Internxt Review: Is the Cloud Storage a Lifetime Investment?

Cloud storage for life? Internxt is offering just that: The Spanish provider sells lifetime plans - pay once and, at least in theory, get cloud storage forever. But how realistic is that promise? And is Internxt actually good enough that you’d want to rely on it for the long haul?

We put Internxt to the test to find out what the service can really deliver.

Cloud storage apps don’t need to be flashy — they just need to make accessing files effortless: no detours, no long loading times, no confusing menus.

Like most providers, Internxt gives you three ways to manage your files: a web dashboard, a desktop app, and a mobile app. Let's take a closer look at all three:

Internxt’s clean, minimalist, and neatly organized web interface lets you access your files right in the browser. Unfortunately, it doesn't always run as smoothly as you'd want.

Once you sign in, you're taken straight to your Drive, where all your folders are listed. A sidebar on the left lets you jump to key sections like Backups, Shared files, Recent files, and Trash.

The interface is mostly self-explanatory. In the upper-right corner, you’ll find buttons to upload files or create new folders, plus a search bar. Files can be sorted by name, date, or size, and you can switch between list and grid view. But beyond that, Internxt offers few organizational tools — no favorites, tags, or color-coding, for example.

Internxt sticks to the basics — which would be perfectly fine if the interface weren't so sluggish. Just opening a folder can take several seconds, and switching views often causes brief freezes.

File previews are slow to load, even for small documents, and quite a few common formats — like PowerPoint files or videos — aren’t supported at all. In our tests, the web app also froze occasionally, forcing us to refresh the page.

The interface looks modern and intuitive, but slow loading times and regular stutters make it frustrating in daily use.

Fortunately, you’re not limited to the sluggish web interface. Internxt also offers a desktop app that lets you manage your cloud files directly from your computer.

During setup, the app creates an Internxt folder on your system that behaves like any other folder in your file manager. You can open, move, copy, or delete files normally — and everything syncs automatically with the cloud.

You can also choose to download specific files or folders for offline access, if needed.

The app itself lives in the system tray (bottom-right on the taskbar). If you click on it, it shows whether your files are currently syncing or everything is up-to-date. The settings also offer a few extra tools: automatic backups and an antivirus scanner are included in all plans, while the cleaner is only available starting from the Premium tier.

Unfortunately, the desktop suffers from performance problems as well. It felt heavy on system resources, which was later confirmed in our performance test (more on that shortly).

Internxt also offers a smartphone app. It follows the same simple, straightforward design as the web dashboard, but isn't as plagued by performance problems.

However, downloads still take quite a long time, and the file preview supports even fewer formats — we only managed to open PDFs and image files directly, everything else required an external app.

One more drawback: there’s no automatic photo backup — a feature offered by pretty much every other cloud storage service we've tested.

Internxt runs on all major platforms — and yes, there’s a proper linux app too, with frequent updates.

Syncing is at the core of any cloud storage service. Files need to sync reliably and quickly across devices so you always have the latest version everywhere.

Unfortunately, Internxt falls short of what we’d expect from a modern cloud storage provider. The biggest issue: performance.

To compare services fairly, we run all providers through the same benchmark: a 400 Mbps connection (upload and download) and a standardized test folder.

The test folder includes:

We evaluate performance using three metrics:

Here’s how Internxt performed:

Internxt is slow. While services like pCloud, MEGA, or OneDrive finished syncing in under 10 minutes, Internxt took more than an hour to upload our test folder and over 40 minutes to download it.

And it’s not just the wait. The app also puts a heavy load on your system: CPU usage spiked to 93% during our test, the highest in our entire comparison. Internxt ended up in last place across all three metrics — upload speed, download speed, and system impact.

Speed isn’t the only problem. Internxt also offers very limited control over how syncing works.

After installing the desktop app, an Internxt folder appears on your device. By default, files are stored as online-only placeholders to save space. Files download fully only when opened, and you can choose to keep specific folders offline permanently (“Always keep on this device”).

Beyond that, settings are sparse: There's no selective sync for specific folders or subfolders, no bandwidth limits and no LAN sync for faster local transfers.

The mobile app also lacks a few basics. You can download and export individual files, but not entire folders. And there’s no automatic photo backup — a feature Internxt actually offered in the past, but has since removed.

Internxt does include a backup function in the desktop app. You can choose folders to back up hourly, every 6 or 12 hours, daily, or manually.

Unlike sync, backups create a static copy — changes aren’t mirrored automatically.

Backups appear in a separate folder in the web dashboard, where you can view and download them at any time:

The desktop app also includes an antivirus scanner and a PC cleaner. They might be well-intentioned, but they feel a bit out of place in a cloud-storage service. For one, it's debatable how useful these kinds of tools really are today. And if you genuinely need protection or system clean-up, you’d probably rather use dedicated software anyway.

Internxt would be better off focusing on what matters most: making file sync faster, more stable, and more flexible. That’s where the biggest improvements are needed right now.

Here’s an overview of Internxt’s key sync features:

Internxt positions itself first and foremost as a private, secure cloud service — not a collaboration suite. You can share files and folders with others, but even the sharing tools are pretty bare-bones.

Like most cloud storage services, there are two ways to share files with others:

However, how you manage sharing is inconsistent across platforms. You can only manage and remove shares in the web app. The desktop app doesn’t support sharing at all, and the mobile app only allows link sharing — no editing or removing share settings.

Control options are very limited. Links don't support passwords, expiration dates, or download limits features, for example. There's also no way to request files from others.

Inviting users by email gives you slightly more control: you can set a password and choose between two roles — Editor (full access) or Viewer (view/download only). Still, compared to other services, this is very basic.

Internxt really delivers just the basics: You can share files with others, but you have almost no control over how they’re shared.

Collaboration at Internxt stops at file sharing. There’s no way to edit documents in the cloud or work together in real time. The service doesn't offer its own office tools, nor does it integrate with platforms like Google Docs or Microsoft 365.

If you want to work on a file with others, you’ll need to download it, edit it locally, and then upload it again.

Internxt does offer a platform for audio and video calls (Internxt Meet) on its highest plan, and there's talk of an email service coming in the future. But if you're looking for cloud storage that lets you collaborate in the cloud, you'd best look elsewhere.

Internxt may not be the fastest, most flexible, or feature-rich cloud service, but it strongly emphasizes privacy. The company promises a more secure and private experience than mainstream providers, arguing that privacy is a “fundamental human right.” That means no one — not even Internxt itself — should be able to access your files.

Internxt encrypts all files on your device before they’re uploaded. You hold the key, and the company states it has no technical way to decrypt your data.

This is a true zero-knowledge setup — a key difference from major U.S. cloud services like Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive, where providers theoretically can access content. With Internxt, the end-to-end-encryption applies across all plans and devices without limitations. This differs from providers like pCloud, where zero-knowledge encryption costs extra and only applies to selected folders.

You don’t have to take Internxt’s word for it. The service is open source, meaning anyone can inspect and verify the code on GitHub.

Internxt also submits to regular third-party security audits. The most recent one was conducted in 2025 by Securitum, a Polish cybersecurity firm specializing in penetration testing. The review covered the web, desktop, and mobile apps as well as the cloud infrastructure. According to Internxt, "no critical security vulnerabilities" were found.

One thing worth noting: we couldn’t find any transparency reports detailing government data requests.

Internxt is based in Spain and stores data exclusively on European servers. The company markets itself as fully GDPR-compliant, with users retaining full control of their information.

If you're using Internxt for business, you’re still responsible for signing a Data Processing Agreement (DPA). Some competitors make this easier — for example by providing all the required forms and compliance documents via a self-service download center.

Internxt takes strong measures to protect your data, not just from outsiders, but even from the company itself. Your encrypted files are stored redundantly across multiple servers and data centers, which helps safeguard them against hardware failures or other outages.

The desktop app also includes a backup tool that lets you regularly back up local folders. However, one key feature is missing: file versioning. Internxt is the only cloud service in our review that doesn’t automatically save previous versions of your files. The company says versioning is coming soon — but only for its most expensive “Ultimate” plan.

That means while deleted files do sit in the trash for a short time, you can’t recover older versions. If you overwrite a file by mistake, the previous version is gone for good.

Here’s how Internxt’s security standards and features compare with other services:

Internxt’s pricing is straightforward: there are three paid tiers with increasing storage and feature sets — Essential (1 TB), Premium (3 TB), and Ultimate (5 TB). There’s also a free plan, but with just 1 GB of storage, Internxt is pretty stingy compared to other providers.

All plans include the core cloud storage features, including end-to-end encryption. All paying users also get access to the VPN and antivirus tools.

With the Premium plan, you unlock additional sharing features and the PC cleaner. The Ultimate plan adds even more, including the Internxt Meet video platform and advanced tools like CLI, WebDAV, NAS, and Rclone support. An email service and file versioning are on the roadmap — but not available yet.

Internxt also offers two business plans — Standard (1 TB) and Pro (2 TB). The main benefit here is expanded team management and customizable workspaces for organizations.

In our cloud storage comparison, Internxt lands somewhere in the middle price-wise. There’s no low-storage entry plan, so if you only need a few gigabytes, you'll likely end up paying more than necessary. The free plan is also one of the least generous in the market.

If you're after a one-time payment instead of endless monthly fees, Internxt is one of the few services (alongside, for example, pCloud and Icedrive) that still give you that option.

Here’s how the monthly pricing stacks up across all services in our review, based on storage size and number of users:

Every cloud storage service tries to strike the right balance between security and usability. Internxt currently misses that mark by a wide margin. The service delivers strong privacy protections, but they come at a steep cost to everyday usability.

In testing, Internxt synced much slower than rival services and ate up far more system resources. The web dashboard lagged and stuttered constantly, and the desktop app occasionally dragged our system to a crawl.

Some of these drawbacks — from the limited feature set to the slow syncing and heavy resource usage — may stem from Internxt’s unwavering focus on privacy and security. But that only explains so much. Other zero-knowledge services like MEGA and Tresorit prove that strong encryption and smooth performance can coexist.

In its current state, Internxt is difficult to recommend — and certainly not as a lifetime purchase.

We're not the only ones with serious concerns about Internxt. User reviews across the web are largely negative:

Not sold on Internxt? These services might suit your needs better:

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