Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Setapp VS CryptPad

Compare Setapp VS CryptPad and see what are their differences

Setapp logo Setapp

The one place for trusted apps. Hundreds of high-quality apps for your Mac and iPhone, including AI tools.

CryptPad logo CryptPad

CryptPad is a collaborative office suite that is end-to-end encrypted and open-source.
  • Setapp
    Image date //
    2026-06-25
  • Setapp
    Image date //
    2026-06-25
  • Setapp
    Image date //
    2026-06-25
  • Setapp
    Image date //
    2026-06-25
  • Setapp
    Image date //
    2026-06-25
  • Setapp
    Image date //
    2026-06-25

A unified marketplace for Mac and iPhone users to get hand-picked, trusted apps. Get over 260 apps for a flat fee with Setapp Membership, or purchase individual apps on flexible terms through Setapp Marketplace.

  • CryptPad Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-16

About CryptPad

CryptPad is a private-by-design alternative to popular office tools and cloud services. All the content stored on CryptPad is encrypted before being sent, which means nobody can access your data unless you give them the keys.

A full suite of applications

CryptPad provides a full-fledged office suite with all the tools necessary for productive collaboration. Applications include: Rich Text, Spreadsheets, Code/Markdown, Kanban, Slides, Whiteboard and Forms.

End-to-end encrypted

All data on CryptPad is encrypted in the browser. This means no readable data leaves the user's device. Even the service administrators cannot see the content of documents or user data.

Private Collaboration

CryptPad is built to enable collaboration with features such as team drives, calendar, and sharing. It synchronizes changes to documents in real time. Because all data is encrypted, the service and its administrators have no way of seeing the content being edited and stored.

Setapp

Website
setapp.com
$ Details
paid Free Trial $14.99 / Monthly (1 Mac)
Platforms
-
Release Date
2017 January

CryptPad

Pricing URL
-
$ Details
freemium โ‚ฌ5.0 / Monthly (Personal 5GB)
Platforms
Windows Mac OSX Linux Android iOS
Release Date
-

Setapp features and specs

  • Diverse Application Library
    Setapp provides access to a wide range of high-quality Mac applications across different categories, all from a single subscription service.
  • Cost-Effective
    For a monthly fee, users gain access to multiple paid applications, which can be more cost-effective than purchasing individual app licenses.
  • Updates and Upgrades Included
    All apps within Setapp come with automatic updates and upgrades included in the subscription, ensuring users always have the latest features and security patches.
  • Easy Installation and Management
    The Setapp platform provides a user-friendly interface for browsing, installing, and managing applications, simplifying the overall user experience.
  • Free Trial Available
    Setapp offers a 7-day free trial, allowing potential users to explore and evaluate the service before committing to a subscription.

CryptPad features and specs

  • End-to-end encryption
  • Fully open source
  • Real-time collaboraton

Analysis of Setapp

Overall verdict

  • Overall, Setapp is considered good for users who frequently use multiple Mac apps and value convenience and flexibility. It provides excellent value for money by offering a diverse selection of reliable and well-crafted applications. However, it might not be the best choice for those who only need a few specific applications or prefer to own their software outright.

Why this product is good

  • Setapp is a subscription-based service that provides access to a wide range of Mac applications for a single monthly fee. Users often find it beneficial because it offers a curated selection of high-quality apps without the need to purchase each one individually. It saves time and money for those who require multiple tools, ensuring they always have the latest versions without additional costs. Furthermore, it simplifies software management by centralizing the process of discovering, updating, and accessing various applications.

Recommended for

    Setapp is recommended for professionals, creatives, and productivity enthusiasts who use a variety of Mac applications regularly and appreciate the ease of access to a comprehensive software library without the hassle of individual purchases. It's also suitable for users who enjoy exploring new tools and apps to enhance their workflow.

Analysis of CryptPad

Overall verdict

  • Yes, CryptPad is generally considered a good platform for collaborative work, especially if privacy is a primary concern.

Why this product is good

  • CryptPad offers end-to-end encryption, meaning that your data is encrypted on your device and only decrypted on the devices of users you share it with. It emphasizes privacy and security, ensuring that even the service providers cannot access your data. Additionally, it provides a range of collaborative tools, including document editing, spreadsheets, and presentations, making it a versatile option for teamwork.

Recommended for

  • Individuals and teams who prioritize privacy and data security.
  • Collaborative work environments needing secure document sharing and editing capabilities.
  • Educational institutions seeking a secure platform for student collaboration.
  • Activists and journalists who require confidential communication and document handling.

Setapp videos

What's Setapp?

CryptPad videos

CryptPad Encrypted collaborative editing without trusting the server

More videos:

  • Demo - CryptPad Sprint #1 Demo
  • Review - CryptPad - FLOSS Weekly 532

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Setapp and CryptPad)
Project Management
39 39%
61% 61
Office Suites
0 0%
100% 100
Productivity
100 100%
0% 0
No Code
100 100%
0% 0

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing Setapp and CryptPad.

What's the story behind your product?

Setapp's answer

Setapp was created in 2016 by MacPaw, the company behind apps such as CleanMyMac, ClearVPN, and more. The key idea behind Setapp was to give users a simple way to discover high-quality apps for Mac. Over the years, the catalog has grown to over 260 apps and now includes tools for Mac, iOS, and web. Setapp is localized in eight languages and has users all over the world. Here are the key dates:

November 2016: Setapp closed beta is launched for the press, opinion leaders, and influencers. December 6, 2016: Setapp Beta release. January 25, 2017: Setapp public release. August 6, 2020: Setapp let users install iOS apps. August 11, 2021: Setapp arrives on iPhone and iPad. March, 2026: Single app purchase via Setapp Marketplace is introduced. Now, Setapp includes 260+ apps, 50+ iOS apps, and about 10 web apps with more to come.

What makes your product unique?

Setapp's answer

Setapp's key differentiators:

-Curation. Setapp is a curated platform with trusted, hand-picked apps โ€” not a place filled with self-submitted apps.

-Professional focus. Setapp includes apps aimed at improving productivity and workflows for professionals who rely on their Macs. Setapp users range from developers and marketers to educators, healthcare experts, logistics and retail professionals, and more.

-Flexible access. Users have two ways to get apps: a single-fee subscription to 260+ fully unlocked Mac, iOS, and web apps; or individual app purchases via Setapp Marketplace, for those who need just a few apps rather than the full catalog.

-Security. Setapp holds ISO/IEC 27001:2022, SOC 2, and GDPR certifications. Apps are not permitted to display ads or include hidden in-app purchases.

-AI access. AI+ plans give access to all popular LLM models โ€” GPT, Claude, Gemini, and Grok โ€” through a single gateway.

Setapp gives users apps they can count on. Itโ€™s not an endless store but a curated collection of apps worth usersโ€™ time and money.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

Setapp's answer

-Quality over volume. The catalog includes only hand-picked, trusted apps. When downloading an app from Setapp, users can be sure it is high quality and safe to use.

-Trusted apps, no fillers. Every app is Apple-notarized, ad-free, fully unlocked, and has no features locked behind additional paywalls. Getting apps through Setapp means avoiding malware and unpleasant surprises.

-Save costs. Setapp Membership offers access to over 260 apps for a flat fee โ€” no need to subscribe to multiple individual apps and juggle subscriptions. In Setapp Marketplace, users can purchase hand-picked, trusted apps individually, with no need to double-check quality or security.

How would you describe the primary audience of your product?

Setapp's answer

Setapp is actively used by professionals who rely heavily on their Macs and want to improve their workflows โ€” including developers, IT specialists, content creators, designers, marketers, writers, educators, students, and specialists in agriculture, logistics, retail, healthcare, and other fields.

User comments

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Reviews

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

Setapp Reviews

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CryptPad Reviews

5 great privacy-focused Evernote alternatives to keep your notes safe
CryptPad is, as the name suggests, type of a Pad. Pads are created as a transformative way for people to collaborate on text (including code), any change to the code done by any of the participants is seen almost immediately. Such technology allows people who are geographically separated to work on the same project as if they were in the same room. Many projects around the...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, CryptPad should be more popular than Setapp. It has been mentiond 93 times since March 2021. 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.

Setapp mentions (15)

  • Ask HN: How to Sell as a Software Engineer?
    > I've reached the conclusion that software quality and even price matters much less than distribution, especially now. I highly doubt that is true. We don't yet know how end-users will make purchasing decisions now that almost anyone can build something that "works". Taking AI out of the picture: you still need to define the target market segment before you build anything. You still need to find a way to... - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Show HN: BoringBar โ€“ a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
    There could be 4x buyers at $10. Iโ€™d be one of the now, the dock is a constant annoyance. The app looks great, downloading the trial now. To the appโ€™s author Iโ€™d say get as many licensees as you can fast before youโ€™re Sherlocked or somebody vibecodes a clone out of โ€œwhy notโ€. I use many free and paid apps, little QoL types, like BetterDisplay, Coctail, etc and for me the included support is of little value. These... - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Coders Coded Their Job Away. Why Are So Many of Them Happy About It?
    I used a bunch of tools from https://setapp.com/ and no longer subscribe. I used to pay for Linear for all my personal projects, built one with CC that perfectly fits my needsโ€ฆ I also built a myriad of small tools that help me automate bunch of busy work I used to do manually, both for professional and personal projects. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • Italian Competition Authority Fines Apple $115M for Abusing Dominant Position
    > are there any real 3rd-party AppStores for iOS now "Always has been": Setapp. Very interesting model. Readily recommend devs subscribing to this collection, but non-devs as well if you're into "there's an app for that" and fatigued with IAP. https://setapp.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • The One Productivity Tool You Didn't Know You Can't Live Without
    I use Paste, a very feature rich clipboard manager for Mac with gorgeous UI. It's not free, but it comes along with a Setapp license that I got from work, so if you already have a license you can use it to install Paste. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
View more

CryptPad mentions (93)

  • Office.eu launches as Europe's sovereign office platform
    It's always a good thing to have multiple players and I hope we can have actual EU-based alternatives, but I feel like this is less interesting as a project than _La Suite numรฉrique_ [1] developed by the French government or _CryptPad_ [2] developed by XWiki, a French company based in Paris. [1] https://lasuite.numerique.gouv.fr/ [2] https://cryptpad.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • Euro firms must ditch Uncle Sam's clouds and go EU-native
    This wouldn't address building an actual E2EE service. This is a hard issue. CryptPad [1] does this but it has strong limitations inherent to a fully E2EE system. (disclaimer: I work for the company which develop CryptPad, but I don't myself work on it) [1] https://cryptpad.org. - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • French gov's open source alternative to Notion or Outline
    For e2ee you might want to have a look at CryptPad (https://cryptpad.org). You can test it on the free instance https://cryptpad.fr You'll have plenty of doc types with full end to end encryption, including for your drive. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: Hackable Personal Database?
    I'm looking for the same. Open source, self hosted, and end-to-end encrypted. I haven't found anything that really does all of this, but it seems like Cryptpad[0] and Peergos[1] are viable platforms upon which something like this could be built. Except for encryption, Atomic Data[2] seems like a really cool platform to build this on. [0] https://cryptpad.org/ [1] https://peergos.org/ [2] - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • Proton launches its own version of Google Docs
    I see that they claim all of their apps and libraries are open source[0]. But they only link to the OpenPGP libraries they're using. Is this actually open source? Following the "Open Source" footer link[1], here they only link to the ProtonMail Github account with nothing mentioning ProtonDrive. And if it is actually open source, I'd love to see a comparison to CryptPad[2] > which is why weโ€™ve made all our apps... - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Setapp and CryptPad, you can also consider the following products

Konfigure - APARTMENTS | VILLA | WORKSPACE | RETAIL

ONLYOFFICE - ONLYOFFICE is a complete office and productivity suite.

Metavine Platform - Metavine Platform is a comprehensive Platform-as-a-Service that help businesses build agility and compete effectively in the digital world by enabling them to iterate and create apps quickly.

LibreOffice - Free office suite, open source, and compatible with .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx files. Updated regularly โ€“ download for free. Originally based on OpenOffice.org.

QuickBase - Quickbase provides a no-code operational agility platform that enables organizations to improve operations through real time insights and automation across complex processes and disparate systems. โ€‹โ€‹

Microsoft 365 - Boost your productivity with reliable access anywhere with services like email, calendar, file sharing, meetings, instant messaging, and Office Online