CryptPad
With CryptPad, you can make quick collaborative documents for taking notes and writing down ideas together.
- Freemium • Open Source
- Word Processor
- Note-taking
- WYSIWYG Editor
- Self-Hosted
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
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What is CryptPad?
CryptPad is a private-by-design alternative to popular office tools and cloud services. All the content stored on CryptPad is encrypted before being sent, which means nobody can access your data unless you give them the keys.
CryptPad is a suite of zero knowledge, realtime collaborative editors and applications. Encryption carried out in your web browser protects the data from the server, the cloud, and the NSA. The secret encryption key is stored in the URL fragment identifier which is never sent to the server but is available to javascript so by sharing the URL, you give authorization to others who want to participate.
CryptPad uses a variant of the Operational transformation algorithm which is able to find distributed consensus using a Nakamoto Blockchain, a construct popularized by Bitcoin. This way the algorithm can avoid the need for a central server to resolve Operational Transform Edit Conflicts and without the need for resolving conflicts, the server can be kept unaware of the content which is being edited on the pad.
Cryptpad offers collaboration on text and WYSIWYG documents, as well as a basic polling application where users see results in real time.
CryptPad is a suite of zero knowledge, realtime collaborative editors and applications. Encryption carried out in your web browser protects the data from the server, the cloud, and the NSA. The secret encryption key is stored in the URL fragment identifier which is never sent to the server but is available to javascript so by sharing the URL, you give authorization to others who want to participate.
CryptPad uses a variant of the Operational transformation algorithm which is able to find distributed consensus using a Nakamoto Blockchain, a construct popularized by Bitcoin. This way the algorithm can avoid the need for a central server to resolve Operational Transform Edit Conflicts and without the need for resolving conflicts, the server can be kept unaware of the content which is being edited on the pad.
Cryptpad offers collaboration on text and WYSIWYG documents, as well as a basic polling application where users see results in real time.
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Features Vote on or suggest new features
- Real time collaboration
- End-to-End Encryption
- Collaborative writing
- No registration required
- Encryption
- Privacy focused
- Notetaking
- Document sharing
- Privacy
- Encrypted
- Direct file uploading
- Kanban boards
- Word Processing
- Scheduling
- Multiple languages
- Writing tool
- WYSIWYG Support
- Real-time
- Encrypted Notes
- Support for MarkDown
Comments and Reviews Post a comment / review all • positive • negative relevance • date
Categories
Office & Productivity • Remote Work & Education • Security & Privacy • News & Books • DevelopmentTags
- poll
- pad
- Document Collaboration
- event-planning
- appointments
- programming
- Text Editor
- File Encryption
- Code Editor
- wysiwyg-html-editor
- encrypted-text
- https
Lists containing CryptPad
privacy • Notetaking, Outliner, PIM, Calendar, To-Do list apps • Productivity - Note Taking and Notepad • Privacy ProductsCryptPad
Summary
Our users have written 11 comments and reviews about CryptPad, and it has gotten 94 likes
- Developed by XWiki Labs
- Open Source and Freemium product.
- Subscription that costs between $6 and $16.
- Average rating of 4.4
- 66 alternatives listed
Popular alternatives
View allCryptPad was added to AlternativeTo by ansuz on Jul 12, 2016 and this page was last updated Sep 27, 2021.
I'm quite impressed with the team behind Cryptpad. They've created a secure and relatively easy to use collaboration hub, in the same vein as Google Docs and the rest of their suite. In this review I'll be focusing more on the performance of CryptPad versus its privacy, which, if you are so inclined, can read more about on its website.
CryptPad offers a rich text pad, a markdown code pad, a markdown presentation, a poll or schedule, a kanban (a tool to keep track of your tasks), and a shared whiteboard. The only thing that's missing, and that I would like to see implemented, is a spreadsheet pad. [EDIT, May 09] It has been added by implementing OnlyOffice, and is currently in beta. Also, from the existing options, it appears CryptPad is most useful to software developers working together, or those literate in coding and/or markdown. Don't worry if you're not one of these people, though! CryptPad still works well for the average Joe.
The interface for your files looks a tad barren, but is extremely simple to use. Maybe that's what file explorers should be in the first place. The interface for the pads you create, on the other hand, may look daunting at first, but after you fiddle around, you will see that it has just the right amount of features for collaborators. There's quite a few pop-ups if you're just starting out, but those are just there to tell you more about how CryptPad works.
Since I don't have friends (...who are as privacy-oriented as I am and therefore are not willing to try out new software when "Google Docs already exists"... I'm not a loner, I swear), I used two browsers and a tablet to create my own session for Cryptpad to test how well the collaboration aspects work. On Vivaldi, CryptPad was a little buggy when attempting to send messages to my other devices, but it worked after a while; this could be a Vivaldi- or Chromium-specific bug. On Waterfox and Falkon, CryptPad worked without a hitch. The pad updates at a reasonably fast rate when editing your work, changing your name, or messaging the other collaborators. I did have trouble, however, distinguishing which I-bar and highlights belonged to whom: the colours were too similar. However, that might have been just bad luck with the random assignment of colouring to each collaborator. More testing will be needed to confirm.
If you want to share your work with others, you send them the link of the page, accessible via the "Share" button. You can choose whether you want the person receiving the link to have editing rights, or just viewing rights. The others don't need an account to edit using the editing link. They will simply appear as "anonymous", but can still change their name.
As implied just now, you can easily test out CryptPad without creating an account. If you like what you see, then make an account to save your work or get started with a clean slate. More information here: https://blog.cryptpad.fr/2017/05/17/You-gotta-log-in/ (alternate: https://archive.fo/vTO5o )
I should also mention that because CryptPad has a small team, they are offering only 50MB of storage for free. It's a modest amount, but that is because this software is still growing. If you want more, you can upgrade your storage and support the developers. At a time where privacy is under fire, those who value their privacy should rally behind any promising efforts to uphold our right to be forgotten.
On a related note, despite their small team, CryptPad's team is confident that this software can be used reliably in an enterprise setting. Best to check their website for that, if you're interested.
Despite the little drawbacks I ran into, I give this 5 stars because I truly think CryptPad has potential to be a serious competitor to other online collaboration suites; it just needs more time to grow.
Make sure to read the FAQ; lots of good information is there: https://sandbox.cryptpad.info/faq.html
[Edited by TerrifiedTyphlosion, May 09]
Open Source online collaborative tools
Stunning interface. Enjoying it every time!
A great privacy-focused alternative to Google Docs and OneDrive.
It has built-in text editor and spreadsheet with real time editing and collaboration.
They offer 1GB of free storage, however, saving other files than documents is not possible.
Completely private, fully featured. The interface is amazing... just like using MS Office for free!
I'm using it with my group and it really works great for us. It's simple and secure; maybe design is a bit crude but it's not about that. Reccomended.
Who has posted positive comments on this apps is clearly lying, or it is a fake profile.
the app doesn't install neither on CentOS7 nor CentOS8
the instructions do not mention the lots of dependencies required (not easy install)
-solved the dependencies it stop installing because of missing CA Certificates .... what????
Do not waste your time on this app . . . it works only on their personal PC (maybe)