Redaction race · Compare
Cover vs Adobe Acrobat for redacting PDFs
Acrobat Pro only redacts what you find yourself. Cover finds the personal details for you.
Watch the real recordings: Cover vs drawing every rectangle in Acrobat Pro
Side by side
Feature by feature
| Cover | Preview | Acrobat Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finds personal info on its own | ✓ | ✗ | Partial |
| Zero setup, no checkboxes | ✓ | N/A | ✗ |
| Works without the internet | ✓ | ✓ | Partial |
| Click a word to redact it | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Redact a name everywhere with one click | ✓ | ✗ | Partial |
| Click a redaction to remove it | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Remove a whole group of redactions at once | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Un-redact whole pages at once | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| See every redaction in a list, toggle any | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Works on scans and photos | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Handles a whole folder | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Output still usable when shared | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Export a report of what was redacted | ✓ | ✗ | Partial |
| Connect to Ai assistants over MCP | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Price | $99/yr | Free | $239.88/yr |
Benchmark
Cover vs Apple Intelligence
Cover and Apple Intelligence, Apple's built-in on-device model, redacted the same real documents.
Same 18 PDFs: Cover caught 100% of 149 private details, 0 leaked, 12 over-redacted, 3.2 s per PDF. Apple Intelligence caught 50%, 76 leaked, 129 over-redacted, 4.6 s per PDF.
See how Cover's redaction engine hides your personal information vs the best local Ai engines
Questions
Can Apple Preview redact a PDF?
Yes, by hand and for free. You find and redact each detail yourself, and it doesn't work on scans.
How was the race timed?
Both apps redacted the same mortgage statement, recorded in real time and not sped up. Acrobat's time includes finding and boxing each detail by hand.
Doesn't Acrobat find personal information on its own?
Only partly. Acrobat Pro can search for patterns you choose, but you still decide what counts and box each match. Cover finds the personal details for you.
Does Cover work offline?
Yes. The PDF is never uploaded, and the redaction runs offline.
Does Cover remove the text or just cover it?
It removes it. The characters come out of the file, and Cover re-reads the saved file and refuses to save if any removed text is still there.
Do I still check the result?
Yes, and that's the part Cover speeds up. The editor opens after every run, and fixing anything is one click. See the editor in Help
More: Tax notice · Bank statement · Medical records · Investments · Lease · Mortgage
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