Filen vs Heave
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Filen
Securely store photos, videos, and documents with military-grade encryption. Access files on any device, share them easily, and enjoy features like offline access and encrypted notes. Offers a free tier with 10 GB storage.
- 10 GB free storage
- Unlimited pro storage
- Secure client-side encryption
- Offline file access
- Cross-device file access
- Encrypted notes and chats
- Automatic camera upload
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Filen is everything you need for storing your photos, videos and documents secure and encrypted in the cloud. Get 10 GB storage for free when you create an account. Features: - Get 10 GB when you create an account - Get unlimited storage with our pro offerings - Easily share files with family, friends and colleagues, even if they are not Filen users - Military grade client sided AES 256 bit encryption, your files truly belong to you - only you - Make files available offline for easy access wherever, whenever - Stream and preview your photos, documents, images and audio files straight from the cloud - Access your files on every device - Encrypted notes - Encrypted chats - Clean, easy to use interface for easy file management - Dark mode available for those who work at night or just love the darker look! - Automatic camera upload - Share target - Files app integration Terms of service: https://filen.io/terms Privacy policy: https://filen.io/privacy
Heave
This app connects users to a feed of individuals actively working on their goals. It emphasizes effort over appearance, rewarding progress with a unique system. Features include daily effort logging, timed sprints with consequences for missed deadlines, and social interaction to support friends.
- Daily effort logging with notes and photos
- Timed sprints with automatic consequence posting
- Social feed for friends' progress and support
- Group goal circles that unlock upon completion
- Focus sessions with Live Activities and widgets
- Collectible badges for early adopters
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Heave is a social goal tracker/alernative to social media built around effort—not empty engagement. Set meaningful goals, rate your daily effort from 0–10, and turn consistency into progress you can see. Add completion criteria, notes, and photos while keeping every entry connected to the day it happened. Build timelapses from progress photos, mark major achievements as Summits, and use focused Bursts when a goal needs an extra push. Follow your streaks, statistics, badges, and milestones along the way. Keep your goals private or share the journey with friends. Post updates, encourage each other through comments and reactions, use Heave stickers, and stay connected through direct or group messages. Heave also includes focus sessions, widgets, Live Activities, privacy controls, blocking, reporting, and account deletion.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Heave at 5.0 against Filen's 3.8. Heave also leads on monetization model (ad-supported vs freemium) and iOS requirement (17.6 vs 26.0). Filen's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and ratings volume (126 vs 1). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Heave holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Filen has 126 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Filen ships an update fortnightly, Heave every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Filen | Heave |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.8 (126 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 47.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 126 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Freemium | Ad-supported — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 17.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 103 MB | 26 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Filen Cloud Dienste UG (haftungsbeschraenkt) | Felix Fan |
Customer experience
Filen
Heave
Bugs and requests
Filen
Reported bugs
18 issues- App crashes when uploading photos/videos
- Music pauses when app is minimized
- Photo upload stuck at specific file counts (e.g., 42 photos)
- Notes lose data during sync
- Note type conversion deletes text content
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- Video thumbnails not displaying correctly
- Cannot open audio files in app
- App stuck on opening screen
- Login credentials not working on iOS despite working elsewhere
- Upload progress not visible in latest update
- File upload stalls at 'finishing' stage
- Camera upload fails with VPN enabled
- Rich text editor loses data on sync
- Share public link toggle does nothing
- Media not found error when uploading images
- App unable to load albums page
- Password reset link not sending
- Automatic account deletion after inactivity
Requested features
12 requests- Video streaming/playback within app
- Read-only file mode option
- Back-sync feature (delete from phone, delete from cloud)
- Multi-select file upload capability
- iPad split-screen view support
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- Shared folder system like Dropbox/Google Drive
- Album-to-folder mapping for camera uploads
- iOS Files app integration/mounting
- Audio file playback within app
- Dark mode following system settings
- Magnetic link download support
- Better gallery navigation and filtering
Heave
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Filen
No in-app purchases
Heave
No in-app purchases
