Firefox Send alternatives in 2026: what Send did, and what still does it
Firefox Send was the easiest way to send a file privately. You dropped it on a page, got a link, and the link stopped working after a few downloads or a few days. The file was encrypted in your browser, so Mozilla’s servers held nothing they could read.
Mozilla launched it as an experiment in 2017 and opened it to everyone in 2019: 1 GB for anyone, 2.5 GB with a Firefox account. Then people started using it to spread malware and run phishing campaigns. Mozilla took it offline, and on September 17, 2020 shut it down for good. People still look for something that works the same way.
What made Send worth missing
Four things, and most services do only some of them:
- Encryption in the browser. The file was encrypted before it left your computer. The key travelled in the part of the link after
#, which browsers never send to a server. - Links that expire. After 1 to 100 downloads, or after 5 minutes to 7 days, whichever came first.
- Nothing to receive. The recipient clicked the link. No app, no account.
- A command line. ffsend, a third-party client, sent files from a terminal.
What still works like it, as of October 2026
Send, the community fork
Send is Mozilla’s code with the Mozilla branding removed, kept alive by volunteers. Out of the box it takes files up to 2.5 GiB, with 1 to 100 downloads and 5 minutes to 7 days: the original model. You use it through public instances other people run, listed in send-instances, or you host your own. ffsend works with it.
Watch for: each instance sets its own limits and decides how long it stays up. When an instance goes, its links go with it.
Wormhole
Wormhole encrypts files in the browser with AES-GCM. Up to 5 GB, the file waits on its servers and is deleted after 24 hours. Above that, up to 10 GB, it goes peer-to-peer, straight from your browser to the recipient’s.
Watch for: for the peer-to-peer files, your page has to stay open until the recipient has downloaded them.
OnionShare
OnionShare uploads the file nowhere. It runs a small site on your own computer, reachable over Tor, and the recipient opens it in Tor Browser with a private key you give them. By default it stops sharing after the first download.
Watch for: your computer has to stay on and online until the download is done, and the recipient needs Tor Browser.
ttl.space
This blog belongs to ttl.space, so read this part with that in mind. It works much like Send: the file is encrypted in the browser with XChaCha20-Poly1305, the link expires after 5 minutes to 7 days, Burn after reading turns it into a one-download link, and the recipient needs nothing but a browser. The free plan takes files up to 2 GB, ten a day, with no account. The command-line client sends from a terminal (ttl send report.pdf), and the upload page tells you when the file has been downloaded.
Orbit, the paid plan, raises the limits to 10 GB per file and 30 days or permanent storage, and adds file requests.
Watch for: the free plan’s daily limits, and the password, below.
The key in the link, or a password
A Send link carried its key. That is what made it one click: anyone with the link could open the file. It is also the risk: a link that is forwarded, pasted into the wrong chat or left in a browser history opens the file for whoever finds it.
ttl.space splits the two. The link points to the encrypted file; the key is derived from a password, generated for you or chosen by you, with Argon2id. Send the link one way and the password another, and whoever intercepts one has nothing. When the file is for your own phone, the QR code can carry both. How the encryption works has the details.
Which one to pick
- More than 10 GB, or a file that should never touch a server: OnionShare, if both of you can live with Tor.
- Several gigabytes, today: Wormhole, and keep the tab open for the big ones.
- Send itself, or something you host: the community fork.
- A link that works once, from a browser or a terminal, and word when it has been downloaded: ttl.space.
The lesson of Send’s ending
Send didn’t fail on cryptography. It failed because anyone could use it anonymously, and some people used it to host malware. A service like it needs a way to take bad links down without reading the files. On ttl.space every download page has a report button, and reports can disable a link. The file stays encrypted throughout, and we never see what is inside.