Ente Photos vs FileRun vs Internxt

Ente Photos

Freemium · From Free (10 GB storage)

Best for: Privacy-conscious individuals and families who specifically need photo and video backup with audited end-to-end encryption, on-device face recognition, and family storage sharing, and who are willing to pay a monthly or annual subscription for it.

FileRun

Commercial license (self-hosted; annual per-user subscription for business use, plus a one-time lifetime option for personal use) · From EUR99 one-time (Family/personal plan) or EUR10 per user/year (Business plans)

Best for: Small businesses, agencies, and NAS owners who want a polished, Drive-like file manager running on infrastructure they already control, billed per user per year rather than per gigabyte, with office-suite editing built in.

Internxt

Freemium · From Free (1GB); paid plans from approximately $1-4/month

Best for: Users who want general-purpose, not just photo, zero-knowledge encrypted cloud storage with a hosted, no-maintenance experience, GDPR/HIPAA/SOC2 compliance, and the option to pay once for lifetime storage instead of a recurring subscription.

Ente Photos

FileRun

Internxt

Ente Photos

Pros

• Genuine end-to-end encryption verified by three independent security audits, not just encryption in transit or at rest
• Fully open-source under AGPL-3.0 with a real self-hosting option for users who do not want to trust any hosted provider
• Bootstrapped and not dependent on venture capital, which the founders position as reducing pressure to monetize user data
• Cross-platform coverage including F-Droid builds for users avoiding Google Play services, plus family plans for shared storage

Cons

• Free tier is limited to 10 GB, which is modest for users with large existing photo libraries
• Self-hosting requires technical comfort with running a Go server and managing infrastructure
• On-device machine learning features such as face recognition and magic search are not available on the web client, only mobile and desktop apps
• As a smaller, bootstrapped company, it lacks the deep ecosystem integrations (smart home displays, OS-level features) that Google Photos and iCloud Photos offer

FileRun

Pros

• Per-user annual licensing (EUR10/user/year) rather than per-gigabyte storage fees keeps costs predictable as data volume grows.
• Complete data ownership since files stay on the customer's own server, NAS, or VPS.
• Runs efficiently on modest or legacy hardware, making it viable for small NAS boxes and low-spec VPS instances.
• Deep native integrations with ONLYOFFICE, Collabora, Google Docs, and Microsoft 365 for in-browser document editing.
• White-label branding lets agencies and resellers offer FileRun under their own name.
• Nearly two decades of continuous product development behind the current release line.

Cons

• Closed-source, commercially licensed software — the code cannot be audited or self-patched the way an open-source alternative like Nextcloud can be.
• The free Family tier is explicitly restricted to non-commercial, non-work use, so businesses always pay per user.
• Requires the customer to provision, secure, and maintain their own server, database (MySQL/MariaDB), and PHP environment.
• Narrower in scope than groupware-style competitors — no built-in calendar, contacts, chat, or video conferencing the way Nextcloud offers.
• Support responsiveness and installation help are gated by plan tier, with the fastest response times reserved for the largest (100+ user) accounts.
• Headquarters and company-size details are not published, which may matter for procurement teams doing vendor due diligence.

Internxt

Pros

• True zero-knowledge encryption means Internxt cannot access or hand over readable user data
• One-time lifetime storage plans avoid ongoing subscription costs
• Post-quantum encryption is a forward-looking differentiator versus most competitors
• EU-based (Spain) hosting appeals to GDPR-conscious individuals and businesses
• Bundled VPN, antivirus and encrypted sharing add value beyond plain storage

Cons

• Smaller company and ecosystem than incumbents like Google Drive or Dropbox
• Fewer third-party app integrations compared to mainstream cloud storage providers
• Free tier storage (1GB) is modest compared to some competitors' free offers
• Collaboration features (real-time document editing, etc.) are less developed than Google Workspace
• Zero-knowledge design means lost passwords can result in permanently inaccessible data

Ente Photos

• Privacy-conscious personal photo backup — Individuals who want automatic cloud backup of their phone photos and videos without a provider being able to scan, mine, or view their content.
• Shared family photo storage — Families who want to pool storage under one subscription, share encrypted albums of kids or events, and let everyone access photos across devices.
• Self-hosted media archive — Technical users and organizations who want full control over where their photo data physically lives by running their own instance of Ente's open-source server.

FileRun

• Private cloud storage for small and medium businesses — Replaces consumer services like Dropbox or Google Drive with a self-hosted, per-user-licensed alternative that keeps company files on infrastructure the business controls.
• NAS front-end upgrade — Adds a polished, Drive-like web interface, mobile apps, and sharing links on top of existing NAS storage such as Synology, Unraid, or TrueNAS.
• Branded client file portal — Uses FileRun's white-label branding and app-publishing features to offer a customized, agency-branded file-sharing portal to end clients.

Internxt

• Privacy-conscious personal storage — Individuals store photos, documents and backups with encryption the provider itself cannot read.
• GDPR-compliant business storage — EU businesses use Internxt for file storage that satisfies GDPR data residency and protection requirements.
• Long-term archival with lifetime plans — Users who want to avoid recurring subscriptions pay once for a fixed storage allocation.