Honest comparison
PDF Redactly vs the other PDF redaction tools.
Three tools side by side: PDF Redactly, RedactPDF.io, and PDF-Redaction.com. Where they actually process your file, what they detect, what they cost, and what they can’t do. We picked the two most visible competitors and were as fair as the public information allowed. Where pricing or architecture details aren’t published, we said so.
| Feature | PDF Redactly | RedactPDF.io | PDF-Redaction.com |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where the file is processed | ✓ 100% in your browser Never uploaded, encrypted or otherwise. | ✗ Browser-encrypted upload, server-decrypted File leaves the device. | ○ Hybrid (some detection in browser, AI server-side) Marketing says 'browser', architecture says 'hybrid'. |
| Cloud AI / LLM dependency | ✓ None | ✗ Server-side detection engine | ✗ LLM/ML models |
| Detection categories | ✓ 30+ across 4 vertical profiles Personal, Legal, Medical, HR — each tuned to its docs. | ○ 6 documented (names, email, SSN, phone, CC, address) | ○ '50+ categories' (no specifics published) |
| Per-vertical profiles | ✓ Built-in: Personal / Legal / Medical / HR | ✗ Generic detection only | ✗ Generic detection only |
| Custom user-defined terms | ✓ Yes — global + per-doc scopes Click any word to mark, drag to extend/shrink. | ○ Not advertised | ○ Manual draw boxes |
| OCR for scanned PDFs | ✓ Yes (in-browser via Tesseract) Same trust boundary as everything else. | ○ Not mentioned | ✓ Yes — claimed 99.8% accuracy |
| Watermark on free output | ✓ Yes, visible (diagonal stamp + footer) So you know what you got for free. | ○ Not mentioned | ○ Not mentioned |
| Pricing transparency | ✓ $0 / $2.99-mo / $9.99 lifetime / Business: contact | ✗ Hidden (Basic / Pro / Enterprise tiers, prices not published) | ○ Free tier (25 pages/doc); paid pricing hidden |
| API access | ○ Coming on Business tier Available now as a stub at /api/v1/redact for sales conversations. | ✓ Yes (Enterprise) | ✓ Yes (Studio + API products) |
| Open about the engine | ✓ Documented detection layers DETECTION.md in the repo describes every layer. | ✗ Closed | ✓ Built on open-source Spark-PDF / ScaleDP |
| Compliance posture | ✓ Architectural — no doc transfer = no covered data flow | ○ Encryption claims; no certifications listed | ○ GDPR/HIPAA/SOC 2 mentioned (details unclear) |
| Works offline | ✓ Yes (PWA, after first load) | ✗ No (server required) | ✗ Limited (hybrid model needs server) |
Where PDF Redactly wins
- The privacy moat is real, not marketed. Both competitors say “browser” in copy and still upload your file. PDF Redactly is the only one where the file genuinely never leaves your device.
- Cheapest pricing. $2.99/mo or $9.99 once. Competitors hide their prices behind a click because their numbers are higher.
- Vertical profiles. Medical, legal, HR users get rules tuned to their documents — not a generic catch-all.
- Click + drag UX. No other tool here lets you click a word to mark it or drag the edge of a redaction to fine-tune the span.
Where they win
- Brand momentum. They were here first; they’re indexed.
- Bigger marketing claims. “50+ categories” reads larger than 30+ even when we can list ours and they can’t.
- Established API tiers. Both have a paid API path for enterprise integration today; ours is a stub for sales conversations until the Business tier ships in earnest.
Bottom line
If your file’s privacy matters more than “trust us” marketing — PDF Redactly.
If you need to integrate via a public API today and don’t care about uploading your files — pick a competitor. We’re building toward parity on Business features, but our consumer and small-team UX is already better, and the price reflects it.
Sources verified: redactpdf.io homepage, pdf-redaction.com homepage. Last reviewed May 9, 2026. If anything on this page is incorrect, we’ll fix it — email [email protected].