CryptPad
In-depth reviewEnd-to-end encrypted office suite — docs, spreadsheets, kanban, code pads. No account needed for guest use. Hosted in France, GDPR-native. The privacy-first Google Docs alternative.
Not sure how to add CryptPad to your home screen? Step-by-step for Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge — it takes about ten seconds, and there is no app store involved.
Own CryptPad? Have us re-run this measurement — we open it in a real browser, cut the network, and send you what survived.
How to install CryptPad as a PWA
Screenshots
Why we recommend CryptPad
CryptPad is the only mainstream office suite where the server cannot read your documents. End-to-end encryption isn't a privacy-policy promise — it's enforced cryptographically: keys are derived in your browser, the server stores ciphertext, and even the CryptPad team running cryptpad.fr cannot decrypt your content. That makes it a serious option for journalists, lawyers, French public-sector teams (it's hosted in France, GDPR-native, used by some ministerial workgroups), and anyone whose threat model includes the document host. Compared to Google Docs or Office 365, you trade some polish (formatting features are good but not 1:1 with Word) for a guarantee no big-tech vendor can match. The toolset covers what most teams need daily: rich-text Pad, Sheet (CSV-compatible), Kanban, Code (with syntax highlighting), Slide, Whiteboard, and Forms. Real-time collaboration works without an account — you share an URL with the encryption key in the fragment, recipients edit instantly. For sensitive enterprise use, self-host the server (Docker setup is well-documented) and you keep everything inside your own infrastructure.
Best use cases
Best for: encrypted meeting notes between lawyers and clients, GDPR-strict EU teams replacing Google Workspace, classroom collaboration where students don't have accounts, fast secure brainstorming sessions (drop a Whiteboard URL into Signal, done), and local government/healthcare projects requiring EU data residency. The no-account workflow is uniquely good for one-off shared documents — no signup friction at all.
Honest limitations
Not for: heavy spreadsheet users who need real Excel formula compatibility (Sheet covers basics, not power-user pivot tables). Not for: teams needing comment threads with @mentions and approvals — the workflow features lag behind Google Docs. Performance on documents over ~50 pages can stutter on older devices because all encryption/decryption happens in-browser. Free-tier storage on cryptpad.fr is capped (1GB); heavy use means self-hosting or paying for a managed instance.
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