Tresorit Review

Tresorit is one of the largest names in cloud storage, sitting alongside services like Sync.com and Dropbox in our best cloud storage rankings (see our Dropbox vs Tresorit comparison). Although it’s a decent option for personal use cases, Tresorit comes into its own in a business context, sitting near the top of our best business cloud storage rankings. 

In this Tresorit Business review, we’re going to explain why. From features to security and privacy, we’re going to cover everything that the service gets right, as well as the few unfortunate things it gets wrong. 

In short, the Tresorit cloud is excellent for business security, but that comes at a price. The literal price is high, but Tresorit taxes you in other ways, too, forcing you to learn and understand its system. Once you do, though, there are few storage services as secure as Tresorit.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Alternatives for Tresorit

Features

Tresorit gets the basics right, so rest assured that if you need a specific feature, Tresorit probably has it. Short of block-level sync — more on that in the “security” section below — Tresorit has a little bit of everything. Most of the features are small and only come up in specific use cases, so consult Tresorit’s website if you’re looking for a specific feature. 

Starting with the basics, Tresorit has an app for just about everything. Your browser works — even if you’re on the personal Tresorit free plan — as do the desktop apps for Windows, macOS and Linux, as well as the native mobile apps for Android and iOS. There’s also a command line interface for Linux, if that’s your jam. 

Privacy and security features are excellent across these platforms, too, including a zero-knowledge model and multi-factor authentication options. Along with those features, Tresorit includes some nifty (if not all too useful for businesses) features. Those include auto camera upload, encrypted scanning and offline access.  

Encrypted File Sharing

We’ll talk in detail about file sharing in the appropriate section below, but you can send large files through Tresorit easily with its file sharing capabilities. You can send files up to 5GB using an encrypted link. This link uses the same end-to-end encryption as if you were sharing files within your own account. 

It goes deeper than simply sending a link, though. You can change access permissions, revoke access to a link and choose if the recipient can see the version history or not. Tresorit even has Outlook integration. No more unencrypted email attachments. 

Network Drives

If you’ve used Google Drive or Dropbox before, Tresorit is a walk in the park. Like those services, you can easily upload and download files from your account using a local folder on your computer. The files within that folder, of course, take up space on your hard drive. If you’re running low on space, you can set up a Tresorit Drive. 

Tresorit Drives are virtual network hard drives mounted to your computer. You can open the drive and browse through the files like you would any local hard drive, but the contents inside don’t take up space on your computer. The only downside is that you can’t move or rename folders. 

In place of WebDAV, Tresorit drive is a solid solution. In fact, there aren’t really any Tresorit alternatives in this regard. Although there are some limitations, Tresorit Drive essentially allows you to have a full hard drive in the cloud, which is great for saving space on your local machine. Even better, it’s included with every subscription.

Data Residency, Access Logs and File Versions

Although the above Tresorit features are flashy and impressive, these next few are probably the most important for businesses. All of the data in your account has a history attached to it, and as an administrator, you can view that history at any time. As we’ll get to later, you can also set security policies for your business and monitor usage statistics. 

Included with the history is a version list for each file. Tresorit automatically stores a copy of everything, you can revert to a previous version at any time. In the case of a cyber attack, where you may need to delete files in order to save them, you can restore that data within Tresorit. 

Users can monitor every login attempt, as well as the attempted login credentials and where the attempt came from. Business storage is one of the few areas where more control is better. With Tresorit, you’re given the tools to monitor your account and adjust your security policy accordingly. 

Finally, Tresorit offers data residency options. As an enterprise storage service, Tresorit recognizes that where you keep your data is important, not only for security but also for local regulation. 

When defining a security policy, you can choose where Tresorit hosts certain data. The options include Tresorit’s homeland of Switzerland, which is known for its excellent privacy laws.

Tresorit Features Overview

Tresorit Pricing

Tresorit is a hell of a business storage solution, and it knows that. Outside of a decent free plan for personal use — emphasis on “decent,” here — Tresorit is one of the more expensive options on the market. Considering its features and security, the price is worth it. Still, your wallet will be lighter as a result.

Small Business Price per user (billed annually),Storage per user,User count: 3-9 Details 1000 GB Storage	1-year plan $ 20.00/ month $240.00 billed every year
Business Price per user (billed annually),Storage per user,User count : 10+ Details 1000 GB Storage	1-year plan $ 12.00/ month $144.00 billed every year
Enterprise Price per user (billed annually),Storage per user,User count : 100+ Details 1000 GB Storage	1-year plan $ 24.00/ month $288.00 billed every year

You have three options as a business subscriber: Small Business, Business and Enterprise. Small Business is truly focused on small outlets, with a minimum of three users and a maximum of nine. 

Compared to the standard Business plan, the Small Business plan is missing a few things, namely SSO integration with services like OneLogin and some advanced reporting features. It’s only slightly cheaper, though, so an upgrade is worth it. 

In fact, a full, fat Business plan is cheaper than a Small Business plan out of the gate. Exclusively for 10 users or more, it comes with a 50-percent discount on your first term. That brings the price closer to pCloud — read our pCloud review for the full details — but still, Tresorit is more expensive than the competition. 

At the top is the Enterprise plan, which includes SSO support, personalized training staff and immediate phone support. Otherwise, it’s the same as a Business subscription, price and all. That said, an Enterprise plan is only for teams of 100 or more, and you’ll need to contact Tresorit for a custom deployment. 

The kicker to all of this is that Tresorit offers 1TB of storage per user; no more, no less. Compared to a service like Sync.com, which offers multiple storage options for businesses, Tresorit is lacking. Although 1TB is more than enough in a lot of cases, there are some scenarios where it’s simply not enough. Visual effects houses, in particular, come to mind. 

After a quick glance at Tresorit’s competitors, it becomes abundantly clear that you aren’t getting a deal. Tresorit is all about security, whereas a lot of other cloud storage platforms balance storage space with price. Of all the things Tresorit gets right, pricing isn’t among them. 

Ease of Use

Tresorit isn’t inherently difficult to use. In fact, once you learn its idiosyncrasies, it’s easy to use. However, the way it approaches certain things can make onboarding more difficult than it needs to be. Due to its security model, there are some creature comforts missing, too. For instance, you can’t stream music from Tresorit like you can with pCloud or Sync.com.  

Starting with the web app, everything is straightforward. You can view your folders, manage your account settings and select different options for files by right-clicking them. It’s not quite as fluid as a Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox account, though. 

Tresorit uses tresors in place of folders. The word “tresor” is German, roughly translating to “vault” or “safe.” These aren’t standard folders, though. Everything must go inside of a tresor, so you can’t upload files to the root directory of your account. Likewise, you can’t drag and drop files into the web app like you can with, say, Google Drive. 

There’s a reason for this approach. Tresorit encrypts each of your tresors using your password, and inside each tresor, it stores the encryption keys for each individual piece of data. 

Logic usually doesn’t win against usability, and such is the case here. No matter if you want to share files or upload something new, Tresorit makes doing so simple. However, you’ll have to learn what its definition of “simple” is. 

Desktop and Mobile Apps

Tresorit is one of the rare few online storage services that supports Linux, which automatically places it near the top of our best cloud storage for Linux guide. Additionally, it supports Windows and macOS, as well as apps for Android and iOS mobile devices. No matter where you are or what device you’re on, you can access your account. 

The desktop app mirrors the web one, though with a slightly condensed interface. There’s no reason to belittle any readers here; if you’ve used any cloud storage service before, you’ll appreciate how everything’s within reach in Tresorit’s app. 

However, the only unique thing we found is the ability to pin Tresors, allowing you to quickly manage certain folders no matter where you’re at in your account. 

On mobile devices, Tresorit carries the same straightforward design philosophy, though it allows you to automatically upload things like photos. Although not useful for businesses, having access to your account on the go is never a bad thing. 

This section is tough. Tresorit plays by its own logic, so as long as you understand how the system works, it’s very easy to use. There are a few minor issues, and although we understand why those issues are present, we don’t expect that every new Tresorit user will. We’re taking off a few points because of that, but rest assured that Tresorit has excellent design overall.

File Sharing & Syncing

Tresorit’s sharing and syncing capabilities are world-class thanks to its excellent versioning. It made the list in our best cloud storage for sharing guide for a reason, after all. 

Starting with sharing, you can share tresors with other users easily in the web application. Simply mouse over the tresor you want to share and click the appropriate button. 

However, you can only fully share a tresor — the main folder — but you can’t fully share the folders within it. In this case, “fully share” means that the tresor shows up in the recipient’s account. The tresor is encrypted using your password, and it holds the encryption keys for all of the files inside. You can only share specific files or folders through a link. 

Link sharing is surprisingly robust, though. You can set an expiration date, set an open count limit and even choose if the opener has access to usage logs. If you share through a link, the opener doesn’t need an account, either. For full sharing, your recipient will need an account. 

None of this is particularly impressive, much less unique, for an enterprise storage solution. It’s within the simplistic system where Tresorit shines. Features like Tresorit Path, which allows you to easily copy the folder path of a specific file, are immensely useful in the often crowded corporate storage spaces. 

Our favorite feature is file requests, though. Essentially, file requests allow users outside of your network to upload a file directly to a tresor. Say your business is using a consulting firm. You can send a file request to the firm asking for their report, and they can upload it directly to Tresorit, no account required. 

Tresorit Syncing and Versioning

Out of the gate, Tresorit will automatically sync your files, so no matter if you’re using the web portal or the local application, you’ll have access to your files across every platform. If you don’t want to share everything, Tresorit supports selective sync. With it, you can choose which files you want to update in the cloud instead of just updating everything. 

You have full access to every version of a tresor or file within your account, too. Whenever you change or overwrite a file, Tresorit automatically stores a version of the older file. If the file becomes corrupt or you need to revert for any other reason, you can easily do so in the web or local application. 

With how quickly files are updated in a corporate setting, having access to previous versions is an invaluable tool. Plus, with businesses being a prime target for cybercrime, it’s always a good idea to have a backup.

Speed

As always, we tested Tresorit Business using a 1GB test folder. Before running the speed test, we took our raw connection speed at around 400 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload, meaning our 1GB folder should have been off our hard drive and into the cloud in record time. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

The download speeds, in particular, are painful. During our trial, the majority of the folder downloaded quickly, before hanging at 97 percent for over five minutes. This behavior continued into our second trial — though with an additional 30 second tax — suggesting the problem is on Tresorit’s end.

Upload times are far more reasonable — and more importantly, explainable — considering that Tresorit’s servers are located in Ireland and the Netherlands (we were testing out of the U.S.). Ignoring encryption, we would expect around a seven-minute average upload time. Tresorit takes longer, but not too much longer. 

The main killer is that Tresorit doesn’t support block-level sync. This isn’t possible with end-to-end encryption, meaning every time you update a file, you’ll have to fully reupload that file.

Egnyte Connect supports block-level sync for all files, as well as selective sync, though at the cost of encryption.

Security

Tresorit is very safe for businesses thanks to its end-to-end encryption. In short, your files are encrypted before ever being sent over the internet, and they are decrypted only when you or a collaborator accesses them. Tresorit is a zero-knowledge service, meaning it can’t access your files, even if it wanted to. 

Here’s how the process works: when you upload a file, Tresorit employs the AES-CFB algorithm to generate a 256-bit key. That encrypted file passes through a HMAC-SHA512 hashing layer before being signed by a digital signature. Wrapped up in a bundle of cipher text, the secure file then passes through a SSL/TLS channel and into Tresorit’s cloud storage system. 

If that sounds like a bunch of nonsense to you, make sure to read our description of encryption. If the gory details don’t concern you, know this: Tresorit is secure by design, protecting you not only from external threats, but from Tresorit itself. 

As most businesses know all too well, though, your employees are often the greatest source of vulnerability. Sharing between users is handled with asymmetric encryption. Each user on your plan has their own X.509 certificate, which contains the private half of a RSA-2048 key pair. This certificate is then authorized using the other user’s certificate, and the keys are paired. 

More importantly, though, the owner and admins of a Tresorit business account can define security policies across their storage, including timeout policies and IP filtering. Furthermore, owners can monitor usage statics and, perhaps most importantly, remove access from particular users and devices.

Privacy

Tresorit is a highly secure business cloud storage solution, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it respects your privacy, too (Dropbox Business, take notes). In what is one of the clearest privacy policies we’ve ever seen, Tresorit lays out what it collects, why it does so and how that impacts your privacy. 

At a top level, Tresorit doesn’t log much of anything. Outside of obvious information, such as your billing information and name, Tresorit doesn’t dig into your files or spy on what you’re doing with them. That simply isn’t possible given the zero-knowledge encryption model of the service. 

There are a few things Tresorit can see, though, including the names of folders, size of folders and the members attached to them. This isn’t a problem, and Tresorit sums up why better than we ever could: “For the avoidance of any doubt, Tresorit cannot connect such metadata information to Your Encrypted Content or file names as Tresorit has no access to the Encrypted Content or file names.”

As is the case with nearly all cloud storage services, Trresorit will share your information in compliance with Swiss law — a high bar to clear, with Switzerland sporting some of the best privacy laws in the world — and to market Tresorit services to you on different websites.

However, you can opt out of these communications in compliance with GDPR. 

Between the TL;DR snippets for each section and Tresorit’s clear wording, anyone can dive into the privacy policy and get a sense of how Tresorit is handling their data. That’s more than most cloud storage services can say, and this alone puts Tresorit ahead of the pack. The fact that the privacy policy isn’t menacing is the cherry on top.

Customer Service

Tresorit splits up its support based on your subscription. Small Business subscribers have access to the basics: live chat and email support. Up the chain, Business subscribers have access to priority email support — within the same day, based on our estimation — as well as scheduled phone support. 

Enterprise subscribers get everything, from immediate phone support to personalized staff training. Despite the fact that Tresorit breaks up its support options, we’re happy to see live chat and email support span every plan. Plus, the knowledgebase is open to everyone, and it has articles for just about everything.

The best way to describe the content in Tresorit’s knowledgebase is “engaging.” Articles don’t unnecessarily drone on, but at the same time they provide enough detail so you aren’t left with more questions than when you started.

Tresorit Verdict

Tresorit, above all else, is unique. It doesn’t use the same playbook as other cloud storage services, rather embracing limitations in favor of stricter security. It’s not a perfect enterprise cloud storage solution. Where security matters more than all else, though, Tresorit shines. 

What do you think of Tresorit, though? Let us know in the comments below and, as always, thanks for reading.

FAQ

• What Is Tresorit for Business?

  Tresorit for Business is a cloud storage service focused on security. It offers full end-to-end encryption for all of your files, as well as a zero-knowledge security model.

• How Much Does Tresorit Cost?

  Tresorit has three business and three personal subscriptions. Of the personal plans, Send is free, while Premium and Solo cost $12.50 per month and $24 per month, respectively. Business subscriptions are priced per user at $20 for Small Business, $12 for Business and $24 for Enterprise.