# Ente Photos Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/ente/ 43 people recommended Ente Photos in Hacker News comments, 9 had mixed feelings and 21 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 12 months, in 32 threads. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** End-to-end encrypted photo backup with polished apps and automatic desktop export, without the burden of self-hosting; critics most often say its product focus and marketing are unclear. Summary written by Claude from 54 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 51 of those comments still count. ## Why people recommend it - End-to-end encrypted photo storage (6 comments in the sample): "Being end-to-end encrypted buys some peace of mind knowing that it's not end of world if my homelab is compromised." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49793430)) "harder to setup but feels much more robust and its end to end encrypted, which I prefer" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47305714)) "Ente has a killer feature of supporting actual end-to-end encryption for photos." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47523119)) - Continuous desktop export and sync (3 comments in the sample): "I can pay them to give me an e2e encrypted cloud service, and then the desktop app has a continuous export feature" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46173331)) "Now ente not only backs up to their e2ee cloud but its desktop app keeps those media synced" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46581756)) "with an automated continuous export feature so that everything can go to my NAS" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46261729)) - Polished, feature-complete apps (3 comments in the sample): "It’s a very refined and feature-complete product with e2ee. Many alternatives just don’t have feature parity" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48939888)) "Ente is surprisingly well integrated with iOS, you really don’t need to use Apple’s solution." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46579803)) "all their products feel polished and I like their marketing mascots" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48769056)) - No self-hosting burden (3 comments in the sample): "if you're mostly looking for a solution to take your mind off the problem and don't want to self-host, try Ente photos" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49539278)) "I get cloud convenience and no real self-hosting burden along with solid ownership of my data." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48769591)) "Ente seems like a great alternative for anyone that doesn't want to self-host." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48934718)) ## What people warn about - Unclear marketing and branding (3 comments in the sample): "I think that they have great product(s) but terrible branding and apparently some growing pains as well." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47523409)) "they need a marketing person, because I'm still not sure I know what they do" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48940734)) "Usability fail at the marketing level doesn't help reach critical mass." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48948891)) - App crashes and reliability problems (3 comments in the sample): "my Ente photos app crashes 20 times a day on iOS when using advanced functionality such as scrolling through my photos" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47522037)) "I'm much more worried about the Ente install getting broken for some reason and my pictures being locked and lost" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46172111)) "I am losing trust that any of your products will see enough polishing any time soon." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47529692)) - Doubts about openness and encryption limits (3 comments in the sample): "This is one of those vanity blog posts, a “look at us, we’re open” blog posts without actual openness" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48934103)) "Nothing prevents Ente from grabbing the key and decrypting all the data at this point." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48937335)) "its good that they are very opaque regarding their sources of funding" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48932989)) - Unclear product focus, too many products (1 comment in the sample): "I like Ente, but isn't their core product a photos application?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47517981)) ## What people recommend instead - [iCloud Photos](https://hackerapproved.com/p/icloud-photos/): 10 recommend, 7 mixed, 45 criticize ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://ente.com/) ## The badge A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged. ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Ente Photos", https://hackerapproved.com/p/ente/ (43 recommend, 9 mixed, 21 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026). Counts updated 3 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.