Internxt Review: Open-Source and Encrypted Cloud Storage

When storing data in the cloud, you must choose a reliable, secure, transparent service that respects your privacy, as your data is your life. The market is flooded with cloud storage providers, each claiming to respect your privacy, but very few do. Also, such a claim can only be verifiable if the service is fully open source (or at least their apps) so that we can guarantee that our data is encrypted before it leaves our devices and secure when it lives in their servers.

This Internxt review marks the start of a new series, dubbed ‘the cloud storage battles,’ where I aim to introduce and review the most prominent open-source and reliable cloud storage services.

What Is Internxt?

Internxt is a cloud storage and file-sharing service provider founded in 2020 (a young but ambitious project) based in Valencia, Spain. In addition to cloud storage services, Internxt provides additional tools and services to help you protect your privacy and improve your digital life.

Internxt has many special features that make it an excellent open-source alternative to proprietary cloud storage services such as Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive, and a worthy choice for those concerned about the privacy of their digital data:

• Fully open source: The source code for both the client and the server is public on GitHub. Not only that, all internxt services code sources are available on GitHub. It is an excellent example of transparency and open source.
• Zero-Knowledge end-to-end encryption: Your data is encrypted before it leaves your device with a military-grade encryption key (AES-256) and remains encrypted during transmission and storage on internxt servers. Even your password is hashed and encrypted to ensure that only you can access your files. In other words, Internxt or any third party cannot see your data.

• Independent security audit: Internxt underwent an independent security audit conducted by Securitum, a leading European pen-testing company, to confirm the reliability of their security measures. The results were positive, and the audit was successful.
• Decentralized architecture: Internxt splits your uploaded encrypted files into segments with individual addresses but no metadata. These encrypted segments are replicated and distributed to all internxt servers around the globe to ensure their accessibility and security even if one of the servers is hacked or down.
• Cross-platform: Internxt supports Linux (Deb & Appimage), MacOS (DMG), Windows, Android (Play Store), and iOS (App Store).

• Two-Factor Authentication: As I mentioned in a previous article, a strong password is no longer enough to secure your accounts, as an extra layer of security is required, and this is where two-factor authentication (2FA) comes into play. Internxt supports the one-time passwords (OTP) 2FA option, which you can enable from the security section on the settings page.

• Lifetime plans: Cloud storage providers offering lifetime plans are rare, and you can count them on the fingers of one hand. Internxt offers 2TB to 10TB lifetime plans at affordable prices, with no hidden fees (For more details, see Internxt prices & deals section below).
• Extra services & tools: Internxt provides several additional free services that can improve your cloud storage experience, namely Internxt Photos, Internxt Send, Internxt’s Password Checker, Internxt’s Virus Scanner, Internxt’s Byte Converter, and Internxt’s Temporary Email.

Service	Description
Internxt Photos	is a dedicated photos sync & backup service integrated into the drive app that you can consider as an open-source alternative to Google Photos.
Internxt Send	is a private encrypted file-sharing service that allows you to anonymously and securely send and share large files.
Temporary Email	is a disposable email address generator that allows you to receive messages in a temporary mailbox.
Password Checker	is a secure web tool to verify password strength and leak.
Virus Scanner	is a free online virus scanner that helps you detect malware, threats, and infected files.
Byte Converter	is an online tool to convert terabytes to gigabytes to megabytes and vice versa to help you determine precisely how much cloud storage space you need.

On the upside, to add to the key features, Internxt offers up to 10GB of free cloud storage and premium plans for up to 10TB at affordable prices with a 30-day money-back guarantee, cancel-anytime option, and no bandwidth limits. On top of that, Internxt features an easy-to-use interface and provides 24/7 live chat support. 

It is also worth noting that you can use your Internxt account without verifying your identity and pay in cryptocurrencies for complete privacy.

To summarize Internxt’s pros:

• User-friendly UI
• Free plan (Up to 10GB)
• Attractive prices
• Plans for Business (Up to 20TB/user)
• Unlimited bandwidth
• No identity verification
• GDPR compliant
• Password-protected shared link
• 24/7 live chat support
• 30-day money-back guarantee
• Cryptocurrency payment option

On the downside, Internxt lacks crucial productivity and collaboration features, namely file versioning, block-level syncing, and built-in document viewer (you can only preview PDF and image files). However, with the pace of growth and development achieved by Internxt in just two years, they most likely will implement most of these features soon.

To summarize Internxt’s cons:

• No file versioning
• No permission levels (Owner, Commenter, Editor, etc.)
• No drive-integrated virus scanner
• No selective photos backup
• No built-in document viewer/editor
• File size limit of 40 GB.

We are working on adding more integrations, permissions, and features!

— Internxt

Internxt is an excellent privacy-focused cloud storage solution and an ambitious open-source project. It offers a very high level of privacy and security at an affordable cost.

Internxt is not a practical choice for collaboration and productivity as it lacks file versioning and roles features.

Fortunately, the Internxt team is working on adding and implementing the missing features (They officially stated that they do).

Internxt Prices & Deals

Internxt offers multiple monthly, yearly, and lifetime pricing plans with seasonal deals and discounts:

💬 Is Internxt the open-source, privacy-first alternative you’ve been waiting for?