Ente Photos is an open-source, end-to-end encrypted alternative to Google Photos and iCloud Photos. See pricing tiers, features, security and competitors.
Ente Photos is an open-source, end-to-end encrypted cloud backup and sharing service for photos and videos. It is built by Ente Technologies, Inc., a bootstrapped company founded in 2020 by Vishnu Mohandas and headquartered in Bengaluru, India, and it is positioned as a privacy-respecting alternative to Google Photos and Apple iCloud Photos.
The entire product, mobile apps, desktop apps, web client, and the Go-based server, lives in a single open-source monorepo licensed under AGPL-3.0. That licensing means anyone can audit the code that handles their photos, and technically capable users can self-host their own Ente server rather than using Ente's hosted infrastructure.
Key Features
At the core of Ente Photos is client-side, end-to-end encryption powered by libsodium: files are encrypted with XChaCha20-Poly1305 before they ever leave the device, and passwords are strengthened with Argon2id key derivation, so Ente's servers never see unencrypted photos, videos, or metadata.
Beyond storage, Ente supports encrypted collaborative albums and shareable links, family plans that pool storage across up to five members, cross-platform native apps for iOS, Android, F-Droid, Windows, macOS, Linux, and the web, and on-device machine learning for face recognition and CLIP-powered semantic search that never sends photo data off the device.
Pricing
Ente Photos offers a free plan with 10 GB of storage that never expires as long as the account is used at least once a year. Paid storage plans scale from roughly 50 GB up to 2 TB, priced from about 2.49 to 19.99 dollars per month depending on tier, with a discount for annual billing.
Every paid subscription can be shared with up to five family members at no extra cost, and self-hosting the AGPL-3.0 server is free for anyone willing to run their own infrastructure instead of subscribing to Ente's hosted service.
Key Features
End-to-end encryption — Photos, videos, and metadata are encrypted on-device with libsodium (XChaCha20-Poly1305 and Argon2id) before upload, so Ente's servers never have access to unencrypted content.
Open-source, AGPL-3.0 licensed — The full monorepo, covering the mobile apps, desktop apps, web client, and Go backend server, is published on GitHub under the AGPL-3.0 license for public audit.
Self-hosting support — Technically inclined users can deploy their own Ente server from the open-source codebase and connect the official apps to it instead of using Ente's hosted service.
Cross-platform apps — Native apps are available for iOS, Android, F-Droid, Windows, macOS, and Linux, plus a web client, built from a shared Flutter and TypeScript codebase.
Encrypted sharing and collaborative albums — Users can share individual photos or entire albums through end-to-end encrypted links, and invite collaborators to add photos without exposing the rest of the library.
Family plans — A single paid subscription can be shared with up to five additional family members, each getting their own private, encrypted space within the pooled storage quota.
On-device machine learning search — Face recognition and a CLIP-powered magic search run entirely on the user's device, so search indexes and face data stay encrypted and are never processed on Ente's servers.
Independently audited security — Ente's cryptography and source code have been externally audited by Cure53, Symbolic Software, and Fallible, with reports made public for review.
Pros & Cons
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
Yes. Files are encrypted on the user's device with libsodium (XChaCha20-Poly1305 and Argon2id key derivation) before upload, and the encryption keys are derived from the user's password, so Ente's servers never have access to unencrypted photos or videos.
Can I self-host Ente Photos?
Yes. The full server and client codebase is open source under AGPL-3.0 on GitHub, so technically capable users can run their own Ente server and connect the official apps to it instead of using Ente's hosted service.
What does the free plan include?
Ente offers a free plan with 10 GB of storage that remains active as long as the account is used at least once a year.
Does Ente Photos have a family plan?
Yes. Any paid subscription can be shared with up to five additional family members at no extra cost, with each member getting their own encrypted, private space within the pooled storage.
How is Ente Photos different from Google Photos or iCloud Photos?
Unlike Google Photos and iCloud Photos, Ente encrypts content end-to-end on the device before upload, meaning Ente itself cannot view user photos, and its entire codebase is open source and independently audited rather than closed and proprietary.
How does Ente Photos compare to Immich, PhotoPrism, or Nextcloud?
Immich, PhotoPrism, and Nextcloud are self-hosted photo tools that generally require users to manage their own server and typically do not encrypt media end-to-end by default. Ente offers both a polished hosted subscription and a genuine self-hosting option, with end-to-end encryption applied in either case.