The debate about the most suitable technology between barcode and RFID mostly revolves around their effectiveness. While RFID is older than barcodes, some companies still use it. In a general perspective, all of these technologies are meant to provide the same solution, specifically in tracking assets. Additionally, they can be used to store information about different products that can be shared among different users on online platforms. For an in-depth understanding of barcode and RFID, this article provides their differences.


Despite RFID being an old technology, it has overtaken the use of barcode due to its speedy results. This has been made possible since it enables you to scan several tags at a time, unlike barcodes, where you must scan every item individually.

Read Range

When it comes to reading tags or serial numbers, RFID proves to be the most convenient option. This is because RFID readers can read the tags from a distance of at most 10 metres. On the other hand, barcodes scanning can only be done from a short distance of like 1 metre for effective results. As a result, businesses using RFID get to save considerable time and effort.

The Cost

Barcodes are relatively cheaper than RFIDs. First of all, RFID involves long processes before you can track a product. From reading the tags to sending the information to computers, a company may have to invest a lot. For instance, training of employees about these processes can be extremely expensive. Besides, firms can quickly get barcodes at a cheaper cost than RFIDs.


Even though RFID tracking systems are speedy, the reading of multiple tags could create more difficulties in differentiating between scanned tags and those that are yet to be recorded. Thus, identifying a missing product or one that needs to be rescanned could be a problem when using RFID. Therefore, barcodes are more suitable for differentiating products.