LifetimeMac

Cryptomator

client-side encryption for files you keep in someone else's cloud

Open source

The catch

Only the desktop app is free. iOS and Android each cost €29.99 one-time, and the pricing FAQ states plainly that a licence bought for one platform is not valid for another, so a Mac plus iPhone setup is not free and adding Android pays twice over. Encrypted filenames break some providers' web previews and deduplication, and vaults sync more slowly than plain folders because a small edit rewrites whole chunks. Team key management means the paid Hub product. And it encrypts files, not disks — FileVault is still what protects the Mac itself.

Cryptomator solves one problem properly: your cloud provider can read your files, and you would rather it could not. You point it at a folder inside Dropbox or iCloud Drive, it creates a vault there, and unlocking that vault mounts it as a normal drive you can work in. Everything written to it is encrypted per file, filenames included, before it ever syncs. Dropbox sees a directory of meaningless names.

It is the standard recommendation partly because it is free and open source, and partly because it is boring in the right way — no account, no key escrow, audited, and the format is documented so your files are not hostage to the app.

The honest limits are on mobile and on sync behaviour. The desktop app costs nothing, but the iOS app is a €29.99 purchase and Android another €29.99, and Skymatic says outright that a licence for one platform does not carry to another. Vaults also sync more slowly than plain folders, because editing a large file rewrites encrypted chunks.

If what you actually want is an encrypted cloud service with sharing and recovery built in, this is the wrong shape — Cryptomator has no concept of sharing a vault with a colleague unless you both have the password, and team key management is a separate paid product.

The Cryptomator page at cryptomator.org
Page capture from cryptomator.org, taken 2026-09-22. Images belong to their developers.
  • Per-file AES encryption with encrypted filenames
  • Works inside any cloud folder: Dropbox, iCloud Drive, Google Drive, OneDrive
  • Unlocked vaults mount as ordinary drives on macOS
  • Open source and independently audited
  • No account to create and no vendor holding a copy of your key

The facts

Price
Free
What you get
No licence to buy, and the source is public.
Details
The desktop app is free and open source: "All functional and encryption features are absolutely free to use on the desktop." An optional Supporter Certificate at €29.99 one-time adds cosmetics such as dark mode, not encryption features. The mobile apps are separate one-time purchases at €29.99 each for iOS and for Android, and App Store dollar pricing differs by region. Cryptomator Hub, for team key management, is a separate paid product with a free self-hosted Community edition for five seats and Enterprise from €10,000/year.
Free trial
Yes
On Setapp
No
Minimum macOS
not stated
Developer
Skymatic GmbH
Price checked
2026-09-22 (medium confidence)
Check it yourself
Price band
Free