Disclaimer: ToS and the actual relationship between a company and its users are not the same. Formal document may contain strict rules that protect the company from misuse but will never be applied to regular users. I’ve never heard of Ente doing anything unreasonable towards its users.
That said, Ente’s terms are worth reading as they change my understanding of some common recommendations. Three examples:
Users often suggest creating two accounts: one for Photos, another for Auth and Locker. Even Ente’s own help page does this.
But in ToS, having two free accounts on Ente is prohibited:
[subscribers] will only maintain one registered account at any given time
[Subscribers agree to] not open multiple free accounts or register for multiple Free Plans.
It’s written a bit poorly: first they allow only one account, then they ask you to pay for at least one to have a second one for free. But even in the most lenient reading, “open a second account for Auth” means “if you already pay for Ente Photos, you can have a second free account for Auth”.
Notably, the same document says violating this rule can lead to immediate account deletion without email reminders. Those reminders are only sent for inactive accounts, which is actually a nice thing to do.
Another thing that wasn’t obvious to me: free plans are considered a trial. So the document prohibits using Ente for free if user has ever paid for a subscription and then downgraded:
If Subscribers cancel a Paid Plan Subscription, they shall no longer be entitled to a Free Plan
I didn’t think about the free plan that way. Probably because of the “10GB free forever” claim on the main page.
Finally:
Subscribers grant us a worldwide, royalty-free license to use, store, back-up, copy, transmit, distribute, communicate, modify and otherwise make available, their Files and Data, solely for the purposes of providing our Services.
Most file hosting and social services have this kind of statement, at least to use publicly shared content to promote the company. It still sounds a bit odd for a privacy-focused photo app. I did not see such statement on other similar services like Proton Drive.
Once again, I’m not sure any of these 3 statements are ever enforced for anything other than protecting Ente’s servers from misuse. Like creating dozens of accounts or storing TBs of data after downgrading to the free plan.