Software Alternatives & Reviews

SecureDrop VS Tails

Compare SecureDrop VS Tails and see what are their differences

SecureDrop logo SecureDrop

The open-source whistleblower platform to leak documents to the press.

Tails logo Tails

Tails is a Debian based live CD/USB with the goal of providing complete Internet anonymity for the...
  • SecureDrop Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-03
  • Tails Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-25

SecureDrop videos

A step-by-step guide to using SecureDrop to share tips with The Globe

More videos:

  • Review - How it works: SecureDrop
  • Review - SecureDrop: A WikiLeaks in Every Newsroom

Tails videos

Tails OS Installation And Review - Access The Deep Web/Dark Net

More videos:

  • Review - Tails Reviews Sonic The Hedgehog Movie | Post Credits Scene Reaction
  • Review - 5 Reasons to Use Tails | Privacy Linux

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to SecureDrop and Tails)
Communication
100 100%
0% 0
Linux
3 3%
97% 97
Group Chat & Notifications
Operating Systems
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using SecureDrop and Tails. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare SecureDrop and Tails

SecureDrop Reviews

We have no reviews of SecureDrop yet.
Be the first one to post

Tails Reviews

Best Linux distro for privacy and security of 2024
All connections are routed through the anonymity network Tor, which conceals your location. The applications in Tails have also been carefully selected to enhance your privacy – for example, there’s KeePassX - which, while not the best password manager, is still pretty good - and Paperkey, a command line tool used to export OpenPGP secret keys to print on paper. There are...
Top 5 Secure Operating Systems for Privacy and Anonymity
Tails has the option for persistent storage which can improve usability, albeit at the cost of some anonymity. Although it enables saving files across sessions, it creates a trace of your activities, which contradicts Tails' amnesic feature. However, you still preserve a high degree of privacy due to robust encryption. This is made possible due to how the persistent data is...
The 5 Best Privacy-Focused Operating Systems
Tails, short for "The Amnesic Incognito Live System," is a privacy-focused portable Linux distribution, designed with anonymity and security in mind. What makes Tails stand out is its focus on leaving no digital trace. It operates as a live OS, meaning you can run it directly from a USB stick or DVD without leaving any footprint on the host system.
Avoid The Hack: 11 Best Privacy Friendly Operating Systems (Desktops)
TAILS is a live operating system focusing on anonymity in addition to user privacy; TAILS effectively disappears, wiping data when you shut down the system.
Best Secure Linux Distros for Enhanced Privacy & Security
Tails uses the Tor network, a network heralded for its privacy and anonymity benefits, to keep users safe online. All connections run through this network - concealing users’ location and other private information. Tails comes with a secure browser, a secure email client and other secure Internet tools. Tails is the most well-known privacy-focused distro, and a popular...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Tails seems to be a lot more popular than SecureDrop. While we know about 385 links to Tails, we've tracked only 20 mentions of SecureDrop. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

SecureDrop mentions (20)

  • Someone I know is trying to expose an abusive company with videos they want to post but isn't sure how to do it without it being tracked back to them. Any ideas?
    TOR browser and checkout https://securedrop.org/. Source: 12 months ago
  • Need a way to publish safely?
    How is it similar or different from secure drop? https://securedrop.org/. Source: about 1 year ago
  • is signal safe for journalism
    It depends if you are a freelancer, small time or international journalist. Or what you define as a journalist. Most organizations use SecureDrop. https://securedrop.org. Source: over 1 year ago
  • End to end encription
    Securedrop can be used to anonymously communicate with many news organizations if you would like. Source: over 1 year ago
  • What is better for privacy? Signal or Telegram?
    If you're a journalist, then https://securedrop.org/. For messaging, if you don't want to share a phone number with Signal, which I do NOT suspect of sockpuppetry (it's been autited!) then do your research and coordinate with your source https://www.privacyguides.org/real-time-communication/. Source: almost 2 years ago
View more

Tails mentions (385)

  • Ten years from Snowden revelations – what's next for Tor and privacy online?
    I’m not sure about the Tor project, but the closely-related Tails project (which is excellent, BTW) seems to be uncomfortably adjacent to far-left anarchist groups. Their website, https://tails.boum.org, is hosted by one such group, and on it they prominently link to another anarchist “collective” called RiseUp. Why are we okay with this kind of implicit endorsement of violence-adjacent groups? It should be just... - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • very strange
    I noticed that the website url https://tails.boum.org/ was changed to https://tails.net/. Does anyone know why? Source: 7 months ago
  • My Mother Found Out I was Installing Linux...
    If you pop this onto a USB you can leave a beautiful Windows installation on your computer unfettled with: https://tails.boum.org/. Source: 10 months ago
  • How does this work in Proton?! I was told it's impossible...
    If you want to factor out your host machine entirely whilst surfing the web, have a look at https://tails.boum.org/ . Source: 10 months ago
  • Is it possible for a skilled hacker or government to remotely access my computer?
    Tails is a security-focused Linux distro that (by default) only runs as a live-USB and is not meant to be used as a traditional daily-driver. As you've probably understood by now, it's a 'limited' system for the sake of security and privacy. At least it's assuring to have a far better protected distro than what distros like Arch/Debian/Fedora offer by default. Source: 11 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing SecureDrop and Tails, you can also consider the following products

GlobaLeaks - Open-source whistleblower platform

Linux Mint - Linux Mint is one of the most popular desktop Linux distributions and used by millions of people.

SimpleX chat - 🚀 SimpleX - the most private and secure chat - now with double ratchet E2E encryption!

Ubuntu - Ubuntu is a Debian Linux-based open source operating system for desktop computers.

Signal - Fast, simple & secure messaging. Privacy that fits in your pocket.

Arch Linux - You've reached the website for Arch Linux, a lightweight and flexible Linux® distribution that tries to Keep It Simple. Currently we have official packages optimized for the x86-64 architecture.