I’m currently using Filen for small file storage and have been quite happy with it. However, Peergos has frequently caught my attention and seems like a great project, especially after their latest update:
My only gripe is the feature set looks like much more than I personally need, but I know I can simply not use them. Anyone have some good recent insights between the two platforms and their reliability/user experience?
That’s awesome. I will have to host it again. That was what made me stop because it was so frickin slow.
Happy to answer any questions here. There is another big speed up to sync of large dirs coming in the next release covering a different case than this speed up.
I guess my main question is, why Peergos? No need to write a whole essay, but how does it stack up against Filen, in your opinion? Both encrypt locally before sending anything over the net, but I do see you guys have a specific emphasis on obfuscating metadata, which I do like. You guys also push out updates at a quicker pace than Filen, something I typically take note of when scoping out a service.
I like keeping my options open. A Peergos sub is negligibly more expensive than Filen for 200GB. I’ve been keeping my eye on it for a bit, but overall have had trouble finding many recent reviews/deep-dives on it when compared to Filen.
I don’t think it’s appropriate to comment on Filen, but I can talk about Peergos. We care a lot about treating the server as an adversary. To this end, we have open-source servers and automated migration between servers, which keeps all your data, shares, links etc. This is a built-in incentive in the protocol to keep our interests aligned with our customers, because any other company can set up paid servers for Peergos and you can migrate, whilst keeping everything including your social graph. It is a bit similar to taking your phone number with you to a new phone.
I have two questions.
First, on the website it mentions “secure applications” like a document editor and spreadsheet editor. Does that mean I can edit files in the browser (like you can do with Dropbox, Onedrive, Google Drive)? Does everything still remain end-to-end encrypted? What are the editors based on, is it LibreOffice or OnlyOffice?
Second, can you explain a bit how the “bi-directional sync” work in Android? Is it on par with cloud sync on desktop? Does it sync instantly when something changes locally or in the cloud? Do you have normal access to the synced folder through the Android file manager or is it only shown in the Peergos app? If the former does this mean I can edit a text file locally on my phone with a random text editor app and the changed file is then synced automatically to the cloud and from there to e.g. my desktop computer? That would be very unique as all the other cloud apps only have a camera upload feature rather than real two-way sync.
Do you have plans to accept Monero, either directly or via vouchers from proxysto.re?
There are a bunch of applications which you can see here:
The office app (weboffice) is built on ZetaJS/LibreOffice.
Yes, everything is still E2EE. They all run in a client side sandbox that isolates them from the main Peergos page and from each other. You can also write your own apps and run them on peergos.net or any other server. The server can’t see what custom apps you are running (the apps themselves are served E2EE on a random sub-domain). You can read more about the apps here:
There are a handful of built-in apps including a text editor based on codemirror, a calendar, a html viewer, a PDF viewer/editor and markdown viewer.
We have a sync algorithm that keeps two directories in sync (optionally excluding deletes on 1 or both ends). This runs the same on android or desktop. On desktop we have directory watchers that notify us within a second of any local changes, and we poll every 30s for remote changes. Android doesn’t have an equivalent of a dir watcher, the most frequent a background service there can run is every 15 minutes, unless the app is open, then we check every 30s as well. Then, once it starts a sync, the algorithm is the same as on desktop.
You can sync almost any local dir on android (I think it won’t let you sync Downloads dir, but everything else is fine). The local dir is just a normal dir that you can see in the native file browser. That means that, yes, you can use any app to edit the files and they will be synced by Peergos. The sync is local to/from Peergos, but you can then sync the same Peergos dir on your desktop as well.
We also have a native drive mount so you can use the native file browser to browse your whole Peergos drive and share directly to/from Peergos and other apps.
We would like to accept crypto currencies yes, but we need to figure out the tax implications as well as the technical implementation. At the moment we are focused on core product features and existing customers.
I understand, it is somewhat complicated by cryptocurrencies being so new. That is why I posited offering vouchers through a website like ProxyStore. That way, folks can pay with Monero or another cryptocurrency, and all your company has to deal with is a (pretty standard) voucher system. The Uruky developer @brn has recently added their product to the store, and may be able to provide some details via DMs or a response on this thread.
Obviously, accepting XMR directly is preferable—but I am not a tax or currency lawyer, and so cannot provide useful advice. ProxyStore is a great (and relatively easy) step in the right direction, IMO.
Hope that helps.
Hi,
Peergos paid customer for a year here.
Peergos has been my main backup tool since then, and I hope the sync function has also improved with the recent releases. I really like the idiosyncrasy behind Peergos and wanted to make it my cloud sync tool too, so I started using it to sync my three computers when I signed up for the service. Sync works well with one device, but, prior to these recent releases, cross-syncing using more than one device usually raised some problems such as duplicates and different file versions. I updated the GUI client two days ago and will give it another chance to sync multiple devices. If it works, it will definitely become my only cloud and sync tool.
Thanks very much for developing this service!
Thank you for your support. If you see any multi-device sync issues with the new release it would be super helpful to report them. You can email peergos AT peergos.org.
Zero problems until now. I will be back from holidays and start using multi-device sync intensively this next Monday. Another thing that I want to use more in Peergos are the built-in apps which I really like (but I prefer to modify and visualize documents localy on device).
Also, I do not want to waste the chance to say one thing more. Beyond being a happy customer, I genuinely think Peergos is what software should look like. Decentralised, open-source, and independent from Big Tech and VC money. The architecture and philosophy behind it basically tick every box for me.
It’s rare to find a project that stays true to these principles instead of chasing scale or a payout. That’s what drew me in and why I’ve stuck with it.
Huge thanks again to the team for building something that aligns with these values rather than compromising on them.
Thank you for such a wonderful message! Absolutely made my day. Can I quote you on our website, anonymously or otherwise is fine.
Of Course! You can quote me whatever way you want.