Guides/Elba vs age
Elba vs age: a GUI for the ‘just encrypt this folder’ case
age is what a good developer reaches for on the command line. Elba is what to hand someone who does not, and wants a folder sealed anyway.
age wins when
You script it, pipe it, or use it as part of a backup toolchain. It's small, composable, and elegant.
Elba wins when
The person using it doesn't want to know what a shell is. Point at a folder, set a password, close the tab.
Questions people actually ask
- Can they interoperate?
- Not directly — different file formats. But you can age-encrypt an archive and drop it inside an Elba-sealed folder if you want two locks.
Take the island
Elba is one HTML file. It runs locally in a Chromium browser, seals a folder with AES-256-GCM, never phones home, and becomes open source on 1 January 2030.
- €49MMXXVI· now ·
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- €19MMXXIX2029
- FreeMMXXX2030
the price falls each year · free to all 1 jan 2030
pay once · no account · nothing leavesRelated guides
- Elba vs GPG: signing and PKI vs a small local fence
GPG is a Swiss army knife for signing, keyrings, and email. Elba does one thing: seal a folder on your own machine.
- How client-side encryption works, in one page
Client-side encryption means the key never leaves your device. Here's how it works, why it matters, and how Elba applies it.
- AES-256-GCM, explained without a maths degree
AES-256-GCM in one page — what it is, why Elba uses it, and what it does and doesn't protect against.