I built my own encryption tool in Python (+ some C) that uses modern AEAD algorithms like AES-256-GCM / ChaCha20-Poly1305 and an industry standard Argon2ID for the KDF.
PyKryptor is free, open source, offline and MIT’d 🙂
If you want a more in depth lecture about my software, it is recommended you check out the full README.md on my GitHub (PyKryptor repo), but I will also give a quick run down here.
Why should YOU use PyKryptor?
You might be thinking to yourself why you should use my random tool over WinRAR, 7-zip, AxCrypt or Cryptomator and so on…? Well I’ll list out some reasons for each one…!
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WinRAR / 7-zip – both are compression based, they just have encryption tackled on. However the both of them use a non-AEAD algorithm (AES-256-CBC), they do not support Argon2ID for the KDF, with that alone they aren’t really recommended for FULLY reliable encryption.
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AxCrypt – AxCrypt is freemium, which means that for the free tier you only get AES-128 which in 2025 is bonkers, they force online activity / cloud based protection which alone can be seen as “under mining encryption”.
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Cryptomator – while this tool is more respectable I say too; open source, AEAD and all. However it has it’s flaws like using a weaker KDF than PyKryptor (scrypt), and dark mode being locked behind a paywall (???).
Overall, PyKryptor aims to fix said issues since it’s; fully open source (every bit of code), free, offline, and works with an MIT license.
PyKryptor also includes some extra (but useful) features for convenience, those are;
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Compression – not WinRAR or 7-zip level but uses industry standard libraries like zlib, zstd and lzma.
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Archive mode – like WinRAR or 7-zip you can select multiple files to be all forged into one. PyKryptor uses it’s custom method; not tarfile.
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Reedsolo – you’d use this if you are using a dusty ass HDD for storage where bit rot / file damage is common, optional.
and other features you can see in the app / GitHub repo; keep in note that PyKryptor is a GUI based app (Qt6).
For additional information check out the rest on the GitHub page and review every file (you can skip the source code if you really want to) for the best viewpoint of the software 🙂