Comparison

Blackout vs DumbLevel

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Blackout

Features
Read full description

Share documents, not your details. Sooner or later someone asks for a bank statement, a pay stub, a passport, a medical record. They need the document; they do not need everything on it. Blackout finds the details a stranger shouldn't get, removes them from a copy, strips the data hiding inside the file, labels every page with who it's for — and never sends it anywhere. FINDS WHAT YOU'D MISS Open a PDF, a photo or a scan. Blackout reads it on your device and flags Social Security and account numbers, routing and card numbers, IBANs, phone numbers, email and postal addresses, dates of birth, passport and ID numbers, faces, barcodes and QR codes. Names are found too and left in by default, because they are usually the point. REMOVES, DOESN'T COVER Drawing a black box over a number is not redaction — the number is still in the file, one copy-and-paste away. Blackout deletes the characters from the page itself, erases the pixels from scanned images, and drops any note that overlapped. The box you see is the last step, not the whole job, and a test suite reopens every prepared copy with two independent extractors to prove it. STRIPS THE HIDDEN DATA — AND SHOWS YOU WHERE IT WAS A PDF carries more than what it shows: author, creation tool and dates, the editing history some apps tuck inside, every comment's author, attached files, scripts, and the camera model and GPS position inside embedded photos. Blackout removes all of it and, with Pro, lists it by where it was hiding — your name in the document properties, a colleague's in a comment on page 2, your home address in a photo's GPS tag on page 3. LABELS THE COPY Every page gets a watermark — "For Landlord · September 2026" — so a copy that turns up elsewhere says where it came from. Stamp it COPY or CONFIDENTIAL, add a header, number the pages, sign it. SEAL IT, AND KNOW IF IT COMES BACK CHANGED Seal a copy before you send it. The seal is invisible — nothing on the page. If that copy comes back, open it in Blackout and it tells you whether the content still matches, and which pages do not. It compares what the pages say, not the file's bytes, so an innocent re-save does not cry wolf. A PDF carries no identity that cannot be forged, so a name or date in a changed file is shown as a claim the file makes, never as proof of who changed it. KEEPS A LOG Who got which document, when, with what hidden. The log lives on your device and never holds the file. Or skip sending altogether: put the prepared copy on your screen for the person in the room, or have it read back to you first. PREPARE IT PROPERLY Send only some pages. Combine three pay stubs, or split one apart. Shrink it for email. Make a photographed page searchable. Correct a typo, replace a photo, remove tracking links, fill in the form. Send as PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint or images — conversions run after the details are gone, never before. NOTHING LEAVES YOUR DEVICE There is no server, no account and no code that uploads anything. Detection, text recognition and face detection all run on the device using Apple's own frameworks. Native on iPhone, iPad and Mac, with Dark Mode, Dynamic Type and VoiceOver throughout. FREE AND PRO The whole job — find, review, remove, strip, watermark, share — is free for your first copy, and the built-in sample is always free to try. Blackout Pro removes the limit and adds password protection, the itemised hidden-data report and every optional preparation step, for a single payment of $19.99. ONE PAYMENT, NOT A SUBSCRIPTION Blackout Pro is a one-time purchase of $19.99, charged once. It does not renew, there is nothing to cancel, and you will not be charged again. It stays unlocked on every device signed in to the same Apple Account, and Restore Purchase brings it back after a reinstall. Terms of Use: https://markbullock111.github.io/pdf_editor_privacy/terms.html Privacy Policy: https://markbullock111.github.io/pdf_editor_privacy/privacy.html

About

DumbLevel

This utility app provides a precise bubble level for accurate picture and shelf hanging. It also includes a planner to help you lay out multiple items, calculate spacing, and mark positions on your wall.

Highlights
  • Precise bubble level with tenth-degree readings
  • Plumb and two-axis bubble modes
  • Audible level indicators
  • Hanging planner for pictures, shelves, and hooks
  • Calculates spacing and provides wall marks
  • Stores past projects for reference
  • User-calibratable sensors
Read full description

It's just a level. DumbLevel is a bubble level for hanging shelves and pictures straight, plus a "What are we doing?" screen that does the layout math and hands you the marks. It's free. That's the whole deal. WHAT YOU ARE NOT GETTING • No subscription. Ever. • No account. No sign-in. • No ads. • No timer. It does not stop working after twenty seconds and ask for money. • No analytics. Nothing leaves your phone. THE LEVEL • Picks the mode by itself. Set the phone on its long edge for a level line, stand it upright for plumb, lay it flat for a two-axis bubble. • Reads to a tenth of a degree, in numbers big enough to read from a ladder. • Green, amber, red. Within two tenths of a degree is green. • Says which end is high, in words: RIGHT END HIGH. TOP LEANS LEFT. LEVEL. • Hold freezes the reading so you can lift the phone off the shelf and read it. • Sonar pings that speed up as you get close, and a coin chime when you hit level, so you can watch the shelf instead of the phone. Pings and chime, chime only, or muted. • Calibration that cancels the phone's own sensor bias. Capture, turn the phone end-for-end on the same spot, capture again. The true tilt cancels out and what is left is the phone's error, which is then subtracted from every reading. It is the same two-capture reversal that precision digital levels use, and it fixes the "my case has a bump on the back" problem. • The readout turns itself so up on screen is up in the room, whichever way you hold the phone. • Compared with the level built into the phone: tenths of a degree instead of whole degrees, plus hold, calibration and the hanging planner. WHAT ARE WE DOING? Pick the job: • One picture (or a mirror, a clock, a sign) • A row of frames • A grid of frames (a gallery wall) • Shelves, one or a stack of them • Hooks • Curtain rod Then a few plain questions, with the usual rule already filled in: pictures centered at 57 inches, eye level; 6 to 10 inches above a couch or a dresser; 2 to 3 inches between frames; a curtain rod 4 to 6 inches above the window and 4 to 6 inches past it on each side; coat hooks at 60 inches. Change any number you like. It does the math and hands you the marks: every one in inches from the end of the wall or the edge of the window, so you can read them straight off a tape. A to-scale drawing shows what you are about to hang. A walkthrough shows one mark at a time in giant numbers so you can make the marks with the phone in one hand and a pencil in the other. Print the sheet or share it as a PDF, tape it to the wall, then tap Level it and the level checks each one. Every job you measure is filed under Past projects, under the six tiles. Open the hallway you did last spring, see the same numbers, and hang the next frame to match. FINE PRINT DumbLevel reads to a tenth of a degree. Like every phone level it is only as good as the sensor inside the phone, so calibrate it before you trust it, and check anything that matters with a real level. It is a phone. iPhone only. Portrait only. Works with the screen off? No. It's a level, not a miracle.

Screenshots

Blackout4 screens
DumbLevel4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: DumbLevel at none against Blackout's 1. DumbLevel also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs every 2 weeks). Blackout's advantage is device support (3 vs 1). On price, ads and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Blackout sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. DumbLevel asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Blackout ships an update every 2 weeks, DumbLevel every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Blackout versus DumbLevel: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBlackoutDumbLevel
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
Monetization—Paid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size4 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMark Bullockkert shuster

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Blackout

One-time1
  • Blackout — Share Safely Pro$19.99
None

DumbLevel

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Blackout free?
Blackout is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is DumbLevel free?
DumbLevel is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Blackout or DumbLevel have ads?
Neither Blackout nor DumbLevel shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Blackout or DumbLevel?
Blackout ships an update every 2 weeks, and DumbLevel every 4 days. Most recently, Blackout was updated on October 31, 2026 and DumbLevel on November 6, 2026.

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