CryptPad vs Notion

Why Switch from Notion to CryptPad?

Notion has become the go-to tool for notes, wikis, and project management, but it comes with a fundamental trade-off: everything you write is stored unencrypted on Notion’s US-based servers. Notion can read your documents, and under US law (including the CLOUD Act), so can US government agencies. For anyone working with sensitive information — whether personal, commercial, or political — this is not a theoretical concern.

CryptPad, developed by French company XWiki SAS and funded by the EU’s Next Generation Internet program, takes a radically different approach. Every document, spreadsheet, and presentation is end-to-end encrypted in your browser before it ever reaches the server. This zero-knowledge architecture means that not even CryptPad’s operators can access your content. It is privacy not as a policy, but as a mathematical guarantee.

CryptPad is not trying to replicate Notion’s database-driven workspace — it is a different kind of tool for people who believe their documents should be private by default. It offers rich text editing, spreadsheets, presentations, kanban boards, whiteboards, and code editing, all with real-time collaboration and all fully encrypted.

Feature Comparison

Feature	CryptPad	Notion
End-to-end encryption	✅ All documents, by default	❌ No encryption at rest for users
Real-time collaboration	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Rich text documents	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Spreadsheets	✅ Basic	✅ Basic (table views)
Kanban boards	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Databases / relational views	❌ Not available	✅ Core feature
Open source	✅ AGPL license	❌ Proprietary
Self-hostable	✅ Yes	❌ No
Account required	❌ Not for shared docs	✅ Yes
Data location	France 🇪🇺	United States 🇺🇸

Pricing

CryptPad’s pricing is transparent and simple, reflecting its non-profit ethos:

• CryptPad Free: All apps, 1 GB storage, no account needed for shared documents
• CryptPad Premium: From 5 EUR/month — 50 GB storage, priority support
• CryptPad Team: Custom pricing for organizations with shared team drives
• CryptPad Self-Hosted: Free (you provide the server infrastructure)
• Notion Free: Unlimited pages for individuals, 7-day page history
• Notion Plus: $10/user/month — unlimited file uploads, 30-day page history
• Notion Business: $18/user/month — SAML SSO, advanced permissions, 90-day history

CryptPad is significantly cheaper than Notion for teams, and the self-hosted option is entirely free. The price difference reflects CryptPad’s non-commercial, EU-funded development model versus Notion’s venture-capital-backed growth strategy.

Privacy & Data Sovereignty

CryptPad’s privacy model is fundamentally different from any commercial productivity tool:

• All content is end-to-end encrypted in your browser — the server only stores encrypted blobs it cannot read
• Zero-knowledge architecture means even CryptPad administrators have no access to your documents
• No tracking pixels, no analytics on your usage patterns, no profiling
• Fully open source (AGPL) — the encryption implementation is auditable by anyone
• Self-hosting gives you complete physical control over all data
• Funded by EU public money (NGI program), not by venture capital that demands data monetization
• No US jurisdiction exposure — XWiki SAS is a French company, data stays in France

Migration Guide

Estimated time: 1-2 hours for individual use; half a day for team migration Difficulty: Easy for basic documents; moderate if migrating complex Notion databases

1. Create a CryptPad account — sign up at cryptpad.fr (the flagship instance) or choose a community instance closer to you. No email verification is required; accounts are pseudonymous by default.
2. Set up your team drive — if you are migrating a team, create a CryptPad team and invite members. Set up shared folders that mirror your Notion workspace structure.
3. Export content from Notion — use Notion’s export function (Settings > Workspace > Export) to download your pages as Markdown or HTML files. Note that Notion databases will export as CSV files.
4. Import documents into CryptPad — create new CryptPad documents and paste or import your content. Rich text documents accept Markdown input. Spreadsheet data can be imported from CSV.
5. Recreate workflows — Notion databases do not have a direct equivalent in CryptPad. Use kanban boards for project tracking, spreadsheets for structured data, and rich text pads for documentation. Adjust your workflow to fit CryptPad’s document-centric model.
6. Share and bookmark — share document links with team members. CryptPad links contain the encryption key in the URL fragment (after the #), which is never sent to the server. Bookmark important documents or pin them to your drive.

Real-World Use Cases

Investigative Journalists Protect Sources

A European investigative journalism collective switched from Notion to a self-hosted CryptPad instance after concerns about US government access to their research notes. CryptPad’s zero-knowledge encryption ensured that even if their server was seized, the documents would be unreadable without the encryption keys held only by the journalists. The ability to share documents without requiring accounts was critical for communicating with sensitive sources.

University Research Team Collaborates Securely

A research group at a French university adopted CryptPad for collaborative paper writing and data analysis planning after their institution flagged GDPR concerns with US-hosted tools. The self-hosted instance, running on the university’s own servers, satisfied the ethics board’s requirements for data sovereignty. Students appreciated that they could participate in document editing without creating accounts.

Privacy-Focused NGO Replaces Multiple Tools

A Berlin-based digital rights NGO migrated from a combination of Notion, Google Docs, and Trello to CryptPad. The kanban boards replaced Trello for campaign planning, rich text pads replaced Google Docs for collaborative drafting, and the team drive replaced Notion as the central knowledge base. The consolidation reduced their attack surface and eliminated their dependency on three US-based services simultaneously.

Company Background

CryptPad is developed by XWiki SAS, a French open-source software company founded in 2004 by Ludovic Dubost in Paris, France. XWiki originally focused on its namesake enterprise wiki platform, but began developing CryptPad in 2014 as a research project to explore zero-knowledge encryption for collaborative editing. The initial work was supported by a grant from the French government’s BPI France innovation agency.

CryptPad has received significant funding from the European Union’s Next Generation Internet (NGI) program, specifically through NGI TRUST grants administered by the NLnet Foundation. This EU public funding model is fundamental to CryptPad’s character: unlike most productivity tools backed by venture capital, CryptPad is developed with public interest as its primary mandate. Additional funding has come from European research grants and donations from the open-source community.

By 2024, XWiki SAS employed approximately 50 people across its Paris office and remote positions. CryptPad’s user base has grown substantially, with the flagship instance at cryptpad.fr serving hundreds of thousands of users, and hundreds of independent CryptPad instances deployed worldwide by universities, NGOs, research institutions, and privacy-conscious organizations. The project has been recognized by the Free Software Foundation Europe and has received awards from digital rights organizations. CryptPad’s development is driven by a small but dedicated team of privacy engineers who believe that encryption should be the default, not the exception.

Security & Compliance

CryptPad’s security model is built on the fundamental principle of zero-knowledge encryption, providing mathematically guaranteed privacy:

• Zero-knowledge architecture: All content is encrypted client-side in the user’s browser before transmission; the server stores only encrypted blobs it cannot decrypt
• Open-source auditability: Full source code published under the AGPL license, enabling independent security audits of the encryption implementation
• GDPR compliance: As a French company with zero-knowledge architecture, CryptPad exceeds GDPR requirements — personal data is protected by encryption even from the service operator
• End-to-end encryption: AES-256 encryption for all document content, with encryption keys derived from URLs and never transmitted to the server
• No metadata leakage: Minimized metadata collection by design; the server knows as little as possible about users and their documents
• Self-hosting option: Organizations requiring maximum control can deploy their own CryptPad instance, eliminating any trust dependency on third parties
• EU-funded development: Development funded by EU public money (NGI program), ensuring no commercial pressure to weaken encryption or monetize user data
• Regular security reviews: Independent security assessments funded through EU research grants, with findings published transparently

Integration Ecosystem

CryptPad is designed as a self-contained encrypted collaboration suite, with integrations focused on privacy-preserving workflows:

• Self-hosted deployment: Full CryptPad server deployable via Docker or manual installation on any Linux server, with comprehensive documentation
• OnlyOffice integration: Optional integration with OnlyOffice for enhanced spreadsheet and presentation capabilities within the encrypted environment
• File import/export: Support for importing and exporting documents in standard formats including Markdown, HTML, and plain text
• Spreadsheet import: CSV import capability for bringing structured data into CryptPad’s encrypted spreadsheet application
• Embed support: CryptPad documents can be embedded in external websites via iframe, with access controlled by the encryption key in the URL fragment
• LDAP authentication: Enterprise deployments can configure LDAP integration for user authentication through their existing directory services
• SSO support: Single Sign-On integration available for organizational deployments requiring centralized authentication
• CryptPad API: Server-side API for instance administrators to manage users, storage quotas, and server configuration programmatically

Who Should Switch?

CryptPad is ideal for:

• Privacy advocates and journalists who need mathematically guaranteed document confidentiality
• Researchers and academics working with sensitive data under institutional ethics requirements
• NGOs and activist organizations that cannot risk their documents being accessible to any government
• Developers and sysadmins who want a self-hosted collaboration suite they fully control
• Students who want a free, privacy-respecting alternative to commercial productivity tools

The Bottom Line

CryptPad and Notion serve overlapping but fundamentally different needs. Notion is a powerful, polished workspace for teams that need databases, relational views, and deep integrations. CryptPad is a privacy-first collaboration suite for people who believe their documents should be unreadable by anyone other than the intended recipients.

If you need Notion’s database features, CryptPad is not a drop-in replacement. But if your primary needs are collaborative document editing, spreadsheets, presentations, and kanban boards — and you care about privacy — CryptPad offers something no commercial tool can: end-to-end encryption as a default, not an add-on. The fact that it is open source, self-hostable, and funded by EU public money makes it a genuinely independent European alternative.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does zero-knowledge encryption mean in practice?

Zero-knowledge encryption means that your documents are encrypted in your browser before they are sent to the server. The server stores only encrypted data and never has access to the encryption keys. This means that even CryptPad's own administrators cannot read your documents — only people you share the link with can decrypt the content.

Can I use CryptPad for team collaboration like Notion?

Yes. CryptPad supports real-time collaborative editing on rich text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, kanban boards, whiteboards, and code editors. You can create teams with shared drives, manage permissions, and organize documents into folders. The key difference is that everything is end-to-end encrypted.

Is CryptPad really funded by the EU?

Yes. CryptPad has received funding from the European Union's Next Generation Internet (NGI) program, specifically through NGI TRUST and NLnet Foundation grants. This EU funding supports the development of privacy-respecting internet technologies. The company behind CryptPad, XWiki SAS, is a French open-source software company based in Paris.

Can I self-host CryptPad?

Yes. CryptPad is fully open source under the AGPL license and can be self-hosted on your own server. This gives you complete control over your data and infrastructure. Many European universities, NGOs, and companies run their own CryptPad instances. The self-hosting documentation is comprehensive and the community is supportive.

How does CryptPad compare to Google Docs in terms of features?

CryptPad includes rich text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, kanban boards, whiteboards, polls, and a code/markdown editor — all with real-time collaboration. It lacks some advanced spreadsheet features (pivot tables, complex formulas) and does not have an equivalent to Google Forms. The trade-off is that every document is end-to-end encrypted, which no Google product offers.