For families. For keepsakes. For peace of mind.
The family album that nobody else can look through.
Private Archive is a quiet, gentle place to keep your photos, videos and important documents safe — scrambled up so well that even we can't peek.
No email. No password. No account to forget.
Why we built this for you
You probably have twenty years of photos sitting on a phone, a laptop, or one of those memory sticks in a drawer. The kids' school plays. Grandma's recipes. The scan of your passport. You don't want any of that gone — and you don't really want a giant company sifting through it either. We made Private Archive so you can put all of it somewhere safe, somewhere truly yours, without needing to be a computer expert about it.
How it works
Three small steps. Then it just runs in the background.
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1. Pick your folders
Open Private Archive on your computer and tick the things you want kept safe — your Photos folder, your Documents folder, the videos you took at the beach. Whatever matters to you.
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2. Your computer scrambles them
Before a single byte leaves your house, your computer turns your files into unreadable gobbledegook. We only ever see the scrambled-up bytes — never what's inside. Even we couldn't unscramble them. That's the whole point.
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3. We tuck them away, quietly
The scrambled-up bytes travel out over a private network called Tor, so nobody can see where they're coming from. Where we keep them after that doesn't matter — they're nonsense to anyone who gets near them, including us.
The trade-off, in plain words
Here's the honest bit. We want you to know this before you sign up, not after.
When you set up Private Archive, your computer makes a small key file and keeps it for you. That key file is what unlocks your archive. It's also the only thing in the world that can.
We don't have a copy. We can't make you a new one. There's no "forgot password" button, because there's no password and no email on file — that's the whole point.
So please: when the app suggests you save a backup of your key file somewhere safe — a USB stick in a drawer, a copy at your parents' house — actually do it. Two copies, two places. That's all it takes.
Why is it set up this way? Because it means nobody — not us, not a hacker who breaks into our servers, not whoever might own this company in ten years' time — can get into your archive without your key. That's a feature, not a bug. It's what "private" actually means.
Good for keeping
- 20 years of family photos
- Scans of important documents
- Video clips of the kids
- Your unfinished novel
- Wedding photos and old letters
- Voice notes and audio recordings
- Emails you want to keep forever
- Anything you'd hate to lose
Pricing, in friendly numbers
No subscription, no auto-renewal, no card on file. You keep a small balance, and it counts down as you use the service.
You buy a small balance
Pay once, in Monero — a private kind of digital cash.
There's no monthly bill and no card details to hand over. You buy as little or as much as you'd like, whenever it suits you.
It counts down as you go
A little bit comes off your balance for what you keep with us.
No surprises, no overage charges, no awkward upgrades. The app shows you what's left, plain as day.
Top up whenever you want
When the balance gets low, you add a bit more.
No subscription. No card. No "we couldn't bill you" emails. Just top it up when you feel like it, and stop whenever you'd like to.
A friendly note about Monero: it's a kind of digital cash that's anonymous by design, which is why we use it. If you've never bought any before, the app links you to a few easy guides. There's no minimum top-up, and you can stop at any time — your archive simply waits there until you come back.
Download Private Archive
Pick the version that matches your computer. Not sure? Most newer Macs use the Apple chip; most Windows PCs are 64-bit.
Mac with Apple chip
For M1, M2, M3 and newer. .dmg installer.
Older Mac
For Intel-based Macs. .dmg installer.
Linux
Standard 64-bit Linux. .tar.gz archive.
Linux on Pi or similar
For Raspberry Pi and other ARM boards.
Windows
For 64-bit Windows 10 and 11. .zip archive.
Source code — for the curious
How the scrambling works, line by line. For people who want to look.
Check it's the real thing
A small file you can use to verify your download is genuine.
After downloading, your computer will walk you through setup. The whole thing takes about five minutes. Under the hood we use well-known, audited tools* — but you don't need to know any of that to use it.