Peer to Peer File Sharing

About the Peer-to-Peer File Share

This tool sends files directly from one browser to another using WebRTC. There's no upload to a server in the middle, no temporary storage on our end, and no copy of your file sitting on a third-party host waiting to be downloaded.

What WebRTC actually means here

WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication) is a standard built into every modern browser that lets two devices open a direct, end-to-end-encrypted data channel between each other. The browsers find a way to talk over the network, and then your file streams across that channel — peer to peer.

A small signaling server is used briefly at the start to help the two browsers discover each other and agree on connection details. The signaling server never sees the file contents. Once the two peers are connected, all data flows directly between them.

Do your files get uploaded anywhere?

• No file ever touches our servers. The file is read from disk by the sender's browser and streamed directly to the receiver's browser.
• No cloud storage, no inbox, no link to a hosted copy. Unlike Dropbox, Google Drive, or WeTransfer, there's nothing to delete later because nothing was uploaded in the first place.
• The transfer only exists while both tabs are open. Close either browser and the connection ends — the file isn't sitting somewhere waiting to be picked up.
• The transfer is end-to-end encrypted by WebRTC's DTLS/SRTP layer, even on untrusted networks like coffee-shop Wi-Fi.

How this compares to other file-sharing methods

• vs. Email attachments: No size cap from a mail provider, and your file isn't copied through SMTP relays or scanned by mail servers along the way.
• vs. Cloud upload services (Dropbox, Drive, WeTransfer): Those upload your file to a third-party server first, then give the recipient a link to download it. Your file lives on someone else's infrastructure until you remember to delete it. Peer-to-peer skips that entirely.
• vs. USB drives: No physical handoff required, works across the room or across the country, and you don't have to find a stick that's actually empty.
• vs. Local network sharing (AirDrop, SMB): Works between any two devices on any network, not just same-LAN or same-ecosystem.

Risks and trade-offs to be aware of

• Both sides have to be online at the same time. There's no inbox — if the receiver closes the tab before the transfer finishes, you have to start over.
• Speed depends on both peers' network connections. Cloud services hide this because they have fast pipes; peer-to-peer is only as fast as the slower of the two connections.
• Strict corporate or carrier-grade NAT firewalls can occasionally block direct peer connections. When that happens, WebRTC falls back to relaying through a TURN server — still encrypted, but slower, and the TURN server only sees encrypted bytes, not your file.
• Verify who you're connecting with. Share the connection code or link out-of-band (a separate channel like SMS or chat) so you're confident the person on the other end is who you think it is.
• No history or audit trail. If you need a record of "this file was sent to this person at this time," a cloud service with logging is the better fit. Peer-to-peer leaves no trace by design.

Browser-only privacy

Everything runs in your browser tab. No accounts, no logging of file names or sizes, and no plaintext data ever leaves your device — the encrypted bytes go straight to the other peer's browser and nowhere else.

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