CryptPad

SaaS alternative

End-to-end encrypted collaborative office suite from a French team, free on cryptpad.fr or self-hostable.

Category
Office · SaaS alternative
Cost
Freemium
Country
France
Licensing
FOSS
Platforms
Web
Self-hostable
Yes

Pros and cons

+ what works
  • +End-to-end encrypted by default; the server cannot read documents
  • +Open source under AGPL-3.0 and self-hostable
  • +Real-time collaboration on rich text, sheets, slides, kanban, whiteboard, and forms
  • +French and EU jurisdiction with GDPR protections
watch out for
  • Format fidelity with .docx and .xlsx is limited
  • Encrypted-by-design model precludes server-side search and indexing
  • Free tier on cryptpad.fr has tight storage quotas
  • Mobile experience is web-only; no native apps

Privacy notes

Documents are encrypted in the browser with keys derived from the URL fragment, which the server never receives. CryptPad holds only ciphertext. The hosted instance at cryptpad.fr is operated by XWiki SAS in Paris under French and EU data protection law. Accounts are optional; anonymous pads work but rely on the user keeping the share URL. The project has received funding from the European NGI program and the code has been audited by external researchers.

Tags

#e2ee · #foss · #agpl · #eu · #self-hostable

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