Both encrypt files securely. The real question is what else you need — email, keyservers, and broad ecosystem (PGP) versus a small, modern, hard-to-misuse format for files (age). Here is how to decide.
If your job is to encrypt and decrypt files — backups, documents, archives — age is the cleaner choice. If you need encrypted email, OpenPGP keyservers, or to interoperate with people already on GnuPG, PGP is the right tool.
age uses tiny modern keys, including the SSH keys you already have, with no keyring or web of trust to manage. PGP has a richer identity model — user IDs, subkeys, certifications, expiry — which is powerful but heavier.
age ships one strong path with no algorithm choices, which removes a class of mistakes. PGP's flexibility is its strength and its hazard: more knobs, more ways to get it subtly wrong.
age itself does not sign, but AgePony adds SSHSIG signing so you can sign files with SSH or hardware keys and verify with stock OpenSSH. PGP has mature, widely understood detached and inline signatures.
On mobile, AgePony gives you age (and SSHSIG signing); its sister app PGPony gives you full OpenPGP. They share design and author, and many people keep both — age for files, PGP for email and OpenPGP interop.
Absolutely. Many people use age for file encryption and PGP for email. AgePony and PGPony are built to sit side by side.
No. age uses modern, well-reviewed primitives. It is narrower in scope, not weaker.
No. age intentionally omits it. Trust is established out-of-band, which many find simpler.
Either signs releases well. PGP is the long-standing convention; AgePony's SSHSIG is verifiable with the OpenSSH everyone already has.
Free file encryption for iOS and Android. No accounts, no tracking, no servers.
