AltCatalog
Discontinued Keybase was discontinued in May 2020. The alternatives below are active products you can switch to. All discontinued →

Alternatives to Keybase

Crypto identity and chat, bought by Zoom

None of its 9 checklist rows are verified yet.

Crypto identity and chat, bought by Zoom. Keybase has been discontinued; the active alternatives listed here are maintained products you can switch to.

Most compared with AES CryptageAxCrypt
Official site Suggest an edit Data history Work on Keybase? Claim this page
Who it's for

People and teams who want encrypted messaging and file sharing without trusting a provider with plaintext access, and anyone who wants to cryptographically tie their identity to accounts on other platforms.

What you get

End-to-end encrypted chat, including exploding messages that auto-delete. Teams with shared, encrypted file storage (KBFS) for photos, videos, and documents. A public directory that links your Keybase key to proofs on services like Twitter/X, GitHub, and Reddit, so others can verify who you are. Now owned by Zoom, with continued client and Tor-accessible access.

How it works

Each user holds a public/private key pair; messages and files are encrypted client-side so Keybase's servers only ever see ciphertext. Identity proofs (signed posts on other platforms) are published and checked automatically to bind a Keybase key to real-world accounts, and teams extend the same key-based encryption to group chat and shared file directories.

Why people leave Keybase

Dashed reasons are sourced facts; the rest are opinions. Vendors can dispute.

Sign in to add a reason — new reasons go through moderation before appearing.

Ranked alternatives

Ordered by Alt Score. Click any score to see the breakdown.

Sponsored Paid slot. Never affects the ranked order below. Promote here →
01

AES Crypt is a free, open-source utility (since 2005) for encrypting individual files with the AES-256 cipher, available as both a GUI (right-click integration) and a command-line tool on Windows, mac.

Proprietary WindowsmacOSLinuxAndroid
02
age

Modern, simple file encryption CLI.

BSD-3-Clause WindowsmacOSLinux
03

AxCrypt is a file and folder encryption app that lets users right-click to encrypt individual files with AES-128/256, rather than mounting a container or volume.

WindowsmacOSLinuxiOS +1
04

BestCrypt Container Encryption, from Finnish vendor Jetico, creates mountable encrypted containers on Windows, macOS, Linux and Android, similar in concept to VeraCrypt.

Proprietary WindowsmacOSLinuxAndroid
05

Per-file encryption made for cloud sync.

GPL-3.0 WindowsmacOSLinuxiOS +1
06

DiskCryptor is an open-source Windows encryption tool that can encrypt entire disks, partitions, external drives and file-based containers using AES, Twofish and Serpent.

GPL-3.0 Windows
07

GnuPG for Windows with Kleopatra.

GPL Windows
08

Modern alternative to GPG.

GPL-3.0 WindowsmacOSLinux
09

NordLocker, from the makers of NordVPN, creates password-protected encrypted folders (lockers) on the user's device using AES-256 and Argon2, with drag-and-drop file/folder encryption and optional end.

Proprietary WindowsAndroidiOSWeb +1
10

The reference E2E encrypted messenger, nonprofit-run.

AGPL-3.0 iOSAndroidWindowsmacOS +1
11

Tomb (the Crypto Undertaker), maintained by the Dyne.org Foundation since 2007, is a lightweight shell-script CLI that wraps Linux's cryptsetup/LUKS to create, open and manage encrypted volume files (.

GPL-3.0 LinuxWindows
12

TrueCrypt's audited successor.

Apache-2.0 WindowsmacOSLinux

FAQ

Yes. age, AxCrypt and Cryptomator have a free tier or are fully free. Free-tier limits in the comparison table are verified and dated.

age, Cryptomator and DiskCryptor — every license claim links its source.