Varsto and Tresorit
Tresorit is end-to-end encrypted cloud storage and file sharing from Switzerland, aimed mainly at businesses and regulated sectors, with personal plans as well. Its clean, careful interface is one of the inspirations for Varsto's own.
How Tresorit works
You create an account and files are stored in Tresorit's data centres, with data-residency choices for business customers. Files and relevant metadata are encrypted end to end; keys are shared with public-key cryptography. It offers encrypted share links, version history (the number of versions depends on the plan), remote device wipe and apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS and the web.
Side by side
| Tresorit | Varsto | |
|---|---|---|
| Where your files live | In Tresorit's cloud; no own backends. | On your own devices and on storages you choose: S3-compatible buckets, any rclone remote, local or network directories, and pools of removable disks. |
| Account or central server | Account required. | None. There is no Varsto server; devices find each other through your storages and on the LAN. |
| Encryption | End-to-end, zero-knowledge; closed source. | End-to-end, client-side, before anything leaves the device; hybrid post-quantum (ML-KEM for sharing keys, Ed25519 + ML-DSA-65 signatures). Not independently audited yet. |
| Devices online together | Not needed: the cloud holds the copy. | Not needed: devices sync through your storages, and directly peer to peer when they can reach each other. |
| Knows where every copy is | One provider copy; no tracking across your own media. | Yes: a signed ledger records which storage and device holds every block; durability policies (by default 1 copy anywhere, 1 external, 1 on your own devices or disks, checked by another device within 30 days) warn when a rule is not met. |
| Removable and offline disks | No removable-disk workflow. | Yes: disk pools are filled, checked and recognised when they come back; files on a disk that is away ask for that disk. |
| Licence and price | Proprietary; a small free tier and paid personal and business plans. | Source-available (PolyForm Shield 1.0.0), free; you pay only your storage provider. |
| Maturity | Mature commercial service with compliance features. | Alpha: not for production data, formats may still change. |
Which one fits
Tresorit
Choose Tresorit when you need a compliant, supported business service with administration, data residency and polished sharing, and a closed-source provider is acceptable.
Varsto
Choose Varsto when you want comparable end-to-end encryption without a provider in the middle: your own buckets and disks, peer-to-peer transfer between your devices, a record of every copy, and source you can read. Varsto's organisation features (administrators, approvals, removing a person) are new and still alpha.
Varsto is alpha software: do not trust it with data you have no other copy of, and its cryptography has not been independently audited. The other products here are mature. Facts about them were checked from their own documentation in October 2026; prices and plans change often, so see their own pages for current figures. Corrections are welcome on the forum or on GitHub.