Sync.com vs Tresorit: a Zero-Knowledge Cloud Storage Battle
Sync.com and Tresorit are two of the best cloud storage services on the market. With a clear dedication to security and privacy, both services are willing to sacrifice users’ creature comforts to keep your files safe. As we saw in our pCloud vs Sync.com matchup, though, there’s a lot more to cloud storage than security.
In this Sync.com vs Tresorit showdown, we’re going to get into the details to find which service is better for you. Although both are highly secure, Tresorit’s high price tag and lack of storage options pushes it back. On the other hand, Sync.com is much slower, showing just how much overhead its encryption requires. In short, there’s plenty to talk to about.
Before diving in, make sure to keep our Tresorit review and Sync.com review handy. This “versus” piece will serve as an overview, comparing the two services directly. However, if you want more details on either, their respective reviews are the best place to look.
Tresorit vs Sync.com: Why Use Zero-Knowledge Cloud Storage?
Our competitors are two of the most secure cloud storage services around, pushing past a mere password-protected vault into full end-to-end encryption. Security is the focus of this matchup, so although we’ll holistically judge our competitors, it all comes back to protecting your files at all costs.
In addition to security, we’ll talk about features, file synchronization, pricing and more throughout this piece. Our matchup is split into rounds, and we’ll award a point to one of our competitors for each round. At the end, we’ll tally the points, and the service with more points will be our overall winner.
As we usually mention in these articles, though, we recommend reading through each round rather than skimming the winners. There are cases, such as this one, where two services are very close in terms of quality and the point could go either way.
- 1
- Sync Folder
- File Link Sharing
- Folder Sharing
- Versioning
- 2
- Sync Folder
- File Link Sharing
- Folder Sharing
- Versioning
1. Features
When it comes to the essentials, Tresorit and Sync.com are on equal footing. As two zero-knowledge providers, our competitors come with upsides in security at the cost of a few inconvenient hurdles in usability. Although matched on the basics, Tresorit has a few extra goodies.
Because of the security structure of both services, though, neither are particularly well-equipped for third-party integrations. Tresorit supports Outlook integration, allowing you to quickly attach encrypted documents to messages, and Sync.com allows you to decrypt PDFs on the fly with a premium subscription. However, neither are as equipped as, say, Dropbox when it comes to third-party support (read our Dropbox review).
Versioning is where our competitors shine, though Tresorit more so than Sync.com. Both services top our best cloud storage for versioning list, but Tresorit includes file versions with “no upper limit.”
Sync.com, on the other hand, retains file versions for as little as 30 days or up to a year, depending on your plan. The only upside with Sync.com is that it supports full account rewind, similar to pCloud (read our pCloud review).
On the compatibility front, both services have native apps for Android, iOS, Windows and macOS, with Tresorit pushing ahead with a Linux client, as well (read our best cloud storage for Linux guide to learn more about that).
Tresorit really sets itself apart, though, with its network drive feature. Although lacking WebDAV support, Tresorit allows you to create and manage a network drive. Outside of a few small limitations, the network drive looks and acts like a local hard drive on your computer. The difference: it’s in the cloud, freeing up space on any local drives you have.
When it comes to features, neither of our competitors can go toe-to-toe with a service like Google Drive. The security model, which we’ll dive into in a bit, simply doesn’t allow for the breadth of integrations that less secure services do.
That makes judging this round tricky. The two big features are full account rewind for Sync.com and network drives for Tresorit. For our money, network drives are a huge plus, and Tresorit offers it without sacrificing version retention, despite the fact that it doesn’t offer full account restoration.
2. Pricing
Our previous round was tough, but now it’s time for an easy one. We’ll get into the gritty details in a moment, but Sync.com wins the pricing battle every time. Simply put, Tresorit charges more money for less space, and that’s true across personal and business plans. Furthermore, Tresorit has fewer options when it comes to storage capacity.
 | |
Small Business
| 1-year plan $ 20.00/ month $240.00 billed every year |
Business
| 1-year plan $ 12.00/ month $144.00 billed every year |
Enterprise
| 1-year plan $ 24.00/ month $288.00 billed every year |
Tresorit offers three personal and three business plans. The top-tier Solo plan clocks in at a staggering $24 per month when billed annually and $30 when billed month to month. Worse, it comes with only 2.5TB of storage. “Only,” of course, is contextual. For reference, Sync.com charges half as much as Tresorit for its Pro Solo Plus plan, which comes with 4TB of storage.
The issues only compound with the business plans. Although Tresorit offers an introductory discount on its middle-of-the-road Business subscription, all three enterprise tiers charge north of $20 per user upon renewal. Worse still, all of these tiers offer 1TB of storage per user without the option to purchase more.
Tresorit does, however, offer a competent free plan, with 5GB of storage at no charge. Sync.com mirrors this limit on its free plan. Both earned a spot in our best free cloud storage guide, though neither can compete with the likes of Google Drive and MEGA when it comes to free service (read our MEGA review, as well as our MEGA vs Tresorit comparison).
 | |
Free
| |
Personal Mini
| 1-year plan $ 5.00/ month $60.00 billed every year |
Pro Solo Basic
| 1-year plan $ 8.00/ month $96.00 billed every year |
Pro Solo Standard
| 1-year plan $ 10.00/ month $120.00 billed every year |
Pro Solo Plus
| 1-year plan $ 15.00/ month $180.00 billed every year |
Pro Teams Standard
| 1-year plan $ 5.00/ month $60.00 billed every year |
Pro Teams Plus
| 1-year plan $ 8.00/ month $96.00 billed every year |
Pro Teams Advanced
| 1-year plan $ 15.00/ month $180.00 billed every year |
When paying, Sync.com is reasonable, though. It offers six tiers of service on the personal end of things, none of which top $15 per month. In addition to being cheaper, Sync.com offers more variety when it comes to capacity. Tresorit goes from 500GB on its Premium plan to 2.5TB on its Solo plan, whereas Sync.com offers a nice gradient of capacities ranging from 200GB up to 4TB.
For businesses, Sync.com still charges per user and doesn’t offer any tiered discounts. Again, though, the business plans never top $15 per user, dramatically reducing the overall cost for large teams.
Plus, Sync.com’s top-tier Pro Teams Advanced subscription — Sync.com is a fan of buzzword-y plan names– comes with a massive 10TB of storage per user and supports up to 1,000 users.
There’s no other way to slice it. Sync.com is not only cheaper than Tresorit, it offers more capacity options and a greater amount of storage on comparable plans. No matter if it’s business or personal, Sync.com is the winner when it comes to pricing.
3. Usability
Due to the secure nature of Tresorit and Sync.com, both services put up roadblocks when it comes to usability. Services like OneDrive, for example, allow you to seamlessly drag and drop files into your account, free of worry about folder hierarchy (read our OneDrive review).
Unfortunately, that’s not the case for either of our competitors.
That doesn’t necessarily make them difficult to use, just different. Both services work through a local folder on your machine, but you can manage your account through a web portal and local application, too.
On the web end of things, Sync.com and Tresorit are equally matched, though the former has a few more buttons and options, making it a little more cumbersome.
That theme continues into the local applications. Although Sync.com isn’t difficult to use, the local app isn’t as inviting as Tresorit’s local app. Similarly, the mobile app forces you to handle tasks through menus, though that’s true for Tresorit, as well. If the mobile experience is important to you, make sure to read our best cloud storage for Android guide.
Neither of our competitors are as easy to use as Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive. However, they both do enough with the limitations of end-to-end encryption to make the experience palatable. This round could go either way, but Tresorit’s more streamlined web application pushes it slightly ahead.
4. File Syncing and Sharing
Tresorit and Sync.com both earned a spot in our best cloud storage for file sharing guide, and they earned equal ratings in their respective reviews.
On the syncing front, Sync.com offers one unique feature: the sync vault. This vault plays the role of an online backup service, offering long-term storage for files that you don’t want to sync across your devices. We’ll take Tresorit’s network drive feature over that any day.
Both services support selective sync, which was enough to earn them a slot in our best cloud storage for sync list, but neither support block-level sync.
No matter if you’re using Sync.com or Tresorit, the process of matching up your files across devices isn’t straightforward. You can choose the folders you want to sync, but beyond that, our competitors are beaten by services like Egnyte Connect (read our Egnyte review).
File sharing is where things get interesting. Both services are rife with sharing options, from password protection to link sharing to link expiration. Sync.com sets itself apart with link events, whereas Tresorit offers features like “path,” which allows you to easily copy a file path without digging through the folder hierarchy.
Like the last round, both services are evenly matched when it comes to syncing and sharing. Sync.com has the slight edge this time around, though. Its sharing is a little more straightforward, and having an event history handy is always nice.
5. Speed
There isn’t much to talk about this round. Due to the end-to-end encrypted nature of our competitors, both are on the slow end of things. Sync.com is slow out of the gate, and it adds additional time for files larger than 40GB. In comparison, Tresorit drags to pitiful speeds when trying to download files.
Speed is the price you pay for security, though, so that shouldn’t come as a surprise. Both are pretty terrible when it comes to download speeds.
However, Tresorit isn’t as bad on the upload end of things. It’s not exactly fast, but considering the server location is in the Netherlands — we tested out of the U.S. — Tresorit’s upload speeds are reasonable. Although it’s not much, the faster upload speed is enough for a slight edge.
6. Security and Privacy
For both Sync.com and Tresorit, security and privacy is their shining centerpiece and where our competitors come into their own. They’re zero-knowledge services, meaning that they don’t have access to the necessary keys to decrypt your account. If you want the gory details, make sure to read the respective reviews linked above. In short, though, you’re safe with either service.
Sync.com tops our list of the most secure cloud storage for a reason, though. Zero-knowledge encryption generally means that a forgotten password is about as good as a death wish.
With Sync.com, however, you can easily reset your password within the app, if you need. This is an optional feature, and it allows Sync.com to store your password. If you’re quick to forget, though, it’s nice to have around.
On the privacy front, Tresorit has the edge. It’s located in Switzerland, which has some of the best privacy laws in the world, whereas Sync.com is based in Ontario, Canada (not the U.S., but still a far cry from the Swiss in terms of privacy). It also maintains one of the clearest privacy policies we’ve ever seen, though that’s true for Sync.com, as well.
Other security features that both these services tout include two-factor authentication and top-notch encryption for all of your files (read our description of encryption for more). Encrypted storage is the name of the game for these services, and they both do an excellent job.
Sync.com’s password reset feature is a big deal, though, overcoming the biggest hurdle for end-to-end encryption. It’s not as secure, but it’s optional, and options are always a good thing.
7. The Verdict
With three wins each, our comparison ends in an uneventful tie. As we usually say in these situations, though, it’s our job to split hairs, so let’s get to it. They’re both nearly identical when it comes to encrypted storage and zero-knowledge authentication. Tresorit even offers some unique features, the most prominent of which is network drives.
The main difference is that Sync.com is much cheaper. Although we put equal weight on each of our rounds for these comparisons, there are some instances where certain rounds are more important than others, and that’s the case here. Price is what sets these services apart, and Sync.com wins that battle, making it our overall winner.
Winner: Sync.com
What do you think of our Sync.com vs Tresorit matchup? Do you agree that Sync.com is the better choice? Or is Tresorit the right service for you? Let us know in the comments below and, as always, thanks for reading.
Jacob Roach is a Midwesterner with a love for technology, an odd combination given his corn field-ridden setting. After finishing a degree in English at Southern New Hampshire University, Jacob settled back under the Arch in his hometown of St. Louis, MO, where he now writes about anything tech. His main interests are web technologies and online privacy, though he dips his toes in photography and the occasional card game as well. You can reach him at jacob[at]commquer.com.