Written by
The XWiki Team
When privacy is overlooked, personal data can be misused and leaked in ways that individuals, organizations, and governments can't predict. In recent years, governments worldwide have taken urgent action to protect privacy and promote transparency, responding to growing concerns over fails to protect data and unauthorized surveillance.
The growing number of large-scale data breaches in 2024 highlights the urgent need for secure and private digital tools. Attacks on Microsoft, UnitedHealth’s Change Healthcare, and National Public Data (NPD) exposed sensitive government, healthcare, and personal records, often due to weak authentication measures and legacy systems not secure enough. These breaches disrupted essential services, led to ransom payments, and even forced NPD into bankruptcy. To protect data and prevent similar incidents, your organization should adopt encrypted, privacy-first solutions and enforce strict security practices.
Giving up the heavy dependencies we all have on proprietary software and prioritizing privacy and security of data is no easy feat. We know this first-hand, as we’ve worked to make CryptPad an end-to-end-encrypted office suite alternative to Big Tech. We're humbled by the great feedback we've received over the past few years, with users being pleased and relieved to have found a reliable solution to their privacy and security concerns.
Today, we're taking a step further to offer an enterprise-ready and scalable solution for organizations of all sizes with CryptPad Cloud.
Why now?
If you read CryptPad's funding status published recently on the CryptPad blog, you might have seen that while the product is being improved monthly in multiple areas, it still needs a sustainable and reliable source of income. One way we've planned to do this is by enabling teams of all sizes to test-drive CryptPad in the cloud. If the product meets your needs, you can subscribe to our hosting service, and XWiki SAS and the CryptPad team will ensure reliable cloud infrastructure with long-term support for the instance.
Developing a good product is hard work and needs to be carefully balanced. We've put an emphasis on developing first a great product that answers users' needs for privacy, but this is obviously not sufficient on its own, and we need to explore sustainable ways of ensuring we have a steady stream of income for the project.
CryptPad: The encrypted office suite you've been waiting for
CryptPad is a private-by-design, end-to-end encrypted open-source productivity and collaboration office suite that ensures no one, not even the CryptPad team or your server administrators, can access your data (e.g. the content of documents). Since all the user data is encrypted, in the event of a breach, attackers have no way of accessing the stored content. Furthermore, if the administrators do not modify the code, they and the service also cannot access any information about the users' content. Unlike Big Tech, proprietary office software that reads and profits from your information, CryptPad offers you a private, secure, real-time collaboration alternative. You can use CryptPad to share rich text, word docs, spreadsheets, polls, presentations, whiteboard functions, diagrams, forms, kanban, and code/markdown slides.
Hosted in the European Union (France), CryptPad empowers organizations of all sizes with a scalable, modern, and GDPR and BSI C5-compliant private office solution. The CryptPad Cloud service provides you with the option to test out the full suite of apps and features. If you're happy with what we provide, then you can opt for a cloud hosting contract that also includes long-term technical support for your instance.
Lastly, CryptPad is being developed by a dedicated team of developers from XWiki SAS (top sponsoring company for the XWiki open-source project). At XWiki SAS we believe that all organizations should have the freedom of choice when it comes to how they deploy software and handle their data. Therefore, we will never limit or lock you in if you want to deploy CryptPad on-premises.
Don't just take our word for it; here's what the world is saying about us
We are honored that CryptPad has been recognized as one of the top privacy-first alternatives by respected privacy-focused publications and experts who advocate for better data protection. Here are a few of those mentions:
- CryptPad Review: Replacing Google Docs by privacyguides.org
- Alternatives to Google Products – Complete List for 2025 by cyberinsider.com
- CryptPad: An Encrypted Open Source Google Docs Alternative for Privacy Cautious Users by itsfoss.com
- Cryptpad Review: A Google Docs / Forms Alternative and a Self-Hosting Bliss by ubuntubuzz.com
- PRIVATE alternatives to Google Docs! by Naomi Brockwell
- Get started with CryptPad, an open source collaborative document editor by opensource.com
What does CryptPad Cloud bring to you, the end user?
- Private-by-design software: End-to-end encryption ensures that only you and your collaborators can access your data. Neither CryptPad nor third parties can access and read it.
- Secure and GDPR-compliant cloud hosting in the EU (France): All instances are hosted in France through our partner OVHcloud, ensuring compliance with strict European data protection laws and digital sovereignty.
- Full-featured productivity & collaborative office suite with real-time editing: Unlike Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, CryptPad offers you a private office suite with all the tools necessary for productive collaboration, but in secure environment. Applications include: Rich Text, Spreadsheets, Code/Markdown, Kanban, Slides, Whiteboard, Diagrams, Word docs, Polls, and Forms.
- Accessible solution: In CryptPad, accessibility is not an afterthought, and we are firm believers that everyone should be able to use CryptPad. We constantly raise and solve accessibility issues and when implementing a new feature, accessibility is one of our milestones.
- An open-source office suite: CryptPad allows full auditability, community-driven improvements, and the freedom to adapt it to your needs.
- Freedom of deployment, no vendor lock-in: Choose between hosting CryptPad on your infrastructure or using CryptPad Cloud, with no proprietary dependencies or restrictions.
- Long-term professional support and no technical hassles: From setup and training to ongoing maintenance and user support, the XWiki SAS and CryptPad teams work together to ensure an excellent experience to the organizations that choose to use CryptPad in our cloud.
What's in it for you if you choose CryptPad?
The following features are not exclusive only to CryptPad Cloud, but we would like to highlight the ones that are the coolest, totally worth testing and that we're proud of:
The CryptPad Drive
After creating an instance for test, you can play around by creating a new document, a simple folder, or a shared folder, or by importing and exporting a file in the current folder or drive.
Security features
- 2-Factor Authentication (2FA) & Single-Sign-On (SSO; available as plugin): With 2FA you can protect your account with an additional verification code provided by an authenticator app of your choice while with the SSO plugin you can connect CryptPad to an SSO system.
- Safe links: We highly recommend keeping this feature active (it is active by default and can be turned off) and sharing documents only through the Share menu. CryptPad links contain decryption keys, meaning anyone with access to your browsing history, extensions, or synced devices could potentially read your data. Enabling Safe links prevents keys from being exposed in your browser’s address bar, reducing the risk of accidental leaks.
- Passwords: For an extra layer of security, we recommend you add a password when you create a document or folder or anytime afterward.
- Share & access for users: Keeping separately the Share and Access menus in CryptPad enhances security and control by ensuring that sharing a link does not automatically grant access to others. The Share menu manages how documents are shared (contacts, links, embedding), while the Access menu sets restrictions like expiration dates, passwords, and access lists. This prevents unauthorized users from gaining entry through browser links, keeping document security in the hands of the owner.
- Backups: In case you forget your password, you can download your CryptPad Drive from the current instance in which you are still logged in and import the backup into the new CryptPad instance. Just be aware that some applications produce files that are only readable by CryptPad.
- Self-destructing documents: This is self-explanatory. This feature ensures that sensitive data is not accessible forever either by setting an expiration date when creating the document or by sharing a document through the view-once-and-self-destruct link.
Collaboration and productivity features
- Adding contacts: In CryptPad, you can easily add trusted contacts or teammates to collaborate efficiently and securely. To add a contact in CryptPad, share your profile link with them, wait for them to send a contact request, and then accept it.
- Real-time editing: Teams can collaboratively edit documents in real time, with all changes encrypted end-to-end. It's essential to note that while CryptPad automatically saves changes, users should ensure they manually save final versions to maintain data integrity.
- History: CryptPad maintains a history of document revisions, enabling users to track changes and revert to previous versions if necessary. Additionally, the history of CryptPad Drive is also kept automatically.
- Management of documents: You can manage your documents as you would do in your Google Drive. An additional functionality that can be very useful security-wise is the option "Destroy" which deletes a document from the database permanently. The document is deleted from all drives that store it, and it cannot be recovered using the drive history.
- Notifications: CryptPad notifies you when contacts interact with you, showing unread alerts via a filled bell icon with a count next to your avatar.
- Chat: You can start a chat with the contacts in your Contacts page. Additionally, you can also load or delete chat history.
- Tags: Tags allow you to categorize documents for easy organization and retrieval. They are private to you and not visible to other users. The Tags tab in the drive shows all tags in use and their associated documents.
- Templates: Templates offer reusable starting points for documents with a consistent structure, such as invoices, letterheads, and reports, saving time and ensuring uniformity across your work.
Calendar
It's easy and intuitive to plan your work with the CryptPad calendar and also share your schedule or have a shared calendar with your team. You can also set recurrent activities.
Lastly, you can also head to the FAQ in the CryptPad documentation and if you can't find the answer you're looking for, pick one of the following channels on which you can send us your questions.
What organizations does CryptPad Cloud fit best?
Organizations that handle sensitive information across teams and timezones, require strict compliance, or value privacy-first collaboration could find CryptPad Cloud a solution fit for their needs.
Legal, compliance, and financial sectors: Protect confidential client and internal data while meeting regulatory requirements.
Enterprises prioritizing security: Safeguard proprietary information and prevent unauthorized access.
Public institutions and governments: Ensure data sovereignty and control over sensitive communications.
Education and research: Enable secure collaboration for students and faculty without compromising data privacy.
NGOs, activists, and journalists: Communicate and collaborate securely, free from surveillance risks.
Remote teams and distributed workforces: Work efficiently without relying on Big Tech platforms that monetize your data.
Where can you get started?
You can now test-drive your very own CryptPad instance using our Cloud demo service*. Start with an instant 4-hour demo, extend it for 7 extra days, and, if you're happy with our product, subscribe anytime for long-term professional support for your instance.
*This service builds on a similar one by our parent company, XWiki SAS.
Privacy without compromises, collaboration without surveillance with our private office suite
We hope this hosting solution and service will encourage bigger actors such as companies and organizations to consider having their own instance managed by us, while benefiting from professional long-term support from us. Our objective is that teams that choose CryptPad Cloud will collaborate easily while resting assured that their data privacy is under no way compromised.
FAQ
1. What is the link between XWiki SAS and CryptPad?
CryptPad is developed and maintained by a dedicated team from XWiki SAS, the company that also sponsors the development of the open-source XWiki knowledge management and collaboration project. Our company funds the development of CryptPad through a mix of public grants, donations, and premium services like CryptPad Cloud. This ensures that CryptPad remains an open-source, privacy-focused alternative to proprietary cloud collaboration tools.
2. What does CryptPad Cloud bring differently than Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and SharePoint?
- End-to-end encryption: The way CryptPad is built means that only you and your collaborators can access your documents. The CryptPad team won't and can't access any of your documents. You can rest assured that we don't profit from the work you do.
- No tracking: CryptPad does not track users or monetize personal data. We stay true to the mission of providing a privacy-first alternative to Big Tech without compromises on security and privacy.
- Open source and transparent: Any user can audit the code and even self-host CryptPad if they desire to do so. We'll never restrict the method of deployment or lock in users with our business choices.
- GDPR and compliant with privacy regulations: CryptPad Cloud is hosted in the EU (France), through our Partner OVHcloud. The cloud service that OVH provides meets security standards and ensures strict privacy and data compliance.
3. Can I choose to self-host CryptPad?
Totally! Part of a true open-source product is the ability to decide what method of hosting fits your organization best. The source code and setup instructions are available on CryptPad’s GitHub repository. You can also check our long-term support services for on-premises clients.
4. What's the difference between cryptpad.fr and CryptPad Cloud (cryptpad.org)? Which one should I opt for?
cryptpad.fr is the public instance managed by the CryptPad development team. It’s great for individual users, small teams, and organizations who want a quick, secure way to collaborate without self-hosting. We offer both free and premium plans, without you being required to give personal information to us.
CryptPad Cloud is a dedicated, managed service for businesses and institutions that need:
- Guaranteed performance and uptime
- Infrastructure flexibility and scalability
- Enterprise-level, long-term professional & priority support
- Their own domain
- Custom branding
- Single-Sign-On (SSO) integration
- Cloud backups and upgrades of the product
- Support for administrators of the instance
If you’re a company or organization that needs a privacy-first cloud solution without managing infrastructure, CryptPad Cloud is the best choice in this case.
5. Do you offer any special discounts?
Yes! We offer 50% discount for NGOs and educational institutions.
