Ente Photos vs Permafiles
Ente Photos
ente.comPermafiles
permafiles.comSide by side
| Figure | Ente Photos | Permafiles |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $2.49/mo | £1.99/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 5 | 8 |
| Spec score · Photo Storage Services | 9.4 (#2) | 8.9 (#7) |
| API availability | Ente says it does not currently provide a public API for third-party integrations. | Nextcloud documents OCS HTTP APIs for capabilities, users, sharing and app management, plus WebDAV file access. |
| Headquarters | United States of America | United Kingdom |
| Licence | The main Ente repository is released under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3.0. | The Nextcloud server repository uses the GNU AGPL-3.0-or-later licence. |
| Rating on Apple App Store | 4.7 out of 5 from 278 ratings. | 4.7 out of 5 from 10K ratings for the Nextcloud iOS app. |
| Rating on Google Play | 4.7 out of 5 from 2.78K reviews. | 4.0 out of 5 from 1.93K reviews for Nextcloud Talk. |
| Support | Ente says it offers human support through [email protected]. | The contact page promises replies within 24 hours and offers live chat during office hours. |
| What it does | Ente Photos is an end-to-end encrypted cloud photo storage and sharing alternative to Google Photos and Apple Photos. | Permafiles provides managed private cloud storage for photos, videos, documents and other files using Nextcloud. |
Plans
Ente Photos
- FreeFree
- Starter$2.49 a month
- Popular$4.99 a month
- Pro$9.99 a month
- Pro+$19.99 a month
Permafiles
- Nextcloud FreeFree
- Nextcloud Tiny£1.99 a month
- Nextcloud Small£2.99 a month
- Nextcloud Medium£3.99 a month
- Nextcloud Large£4.99 a month
- Nextcloud 1TB£9.99 a month
- Nextcloud 2TB£18.99 a month
- Nextcloud 3TB£27.99 a month
In their own words
Ente Photos
Ente Photos is an end-to-end encrypted photo service for backing up and accessing images across devices. Its apps encrypt photos and metadata on the device before upload, and can back up new photos in the background. On-device AI recognizes faces and photo elements to support natural-language search. Users can revisit curated memories and share encrypted albums or browser links, with password and expiry options for links. Album owners can allow others to contribute photos, including people without an Ente account. Ente documents imports from Google Photos, Apple Photos, Amazon Photos, and local storage; its desktop app supports incremental export. The Free plan includes 10 GB and one replica. Paid plans start with Starter at $2.49 a month, which includes 50 GB. Paid subscribers can share storage with up to five family members, each with a private space. Ente says it stores three encrypted copies across providers and EU locations. It also says it cannot recover an account or data if a user loses both the password and recovery key while logged out of all devices.
Permafiles
Permafiles is managed cloud storage built on the open-source Nextcloud platform, for files, photos, and folders. Users can share family photos and set permissions controlling who may access, edit, or download them. Shared links can also have passwords and expiration dates. Nextcloud Office supports online editing of documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, while Nextcloud Talk provides calls with up to 10 people. The Nextcloud Mail app can connect to Gmail and other email services through IMAP and SMTP. Sync clients are listed for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS, with web access as well. Security measures described include HTTPS/TLS, two-factor authentication, brute-force and antivirus protection, and optional end-to-end encryption for supported folders and use cases. Permafiles says its server infrastructure is hosted in Germany, while customer file data is stored with third-party S3-compatible storage in the United Kingdom. It also says it makes daily offsite backups and can restore a complete server failure within a couple of hours. The free plan includes 5 GB. Paid plans range from £1.99 per month for 64 GB to £27.99 per month for 3 TB.