Manual redaction vs ONYRI Sanitize: an honest comparison

Manual redaction in a PDF editor gives you full control and can keep the file searchable. ONYRI Sanitize finds sensitive data for you, inside your browser, and always exports a flattened file. Neither decides what must be hidden: that judgement stays yours. On long documents, the best result often comes from both.

We make ONYRI Sanitize, so read this knowing that. Vendors are quoted from their own documentation, as of September 2026.

What is the difference between manual redaction and automated detection?

By hand, you are the detector: you read, mark each name or number, then apply. In Adobe Acrobat, the Redact tool exists only in Acrobat Pro, Premium or Studio, according to Adobe's tutorial. Applied redactions are permanently removed. An option at the end also removes hidden information such as comments, metadata or hidden layers.

With automated detection, the software proposes and you decide. You drop a PDF, a Word file or a scan into ONYRI Sanitize. About 40 detectors look for names, emails, IBANs, card numbers, official IDs and more. You review each item, then download. The file is never uploaded.

How do the two approaches compare on 8 criteria?

When is a desktop redaction tool the better choice?

• You need a searchable result. A desktop tool can remove the marked words and keep the rest of the text. ONYRI Sanitize exports images only.
• You number exhibits for a case. Bates numbering gives each page a unique identifier. Adobe documents it for Acrobat Pro. ONYRI Sanitize has nothing like it.
• You must hide something that is not text: a signature, a face, a stamp. Neither tool finds these automatically. Adobe says Acrobat Pro lets you redact images by hand; ONYRI Sanitize's “Draw an area” tool now does the same, so this is no longer a reason to pick one over the other.
• Your file runs to hundreds of pages. ONYRI Sanitize turns every page into an image on your own device, and OCR on scans is slower.
• You must return an editable Word file. ONYRI Sanitize returns a PDF.

If one of these is your daily work, keep your desktop tool. A detector can still be a second pair of eyes.

When does automated detection win?

• Long documents. A 60-page contract names Jane Example 45 times. A detector does not tire on page 52.
• Data the eye skips. Card numbers are checked with the Luhn algorithm. IBANs, tax IDs, one-time codes and SSH keys have their own detectors.
• Documents for an AI assistant. Token mode (Pro plan) replaces each value with a consistent label such as [NAME1]. The text stays readable. This is pseudonymization.
• Confidential files. The data protection authority of Lower Saxony (Germany) says online tools that need the original uploaded to the cloud are not suitable. Here, the file never leaves your browser.
• Occasional needs. Nothing to install: it runs in a web browser.

What does neither method solve?

Judgement. No tool knows why you share a document, or with whom. Picture a letter saying the only cardiologist in a small town was dismissed. No name appears, yet everyone knows who it is. ONYRI Sanitize also has no detector for medical terms in words, salaries as such or company names without a legal form: you add those with custom rules or the Also mask field.

Under Recital 26 of the GDPR (EU), pseudonymized data that can be linked to a person with additional information still concern an identifiable person. So a masked document is not automatically anonymous, and masking does not, by itself, make a file GDPR-compliant. The ICO (UK) advises a peer or senior review of redactions.

How do you combine both in practice?

1. Keep your original file. ONYRI Sanitize cannot restore anything from the export.
2. Run automated detection first. It catches repeated names and numbers.
3. Review every item. Untick false alarms. Add terms only you know, such as a project name.
4. Download the flattened file. Check its name too: a name like jane-example-contract gives the person away.
5. A signature or a photo left? Mask it by hand with ONYRI Sanitize's “Draw an area” tool, or redact it in your desktop tool.
6. Ask a second person to check. Try to select text under a mask.

Need a searchable result? Use the detector's list as a checklist, then redact in your desktop tool. Sharing the Word file itself? Run Microsoft's Document Inspector on a copy: it finds comments, tracked changes and hidden text.

What does each option cost?

By hand, you pay a license plus your time. Adobe's pricing page (September 2026) lists redaction under Acrobat Pro and Studio, not Standard. LibreOffice is open source. Its help describes a redaction function that replaces the redacted content with blocks of pixels in the exported PDF.

ONYRI Sanitize has a Free plan: 1 document per day, 5 pages, Black marker mode, base detectors, 3 custom rules. Pro costs €9.90 per month or €99 per year ($11.90 or $119 in US dollars): unlimited documents and pages, Token mode, technical-secret detectors, unlimited rules and profiles. A one-time 7-day pass (€5.90) gives you all of Pro for a week, with no subscription. Team: €24.90 per user per month, 3 seats minimum; shared workspace, roles and audit logs are coming soon.

Limits are part of the price. Detection is not exhaustive. OCR depends on scan quality. Nothing can be restored from the export. If that blocks you, choose a desktop tool.

Frequently asked questions

Sources & references