Guides/Compared with…
Elba vs MEGA — encrypted cloud drive vs local sealed folder
MEGA is a large encrypted cloud drive with generous free storage. Elba is a one-file local vault. They serve different jobs and often live side by side.
Pick MEGA if
You want tens of gigabytes of encrypted cloud storage with sync clients on multiple devices.
Pick Elba if
You want the folder never to leave your machine. Use MEGA to back up the sealed bytes if you like.
Questions people actually ask
- Is MEGA's encryption end-to-end?
- Yes for storage. But the client is delivered from their servers each session — a subtly different trust model than a local HTML file.
- Can I keep the Elba vault in a MEGA folder?
- Yes. That's a common setup.
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 ·
- €39MMXXVII2027
- €29MMXXVIII2028
- €19MMXXIX2029
- FreeMMXXX2030
the price falls each year · free to all 1 jan 2030
pay once · no account · nothing leavesRelated guides
- Elba vs Proton Drive: sync vs sovereign
Proton Drive is end-to-end encrypted cloud storage. Elba is local-only. When you actually need the cloud, and when you don't.
- How to encrypt files in Dropbox, iCloud, or Google Drive safely
Seal the folder first, then sync it. A short recipe for using cloud storage without letting the cloud read your files.