CryptPad

European Alternative to:

• Google Docs
• Notion

An end-to-end encrypted office suite, developed by the French company XWiki and funded in part by European research grants over the years. CryptPad covers documents, spreadsheets, presentations, kanban boards, code, forms, polls and a whiteboard. All of it is encrypted in your browser, so the server hosting it can't read what you write.

What's in the suite

• Rich-text documents and a code/markdown editor
• Spreadsheets and presentations (based on OnlyOffice), edited collaboratively
• Kanban boards, forms, polls and a whiteboard
• Real-time collaboration where the server only ever sees ciphertext
• CryptDrive for organising your encrypted files

How access works

You don't need an account to start a document. Share the link and collaborators can join. Registering gives you more storage and a place to keep your files. It's open source and you can self-host the whole thing.

Where to use it

There's a free public instance run from France at cryptpad.fr with storage limits, and XWiki sells managed hosting and support for organisations. The trade-off versus Google Docs is performance and polish: large documents can feel heavier, and some advanced features aren't there. In exchange, the host genuinely can't read your work.