Ente Photos vs Plient

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.

Plient is an encrypted file storage and collaboration platform with browser-based office editing, WebDAV, a command-line interface, and an app marketplace. Files are encrypted on the user's device with AES-256-GCM before upload. Its zero-knowledge model derives the master key on that device from a password and salt, and the key is not sent to the server. Collaboration features include shared drives, granular permissions, password-protected links with expiry, and file requests. In the browser, users can co-edit.docx,.xlsx, and.pptx files in real time, with comments, suggestions, and version history. The marketplace lists Google Workspace, OnlyOffice, iDrive E2, Backblaze B2, and AWS S3. The CLI supports file transfers, syncing, and management from scripts and CI pipelines. WebDAV mounting is available on macOS, Windows, and Linux. Plient can be used as managed cloud software or self-hosted with Docker. The Free plan provides 5 GB of encrypted storage for one user; Pro costs $9 a month and Business costs $25 per user / month.