About

Ente (pronounced en-tay. Like cafe) is a end-to-end encrypted platform for privately, reliably, and securely storing your data on the cloud. On top of this platform, Ente offers two products:

• Ente Photos - An alternative to Google Photos and Apple Photos

• Ente Auth - A free 2FA alternative to Authy

Both these apps are available for all desktop (Linux, Mac, Windows) and mobile (Android and iOS) platforms. They also work directly in your web browser without you needing to install anything.

More products are in the pipeline.

History

Ente was the founded by Vishnu Mohandas (he's also Ente's CEO) in response to privacy concerns with major tech companies. The underlying motivation was the understanding that big tech had no incentive to fix their act, but with end-to-end encrypted cross platform apps, there was a way for people to take back control over their own data without sacrificing on features.

What does Ente mean?

In Malayalam, Vishnu's native language, "ente" means "mine". Thus "Ente Photos" has the literal meaning "my photos".

This was a good name, but still Vishnu looked around for better ones. But one day, he discovered that "ente" means "duck" in German. This unexpected connection sealed the deal. We should ask him why he likes ducks so much, but apparently he does, so this dual meaning ("mine" / "duck") led him to finalize the name, and also led to the adoption of "Ducky", Ente's mascot:

For the full origin story of Ducky you can check out this blog post.