Cryptee is an Estonian-incorporated privacy-first Progressive Web App for encrypted photos, documents, notes, journal entries, files, and personal media, founded on 1 June 2018 by John Ozbay (a cybersecurity researcher, designer, and privacy activist based in Tallinn) and 100% bootstrapped with no outside investment. The product is engineered as a Google Photos / Google Docs / iCloud Photos / Evernote replacement for users who specifically want their cloud data to be unreadable to anyone except themselves: every document, note, photo, and file is encrypted client-side with AES-256 before it leaves the device, and Cryptee mathematically cannot read the content. The source code is open and publicly available for independent audit. Cryptee positions itself as particularly relevant for victims and survivors of domestic abuse, journalists and reporters, and activists: users whose threat model assumes the cloud provider could be coerced.
For an EU-sovereignty audit Cryptee is structurally exemplary. Estonia is an EU member with a long-standing reputation for digital infrastructure and e-Residency, and crucially Estonia is outside the Five-Eyes / Nine-Eyes / Fourteen-Eyes intelligence-sharing arrangements, a positioning argument the vendor makes explicitly. Combined with zero-knowledge encryption, AGPL-style code openness, and a bootstrapped cap table with no US capital, Cryptee delivers an exceptionally clean EU-owned, EU-hosted, no CLOUD Act exposure posture. Privacy advocacy partnerships include the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Privacy International. As a small solo-led operation, Cryptee does not pursue formal ISO 27001 / SOC 2 attestations.
Pricing in EUR: Free tier (limited storage); €3/month (Plus); €9/month (Pro); €27/month (Studio); annual discounts available. No SSO, audit log, or on-prem options at this scale. Best fit: individual privacy-conscious users, journalists, activists, NGOs, and small teams whose threat model demands true zero-knowledge encryption and minimal regulatory surface area. Procurement-grade enterprise buyers with SSO/audit/compliance documentation needs should choose Proton Drive or Tresorit instead.