Adobe alternatives for video redaction

Using creative video editing solutions like Adobe Professional for blurring faces, license plates, and other personal data in videos is possible, but not sustainable. Manual editing takes hours and there’s always a risk of missing a frame or a piece of sensitive information on the screen.

In this post, we’ll dive into the differences between these solutions from the viewpoint of a small, busy team that needs to be able to complete different types of video redaction requests without additional tools.

#Why teams look for Adobe alternatives to handle video redaction

Our team has seen different approaches to manual redaction that were technically working, but not sustainable long-term.

We’ve seen teams work with video screenshots instead of videos and teams that realized that using Adobe for video redaction was costing them 38 weeks a year. 

Adobe tools can technically redact video, and many teams start using it by default, especially when time-sensitive SARs come in unexpectedly. But it was built for creative video projects, not blurring out personal information.

And that mismatch creates real problems:

• It's entirely manual. There's no automated face detection or object tracking. You draw a mask for every person and object that displays PII manually, frame by frame.

• It's error-prone. Because redaction is done manually, it increases the risk of human errors, like missing a piece of sensitive data or skipping a frame.

• It doesn't scale. A single 10-minute CCTV clip with four people in frame can take an hour or more to redact properly. Multiply that by a backlog of 15 subject access requests, and you're looking at days of staff time per month.

• It's not built for compliance. Premiere exports video. It doesn't generate audit trails, lock the original file, or produce a redacted output that's irreversible by design. For GDPR and FOIA purposes, that matters.

#What to look for when reviewing Adobe alternatives for video redaction

For teams switching from Adobe solutions to an automated video redaction tool, it’s worth looking into the following questions:

• How easy is this software to use?
  Can anyone on the team pick it up without training, or does it require a video editing background?

• What’s the pricing like?
  Do you pay per minute of footage processed, or per video regardless of length?

• How flexible are the blur settings?
  Can you keep one person visible while blurring everyone else, blur our licence plates, or customise the shape and transparency of the redaction to work for different types of environments?

In this post, we’re focusing on showing how Identity Cloak addresses those challenges. We also provide a quick overview of other popular video redaction solutions – CaseGuard and Secure Redact.

All three are built to speed up video redaction. But there are also differences between them:

• CaseGuard is primarily designed for law enforcement records units and government FOIA teams who process evidence at high volume. It is feature-rich, which also means a steeper learning curve.

• Secure Redact is more accessible, but as a browser-based SaaS tool it introduces questions around data residency and data security risks.

• Identity Cloak is an on-premise solution built to speed up video redaction and produce compliant, fully redacted video clips without an extensive training or unpredictable pricing.

Learn more about each of the solutions below.

For a deep dive into different types of different video redaction software tools and how to choose one that’s right for your organisation, read this article.

#Identity Cloak — flexible video redaction with predictable costs

In this section of the post, we’re going to show how Identity Cloak can help teams process video redaction requests quickly, efficiently, and without unpredictable costs.

Here are the key differences:

• No video editing background required, videos are redacted in 4 easy steps

• Pricing is based on the number of exported videos, with no restrictions on the file size or duration

• Blurring settings are flexible and work for a variety of redaction scenarios, including footage of both people and vehicles, crowded scenes, and sensitive environments

#Identity Cloak requires no video editing background 

Identity Cloak is designed to be picked up by team members with no prior video editing experience. The entire redaction process runs in four steps:

1. Import and trim footage — MP4 and AVI files load directly. For footage in proprietary formats (older CCTV systems or formats that won't play outside a vendor's own software), the built-in screen recorder lets you capture and convert footage without converting files.

2. Run auto-tracking — AI tracks people and vehicles automatically throughout the clip. Unblur the subject of interest with one click and AI will keep them visible throughout the clip.

3. Adjust and finalise — review the tracked redactions, make any manual corrections needed, and customise blur settings, including shape, size, transparency.

4. Review and export — preview the redacted output before exporting. The original file is left unchanged for data integrity. 

That's the complete workflow. Most users are processing their first video within 15 minutes of installing the software.

Geoff Shepherd, CCTV Supervisor at Nottingham City Transport, on getting started with Identity Cloak:

And a Data and Access Support Officer at MerseyRail on processing speed:

#Identity Cloak automates video redaction for complex environments

Most teams handling video redaction need to blur everyone except the subject of interest and mask objects that contain sensitive information, including moving vehicles, posters, credit cards, sensitive documentation, and ID tags.

Identity Cloak makes precise redaction straightforward. For example, want to redact everyone in a waiting room except the one person who submitted the SAR? 

All it takes is:

• Run full-scene auto-detection to have everyone blurred by default

• Select the subject of interest and unblur them

• Check the clip and blur static areas containing personal information

Additional flexible blur options available inside Identity Cloak include:

• Customisable blur shape and size — adjust the radius and transparency of the blur to suit the footage quality and the level of anonymisation required

• Layered blurring for static objects — blur a poster or screen in the background permanently, even if a subject walks in front of it (the subject stays visible, the static object stays blurred)

• One-click blurring for fixed zones — useful for recurring objects like reception desks, noticeboards, or branded signage that appear in every clip from the same location

• Full-body blur mode — for cases where face blurring alone isn't sufficient and full anonymisation is required

• Audio redaction in the same session — selectively redact spoken names, addresses, or sensitive details from the audio track without affecting the rest of the recording

Russell Martin, Head of Customer Care & Sales Projects at TeamSport:

#With Identity Cloak, you get predictable per-video pricing

A lot of video redaction work is driven by incoming requests, and the volume and length of footage can be unpredictable month to month. This is what makes minute-based plans unpredictable. Teams using per-minute tools have to estimate footage length upfront, track consumption manually, request top-ups mid-month, then reconcile actual usage against budget at the end of the period. 

Identity Cloak prices per video, with unlimited video length on every plan. A 3-minute clip and a 3-hour recording cost the same credit. The Starter plan covers 10 videos per year. Standard covers 35. Pro covers 75, with an Enterprise option for teams that need unlimited volume at a fixed annual cost.

This type of pricing model removes the mental overhead of tracking consumption. It's easier to budget, easier to explain to finance, and easier to scale when request volumes spike.

Secure Redact pricing is tied to a time limit, starting at 30 minutes on the Pro plan, with monthly and annual pricing options. It also allows users to top up at a per-minute price rate. 

CaseGuard pricing is tied to plan capabilities, with video redaction available in the Media Suite, with no limits on video and media files, and per-user pricing.

Try out Identity Cloak on your footage for 7 days for free. No credit card required, and you can redact your first video in under 15 minutes.

If you'd prefer a walkthrough first, book a demo with our team.

#Other video redaction software options to consider

#CaseGuard – multi-feature tool for law enforcement and government agencies

We often get customers asking us how Identity Cloak is different from CaseGuard, since it's a well-known platform in the law enforcement and government evidence disclosure space. 

We published an in-depth article that answers that question.

#Secure Redact – cloud-based video redaction

Similarly to CaseGuard, we also published an article that lays out how Identity Cloak compares to Secure Redact, particularly for organisations evaluating SaaS-based redaction versus an on-premise model.

#Try out Identity Cloak to see how you can automate and speed video redaction

Adobe Professional and similar editing tools were built for creative professionals. When you're working against a 30-day SAR deadline and manually blurring out faces and personal information frame by frame, it quickly becomes clear that this approach to redaction is unsustainable.

If the actual question is "how do we get through our video redaction backlog faster, with predictable costs and without needing a video editing background?", that's what Identity Cloak is built for.

#Related articles

• Video Redaction: A Complete Guide

• Best video redaction software: what to look for (and a full Identity Cloak walkthrough)

• Cloud-Based vs On-Premise Video Redaction: Where Should You Redact Video Footage?