Side by side

BleachPDF vs Excise

Both stand on document redaction software. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.

BleachPDF

Free plan Open source LinuxMacSelf-hosted

BleachPDF combines local OCR redaction, batch processing, and output verification for PDF files. Its OCR limitations make manual review important, and its license states it grants no permission to use the software for censorship as defined in the license.

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Excise

Free plan APILinuxMac+1

Excise offers broad PDF editing and redaction tools across three desktop operating systems. Its stated boundaries around XFA, signatures, and specialized workflows should be considered before relying on it for those needs.

Visit Excise

The facts

	BleachPDF	Excise
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Open source	Yes	Not published
Runs on	Linux, Mac, Self-hosted	API, Linux, Mac, Windows
Lowest paid plan	Free or on request	Free or on request
Plans published	1	1
Maker	Not published	Not published
Website	github.com	github.com
On document redaction software	#1 of 27	#2 of 27

BleachPDF: what it does well

Free plan listed as free.
Processes folders or file patterns from the command line.
Output has no hidden text layer.
Rescans output and stops on failed verification.
OCR language can be selected.

What to know first

Requires Tesseract and pip installation.
OCR may err on handwriting and poor scans.
Available for Linux and macOS.

Excise: what it does well

Free and open source
Redaction removes content rather than covering it
Scrubs document metadata and hidden content by default
Includes command-line batch workflows and audit checks
Reads and writes AES-128 and AES-256 encryption

What to know first

Dynamic XFA layouts are experimental and cannot be filled
Builds are unsigned and not notarized
No auto-update is provided
Certificate revocation and timestamp validation are not checked

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