Every redaction tool asks you to upload sensitive documents somewhere. ZeroEgress is the only one that doesn't. Here's the full comparison.
Documents leave your device and are processed on Redactable's servers. Requires SOC 2 and HIPAA trust chain. From $19/month or $7.50/doc.
Extracts text in the browser, then sends it to Anthropic's Claude API for classification. Text leaves your device. From $29/month.
Free browser-based redactor. Regex detection only — no AI, no named-entity recognition. No audit trail, no encrypted memory. Text input.
Browser-based redactor with local NER (model not specified) and reversible tokenization. Markets 17 industry profiles selected manually by the user. No published cryptographic audit chain, no patent. $49 lifetime.
AI model runs locally via WebAssembly. Documents, text, and results never leave the browser. Verify with DevTools → Network. Free through Q3 2026.
What matters when you're redacting regulated documents.
| Redactable | SafeRedact | 2redact | PrivacyScrubber | ZeroEgress | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data stays on device | ✗ Cloud | Partial — text sent to API | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ 100% |
| AI-powered PII detection | ✓ | ✓ (Claude API) | ✗ Regex only | ✓ NER (model unspecified) | ✓ DistilBERT (WASM) |
| Documented open-source model (auditable) | Unknown | ✗ (proprietary Claude API) | ✗ (no model) | Unknown | ✓ dslim/distilbert-NER (Hugging Face) |
| Auto-detects document type (healthcare / financial / legal / etc.) | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | Partial — 17 profiles, manual selection | ✓ 9 profiles, auto-selected |
| No signup required | 3 free docs, account required | ✓ (1st doc free, no signup) | ✓ | Requires purchase ($49 lifetime) | ✓ Always |
| No installation | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Original text removed from output | ✓ | ✓ (pixel-burn) | Unknown | Unknown | ✓ (new file generated) |
| Output is searchable & accessible | ✓ | Likely not (pixel-burn renders as image) | Unknown | Unknown | ✓ Real text |
| Reversible tokens (work with AI, get details back) | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ [NAME_1] + Reveal |
| Cryptographic audit trail | Audit log (not cryptographic) | Enterprise plan only | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ HMAC-SHA256 |
| Memory clearing (NIST SP 800-88) | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| End-to-end encryption in browser | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ AES-256-GCM |
| Verifiable (DevTools) | ✗ | Partial — API calls visible | Unknown | Unknown | ✓ Zero requests |
| File formats | PDF, TIFF, PNG, JPG | PDF, JPG, PNG | Text only | PDF, Word, Excel, PPT, JPG, PNG, TIFF | |
| SOC 2 / HIPAA certification | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | N/A — no server to audit |
| USPTO patent | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Price | 3 free docs, then from $19/mo or $7.50/doc | Free (watermark), $12–$99/yr | Free | $49 lifetime | Free (through Q3 2026) |
Redactable uploads your document to their cloud. SafeRedact extracts text and sends it to Anthropic's API. ZeroEgress runs the entire AI pipeline — NER model, encryption, memory clearing — inside your browser. Open DevTools → Network tab during processing. You'll see zero outbound requests. That's the proof.
SafeRedact uses "pixel-burn" — rendering each page as a new image. The original text is gone, but the output is likely not searchable or accessible to screen readers. ZeroEgress generates a completely new document with redacted text. The original text is never in the output — but the result is real, searchable, accessible text.
Redactable needs you to trust their servers, their SOC 2 auditor, their encryption, their employees. SafeRedact needs you to trust Anthropic's zero-retention policy. ZeroEgress needs you to trust your browser. And you can verify it yourself — the code runs in front of you.
Redactable has team collaboration and integrations with Clio and Google Drive. If you need 10 people working on the same document with shared workflows — Redactable is built for that. ZeroEgress is built for when data can't leave the device. Different problem, different tool.
Drop a document. Watch the Network tab. Nothing leaves.
Try ZeroEgress — free, no signup