GPG and PGP are very similar – but that doesn’t necessarily mean you shouldn’t take the time to choose between them, especially when security is at stake. However, since both encryption software come from the same source code, it may be difficult to see whether GPG vs. PGP is safer.
PGP and GPG are good encryption tools that offer the same advantages and disadvantages, including in terms of security. In other words, both of them are similar safety-wise. Users should look at other features (copyright, price, and customer support) to choose between either option.
How can you choose between GPG and PGP if you don’t know what either one is about? Both developer teams try to create a safe encryption tool for users, but that doesn’t mean you should pick one at random. Understanding where both come from may help you see where they are headed – and how secure both will be.
- Is GPG Safer Than PGP?
- What’s the Difference Between GPG and PGP?
- GPG vs. PGP: A Definition
- Are There Two PGP?
- GPG vs. PGP: A Comparison
- Why Do You Need GPG or PGP Encryption?
- What Was Email Like Before Encryption?
- Should You Use GPG or PGP Encryption?
- Do I Have To Pay For PGP?
- What’s OpenPGP?
- Is OpenPGP Better Than GPG and PGP?
- Conclusion
Is GPG Safer Than PGP?
GPG and PGP are pretty similar when it comes to encryption safety. Most people decide between either option based on other factors, such as free software vs. proprietary software, price, and after-sales service.
Are you choosing between GPG and PGP? We have good news! Both are great at what they do. You’ll likely choose either option depending on what your partners use or something other than safety.
Your partners probably chose between price and open sourcesness. Tech-savvy people prefer to see the code they use, so they go with open-source alternatives (i.e., GPG). However, those running big companies want user-friendly products and customer service – even if they have to pay for it (i.e., PGP).
What’s the Difference Between GPG and PGP?
GPG and PGP are different cryptography software products. However, they come from the same source called OpenPGP. Both projects do the same thing and achieve similar results. However, price, customer service, and a few other things differ.
The biggest difference between GPG and PGP is copyright: PGP is proprietary software, which means you cannot see its source code and have to pay to use it. This software has a free version, but you won’t get much out of it unless you upgrade it to the paid one.
In contrast, GPG is the free software alternative. This type of product tends to be a little more hands-on than something for sale, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try it, especially if you care about the free software philosophy.
GPG vs. PGP: A Definition
- GPG. GNU Privacy Guard (or GPG for short) is an open-source encryption software. It works the same way as PGP – mainly because it was created using PGP’s original code. Some believe it’s an updated version of it. The main algorithm this encryption software uses is NIST AED, which is one of the biggest differences between both. GPG is free software.
- PGP. Pretty Good Privacy (or PGP for short) is a proprietary encryption software. It first started as freeware but soon turned private because of pressure from the law and regulatory bodies. Because of that, people have to pay to use it for personal and commercial purposes. PGP uses RST and IDEA algorithms.
Are There Two PGP?
It’s important to note there are two kinds of PGP. If that wasn’t confusing enough, both words are used for similar things. First, you have PGP, the proprietary encryption software. You also have PGP (now referred to as OpenPGP), the encryption standard used by many cryptography developers.
More often than not, you’ll see people use the term PGP for encryption software. That’s the most common thing. However, you may read old logs or forum posts, which may confuse beginners.
In that case, you may see people talk about PGP in a different way. It’s the standard a lot of encryption software (including PGP and GPG) use for encryption. Nowadays, most people refer to it as OpenPGP, which we’ll talk about below.
However, even if OpenPGP was used for both PGP and GPG, that doesn’t mean there are no differences between each other.
GPG vs. PGP: A Comparison
- Results. Both GPG and PGP offer the same results, protection from hackers and their ability to steal your data. Their execution is different since GPG uses NIST AED and PGP uses RST and IDEA algorithms – but we don’t want to fall into a technical discussion, especially if it leads to both encryption tools giving you the same results.
- History. PGP was one of the first encryption tools people had. It started as a free product and soon became copyrighted due to pressure from the government. GPG appeared after PGP’s creator gave away its source code for free. In many ways, that was the turning point for both encryption tools: PGP is the proprietary tool and GPG is the open-source freeware tool.
- Price. One of the biggest differences between GPG and PGP is price. You have to pay to use PGP. It wasn’t like that in the past, but this software became copyrighted and then bought by a big company (first by Symantec in 2010, then by Broadcom in 2019). GPG comes from the GNU Project and is free to use (though you have to follow certain steps for that).
- Uses. Since PGP is proprietary software, it comes with certain restrictions for personal and commercial uses. In contrast, GPG is free software. However, that doesn’t affect most users because seeing source code (or altering it) isn’t the objective of most people who download encryption software. In fact, most people prefer PGP because it offers customer support.
- Safety. Here things get tricky. Threat actors have found several vulnerabilities in GPG. At the same time, PGP isn’t picture perfect either. In other words, both encryption software have issues, though you can expect all of them to have shortcomings. Fortunately, both GPG and PGP are active projects, meaning developers will continue to patch them.
Why Do You Need GPG or PGP Encryption?
You have to use email encryption to avoid having threat actors sniff your messages and steal your information. Unencrypted emails are easy targets but rather rare because most companies encrypt their communication.
Of course, doing so requires you to choose encryption software, which may not be easy, especially for people who don’t know that much about technology (or even more difficult subjects like cryptography.)
Fortunately, that doesn’t mean you have to send out unprotected emails until your company suffers a devastating breach and has to close shop. You can follow industry standards instead! Both PGP and GPG were the first few encryption tools, so it’s not a bad starting point.
It’s important to note developers continued to perfect their products after their release. In other words, threat actors won’t have to face old encryption methods when you use PGP or GPG – but an updated effort to stop them.
What Was Email Like Before Encryption?
Sending an email before widespread encryption was an incredibly unsafe way of delivering information online.
However, that didn’t matter that much since few people had an internet connection, and most used it to send anything other than sensitive data (e.g., academics talking about their studies).
More people started to use emails as time went on – and that pushed threat actors to actively try to intercept those messages. Encryption became the norm when hackers started to target emails.
Nowadays, we’re facing an entirely different landscape: threat actors don’t intercept emails directly but target networks to do so. For that reason, it’s always a good idea to connect to secure networks alone – or use VPNs as a last resort.
Should You Use GPG or PGP Encryption?
Both GPG and PGP are great choices to encrypt your emails. It’d be a good idea to shop around for a perfect encryption tool if GPG and PGP don’t sound like great options for you.
Does that mean sending encrypted emails stops hackers from doing harm? Not at all! Even retired hackers still manage to sniff messages and steal data if they want to. For that reason, you should always follow cybersecurity best practices. That way, you increase your chances of fending off any attacks.
Does that mean email encryption is inefficient? Absolutely not! It’s a mandatory step to protect your information. Of course, it’s not the only one you must follow. The best way to stay protected online is to leave no open spots for threat actors to exploit.
Do I Have To Pay For PGP?
PGP offers free and paid versions of its products. As you can probably guess, the free version is not the best it can be, so you should consider paying for PGP if you want to enjoy everything it offers.
As you have seen in this article, PGP isn’t the only encryption tool out there, though it’s recognized worldwide. You may want to use a free alternative due to your budget or having a personal preference for open source projects: in that scenario, you should choose GPG, a similar tool that comes free of charge and features open source code.
How much does PGP cost? The best way to know that is to check their website.
What’s OpenPGP?
OpenPGP is an encryption standard a lot of cryptography software uses. It’s a way software has to encrypt and decrypt information in a secure way. It’s more commonly used to encrypt emails to avoid threat actors from intercepting them, but it can also be used for FTP.
What’s an encryption standard? Simply put, it’s the way software hides information from third parties. Algorithms will use different ways to hide data by creating keys differently.
Think of different encryption standards as different locksmiths a software can use: two different locksmiths may follow a similar process – but always produce different keys.
Is OpenPGP Better Than GPG and PGP?
Not at all! In fact, OpenPGP is the standard GPG and PGP follow. Nowadays, PGP is owned by a company, but way back when, it was created by a single guy and distributed for free. Before PGP became proprietary software, its creator released OpenPGP as an encryption standard.
GPG creators took OpenPGP and created their own encryption tool as a response to PGP becoming proprietary software. In other words, both PGP and GPG share the same foundation, though they differ past that starting point – because developers from both teams made different choices.
For example, GPG uses NIST AED algorithms, and PGP uses RST and IDEA algorithms to encrypt data. However, that doesn’t mean GPG or PGP is better than their counterpart.
Conclusion
PGP and GPG are similar in many aspects, including security. In other words, both are equally safe in most scenarios. However, that doesn’t mean you can pick any at random: other factors (such as price, customer service, and more) are important when choosing software – and that’s where both encryption tools have huge differences you should consider. We at U.S. Cybersecurity understand the need for encryption. We can answer any questions you may have or assist with implementation.