Guides/Use case
Encrypt files before emailing — a folder your recipient can open
Email is a postcard. If you need to send something sensitive, seal it first. Elba lets you encrypt a folder locally, attach the sealed file, and share the password through a different channel — your mail server sees a locked box.
The workflow
Put the files in an Elba vault, seal, and export the sealed bytes as an attachment. Send the password over Signal, SMS, or a phone call — not the same email.
What the recipient needs
Their own copy of Elba (or a gifted one) and the password. Nothing else — no account, no plugin, no invitation.
Questions people actually ask
- Isn't this what PGP does?
- PGP does the same job with a steeper learning curve. Elba trades key-exchange for a shared password, which most people can actually use.
- How big can the attachment be?
- Limited by your mail provider — usually 25MB. Larger sealed folders go via a cloud link.
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 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 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.