Sanitext vs Nightfall AI

Sanitext is the better Nightfall AI alternative when you want a self-serve PII detection and redaction API priced per character, not per seat. Sign up, pay with Stripe, and call /v1/detect or /v1/redact in 60 seconds. Nightfall fits broad SaaS and endpoint DLP, sold by quote.

Nightfall AI is an AI-native DLP platform that scans SaaS apps and endpoints, sold by seat with quote-only pricing. Sanitext is a focused PII detection and redaction API: flat per-character pricing, 30+ languages, self-serve signup, no sales call. Here is an honest comparison so you can pick the right tool.

Sanitext vs Nightfall AI at a glance

	Sanitext	Nightfall AI
Product type	Focused PII detection and redaction API	AI-native DLP platform (SaaS, endpoints) with a detection API add-on
Pricing model	Flat per character. Free 300K (one-time), $29 / $149 / $499 per month, Enterprise custom	Seat / user per year, quote-only
Self-serve	Yes. Sign up, Stripe, API key, curl in ~60 seconds	Sales-led. Demo and quote to start
Languages	30+ languages	Varies by detector; English-centric
Redaction output	/v1/redact returns text with spans masked as [LABEL]; /v1/detect returns spans	Detection-focused; redaction depends on platform setup
Free tier	300K chars, one-time, no card, never resets	3GB/mo free developer tier
Data residency	No raw-text retention; EU residency + DPA on Enterprise	Enterprise data controls; platform-managed

What is the difference between Sanitext and Nightfall AI?

Nightfall AI is a data loss prevention (DLP) platform. Its main job is scanning where data already lives: Slack, Google Drive, GitHub, email, endpoints. You buy it per seat or per user, per year, and pricing is quote-only through a sales team. Nightfall also offers a detection API, but it is an add-on to the broader platform, not the core product.

Sanitext is the opposite shape. It is one thing: an API that detects and redacts PII in text you send it. You sign up, pay through Stripe, get an API key, and call POST /v1/detect for entity spans or POST /v1/redact for masked text. Pricing is flat and per character, so it maps cleanly to programmatic, high-volume use.

Put simply: Nightfall watches your apps. Sanitext is a building block you wire into your own code, pipeline, or product.

How do Sanitext and Nightfall AI compare on price and features?

The table below compares the two on the points that matter most for developers building PII redaction into a product or pipeline.

Where Sanitext wins

Sanitext is built for developers who want PII redaction as code, not as a managed DLP rollout. A few concrete advantages:

—Pricing fits API use. Flat per-character plans (Free 300K chars one-time, Hobby $29/mo for 12M, Pro $149/mo for 120M, Scale $499/mo for 450M) map to how much text you process. Seat-based pricing punishes one service key doing millions of calls.
—No sales call. Sign up, pay with Stripe, get a key, and run a curl in about 60 seconds. No demo, no quote, no procurement cycle to start.
—Zero per-token AI cost. We own the open-weights model (Apache-2.0, OpenAI privacy-filter family) and run it on our own Cloudflare infrastructure. Your text never goes to a third-party LLM. That is why overage is $0.35 to $0.60 per 1M chars, up to about 2x cheaper than metered hyperscalers.
—Structured output for both jobs. /v1/detect returns spans with label, byte offsets, score, and matched text. /v1/redact returns the same text with spans masked as [LABEL]. You choose detection or redaction per call.
—30+ languages. Detects FIRSTNAME, LASTNAME, EMAIL, PHONE, ADDRESS, DATE, URL, ACCOUNT, and SECRET (API keys, tokens), plus a PREFIX label like Dr., across more than 30 languages.
—No raw-text retention. We log counts and timings only, never your text. EU data residency and a DPA are available on Enterprise.

When Nightfall AI is the better choice

Sanitext is not a DLP platform, and we will not pretend it is. Pick Nightfall AI when your problem is broader than redacting text in your own code:

—You need to scan SaaS apps and endpoints. Nightfall monitors Slack, Google Drive, GitHub, email, and laptops for sensitive data already sitting in those systems. Sanitext does not touch your apps; you send it text.
—You want a managed, policy-driven DLP product. Nightfall gives you dashboards, alerting, incident workflows, and admin controls out of the box. Sanitext is an API you build around.
—You prefer a sales-led rollout with seat-based licensing. If your buyer is a security team standardizing on a platform across many users, Nightfall's model fits that better than per-character API billing.
—You need coverage of data at rest across an org. Sanitext processes text you pass in. If you need discovery across stored documents and cloud accounts, that is DLP territory.

How to switch from Nightfall AI to Sanitext

If you were using Nightfall's detection API and want a simpler, self-serve replacement, migration is straightforward because Sanitext does one job with a clean contract.

1. Sign up at sanitext.app and grab your API key. The Free tier gives you a one-time 300K characters with no card, so you can test against real samples before paying.

2. Map your entity types. Sanitext labels are FIRSTNAME, LASTNAME, EMAIL, PHONE, ADDRESS, DATE, URL, ACCOUNT, SECRET, and PREFIX. Line these up against the detectors you used in Nightfall.

3. Swap the endpoint. Replace your detection call with POST /v1/detect for spans (label, byte offsets, score, text) or POST /v1/redact if you just want masked text back as [LABEL]. Test both in the playground first.

4. Validate on a sample set, then move to a paid plan that matches your monthly character volume. Overage is metered transparently if you go over.

Honest note: Sanitext is a redaction and data-minimization aid, not an anonymization or compliance guarantee. Review redacted output for your own risk threshold, especially for HIPAA or GDPR work.

bash

curl -X POST https://api.sanitext.app/v1/redact \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SANITEXT_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"text": "Email Dr. Jane Doe at jane@acme.com or call +1 415 555 0132."}'

# Response:
# {
#   "text": "Email [PREFIX] [FIRSTNAME] [LASTNAME] at [EMAIL] or call [PHONE]."
# }

FAQ

Is Sanitext a real alternative to Nightfall AI?+

For PII detection and redaction in text, yes. Sanitext replaces Nightfall's detection API with a self-serve, per-character API. It is not a full DLP platform, so it does not scan SaaS apps or endpoints. Pick Sanitext when you want a redaction building block, not org-wide monitoring.

How is Sanitext cheaper than Nightfall AI?+

Sanitext uses flat per-character pricing instead of seats. We own the open-weights model and run it on our own Cloudflare infrastructure, so there is zero per-token AI cost. Plans start at $29/mo for 12M chars, and overage runs $0.35 to $0.60 per 1M chars.

Does Sanitext send my text to a third-party LLM?+

No. Sanitext runs an Apache-2.0 open-weights model (OpenAI privacy-filter family) on our own Cloudflare infrastructure. Your text never goes to an outside LLM. We log counts and timings only, never raw text. EU data residency and a DPA are available on Enterprise plans.

What PII can Sanitext detect and redact?+

Sanitext detects first and last names, emails, phone numbers, postal addresses, dates, URLs, account and card numbers, and secrets like API keys and tokens, plus a PREFIX label such as Dr. It works across 30+ languages and returns spans or masked [LABEL] text.

Is Sanitext a compliance guarantee for HIPAA or GDPR?+

No. Sanitext is a redaction and data-minimization aid, not an anonymization or compliance guarantee. It helps reduce exposed PII before storage or LLM calls, but you should review output against your own risk threshold and legal requirements for HIPAA, GDPR, or similar.

Redact PII without a sales call

Start free with 300K characters, no card required. Sign up, grab your API key, and run /v1/redact in 60 seconds.

Get your free API key