The riskiest file you handle is the one a client sends you
For a freelancer who needs one private place to store deliverables and collect intake from clients, beebeeb is the strongest pick in 2026. Its file requests are accountless and sealed to your X25519 public key, so a client uploads a signed contract or a passport scan without making an account, and the host never sees plaintext. Tresorit, Proton Drive and Sync.com are credible runners-up. Here's how they actually differ.
Most "secure cloud storage" reviews score the storage and forget the intake. But the document that gets you in trouble usually isn't the deliverable you wrote — it's the one a client emails you. A copy of a passport for a visa application. Bank statements for an accountant. Pre-release assets under embargo. That file arrives over whatever channel is convenient, almost always email, and email is the one surface where "encrypted" rarely means end-to-end. A real file-request flow only fixes this if the provider can't read what lands. That's the axis worth optimizing. A host that can decrypt your client's tax documents is a liability you're carrying on someone else's balance sheet.
How does beebeeb collect files without reading them?
beebeeb's file requests work without the sender having an account. You generate a request link tied to your public key. When a client drops a file in, their browser encrypts it client-side and seals the per-file key to your X25519 public key before anything leaves their machine. The bytes that reach the servers in Falkenstein, Germany are AES-256-GCM ciphertext the operator cannot open. Only your device, holding the matching private key, decrypts it.
That's zero-knowledge in practice, and it holds on every tier, no exceptions. Account keys derive from your passphrase via Argon2id at a 256 MiB memory cost, login runs over OPAQUE so the server never sees the passphrase, and key material is zeroized after use. Recovery is a BIP39 phrase you hold — which also means beebeeb genuinely cannot get your data back if you lose it. That's the honest tradeoff of real zero-knowledge, and it's stated plainly on the security page instead of buried under a reassurance.
Available today: the web app, a CLI, WebDAV through that CLI, encrypted sharing with expiry/revoke/passphrase options, file versioning with configurable retention, file requests, TOTP 2FA, and passkeys. Native mobile and desktop apps are coming, as is Google Drive and Dropbox import. The product clients are open source, so the encryption claims are auditable rather than asserted; an independent audit is planned and the findings will be published. The server and this marketing site are private — that part isn't open.
Which secure storage is best for client intake specifically?
The contenders below are all genuinely zero-knowledge. They differ on whether accountless intake is in reach without paying, and on the jurisdiction holding the ciphertext.
Tresorit
Swiss, polished, and built for teams that need access controls and admin policy. Its collaboration and compliance tooling is more mature than ours, and it does have a permanent free Basic plan: 3 GB, 2 devices, 500 MB max file size. The 14-day trial is a separate trial of the paid tiers, not the only door in. Two honest caveats for a solo freelancer, though. Tresorit's file requests sit on Personal Pro and up, so accountless intake isn't in the free plan. And beebeeb's 14-day trial has no device cap, and its clients are open source where Tresorit's are not. The beebeeb vs Tresorit breakdown goes feature by feature if you want the full head-to-head.
Proton Drive
The closest match to beebeeb on principle: end-to-end encrypted, open-source clients, real zero-knowledge. We don't claim an encryption edge over Proton — they earned their reputation. Where it differs for a freelancer is scale and geography. The Family plan tops out around 3 TB shared across up to six people, and through 2026 Proton is moving much of its physical infrastructure out of Switzerland (toward Germany and Norway) in response to a proposed Swiss surveillance ordinance, though its HQ stays in Geneva. If you already live in Proton Mail and Calendar, Drive is the obvious bundle. If your bottleneck is high-volume client intake, the file-request ergonomics are where we push harder.
Sync.com
Canadian, zero-knowledge on every tier, 5 GB free, with a long track record. It supports file requests too. But the granular controls a freelancer leans on — link expiry, per-link download limits — sit behind paid plans, so the polished accountless-intake workflow isn't fully in the free tier. One engineering note worth flagging: Sync protects file keys with RSA-2048, an older asymmetric scheme than the X25519 curve beebeeb uses. Both hold up; X25519 is simply the more modern default. Sync is a solid, conservative choice if you're inside North America.
Side by side
| Provider | Free tier | Zero-knowledge | Accountless file requests | Open-source clients | Jurisdiction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| beebeeb | 14-day trial, no device cap | Every tier | Yes (X25519-sealed) | Yes | Falkenstein, Germany |
| Tresorit | 3 GB, 2 devices, 500 MB/file | Yes | Paid plans only | No | Switzerland |
| Proton Drive | A few GB with an account | Yes | Limited | Yes | CH, moving into EU through 2026 |
| Sync.com | 5 GB | Yes | Yes, expiry/limits paid | No | Canada |
What does it cost once a freelancer outgrows free?
beebeeb's paid tiers are flat and predictable: Starter at €1.99/mo for 100 GB, Basic at €3.99/mo for 200 GB, Pro at €10.99/mo for 1 TB. Need more than the standard ceiling? You can self-serve up to 99 TB at +€10.99 per extra TB, with a custom quote beyond that. No "unlimited" asterisk that quietly throttles you at scale — a real number you can plan a business around.
For a solo professional, the 1 TB Pro plan covers years of deliverables plus the intake folder with room to spare. The thing you're actually buying isn't the terabyte. It's that the host can't read the contracts and ID scans your clients send you.
Picking one
Lead with the axis that matters to you. If sensitive client intake is your sharp edge, beebeeb's accountless file requests were built for exactly the freelancer who collects ID scans and signed agreements and doesn't want to make every client register. Need mature team admin today? Tresorit is the safer institutional bet. Already a Proton household? Drive slots right in. North-America-based and want a long track record? Sync.com earns its place.