Draft:Cryptpad

Open-source end-to-end encrypted collaborative office suite From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

CryptPad is an open-source, end-to-end encrypted collaborative office suite that allows users to create and edit documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms and more in real time while maintaining strong security and privacy protections.[1] Developed by the French company XWiki SAS, CryptPad is designed as a privacy-focused alternative to other mainstream office suites.[2]


Development started in 2015, and it was finally launched to the public as a standalone service three years after, in 2018.

Being open-source and with GNU Affero General Public License version 3 license, users can either choose to use the main instance hosted at cryptpad.fr, with either free or paid tiers, or host their own on their server.[1]

History

  • 2015: Initial development began as part of XWiki’s research into privacy-focused collaboration tools.
  • 2018: CryptPad officially launched as a standalone service.
  • 2019: The project received funding from the Next Generation Internet Zero (NGI0) initiative by the European Commission,[3] with which it focused on adding advanced team/group management features, encrypted shared folders with permission visibility, key-rotation protocols for securely removing members, and encrypted mailboxes for delivering new keys and notifications.[4]
  • 2021: Introduction of Documents and Presentation apps integrated from OnlyOffice, for the client-side code.[5] Other features that were completed were secure mobile collaboration, CryptPad for communities and performance improvements, funded by NLnet, Mozilla Open Source Seed Award and NGI.[6]
  • 2022: Continuation of development with new features such as encrypted file storage and offline mode.[1]
  • 2024: The funding by NGI0 ended, with the cryptographic improvements having met the requirements.[4][3]
  • 2025: The United Nations adopted CryptPad instead of Google Forms. [7][8] CryptPad was selected in the 7th round of funding by the NGI Zero Commons.

Features

CryptPad provides a variety of tools with a shared feature set. The tools included in the suite are rich text documents, spreadsheets, kanban boards, whiteboards, presentations, polls and forms and code editors.[9] It is meant to be used in the browser and with an internet connection.

Real-time simultaneous editing

All applications in CryptPad support simultaneous editing, allowing multiple users to work on the same document in real time. Changes are synchronized using the ChainPad engine, which ensures consistency without exposing plaintext data to the server.[10]

Security and encryption

Another feature is the encryption security model. All content is encrypted on the client before being sent to the server using XChaCha20-Poly1305. The data that the application manages is sent to the server, but the latter cannot decrypt it as it does not have the keys. It is, therefore, a zero-knowledge system, as encryption and decryption occur only on the user's device, not on the service provider's servers.[11] Regarding the CryptPad drive, the server only sees encrypted filenames; it cannot read its content nor the filename.[1] On the other hand, no account is needed to create a document. Registered users can add an extra layer of security by protecting a document with a password, or by setting the expiry date of a document, so that it self-destructs.

Teams

The documents can be private, public or shared with a team. The team feature allows group of people to have access to a shared folder with documents, spreadsheets, images, etc. Each user in a team can be either administrator, contributor or viewer roles. In the flagship CryptPad instance, users are allowed to belong to 5 different teams with the free plan.[4]

Because it is free software, it can also be deployed on any server without any license, therefore it can be used in the CryptPad-hosted platform or it can be self-hosted.[1][11] Users and developers can modify functionality to meet their needs and distribute it.[1]

Technology

It is built using javascript on both the frontend and the backend (Node.js). It uses the NoFlo flow-based programming framework and ChainPad is the real-time synchronization engine.

Files are encrypted using the XChaCha20-Poly1305 encryption algorithm, and user authentication is handled via Ed25519 cryptographic signatures. The encryption keys are stored on your drive. [12]

Regarding the documents, presentations and spreadsheet features, it is an integration with OnlyOffice, only for the client-side, while it does not make use of OnlyOffice's document server. The features it uses from it are some file conversions, with work having been done to shift the weight from the server to the client, in order not to reveal the contents of users' documents while performing the conversion.[13]

Business model and sustainability

By 2021, most of the funding came from the Next Generation Internet program by the European Union.[6]

In 2025, Dubost explained that “CryptPad currently has about 20% of its funding from CryptPad.fr subscriptions and from donations” [7], but that this was not enough for the service to be sustainable.

Reception

CryptPad has been praised by privacy advocates and open-source communities for its strong encryption model. It is used by journalists, activists, and organizations requiring secure collaboration.[14] It has been adopted by decentralization proponents in events such as the DWeb Camp gathering. [15]

In 2020, It's FOSS reviewer noted that, people with poor connectivity may want to refrain from the service as "... I’ve lost my progress (the auto-save failed) ..."[16], while valuing its privacy-first approach, while highlighting the importance of its open-source, strong encryption and ownership of one's data.[16]

In 2025, the United Nations adopted CryptPad, being the first Global intergovernmental organization to do so.

See Also

External Links

References

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