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Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Some notes on Ente as Authy replacement (and looking for a cross platform Stocard replacement)

Posted by jpluimers on 2026/09/03

Ente's Mascot, Ducky, inviting people to Ente's source code repositoryAbout 2 years ago, Authy ceased desktop support (see September 2024 – Agust Tell HN: Twilio quietly removes Authy iOS app from Mac App Store, stops updates | Hacker News); back then I didn’t have time to look for a proper replacement as I was still recovering from the truckload of work moving to a new place and finishing the new place took.

Now I did have some more time and a friend mentioned the open source Ente Auth to me.

So below are some links about it, with the remark that I am also looking for a Stocard replacement which in a sense is structured similarly:

sharing token information across multiple mobile devices. Maybe Ente Locker can be used for that.

The reason is that I really dislike Klarna (who live on high interest loans of consumer purchases).

Oh: Ente is the German word for Duck, hence their logo on the right.

  • [Wayback/Archive] User guide: End of Life (EOL) for Twilio Authy Desktop app – Twilio Help Center
  • [Wayback/Archive] Ente · GitHub
    • [Wayback/Archive] GitHub – ente-io/ente: 💚 End-to-end encrypted cloud for everything. · GitHub (bulleting and underlining is mine)

      Ente is a service that provides a fully open source, end-to-end encrypted platform for you to store your data in the cloud without needing to trust the service provider. On top of this platform, we have built three apps so far:

      • Ente Photos (an alternative to Apple and Google Photos),
      • Ente Locker (a safe space for your most important documents and credentials), and
      • Ente Auth (a 2FA alternative to the deprecated Authy).

      This monorepo contains all our source code – the client apps (iOS / Android / F-Droid / Web / Linux / macOS / Windows) for both the products (and more planned future ones!), and the server that powers them.

      Our source code and cryptography have been externally audited by Cure53 (a German cybersecurity firm, arguably the world’s best), Symbolic Software (French cryptography experts) and Fallible (an Indian penetration testing firm).

  • [Wayback/Archive] Ente Auth – Open source 2FA authenticator, with E2EE backups
  • [Wayback/Archive] Is Ente Auth trustworthy? : Bitwarden

    …

    Ente Auth does not have a desktop Mac OS app available from the Apple App Store. Both Authy and Ente Auth rely on their iPad app for Macintosh computers (with Apple silicon). The Authy iPad app on my Mac works as well or even better than their old desktop app. I tried Ente Auth but it is glitchy on my Mac so I’m sticking with Authy which I have used for years with zero problems.

    …

    While I doubt Authy will be going anywhere anytime soon, something like what happened to RaivoOTP¹ can always happen

    …

    An iPad/iPhone app, enabled to run on macOS like the one from Ente.io, effectively uses native code for macOS, as it shares the same machine code and Apple libraries. The only difference from a macOS app is the window layout (especially in fullscreen mode) but that is purely an aesthetic factor. The Ente app, therefore, is a native app for all recent Apple systems, and in fact, it is available in the macOS Store.

    …

    I do know that Ente Auth has a CLI: ente.io/blog/ente-cli². All that would be left would be stitching in a TOTP token generator, which is a very easy problem to solve.

    …

    Edit: before I forget, Ente Auth has auto sync across devices, but that requires you to have an account for it. You can still do a manual export for safekeeping just in case.

    …

    Their primary business is Ente Photos, which is an open source secure and private alternative to Google Photos and iCloud Photos. They are open-source, end-to-end encrypted, and audited. They are arguably as much a security company as Bitwarden is, except their focus is storing photos instead of passwords. Ente Auth is a spin-off that leverages their existing infrastructure to provide an open-source authenticator that can be used from any device that their users might use to access their service, much like Bitwarden incorporating TOTP authentication and now making their own authenticator.

    …

    Ente is fully open source (server, photos clients, auth clients), audited (2 audits – 1 by Cure53 and another one by Fallible) and they’ve been around for about 4 years and they don’t have any VC investors as far as I know
    The company isn’t made up of 1 or 2 or 3 employees but a lot more
    Their architecture, data replication (3 copies in Frankfurt, Paris and Amsterdam) etc. is for all to see
    Ente is focused on privacy – they use e2ee
    Auth is cross platform and lets you export your secrets whenever and also has an option to use the app fully offline without backups
    Authy is closed source, doesn’t let you export your secrets and they’re now deprecating the desktop apps
    Anything is better than authy
    I use and like ente auth
    Ente is also recommended by privacyguides.org ³ (both photos and auth)
    github.com/ente-io/ente ⁴

    …

    You can host your own ente server if you are skeptical or just use keepass.

    …

    github.com/ente-io/ente/tree/main/server ⁵

    …

    FWIW (not the OP) it’s basically the same as Authy without all the baggage and (sorta) support for physical passkeys. It also has a dashboard you can access from a browser which slapped on my Bookmarks Bar I’ve found even more convenient than a desktop app.

    The only real niggle I have with it is if you’ve logged in with a passkey previously, it’ll remember the device without asking and defaults to using password/fingerprint scanner/Windows Hello, etc. for verification instead which while convenient is a baffling security decision. You can of course revoke device authentication at anytime but if your keys are more valuable than say, to pick a totally non-specific example, your Joplin diary full of disgraceful thoughts about Rashida Jones I’d probably look elsewhere.

    …

    I have been using it for the past half year and I love it. It’s exactly what I want from a TOTP app. It’s light, fast, it has proper icons, it is truly cross platform. Desktop, mobile, web (though a desktop app is relatively recent). You don’t even need to use the cloud sync, you can manually export and import your security keys between other TOTP apps (or even EnteAuth on your phone and PC). Stuff like Aegis etc are not cross platform.

    Maybe an extension for autofill for TOTP would be nice, but that is very niche (I don’t want TOTP in my password manager)

    …

    it’s flutter, not electron: github.com/ente-io/ente/tree/main/auth ⁶

    …

    Yes, Ente Auth is trustworthy. You just need to know that CERN uses Ente Auth as our 2FA app.

    …

  • [Wayback/Archive] Ente Authenticator vs. Authy – Discussions – Techlore Forum

    Authy is tied to the phone number and also doesn’t have E2E encryption (AFAIK). Phone number identifies you instantly, and if you lose your phone with the sim card in it it takes a bit of time to restore your number and your 2FA codes with it.
    And it’s damn impossible abroad, not to mention that it’s more devastating to lose your phone abroad. It happened to some people i know and it was a huge pain.

    Also exporting your 2FA codes out of Authy is also damn near impossible. It requires a rooted Android device and i was lucky to have one at hand, but you might not be.

    My main problem with Authy is that it locks you into their app and gives you no easy way to switch from it if the need arises. Authy can go down at any moment too, just like Ente, but there’s no way to export your seeds.

    Ente on the other hand has none of these issues, and out of two options that you brought up i’d choose Ente with no hesitation.

  • [Wayback/Archive] Getting Authy back on Apple Silicon Macs · GitHub
  • [Wayback/Archive] I Thought My Accounts Were Secure, Until I Discovered Ente Auth & Bitwarden | Medium

    I Switched to Ente Auth, And Haven’t Looked Back

    When I found Ente Auth, it just made sense. It takes the best parts of other authenticator apps and builds on them with a strong focus on privacy, control, and transparency.
  • [Wayback/Archive] Migrating from Authy | Ente Help

    Warning

    Authy has dropped all support for its desktop apps. It is no longer possible to export data from Authy using methods 1 and 2. You will need either an iOS device and computer (method 4) or a rooted Android phone (method 3) to follow this guide.

    …

  • [Wayback/Archive] Quickstart – Self-hosting | Ente Help

Some links referred above, but here with archived versions as well:

¹ [Wayback/Archive] RaivoOTP iPhone 2FA app sold. Latest update removes access to existing TOTP tokens : apple

² [Wayback/Archive] Introducing Ente CLI

³ [Wayback/Archive] Privacy Guides

⁴ [Wayback/Archive] GitHub – ente-io/ente: 💚 End-to-end encrypted cloud for everything. · GitHub

⁵ [Wayback/Archive] ente/server at main · ente-io/ente · GitHub

⁶ [Wayback/Archive] ente/auth at main · ente-io/ente · GitHub which now has moved to [Wayback/Archive] ente/web/apps/auth at main · ente-io/ente · GitHub

A friend mentioned that a non-syncing solution is FreeOTP+ and KeepassDX:

On Stocard:

Queries:

--jeroen

This entry was posted on 2026/09/03 at 18:00 and is filed under 2FA/MFA, Authentication, Authy, Ente, LifeHacker, Loyalty Cards, Power User, Security, Stocard. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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