Continuum is four ideas, assembled into one app.
A folder that knows all of your devices.
You create a Space and drop files into it — they appear on every one of your devices, in the same Space. Share a Space with someone else — it syncs to their devices too, with the same E2E. You can make it public for every device in your network.
Hold your phone up to your laptop’s screen — they know each other.
You pair two devices once — via QR code or PIN. After that they remember each other by cryptographic identity, not by login and password. No email confirmation, no «enter the code from your mailbox».
Flip through another device of yours like a file manager.
Open one device on another of yours — you see its filesystem over P2P, without downloading. You fetch only what you need. Useful when you need «just that one file» from your other laptop on the same network, without dragging the whole folder.
Through the wire, not across the ocean.
When your devices are on the same network, they discover each other over mDNS and exchange files directly. The speed is the speed of your Wi-Fi or Ethernet, not someone else’s server channel. Works on a plane, at a cottage, in an air-gapped network — no internet required.
Three ways to extend Continuum — when LAN isn’t enough, or when you want to run the infrastructure yourself.
The same devices, but over the internet.
When your devices are on different networks, Continuum can use our relay so they keep exchanging files. Encryption stays end-to-end: the relay sees only the encrypted stream, not the files. One click to enable; no setup.
A backup closet you don’t have to build.
When you want Continuum files to live somewhere beyond your devices, plug in Continuum Cloud. Storage works out of the box, without third-party accounts and without your own VPS. Data is encrypted on your devices before sending; Cloud holds only encrypted blobs.
Continuum on your own servers.
Pro lets you plug in your own VPS as a relay server and any S3-compatible storage (MinIO, Backblaze B2, Storj — your choice) as the backup target. Both options in one subscription; use either or both. Continuum passes through your infrastructure in encrypted form; your keys stay with you.
Base Continuum works without any of these extensions — see pricing.
Four situations where Continuum makes more sense than the cloud.
A Premiere project — 60 GB. After the studio shoot you want to keep editing on your MacBook at home. You create a Space «Projects», add your iMac and MacBook. The iMac drops files into the Space; via LAN they show up on the laptop at your network’s speed. No upload to Dropbox, no quota.
Eight years of family photos — 400 GB. iCloud wants a separate plan for that, and refuses to accept new shots every time the space runs out. You create a Space «Family», add everyone’s phones and laptops. Every new photo automatically appears on every device.
A designer sends a client PSD files. WeTransfer drops links after 7 days; in Dropbox 5 GB fills the entire free quota. You create a Space «Project ACME», add the client (they only need Continuum free). Files sync directly via Wi-Fi or Relay. Done — remove the client from the Space, their access is gone.
An Obsidian vault of three years of notes, dotfiles, configs — between work laptop and home. Git is awkward for binaries and attachments, iCloud doesn’t fit, Syncthing takes an evening to set up. You create a Space «Setup», drop in ~/.config and the vault. Boot up the laptop — folders are already current.
LAN, different networks, your own infrastructure, fallback, recovery — flip through, or let it auto-rotate.
Laptop and phone on the same network discover each other through mDNS and exchange files directly.
Three comparisons with products you already know.
Convenient, ubiquitous, no thinking required.
But: quotas, vendor lock-in, content scanning. A large file goes through the US even if both of your devices are in the same room.
Continuum: devices see each other directly. Files travel at your network’s speed. End-to-end encryption — we can’t read them either.
P2P, free, no server.
But: web-UI setup takes an evening, no model of «folders for people», mobile clients lag behind.
Continuum: the same P2P, plus Spaces as a way to share with people, plus a single identity on 12 words, plus desktop and mobile from one codebase.
Full ecosystem, self-hosted, GDPR.
But: a PHP server to maintain. Slow with large files. No P2P between clients — everything goes through the server.
Continuum: nothing to stand up. Between devices — direct. The server only appears when an internet relay is needed.
Most clouds are tied to a company: it shuts down, your files shut down with it. Continuum is different:
In the worst case — you switch to Pro or self-hosted and keep working.
Underneath — components you can read and verify:
Keys never leave your device.
We can’t read your files either.
Continuum works in Free forever. A subscription is needed only when you run into its absence.
Continuum Free is not a demo, not a trial, not «up to 30 days». It is a complete product that does not ask you for money until you need Relay and Cloud.
Continuum is not a universal replacement. A few things it does not cover — deliberately, or for now.
Linux, Windows and Android are ready and shipping. macOS and iOS are in active development: we want to release them when we are confident in their stability.
↳ Let me know when macOS or iOS is ready →Continuum syncs files between devices — it does not replace Google Docs or Notion. If two people edit the same document at the same time, the last save overwrites the previous one.
Continuum is built for personal use, families and small groups — up to ~10 devices per Space. If your organisation has 50+ people with roles and access control, that is a different class of problem; Nextcloud or a dedicated EFSS solution will fit better.
If your scenario landed in one of these — Continuum is not (yet, or ever) for you. Better to know up front.
Linux, Windows or Android. No account, no email, no confirmations.
On first launch Continuum generates an identity. Write down 12 words on paper — they are your only recovery key.
On the second device — «Add». Show it the QR code from the first one. Done — both devices share an identity and a Space.
About five minutes in total. No account, no email, no confirmations.