What is the best alternative to EncFS?

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score 29 · Answer 1

Cryptomator

Top Pro

Client-side

No accounts. No backdoors. See More

Top Con

Android version is paid

Top Pro

Free and open source

Top Con

Bugs with deleting of files

Sometimes files cannot be deleted and there is no working solution/fix available yet See More

Top Pro

Transparent encryption

Top Con

Current WebDAV is a buggy on Windows

The used WebDAV implemention shows wrong available capacity and has a limitation in the file size. The developers are aware of these problems and working on a better solution. See More

Top Pro

AES individual file encryption

Top Con

Compatible with Android versions 4.3 and up only

Top Pro

Passphrase bruteforce protection (scrypt)

Top Con

Slower speeds

Encypting speeds are slower then regular uploads, larger files particularly video files often cannot complete transfer without errors. See More

Top Pro

Virtual hard drive file access

Drag and drop. See More

Top Con

No camera upload functionality

Cannot automatically back up photos on mobile devices replacing the need for Google drive or iOS fully. User then has to go and either manually select photos for upload or use cloud service and then encrypt defeating the purpose on mobile clients. See More

Top Pro

Fast encryption and decryption

Top Pro

Multi-platform

Available for Windows, Mac and Linux on desktop and iOS, Android for mobile. See More

Top Pro

Works with any cloud platform

Works with any cloud-based services, including Dropbox and Google Drive. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android

Technology:Java

Open Source:Yes

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29 2

score 128 · Answer 2

GNU Privacy Guard

Top Pro

Cross-platform

GPG works on OS X, Linux, and Windows with extensive selection of wrappers. See More

Top Con

It may be hard to find a GUI frontend that suits your needs

If you decide not to use the CLI version of GPG, it may be hard to find a GPG GUI version that suits your needs simply because of the sheer number of different versions available. See More

Top Pro

Multiple types of encryption algorithms

GPG supports public key cryptography (RSA EIGamal, DSA), symmetrical key algorithms (Blowfish, AES, IDEA, etc), cryptographic hash functions (RIPEMD, SHA), and compression (ZIP, ZLIB, BZIP2). See More

Top Pro

Supports paired keys

Allows for encrypted communication. See More

Top Pro

Volume and individual file encryption

With GPG you can encrypt you whole volume or files individually. See More

Top Pro

Supports expiring signatures

GPG keys by default expire after a set amount of time. The amount can be changed and this feature can be turned off. See More

Top Pro

Both CLI and GUI versions available

GPG can be installed as a command line tool, or you can choose between several different GUI frontends available for it. See More

Top Pro

Open-source and battle-tested

GPG is the oldest and most reliable encryption software available. See More

Specs

Open Source:Yes

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128 1

score 76 · Answer 3

VeraCrypt

Top Pro

Free

This project is free and users are encouraged to donate something to keep the project going. See More

Top Con

Can't create volumes on the Mac.

The password used to create the volume doesn't open the volume one minute later. VeraCrypt 1.21/FUSE 3.82/macOS 10.12.6. Recreated on 3 Macs now. Unusable. See More

Top Pro

Regular updates

Veracrypt is in active development with constant and regular updates and several external audits in the planning stages. See More

Top Con

Not plug and play

Requires some tech savvy, so some skill is required, particularly if things go wrong. In the Windows world different UEFI implementations can cause problems in one, not in others, and the solutions are not uniform between issues. For Bitlocker, Microsoft worked out issues with vendors before hand, so if Windows installs and works without bitlocker, it will likely work with it. See More

Top Pro

Multiplatform

Veracrypt is supported on MacOS, Linux and Windows. See More

Top Con

The UI is not compliant with the Mac

This program does not use Mac UI standards. Nevertheless, it is acceptable. See More

Top Pro

Open source code

The source code is open to review. It has already had a security audit and it did well, with small problems fixed by authors within days of being reported. Its predecessor source, Truecrypt, had a detailed audit that found its capabilities sound, completed (ironically) shortly before the TC folks decided to call it quits. Anyone skeptical or curious about what it does can see how it works, at the gut level. See More

Top Pro

On-the-fly encryption

Veracrypt is an on-the-fly encryption tool. Meaning that it decrypts files only when they are needed and that the files are otherwise kept encrypted the rest of the time. See More

Top Pro

Several encryption cyphers supported

Supports AES, TwoFish and Serpent encryption cyphers. See More

Top Pro

Built on top of TrueCrypt

Top Pro

Easy to use

It's easy to understand and use. See More

Top Pro

Support for AES code in CPU

Most Intel and AMD (and possibly other) CPUs have AES specific instruction sets, so you needn't task the CPU during the en/de/crypt process when using AES, VC throughput is as if the code were in 'firmware'; you can see the effect if you choose anything but AES as your cipher. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac

Open Source:Yes

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76 10

score 17 · Answer 4

dm-crypt via LUKS

Top Pro

Flexible

Encrypt whole disks, removable media, software RAID, partitions, files and logical volumes. See More

Top Con

Requires advanced command line knowledge

In order to use dm-crypt you need to have advanced knowledge of Linux and of the command line, as well as the Linux filesystem. However, most distros support easy creation of LUKS-encrypted drives when installing Linux transparently. See More

Top Pro

Native Linux support

It offers the best integration and ease of use on Linux. See More

Top Pro

Free and open-source

Open-source for cryptography is a requirement, not just a bonus. See More

Top Pro

Support for multiple keys/passwords

If several people should be able to decrypt a volume, each one can have their own password/key. See More

Specs

Platforms:Linux

17 5

score 2 · Answer 5

AES Protect

Top Pro

It is portable

Top Con

Not available for Android, iOS

Top Pro

It doesn't make their mark on file like xyz.aes .Simply you give any name

Top Con

Its time to encrypt or decrypt is little bit slow

Approx takes a 500mb file 1 or 2 minutes to encrypt/decrypt. See More

Top Pro

His AES Metal provides many types of encryption

If you it download from directorandgeneral.com then it comes with small size portable software that contain AES protect,AES metal,AES command [whole software size 37kb approx].If you want High encrption then AES Metal give random or manual Key of Numbers without Passphrase. See More

Top Con

If you forget password then there is no way to get it back from software or site

So keep safe your password if you encrypt any important file. See More

Top Pro

It encrypt almost any file

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2 0

score 6 · Answer 6

Disk Utility

Top Pro

Native OS X support

It offers the best integration, ease of use and support with OS X. See More

Top Con

Mac only

Disk Utility is available for OSX only. See More

Top Pro

Disk image and volume encryption

You can create a disk image that requires a password to mount. It can use a different filesystem than OS X, like exFAT, that can be used to move files between Windows and OS X. Additionally, you can encrypt file volumes by right-clicking and selecting encrypt. See More

6 1

score 1 · Answer 7

CipherShed

Top Pro

Built on top of TrueCrypt

CipherShed is built on top of the famous and now abandoned TrueCrypt and it comes with a lot of things that TrueCrypt had. See More

Top Con

Difficult to enhance key derivation

Since CipherShed decided to keep the TrueCrypt compatibility, and stick with that format they also have to stick with TrueCrypt's key derivation which was released in 2004 and understandably does not offer the same security that it did when first released. See More

Top Pro

Completely free

CipherShed is completely free and open source. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Available on Windows, OS X and Linux See More

1 0

score 15 · Answer 8

AxCrypt

Top Pro

Easy to share encrypted files

AxCrypt has a build in key sharing. See More

Top Con

Supports all major plattforms

Top Pro

Self-extracting archives

AxCrypt can create encrypted archives that extract without requiring AxCrypt on the computer. So you can send a file to someone safely, they just need the password. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

Integrates with right-click menu for easy access. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Mac, Android, iOS

15 5

score 550 · Answer 9

JavaScript

Top Pro

Required for web development

If you are looking to create web projects, you will have to learn Javascript in order to develop the client side code. If you learn the foundations of programming in JavaScript you can reapply that education later in building web applications. See More

Top Con

Many errors pass silently

JavaScript looks for every possible way to treat the code you write as runnable and is very reluctant to point out likely errors. For example, you have call a function with too many arguments, the extra arguments are simply discarded. See More

Top Pro

Runs on both the browser and the server

With Node.js, it is now possible to run JavaScript as a web server. This would allow you to be able to create server based applications sooner than would if you had to learn a separate programming language as well for server side code. As JavaScript is the only language supported by web browsers it puts it in the unique situation of being the only programming language that's available on both the client side and server side. See More

Top Con

Weird type coercions

'5' - 1 == 4, but '5' + 1 == 51. There are other examples that make even less sense. See More

Top Pro

No installation required

If you run a web browser you already have JavaScript installed and can get started right away. Modern browsers such as Chrome also have very powerful programming consoles built into them. Aside from the browser console, you can also use online Javascript playgrounds such as JS Bin and JS Fiddle. Even from a tablet. See More

Top Con

Does not teach you about data types

Since JavaScript is a weakly typed language, you don't have to learn about data types if you start using JavaScript as your first language. Data types being one of the most important concepts in programming. This will also cause trouble in the long run when you will have to (inevitably) learn and work with a strongly or statically typed language because you will be forced to learn the type system from scratch. See More

Top Pro

First-class functions with lexical closures

While certainly not the only language with these features, this pro alone is so powerful that it compensates for most of JavaScript's problems. You'll learn to use closures and higher-order functions well in JavaScript, because you have to. And then you can generalize this knowledge to any other language that has these, and the good ones do. See More

Top Con

Easy to accidentally use globals

If you forget a var or new, you can clobber the global scope. For tiny scripts (JavaScript's original use case) globals are great, but for larger applications globals are generally regarded as a Bad Thing. This is because changes to one small part of a program can randomly break things anywhere else. These kinds of bugs are notoriously hard to find. See More

Top Pro

Massive ecosystem

JavaScript has one of the largest programming ecosystems, as shown by the being the most popular language for projects on GitHub. As there are so many projects written in JavaScript there are lots of libraries available to build off of and many of them are written to be easy to use and integrate into other projects. There are also lots of resources available for learning JavaScript. Other than traditional tutorials, language learning sites such as Codecademy have JavaScript courses. The Mozilla Developer Database also serves as a great resource for learning about the standard libraries built into JavaScript. See More

Top Con

The "this" keyword doesn't mean what you think it means

this is bound to whatever object called the function. Unless you invoke it as a method. Unless you invoke it as a constructor. Unless it's an arrow function. See More

Top Pro

High demand for JavaScript developers

If you're looking for a career as a developer, JavaScript is the place to focus your attention. There is a huge demand for good developers especially in frameworks such as React and Angular. See More

Top Con

Complex

JavaScript has a long litany of warts and gotchas. JavaScript will bite you if you're just a wee bit careless. You have to exercise a great deal of caution and awareness. You either have to know the entire 545-page ES6 spec to avoid them all, or use a linter to help restrict you from using the bad parts (and you still have to be familiar with the language), but beginners don't know these things. (Linters are also prone to time-wasting false positives.) This is a significant cognitive burden on even the experienced programmer (as if coding wasn’t hard enough already), but try learning to program in the first place on top of all of this and you'll understand that JavaScript is a terrible choice for the beginner. See More

Top Pro

Instant gratification

While it's easy to argue that Python will give you 'instant gratification' (while actually ruining your understanding of good programming practices), JavaScript is far better in this regard. Make a small change to a page and it's immediately visible in the browser. You can throw in a JavaScript library like jQuery with minimal fuss. See More

Top Con

Each browser has its own quirks when executing the same code in some cases

Beginner programmers often make the mistake of coding something, seeing it works in the browser they tested it in, and then scratching their heads when it doesn't work in another browser. Ideally you'd want a language that works consistently across all platforms in order to be able to focus more on the programming and less on the underlying environment. It just takes time away from learning and forces you to spend time figuring out why this worked in browser X but not browser Y. See More

Top Pro

C-like syntax

After learning Javascript, you will feel at home in other languages as C-like syntax is very common. See More

Top Con

Easy to fall into bad manners and bad mind structure

It wouldn't consolidate a good mind structure for moving to other languages. Too open. See More

Top Pro

Easy to build an application

By using the UI capabilities in HTML and CSS you can develop substantial applications with graphical interfaces more quickly and with less effort than in other languages which would require you to learn a windowing library. Building a useful application is one of the best ways to learn a new language and because of the low learning curve for creating applications you can create more substatial programs and learn more practical programming priciple faster. See More

Top Con

Limited standard library

Much often needed functionality is not in the standard library. (Contrast with Python.) However, there are well established libraries such as Lodash, to fill the gap (however, due to the diverse/fractured ecosystem it may not be clear what library to use). See More

Top Pro

JSON is native to JS

JSON is arguably a "must-learn". With JS, that's one less additional syntax to learn. See More

Top Con

The constant churn of tooling and language

Trying to keep up=javascript fatigue. You won't have time to learn anything else if this is your first language, and you will probably think all programmers are crazy. Plus web assembly may open the door for better alternatives. See More

Top Pro

Can be very simple (teachable)

By setting a few ground-rules (effectively coding in a subset of JS), JS is one of the simplest languages to learn (requiring very few must-learn prerequisite concepts). See More

Top Con

Many tutorials, code, and resources, are structured for older ES5 code

Top Pro

Great tools for development

Flow, JSHint/ESLint, Babel, npm, etc. See More

Top Con

Asynchronous coding is not easy for beginners

JavaScript can work synchronously but its current use is mainly around asynchronous instructions, and it's surely not a good way to start learning programming. See More

Top Pro

Modern ESNext is far better than the JS of days past

Modern JS has made great strides, and can be targerted to older (or non-standard) browsers using Babel. There are new language constructs that can make programming in JS comfortable.; e.g.: async / await ( <3 ). See More

Top Con

The `null` and `undefined` objects aren't really objects

Therefore, attempts to call methods on them will fail. This is especially frustrating since these are often returned instead of throwing exceptions. So a failure may appear far away from the actual cause, which makes bugs very hard to find. See More

Top Pro

Very good debugger

Has a built in debugger with break points, watches that work on local values, and a console that you can use to edit anything at any time. Both in the browser (eg: Chrome), and server (eg: Nodejs). See More

Top Con

Array-like objects

Many cases when you should get an Array, you just get an Array-like object instead and none of the Array methods work on it. See More

Top Pro

Complete dev stack can be run online

With codepen.io and other prototyping tools, you can learn Javascript from a mobile device. You don't even need a computer. It can be learned from an internet cafe or public library. See More

Top Con

Fast moving

The language and the web platform move fast these days. this makes it difficult for students as there is a lot of fragmentation and outdated information. See More

Top Pro

Speed (most implementations)

JS/ES is in the running for the fastest interpreted language given the optimizations and JIT integration of popular implementations. On the other hand, it fails utterly when compared with compiled (to native or VM code) languages. See More

Top Con

Numbers that begin with 0 are assumed octal

This is very surprising for beginners. Especially since 00 through 07 seem to work just fine. And this isn't just for hardcoded numbers. The parseInt() function has the same problem, but only on some systems. See More

Top Pro

Several Platforms to use the web stack and JS to create multi-platform apps

Opens the door to native application development as well as just websites. Use with React Native, Weex or Quasar (Vue), PhoneGap or Cordova, NativeScript... (etc) to build native apps. Use mostly the same code base for multi-platform and web. See More

Top Con

Good tools are pretty much a MUST for new programmers

You really want to be using a good editor (light IDE) and a linter, type checker (e.g.:Flow), etc. until you grok the language. And choosing / setting-up that development environment is it's own learning curve. If taught in a classroom, using a subset of JS with solid tools, there is an argument that JS could be an ideal first language... however, that is a lot of ceremony to protect the new programmer from JS gotchas. But without the tools, JS can be a very painful painful first language (trying to figure out why your code isn't doing what you intended). See More

Top Pro

Atwood's Law "Any application that can be written in JavaScript, will eventually be written in JavaScript."

May also be a con. See More

Top Con

The language itself is not very appealing to developers.

JS is one of the most dreaded languages as it was designed for the purpose of becoming just an scripting language for a browser. It was never intended to take over as the leading technology in web development, thus the language has been streched past its own capabilities. A beginer should learn something else first, something that is better conceived and refined. See More

Top Pro

Prototype based Object Oriented System

Being object oriented, it supports the predominate and powerful programming approach. Being prototype based, it provides an intuitive approach to OOP. Whereas other popular languages use classes, which focus on thinking in the abstract, Javascript's prototypes allow you to focus on thinking in the concrete. For example, in a prototypical language, you think of a rectangle, and define it. You now have a rectangle. Let's say you want a red rectangle, you copy the rectangle and give it the property red. Want a blue one? Copy rectangle again give it a blue. Big blue rectangle? Copy blue rectangle and make it big. In a class-based language, first you describe a rectangle, describe a red rectangle as a type of rectangle, describe blue and big blue rectangles, and now that you have described them, you must create instances of them, and only then do you have the rectangles. Essentially: Classes are factories for objects, prototypes are objects themselves, and the latter method was created to be more intuitive, which is particularly advantageous to beginners. See More

Top Con

Very confusing to read

Top Pro

One of the most underestimated languages

deviously simple in syntax, yet highly powerful in paradigms, this language does not force you to the (actually intrinsically broken) object oriented paradigm, has a healthy dose of functional programming inside, and does not bloat the keyword space. Good javascript is all about structure. Bad javascript is all about lazy hipsters not taking the time to learn 'javascript, the good parts', a must read. See More

Top Con

Has really bad parts you're better off avoiding altogether

But beginners won't know better. And even after you learn, you might have to deal with others' code that uses the bad stuff. JavaScript was originally developed in 10 days. It just wasn't designed that carefully. See More

Top Pro

Integrates very well with UE4

Coding an immersive 3D game can retain the attention of new programmers. ncsoft/Unreal.js. See More

Top Con

Fractured ecosystem

Angular, React, Ember, Meteor, Backbone, Knockout, Express, Mithril, Aurelia. The web frameworks pass in and out of fashion too quickly to keep up with. The endless civil wars are becoming tiresome. See More

Top Pro

Extremely popular

JavaScript usually tops the lists for most popular languages in use today and rightly so. It's used almost everywhere and it's in high demand, making it very easy to find a job for anyone who knows JavaScript. This helps make it desirable for a first language, as it will often be used in the future. See More

Top Con

Counter-intuitive type conversion

JavaScript is rather inconsistent when dealing with different types. For example, when working with the + operator and two numbers, they will be added, two strings will be concatenated: 3+5; // 8; "Hello "+"world"; // "Hello world" When using + with a string and a non-string operand, the non-string operand is converted to a string and the result is concatenated: "the answer is "+42; // "the answer is 42" "this is "+true; // "this is true" In any other case (except for Date) the operands are converted to numbers and the results are added: 1+true; // = 1+1 = 2; null+false; // = 0+0 = 0; See More

Top Pro

The most used language in the whole Solar System in amount of scripts/applications

Because it runs in many different environments, it is the most used language in the world. See More

Specs

Engine:V8/ChakraCore

Author:Ryan Dahl/Joyent

Version(Latest):12.x

ECMAScript Modules:Available (as a flag) (only on Node 8.x-10.x)

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550 243

score 5 · Answer 10

BitLocker

Top Con

Proprietary

No public audits possible. Microsoft could want or be legally required to puts backdoors without users knowledge. See More

Top Pro

Multiple authentication methods

You can use a combination of methods consisting of Trusted Platform Module, PIN, and a passphrase on a USB thumb stick. See More

Top Pro

Native Windows support

It offers the best integration, ease of use and support with Ultimate and Enterprise editions of Microsoft's Windows Vista and Windows 7, and with the Pro and Enterprise editions of Windows 8. See More

Top Pro

Volume-based encryption

BitLocker allows encrypting an entire volume including the OS. See More

5 9