Saturday — Alaska stops to smell the flowers
You snap a few pictures on a walk. By evening they're on your home storage. Overnight they finish copying to your parent's and your sibling's. Nobody needs a zip file of the dog.
Private family storage
Your memories live in more than one home you trust
Substratum.cloud helps families keep photos, videos, and important files in several places at once — and see that they're safe.
The problem
Why one copy is not enough
One device
If it dies, gets stolen, or is wiped, everything on it can be gone.
One backup drive
Easy to forget to plug in, easy to lose, easy to put in the wrong drawer.
Only the cloud
Convenient, but your whole history lives behind one account and one company's rules.
Who has the real copy?
Folders on phones, email attachments, and old USB sticks get messy fast.
How it works
Five simple steps
- Sign in
Sign in with the account you already have
- Pick places
You pick your safe places
- Safety net
You can add an extra safety net
- Share
You add and share files normally
- See status
You see status, not guesswork
Optional safety copies
An extra layer when homes are far apart
When houses are far apart or the internet between homes is fussy, optional safety copies in secure storage run by Substratum.cloud help you sleep easier. Your home copies remain yours — the extra copies are there so you're not betting everything on one address.
A few days in the life of a family
Quiet copying, clear status
Tuesday — a home storage box acts up
The app shows that place as needs attention, not everything is lost. You still open files from your house and your sibling's. You fix or replace the box when someone has time.
Holiday — share with siblings
You share a reunion album. Each sibling sees only that album in their own space. Nobody gets access to your tax folder unless you share it.
How this differs from just the cloud
Your homes, your rules
| Usual cloud photo app | Substratum.cloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Where files live | Mostly on their servers | In your homes you control, plus optional extra copies |
| If the company changes rules | You adapt | Your copies still sit in places you chose |
| If one home has a fire or dead drive | Often we lost the local copy | Other homes still have it |
| Who can see everything | Whoever has the one account | Only people and places you invited |
| Sign-in | Another email and password | Your existing Bluesky, Tangled, or AT Protocol handle |
Pricing
Two layers families already understand
Alpha
Alpha macOS installer available
Keep copies in homes you trust
Run a home helper on storage you control — up to three places, one-time setup per home.
- Home helper on your storage
- Up to three safe places
- You control the disk
- One-time setup per home
Our own login for trusted sign-in and backups is coming soon.
Coming soon
Coming soon
Add an extra safety net
Optional secure storage run by Substratum.cloud in more than one part of the world. Home copies remain yours.
- Secure storage in multiple regions
- Helps when home-to-home copying is slow
- Home copies stay under your control
Pricing will follow when Substratum.cloud operates its own PDS to cover storage costs.
Who does what
One helper, everyone else keeps it simple
The household helper
Sets up the home program, picks folders, sets how much disk each place may use, checks status.
Everyone else
Signs in, adds photos, browses shared albums.
Extended family
Sees only what was shared with them.
Privacy and trust
Sharing on purpose
- Copies move only between places you set up or people you invited.
- Random people on the internet cannot browse your family library.
- Sharing is on purpose — an album, a folder — not everything public.
- The person who runs storage at each house controls how much space is used.
Questions families ask
Straight answers
Those keep your stuff mainly on their machines. Substratum.cloud is built so your copies live in homes you trust, with optional extra copies for safety — not one basket.
No. Only folders or albums you share.
Homes can still sync over the internet; the optional Substratum.cloud safety copies help when home-to-home copying is slow or interrupted.
One person sets up each home once. Everyone else uses familiar ideas: folders, albums, share with family.
Ready to learn more?
For builders and operators
Read the getting started guide for household helpers, or dive into the technical specification.