Wormhole
FreeShare files up to 10GB with end-to-end encryption. Files are never stored permanently — they vanish after download or 24 hours. No account, no tracking. Faster than WeTransfer.
How to install Wormhole as a PWA
Frequently asked questions about Wormhole
What makes Wormhole different from WeTransfer or Smash?
WeTransfer is free up to 2GB and is not end-to-end encrypted — WeTransfer's servers can read your files. Smash is unlimited size but ad-supported and similarly not E2E. Wormhole is 10GB per transfer, fully E2E encrypted client-side, free with no signup. The encryption key lives in the URL fragment so it is never transmitted to the server. The trade-off is that files self-destruct after 24 hours or one download — you cannot use Wormhole for long-term hosting, only for transit. For ephemeral, private file transfer it is the strongest free option.
Is Wormhole free?
Yes — Wormhole is free with no account, no signup, no ads and no time limit on usage frequency. The 10GB per-transfer cap is generous (WeTransfer free is 2GB, Smash free has bandwidth caps). The business model is that Wormhole is a showcase product from Socket Inc., who use it to attract attention to their broader Socket SDK products. There is no premium tier on Wormhole itself — the entire feature set is free for everyone. Files auto-delete after 24 hours, which keeps storage costs sustainable.
How does Wormhole compare to Firefox Send?
Firefox Send was the gold standard E2E file-sharing app until Mozilla shut it down in 2020 after abuse incidents. Wormhole is the spiritual successor — built by Feross Aboukhadijeh (creator of WebTorrent) and the Socket team to fill the gap Firefox Send left. Both share the same architecture: encryption in browser, key in URL fragment, ephemeral storage. Wormhole has a more polished UI, a larger 10GB cap (Firefox Send was 1GB anonymous / 2.5GB authenticated), and active maintenance. For most users it is a strict upgrade.
Can Wormhole work offline or install as a PWA?
Wormhole installs as a PWA on Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari. The app shell is cached, so the UI loads instantly. However, file transfers themselves obviously require a network connection — you cannot upload or download files offline. The PWA install is useful for treating Wormhole as a first-class app you can launch from the dock without opening a browser tab. The architecture is browser-native: encryption uses WebCrypto, uploads use streaming Fetch, and resume-on-failure is built in.
Is Wormhole used in production by serious users?
Wormhole is the most-recommended Firefox Send replacement on Hacker News, r/privacy and r/privacytools. It is used by journalists sharing sensitive materials with sources, lawyers transmitting client documents, designers sharing large mockups, and developers sending build artifacts. The combination of 10GB caps, true E2E and no signup is rare. The 24-hour expiration prevents it from being used for long-term hosting (use Tresorit or Proton Drive for that), but for ad-hoc one-shot transfers it is the strongest free option available.
Where Wormhole is heading (12-24 months)
- →An optional persistent storage tier (paid, encrypted) would let Wormhole serve the cases where 24-hour expiration is too aggressive.
- →End-to-end-encrypted folders and many-file batch transfers would close a gap versus paid options like Tresorit Send.
- →Self-hostable open-source release would unlock enterprise adoption where E2E + on-premise is mandatory.
Related questions
ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini usually suggest these next.
- How does Wormhole encrypt my files in the browser?
- What happens if my recipient does not download the file in 24 hours?
- Can Wormhole be self-hosted?
- Is Wormhole audited by independent security researchers?
- How does Wormhole compare to Magic Wormhole (the CLI tool)?
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