Filen
Shares rank 10 of 14 cloud storage by recommenders
End-to-end encrypted, German-hosted cloud storage with a generous free tier and a Linux client. Some call it the least bad option.
End-to-end encrypted, German-hosted cloud storage with a generous free tier and a Linux client. Some call it the least bad option.
10 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 80%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Generous free tier, affordable price
“Their free tier looks extremely generous to me, and in this case I like the fact that it's from and entirely hosted in Germany.”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “10GB Free Zero Knowledge Cloud Storage – Filen.io” “it runs on every platform including Linux, it's affordable, and end to end encrypted”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Improving storage efficiency in Magic Pocket, Dropbox's immutable blob store” “which I find very reasonable and, critically, it has a Linux client”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stop paying for Dropbox/Google Drive, use your own S3 bucket instead” Runs on Linux and every platform
“it runs on every platform including Linux, it's affordable, and end to end encrypted”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Improving storage efficiency in Magic Pocket, Dropbox's immutable blob store” “which I find very reasonable and, critically, it has a Linux client”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stop paying for Dropbox/Google Drive, use your own S3 bucket instead” End-to-end encrypted
“Filen is quite good, is E2E encrypted and currently offering (final round of) lifetime plans for Black Friday.”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race” “it runs on every platform including Linux, it's affordable, and end to end encrypted”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Improving storage efficiency in Magic Pocket, Dropbox's immutable blob store” German company, hosted in Germany
“while that platform has had stability and reliability issues, at least the stored data can't be bullied out of a German-only company”
Comment from 11 Feb 2026 in “Building Mockingjay: A Video Recorder for When It Matters Most” “Their free tier looks extremely generous to me, and in this case I like the fact that it's from and entirely hosted in Germany.”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “10GB Free Zero Knowledge Cloud Storage – Filen.io”
Other cloud storage people recommend
The four most recommended other cloud storage, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple iCloud | 144 | 231 | 38% | 13 | 3 yrs7 owners | — |
| Dropbox | 140 | 166 | 46% | 12 | 12 yrs16 owners | — |
| OneDrive | 86 | 370 | 19% | 12 | 8 yrs6 owners | — |
| Google Drive | 66 | 130 | 34% | 12 | 5 yrs3 owners | — |
| FilenThis page | 8 | 2 | 80% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
10 of the 12 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Filen shows up right in Files”
“stuck with Filen as the least bad option”
“the website with its' Instrument Serif font Claudism is kind of a turn off”
“the batshit crazy design of bulk delete once file storage limit was met or exceeded”
“it runs on every platform including Linux, it's affordable, and end to end encrypted”
“which I find very reasonable and, critically, it has a Linux client”
“after it, no backups on my MacBook, and no backups on Filen”
“while that platform has had stability and reliability issues, at least the stored data can't be bullied out of a German-only company”
“Their free tier looks extremely generous to me, and in this case I like the fact that it's from and entirely hosted in Germany.”
“Filen is quite good, is E2E encrypted and currently offering (final round of) lifetime plans for Black Friday.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.