Excise vs PrivacyScrubber

Excise is a free, open-source PDF editor for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Its central feature is permanent redaction: it removes text, images, and vector graphics from PDF content rather than placing a visible cover over them. By default, the cleanup also removes metadata, attachments, JavaScript, thumbnails, and hidden layers, and reports those removals. The app handles search, text selection and copying, annotations, page organization, Bates numbering, file-size reduction, and AcroForm filling, flattening, and creation. Its command-line tools support batch work and stable JSON output; `unredact` checks for leaked redacted text, while `audit` looks for text beneath opaque overlays. Excise reads and writes AES-128 and AES-256 encryption and inspects digital signatures against the operating system trust store. Signature inspection does not check revocation or evaluate timestamp and long-term validation material. Dynamic XFA layouts are experimental and cannot be filled. Downloads include packages for Apple Silicon macOS, Windows 10/11 x64, Ubuntu/Debian, and x64 or ARM64 Linux; builds are unsigned, not notarized, and lack auto-update.

PrivacyScrubber is a cloud-deployed web tool for removing sensitive information from documents and images. It combines automated detection, OCR redaction, batch processing, and an audit trail. Listed inputs are PDF, DOCX, XLSX, CSV, TXT, and images. A free plan requires no card and permits 15,000 characters per scrub, 5,000 specialized-profile characters per session, three PDF pages per session, and three document uploads every 24 hours. PRO costs $15.00 per month and covers up to three personal devices; PRO Lifetime costs $110.00 once with the same device limit. TEAMS costs $99.00 per month as a flat rate with unlimited seats. Developer SDK plans cost $199.00 per month or $1,990.00 per year and list unlimited production nodes. The monthly SDK plan includes a free local development quota. A 14-day trial is listed.