GnuPG (GNU Privacy Guard) is the free, GPL-licensed implementation of the OpenPGP standard. A command-line tool for Linux, macOS, and Windows, it encrypts and signs files and email, and manages public-key directories.
GnuPG
Win Mac Linux Open Source For Experts Germany
Official website gnupg.org
Our take
GnuPG is the bedrock of open-source encryption, trusted by journalists, sysadmins, and security researchers for decades, with an active development team based in Germany and a record of prompt security advisories. The catch is the interface: the CLI is powerful but unforgiving for newcomers, and the OpenPGP web-of-trust model demands key management discipline. Pick GnuPG if you are comfortable at a terminal and need a proven, auditable foundation; pair it with a GUI frontend like Kleopatra or GPG Suite if you are not.
GitHub at a glance
gpg/gnupg
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License
GPL-3.0
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GnuPG alternatives
VERNAM A free, fully client-side file encryptor that runs in your browser. Drop in any file, set or generate a passphrase, and it seals the result into its own .vrn format. Nothing is ever uploaded, and it works offline.
VeraCrypt It can create a virtual encrypted disk that works just like a regular disk but within a file. It can also encrypt a partition or the entire storage device with pre-boot…
Cryptomator Cryptomator encrypts your data quickly and easily. Afterwards you upload them protected to a cloud service.
Picocrypt Uses the secure XChaCha20 cipher and the Argon2id key derivation function to provide a high level of security, even from three-letter agencies like the NSA. Simply drop your…
7-Zip File archiver with a high compression ratio and built-in encryption functionality.
Gpg4win Gpg4win is the official Windows installer for GnuPG, bundling the Kleopatra certificate manager and GpgOL for Outlook integration. It provides OpenPGP and S/MIME encryption for files and email on Windows.