing page puts a typical invoice pipeline at four to six blocks.
Choose ForwardThis if
The instruction changes every time. A trained model expects a document type; a forwarded email carries its own sentence, so the next job can be nothing like the last one.
What is wanted is the work done, not the fields. ForwardThis creates the record, files the attachment and books the meeting, then replies to confirm what happened.
Nobody is going to build a pipeline for a job that happens twice a month. There is no model to train, no blocks to chain and no document type to declare in advance.
Someone needs to see and reverse what happened. ForwardThis confirms the work by email, and reversible work can be undone for 24 hours.
What a single forwarded email does
The trigger is the email you forward. There is no editor and nothing to design in advance. This whole job is one email. In Nanonets it would be a model trained on your samples first.
Halcyon Supplies
Order 4471 dispatched, two lines back-ordered
packing-list-4471.pdf
Your instructions
File the packing list under Halcyon, add the two back-ordered lines to the purchasing board, and log the shortfall on the stock sheet.
Box
File packing-list-4471.pdf
Suppliers / Halcyon
Monday.com
Add the two back-ordered lines
Purchasing
Google Sheets
Log the shortfall on order 4471
Stock / Halcyon
You receive a confirmation email once complete, with an undo button that works for 24 hours.
Setup in 30 seconds.
What is ForwardThis?
ForwardThis is an ops assistant for your inbox. It turns email into action, without the hassle. Compatible with over 145+ of the apps you use every day.
Works with any email
Compatible with any personal or professional email provider. Gmail, Outlook and more.
145+ apps
Works across all the apps you already use every day. With more being added every month.
Setup in seconds
No complex setup, apps to install or workflows to build. Sign up, forward, done.
Secure & private
ForwardThis only acts on the emails you send it, and no data gets retained after actions have been completed.
Try it with a real email.
Forward any work email to the address below and see what ForwardThis can do. No signup required.
Occasional product emails may follow.
FAQs
- Can ForwardThis extract data from a PDF the way Nanonets does?
- No, and it is worth being blunt about it. ForwardThis reads the text of the email and the name of anything attached to it, and never the contents of the file. A total written in the email body is usable; the same total sitting only inside the attached invoice is invisible. If the job is reading documents, Nanonets is the right tool and ForwardThis is the wrong one.
- Is ForwardThis a Nanonets alternative?
- For document data capture, no. For the emails that arrive in a person's inbox and need one thing done about them, yes. Nanonets turns a stream of documents into fields and posts them into a system of record. ForwardThis takes a single email, reads the sentence written on it, and carries out that instruction in a connected app.
- Does Nanonets need training before it works?
- It depends which model. Pre-built models cover common document types straight away, and an instant learning model shortens the setup further. A custom model for your own layouts is trained by drawing boxes on sample files, with a documented minimum of ten samples and fifty recommended for a good result. ForwardThis has nothing equivalent, because it holds no model of any document.
- Can ForwardThis still file an attachment it cannot read?
- Yes. The filename, the file type and the size are all known, so an attachment can be saved to a folder, renamed, moved, shared or attached to a record. What cannot happen is anything that depends on the contents: reporting the invoice total, matching a line item or filing by a value printed on page two.
- How does Nanonets pricing work?
- By block run rather than by seat. Every step of a workflow is a block, and blocks are priced by complexity: simple operations at $0.02, standard AI at $0.10, and data extraction or generative AI at $0.30. Nanonets puts a typical invoice at four to six blocks. Accounts start with $50 in credits and no card, then $100 a month for 100 credits, with volume pricing above that. ForwardThis charges per action instead: 10 a month free, then $15 a month for 100.
- Could both be worth having?
- For a finance or operations team, often yes, and the split is clean. The recurring document stream belongs in Nanonets, where a trained pipeline reads it cheaply and posts the results. The one-off emails that arrive alongside it, each needing a different thing done in a different app, are what ForwardThis handles without anything being configured first.