Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks
EDITORS’ NOTE
April 3, 2026: With this update, we removed EncryptionSafe, as it is no longer under active development. Our remaining picks have been vetted for currency and availability.
- Can easily edit encrypted files
- Secure sharing using public key cryptography
- Secure file deletion
- Supports Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS
- Can be risky if you don’t ensure local account security
Some encryption tools are easy to use; others are highly secure. A few, including AxCrypt Premium, hit both targets. You initialize it with a single strong master password (and optional multi-factor authentication), and it takes care of complex tasks like encrypting files using the US-government-approved AES algorithm and sharing those files using PKI (Public Key Interface) technology. Those with whom you share encrypted files need their own AxCrypt account, but they can use its free tier.
Pricing and pricing tiers: For whatever reason, AxCrypt’s website lists prices in Canadian dollars. On a month-to-month basis, you pay $6 CAD, or about $4.31. Switch to a yearly plan, and the price drops to $5.17 CAD, or $62.04 CAD per year. In USD, that’s about $44.71.
Free version available: Anyone can download the free AxCrypt Viewer app. As the name suggests, this app lets you view encrypted files shared with you by others, but doesn’t let you perform encryption yourself. You can also opt for a 14-day free trial of the full product.
Secure file sharing: Secure sharing with AxCrypt requires that the recipient have at least the free AxCrypt viewer installed and an internet connection. The process uses public key encryption, but key exchange is very smooth.
Platforms supported: AxCrypt runs on Windows and macOS and also offers mobile apps for Android and iOS. The mobile apps are fully functional, letting you encrypt, decrypt, or share files on your phone or in cloud storage services such as Dropbox or Google Drive.
Encryption style: AxCrypt specializes in smoothly encrypting files and folders. It doesn’t create encrypted storage vaults or encrypt arbitrary blocks of text. What it does, it does very well.
Security features: A naked password isn’t sufficient protection for your most sensitive files, so AxCrypt offers multi-factor authentication in several ways. You can use Google Authenticator (or a compatible authentication app) or receive a time-limited code via email or SMS. Rather than leave unencrypted plaintext files lying around, AxCrypt overwrites the original with the encrypted version, leaving nothing behind for forensic recovery. And it uses reliable public-key cryptography to securely share encrypted files.
Multi-factor aficionados: When you enlist an encryption app to protect all your most sensitive files, that app becomes a single point of failure. Rather than just relying on a password, which someone could steal, you want the added security of multi-factor authentication. With AxCrypt, you have choices—you can receive a login code by email or text, or you can configure the app to work with Google Authenticator or a compatible authenticator.
Technology admirers: You want your encryption app to incorporate all the best security technology. AxCrypt not only provides high-tech encryption, but also offers a remarkable system for recovering your master password using partial secrets shared among multiple friends or colleagues.
Usability advocates: The best encryption program in the world can fail if it’s hard to use. Encrypting with AxCrypt could hardly be easier, with simple drag-and-drop encryption and the option to edit encrypted files just as if they were plaintext.
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AxCrypt Premium Review
- All essential features available for free
- Premium edition is inexpensive
- Easy secure sharing
- No cloud, no servers, no internet required
- YubiKey authentication option
- Runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows
- Potential risk if you don’t properly secure your Windows account
An encryption tool that’s too complicated won’t get used. The same is true of a tool that’s too expensive for the average user. Xecrets Ez Premium sidesteps both those problems. With a straightforward user interface and no installation required, it’s hardly simpler. And you can get the full power of its encryption without paying a penny, or pop for an inexpensive subscription to gain even more ease of use. Encrypt files, decrypt them, edit them in place, share them securely…Xecrets does everything you need. Under the hood, it’s precisely the same powerful encryption system used by AxCrypt Premium. The two products are from the same developer and can decrypt each other’s files.
Pricing and pricing tiers: The price for Xecrets Ez Premium varies by country, but for most users it’s either $15 USD or 15 euros. That’s a yearly fee, making Xecrets seriously inexpensive.
Free version available: All the most essential features of this app are available in the free edition. Premium users get advanced features such as YubiKey support, encryption of entire folders, and the ability to edit encrypted files directly. Those signing up for Premium automatically get a 10-day free trial before they’re ever charged.
Secure file sharing: With Xecrets Ez, when you want to share a file, you encrypt it for sharing with a password you’ll transmit separately to the recipient. Unlike AxCrypt, no internet connection is required, though the recipient must install the free version of Xecrets to decrypt.
Platforms supported: Xecrets Ez runs happily under macOS or Windows. Unlike many competitors, it also supports Linux. However, it doesn’t offer mobile apps.
Encryption style: Like AxCrypt, Xecrets Ez encrypts files and folders with ease. Premium users can even edit encrypted files; Xecrets Ez handles creating a temporary version for editing. It also lets you encrypt any block of text and transmit it via email, instant messenger, or any other means. The encrypted text can be embedded in a larger message, if appropriate.
Security features: When you enter your master password, Xecrets rates its strength, so pick a strong one. The Premium edition lets you backstop that password with multi-factor authentication, but it specifically requires a modern YubiKey. There’s no option to use an authenticator app or a texted code. Like AxCrypt, Xecrets foils forensic recovery of plaintext original files by overwriting them with their encrypted equivalents. It ensures secure sharing by relying on public-key cryptography. And if you ever lose your master key, you can arrange to recover it using an enterprise-level feature called Shamir’s Secret Sharing.
Thrifty users: Yes, it’s important to encrypt your most important files, but you don’t want to spend more than necessary. You can use most of Xecrets Ez’s features for free. If you do pop for the premium features that come with a paid subscription, the price is so low you might think the yearly subscription is a monthly fee.
Local-only encryptors: Sure, it’s great to protect your files by encrypting them, but you’re concerned about exposure. If encrypted files live in the cloud, or if the encryption process requires an internet connection, there’s a faint possibility a hacker could break in. NordLocker keeps all your encryption and decryption activity on your local computer, without requiring a cloud connection. You can even use it from a thumb drive, without ever installing anything.
Usability advocates: You’ve been bitten by security products suffering from too much complexity. The friction of a confusing user interface discourages you from using it at all. Xecrets Ez gets its important tasks done in an extraordinarily simple way, especially if you’ve paid the tiny price for its premium edition.
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Xecrets Ez Review
- Securely share encrypted files
- Advanced multi-factor authentication
- Can securely request files
- Very easy to use
- Free version available
- No longer supports local encryption or secure deletion of original files
- Some features are absent from the iOS app
The NordLocker encryption tool comes from the makers of NordVPN, an Editors’ Choice winner for virtual private networks. You use it to create an encrypted locker in the cloud, an encrypted storage containers that provide full access to files when open but makes them completely inaccessible when locked. Opening a free account doesn’t require a credit card and gets you 3GB of online storage for shareable cloud-based lockers. If that’s not enough, paid subscribers can raise that limit to 500GB or even 2TB. You can access your cloud locker from the NordLocker app for Windows, Android, or iOS, or log in with your browser. Sharing lockers with other NordLocker users, including users of the free edition, is a snap.
Pricing and pricing tiers: Some NordLocker features, like secure sharing, require cloud storage, and pricing is tied to the amount of cloud storage you get. For $59.88 per year, you get 500GB of storage for your encrypted lockers. Tripling the yearly fee to $179.88 per year gets you four times the storage, a full 2TB.
Free version available: You can use all NordLocker features for free. The only limitation is that you only get 3GB of cloud storage for your lockers. If you find that’s not enough, you can easily convert to a paid account. Note that while earlier versions of NordLocker supported local-only lockers, the current edition is cloud-only.
Secure file sharing: NordLocker offers multiple ways to securely share your files and lockers. If the recipient is already a registered NordLocker user, you can share with them directly, choosing whether to let them edit the shared files or just view them. You can revoke sharing or change a recipient’s access mode at any time. Separately, there’s an option for one-off sharing using a password, much like Xecrets Ez does. You send the password and the sharing link via different communication channels. The recipient uses the password to unlock the link (which expires after two weeks) and download the shared items.
Platforms supported: NordLocker runs as a web app, so you can use it on any platform that has a browser. Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari are specifically supported, but the documentation says any browser should work. There are also platform-specific apps for Android, iOS, and Windows, but not macOS.
Encryption style: Unlike some competitors, who encrypt individual files and folders, NordLocker provides a secure, encrypted cloud storage locker for your sensitive files. Anything you put in the locker is encrypted and accessible only to you, but you can access it from any of your devices. Note that it no longer handles secure deletion of unencrypted original files—you’ll have to take care of that using a third-party utility.
Security features: When setting up NordLocker, you create a password for the overall account and a key to open your cloud locker. NordLocker rates the strength of the former as you type. For enhanced security (and you want enhanced security), you can set up multi-factor authentication with Google Authenticator (or a compatible authenticator app), a hardware key such as a YubiKey, or a phone-based authentication system.
Thrifty users: You’ve already paid for your antivirus and VPN—there’s not a lot of cash left to buy an encryption app. Fortunately, there’s no charge at all to use NordLocker. Provided, that is, that you don’t need more than 3GB of cloud storage for your encrypted files. If you want more storage, you do have to pay up, but if you’re thrifty, you can stay within the free edition’s limits.
Multi-factor aficionados: Your NordLocker files are protected by both an account password and an encryption key, but someone who could steal one of those might just as likely capture both. You want the added security of multi-factor authentication, and NordLocker has it in spades. It supports MFA in several ways, including using Google Authenticator (or a compatible app) or configuring a hardware key as your secondary authentication method.
NordVPN enthusiasts: You already know NordVPN, a major player in the VPN market. Rather than buy multiple separate security apps, you can choose one of several NordVPN bundles, starting with NordVPN Complete. In addition to NordVPN and NordLocker, you get several other security components, among them the Threat Protection Pro antivirus, the NordPass password manager, and a data breach scanner.
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NordLocker Review
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Buying Guide: The Best Encryption Software for 2026
File Encryption vs. Whole-Disk Encryption vs. VPNs
In this roundup, we’re specifically examining products that encrypt files, rather than whole-disk solutions like Microsoft’s BitLocker. Whole-disk encryption is an effective line of defense for a single device, but it doesn’t help when you need to share encrypted data.
You can use a virtual private network, or VPN, to encrypt your internet traffic. From your PC to the VPN provider’s server, all your data is encrypted, which is great. However, unless you’re connected to a secure HTTPS website, your traffic is not encrypted between the VPN server and the site. Of course, the VPN’s encryption doesn’t just magically apply to files you share. Using a VPN is a great way to protect your internet traffic while traveling, but it’s not a solution for encrypting your local files.
No Back Doors, No Exceptions
When the FBI needed information from the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone, they asked Apple for a back door to bypass the encryption. But no such back door existed, and Apple refused to create one. The FBI had to hire hackers to access the phone. That was 10 years ago, and you still won’t find a back door in any popular phone.
Why wouldn’t Apple help? The moment a back door or similar hack exists, it becomes a target, a prize for the bad guys. It will leak sooner or later. As my one-time colleague Max Eddy pointed out in a past article about one-time Attorney General Barr’s ignorance of encryption, “A back door is still a door, and even a door with a lock on it can be opened.”
All the products in this roundup explicitly state that they have no back door, and that’s as it should be. It does mean that if you encrypt an essential document and then forget the encryption password, you will have lost it for good.
Two Main Approaches to Encryption
Back in the day, if you wanted to keep a document secret, you could use a cipher to encrypt it and then burn the original. You could also lock it up in a safe. The two main approaches in encryption utilities parallel these options.
One type of product simply processes files and folders, turning them into impenetrable, encrypted versions. The other creates a virtual disk drive that, when open, acts like any other drive on your system. When you lock the virtual drive, all the files you place in it become completely inaccessible.
As with the virtual drive solution, some products store your encrypted data in the cloud. This approach requires extreme care. Encrypted data in the cloud has a much bigger attack surface than encrypted data on your PC.
Which is better? It depends on how you plan to use encryption. If you’re not sure, most of these products are either free or offer a free trial. Take advantage of the free options to get a feel for the different choices.
Secure the Originals Before Deleting
After you copy a file to secure storage or create an encrypted version, you must wipe the unencrypted original. Just deleting it isn’t sufficient, even if you bypass the Recycle Bin, because the data still exists on disk, and forensic data recovery utilities can often retrieve it. These days, Windows 10 and 11 both have file recovery built in.
Some encryption products avoid this problem by encrypting the file in place, literally overwriting it on disk with an encrypted version. Others offer secure deletion of any files on demand. If you choose a product that lacks this feature, consider using a free secure deletion tool in conjunction with it.
Overwriting data before deletion is sufficient to balk software-based recovery tools. Hardware-based forensic recovery works because the magnetic recording of data on a spinning-disk hard drive isn’t digital, as you might think. It’s more of a waveform. In simple terms, the process involves eliminating the known data and reading around the edges of what remains. If you think someone (the feds?) might use this technique to recover your incriminating files, you can set most secure deletion tools to make more passes, overwriting the data beyond what even these techniques can recover. Do note that the preceding applies strictly to old-fashioned spinning-disk hard drives. For modern SSDs, there’s no benefit to passes beyond the first.
Understanding Encryption Algorithms
An encryption algorithm is like a black box. Dump a document, image, or other file into it, and you get back what seems like gibberish. Run that gibberish back through the box, with the right password, and you get back the original.
The US government has adopted the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), and all the products listed here support it. Even those who support other algorithms tend to recommend using AES.
Recommended by Our Editors
If you’re an encryption expert, you may prefer another algorithm, such as Blowfish. For the average user, however, AES is just fine.
Public Key Cryptography and Secure Sharing
Passwords are important, and you have to keep them secret, right? Well, not when you use Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) cryptography.
With PKI, you get two keys. One is public; you can share it with anyone, register it in a key exchange, tattoo it on your forehead—whatever you like. The other is private and should be closely guarded. If I want to send you a secret document, I simply encrypt it with your public key. When you receive it, your private key is used to decrypt it. Simple!
Using this system in reverse, you can create a digital signature that proves your document is yours and hasn’t been modified. How? Just encrypt it with your private key. The fact that your public key decrypts it is all the proof you need.
If you want to share a file with someone and your encryption tool doesn’t support PKI, there are other options. Some products enable the creation of self-decrypting executable files. You may also find that the recipient can use a free, decryption-only tool.
Choosing the Best Encryption App
AxCrypt Premium has a sleek, modern look, and when it’s active, you’ll hardly notice it. Files in its Secured Folders are automatically encrypted when you sign out, and it’s one of the few that support public-key cryptography. Xecrets Ez Premium builds on the same code base as AxCrypt, and the two can decrypt each other’s files. However, you can use Xecrets for free, or opt for a small subscription for enhanced ease of use. These are our Editors’ Choice picks for encryption, but the other products listed here also have merits. Read the summaries above and then click through to the full reviews to decide which one you’ll use to protect your files. Do you have an opinion on one of the apps reviewed here or a favorite tool we didn’t mention? Let us know in the comments.
