In the digital age, even small companies are forced to keep a huge amount of records and documentation, some of which be littered with private or confidential information. In the ocean of business documents, bits of sensitive data may be scattered across the collection and finding every instance can be quite burdensome.

This threatens to grow into a serious problem if such documents are released to the public with all the content completely visible. Documents are typically sent for another reason, and the offending portions don’t serve any practical purpose. That’s why it’s perfectly logical to obscure all sensitive parts of business documents before they are shared externally.

Redacting large collections of documents to hide personal information or valuable trade secrets is much easier when a dedicated software solution is used.

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What is Document Redaction?

Document redaction is the process of finding and obscuring any appearance of protected information that pertains to individual employees or customers, as well as any disclosure of business plans or product specifications. It is mandatory for all companies that retain a lot of data, as privacy laws in many countries prevent personal information from being revealed.

On the other hand, businesses that would like to keep their competitive edge have an intrinsic motive to prevent their competitors from gleaning too many technical details. Ideally, this task should be performed on a regular basis using a standardized procedure and high-end software tools.

List of Best 10 Redaction Software Apps

Oracle Advanced Security

With a product signed by one of the leading software companies in the world, you can expect nothing but absolute peace of mind. This software provides top-notch security for businesses of any size, with multiple lines of defense set up to prevent any slips. Organizations that already use other Oracle products should definitely add this one to the mix.

Main features:

• Enterprise security solution that protects documents through encryption and redaction
• Dynamic masking of sensitive data contained in the database queries
• Precise control of access to sensitive information based on time, IP address, etc.
• Large scale redaction prevents unauthorized retrieval of confidential data from a database

Negative sides:

• Encrypting an entire table takes too much time and effort
• This software is not very user friendly

Price plans: Variable costs within the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure model based on usage and other factors

Customer feedback:

• G2: 4.0 (20 reviews)
• Capterra: N/A

Objective Redact

Anyone looking for a simple and effective redaction application will be thrilled to learn how quickly Objective Redact can start feeling like a natural extension of your business. It’s particularly valuable for organizations that deal with a large volume of heterogeneous documents and need a fast and reliable way to keep the sensitive data in-house.

Main features:

• Specialized redaction software with a simple GUI and great automation capacity
• Includes sophisticated redaction tools such as Scribble and Stamps
• Works well with documents in many formats, including PDS, Excel, and Word
• Reliable text recognition capacity due to an excellent OCR engine

Negative sides:

• It lacks advanced features that some of its competitors have
• No AI-powered tools are present

Price plans: free trial is available, full price determined based on direct request

Customer feedback:

• G2: no reviews yet
• Capterra: N/A

Egnyte

While this brand may not be too widely known, it was one of the pioneers of the cloud-based security sector and it retains much of its appeal to this day. Many organizations use Egnyte daily to protect their documents and ensure no regulations are broken. It represents an additional layer of defense against shady operators and accidental data leaks.

Main features:

• Comprehensive security suite with solutions for managing financial data and private info
• Pre-arranged compliance patterns help to streamline document processing
• Data discovery tools allow for accurate discovery of personal data across the organization
• Controlled and traceable file-sharing with granular access control

Negative sides:

• It’s not possible to grant permissions for multiple folders at once
• Software tends to slow down when working with large documents

Price plans: Free trial is available, Enterprise plan costs are provided at request

Customer feedback:

• G2: 4.4 (914 reviews)
• Capterra: 4.5 (93 reviews)

CaseGuard

In the modern business environment, sensitive info can pop up in any media and CaseGuard makes sure it doesn’t go unnoticed regardless of the format. With this versatile redaction software, it’s possible to obscure parts of text documents, videos, audio files, or images very quickly thanks to a range of smart features and tools.

Main features:

• Flexible and accessible software for redaction of multimedia documents
• AI-driven features help analyze documents to detect information that needs to be protected
• Automatic transcription and translation of text in more than 30 languages
• Bulk redaction helps to effectively deal with large databases

Negative sides:

• Only more expensive packages include automation features

Price plans: Doc plan costs $99 per month, Lite plan costs $199 monthly, Standard plan is offered for $249 per month

Customer feedback:

• G2: N/A
• Capterra: N/A

Egress Protect

For a security suite first launched in 2009, Egress still looks like a very modern and innovative solution. Its email encryption and data redaction modules make it highly suitable for use in heavily regulated industries where privacy protection is paramount, such as healthcare, government, or banking. No data leaks can occur when this solution is actively deployed to prevent them.

Main features:

• E-mail security platform designed to prevent human-enabled breaches
• Contextual machine learning is used to recognize risky patterns of activity
• Excellent privacy management possibilities for large scale data sharing
• Policy-based protection of e-mails with several restrictions to choose from

Negative sides:

• It doesn’t integrate well with Mac applications
• Setting up rules and policies takes some time and effort

Price plans: Demo is available, price for full package available at request

Customer feedback:

• G2: 4.5 (54 reviews)
• Capterra: 4.0 (21 reviews)

iDox.ai Redact

There are several things that set this redaction software apart from any competitors, including its advanced AI algorithm and a broad range of supported file formats. IDox helps organizations to stay in compliance with privacy regulations and eliminate any chance of accidental disclosure. Adopting this software is the best way to stay diligent about data integrity.

Main features:

• AI-based solution that simplifies data redaction across all digital channels
• Automatic scanning of system files and recognition of various types of sensitive data
• Compliance management tools help to avoid human errors and costly penalties
• Excellent scalability and prevention of information bottlenecks

Negative sides:

• No version control and change management features are included
• Lack of sophisticated access control tools

Price plans: 7-day trial access offered for $0.99, Basic plan costs $190 per year/user, Business plan costs $490 per year/user, Enterprise plan is available for $990 per year/user

Customer feedback:

• G2: no reviews yet
• Capterra: no reviews yet

Text IQ

Organizations that want to work more proactively and prevent errors of judgment should rely on Text IQ to help them dynamically manage sensitive or confidential data. The use of this software ensures that protected information won’t be seen when the company fulfils a request for access. As such, the software acts like an intelligent barrier keeping the data safe from prying eyes.

Main features:

• AI solution that lets businesses define their workflows and control any exchange of information
• Contextual content analysis reduces the need for manual checkups
• Personal information can be automatically spotted in requested docs and redacted as needed
• Detailed reports about any privacy or security issue help to improve the system

Negative sides:

• More streamlined user interface would be welcome
• The ability of this software to counter intentional security breaches is untested

Price plans: Flexible rates, licenses for one or three year periods are available

Customer feedback:

• G2: 4.3 (2 reviews)
• Capterra: N/A

e-Redact

For a long time, this redaction app served as the default tool for redaction of digital documents and it still manages to stay competitive against more recently released alternatives. It includes several protection mechanisms that simplify the discovery of sensitive info and shorten the time needed to reliably shield it from unwanted attention.

Main features:

• Well-known software that facilitates manual and semi-automated document redaction
• Templates and brackets increase the effectiveness and improve accuracy
• Search function allows for instant removal of all information related to the key term
• Audits of the redacted documents reveal if any mistakes may have been made

Negative sides:

• This solution can’t be used with images or videos
• It’s an older software and it lacks cutting-edge automation features

Price plans: free demo is available, price for full solution available on demand

Customer feedback:

• G2: no reviews yet
• Capterra: 5.0 (2 reviews)

Ideagen PleaseReview

Teams can work together to eliminate data privacy blunders by using this web-based software. Redacting business documents and reviewing the archives is made extremely easy by this elegant SaaS tool. The benefits it brings increase along with company size, which is why all fast-expanding organizations should seriously consider it.

Main features:

• Co-authoring and collaboration software with an excellent document redaction function
• Centralized workflow and version control minimize the space for human error
• Labor-intensive parts of the redaction process can be automated
• All activities related to specific documents can be summarized in reports

Negative sides:

• Collaborative authoring can be confusing
• It’s not possible to rearrange the layout of the document with this software

Price plans: Free trial is offered, quote for the full version must be obtained from the vendor

Customer feedback:

• G2: 4.5 (27 reviews)
• Capterra: 4.5 (2 reviews)

PDFelement

The main purpose of this software is to give users complete control over their scanned or digitally created documents. It supports all phases of creating, sharing, and managing PDF files while also protecting private or confidential data within them. It works on any almost hardware platform and can be accessed from the web, making it very adaptable and practical.

Main features:

• Sophisticated PDF creation and management platform packed with advanced tools
• Documents can be annotated, converted to a different format, or have the text extracted
• Protection against private data leaks with passwords, electronic signatures, and redaction
• Watermarks can be added to prevent copying of sensitive documents

Negative sides:

• Customer support is sometimes late to respond to requests
• Text recognition feature doesn’t always return accurate results

Price plans: 1-year plan costs $79.99, 2-year plan is offered for $109.99, and Perpetual plan can be purchased for $129.99

Customer feedback:

• G2: 4.5 (543 reviews)
• Capterra: 4.3 (389 reviews)

Frequently Asked Questions about Redaction Software

What is the difference between data redaction and data encryption?

Both of these techniques are used to protect sensitive information from unauthorized access, but they involve vastly different approaches. Encryption makes the entire document unreadable without the proper key, while redaction simply blacks out parts of the document that need to be hidden.

Which types of information are most commonly redacted in business documents?

Personal information such as names, addresses, e-mails, phone numbers etc. are often protected from disclosure by law. Other categories of data that are typically redacted include healthcare records, financial reports, proprietary research, corporate secrets, etc.

How trustworthy are AI tools used within redaction software suites?

Software platforms that incorporate AI-powered features generally achieve better performance, especially if they are using the latest technology. Tools of this kind can recognize any appearance of sensitive data with incredible accuracy, although conducting a manual check isn’t a bad idea.

Concluding Remarks

As a business grows it accumulates a considerable amount of documents, some of which may contain data that shouldn’t be made public. Organizations that fail to protect such data run the risk of incurring financial penalties from regulators and/or giving up their competitive advantages. Redaction software can be very helpful to avoid these scenarios and manage the wealth of information in company databases with a responsible and well-organized methodology. Since most of those applications require little to no training, the barriers to adoption are very low.