Comparison 10 of 10 · Utilities

File Share, set beside WeTransfer, Wormhole and Litterbox

A no-account temporary share built on top of Litterbox, with splitting past its size limit, optional in-browser encryption and a landing page. Two caveats turned up in the evidence, and both are set out below.

Under test: labs.llc/fileshare/
Measured: 27 Sep 2026, 20:00–20:02 UTC, local copy of build 537
Rivals: WeTransfer (free plan) · Wormhole · Litterbox

1 labs.llc ahead
3 a rival ahead
2 level
3 unconfirmed

1 What it is
2 How it works
3 The test
4 The checklist
5 Shortcomings
6 Verdict

1What it is, and who it is for

File Share is a temporary file share with no account. Drop one or more files, pick an expiry of 1, 12, 24 or 72 hours, optionally add a password, burn-after-first-download or encryption in the browser, and get back a short labs.llc link and a QR code. The files themselves are hosted by Litterbox; only the small mapping behind the short link lives on labs.llc, and the page says so.

It is for anyone who needs to hand a file to someone for a few hours or days — a large attachment, a set of photographs, a build — without signing up anywhere.

The File Share page on labs.llc: the headline “Any file. Shared in seconds.”, paragraphs saying files ride a temporary host for one hour to three days and that uploads pass through the site to Litterbox's temporary hosting, and buttons reading “Open the drop” and “How it works”. — File Share at 1280 × 800, captured from the local copy of labs.llc build 537 that this review measured.

2How it works

The page posts each file to fileshare/upload.php, which forwards it to Litterbox and answers with a short link of the form /fileshare/f/XXXXXXX. The endpoint accepts only same-origin posts, limits each address to one post every three seconds and 120 a day, and allows only the four expiries (lines 33–70, 82–83). The short code is seven characters from a 57-character alphabet, drawn with random_int.

Files larger than Litterbox's 1 GB limit are split in the browser into parts of about 896 MB, up to 2.24 GB, and finalised as one entry (app.js:47–57). Optional encryption is AES-GCM with a 256-bit key, done in the page in 8 MiB frames; the key travels only in the link's #fragment, which browsers do not send to servers (241–244, 275–283, 431). The short link opens a landing page, f.php, with name, size, expiry countdown and download count; encrypted or multi-part files stream back through it and are decrypted or reassembled in the page, while a plain single file is handed over as a redirect to Litterbox (f.php:1–26, 305–318). Passwords are stored hashed.

3The test

Measured on 27 September 2026 (UTC) against the local copy of build 537. No file was uploaded: that would have sent data to a third-party host.

UTC	What	What came back
20:00:05	The page	HTTP 200, 60,439 bytes.
20:01:36	Upload endpoint asked with GET	HTTP 405: “Method Not Allowed. Use POST.”
20:01:35	Health probe, status.php	HTTP 200: links file writable, 0 active links — and “Litterbox connectivity issue (may be transient)”, litterbox_http 405.
20:01:45	Litterbox itself	HEAD → 405; GET → 200, 3,931 bytes. Litterbox was up. It refuses HEAD, which is what the probe sends, so the probe's warning was false.
—	An upload and a download	Not performed, so no transfer was timed.

4The checklist

Nine checks. File Share leads on the extras it adds to a plain host, draws level on basics, and trails where the rivals are simply bigger or encrypt by default.

Yes: does it
Partly: partly — read the note
No: does not
Not checked: not checked: no claim either way
Not applicable: does not apply

The checklist · File Share and 3 rivals9 checks

Marks for the rivals come only from their own pages, fetched on 27 September 2026 (20:05–20:06 UTC). A “?” is a question we could not settle, not a “no”.
Check	labs.llc · under testFile Share	rivalWeTransfer (free)	rivalWormhole	rivalLitterbox
Send without an accountlabs.llc ahead	Yes	No1	Not checked	Not checked
Largest fileRival ahead	2.24 GB	3 GB / 30 days	10 GB	1 GB
Lifetime choicesLevel	1 h – 72 h	up to 3 days	24 h stored	1 h – 3 days
Encrypted in the browser before uploadRival ahead	Partly2	Not checked	Yes3	Not checked
Password on the shareLevel	Yes	Yes	Not checked	Not checked
Burn after the first downloadUnconfirmed	Yes	Not checked	Not checked	Not checked
Landing page with countdown and download countUnconfirmed	Yes	Not checked	Not checked	Not checked
Files kept by the service you usedRival ahead	No4	Yes	Yes5	Yes
Password also protects the file itselfUnconfirmed	Partly6	Not checked	Not checked	Not checked

1“Sending, however, does require a free account.”
2Optional: AES-GCM-256 with the key in the #fragment, only when ticked.
3Always, 128-bit AES-GCM, per its FAQ.
4Litterbox hosts them; labs.llc keeps only the link mapping.
5On Wormhole's servers for 24 h, up to 5 GB.
6Only with encryption: a plain single file is a redirect to a Litterbox URL that works for anyone who has it.

Does better

WeTransfer

An established service with paid plans for bigger, longer transfers.
Files hosted by WeTransfer itself rather than by another party.

Does better

Wormhole

Encryption always on, not an option.
Up to 10 GB, with peer-to-peer transfer beyond 5 GB.

Does better

Litterbox

Direct, with no second site and no second rate limit in between.
A 16-character random file name for harder-to-guess links.

Goes further

File Share

Carries files past Litterbox's 1 GB limit, up to 2.24 GB, and reassembles them in the recipient's browser.
Optional AES-GCM-256 in the page, with the key kept in the #fragment so no server holds it (Wormhole's FAQ states 128-bit).
Four lifetimes from one hour, burn after first download, and a QR code.
A landing page — size, countdown, download count, password — before the file.

5Where File Share falls short

The files live on a third-party host. Unless “encrypt” is ticked, Litterbox holds them in the clear; the page discloses Litterbox by name.
For a plain single file, the password and burn protect the short link, not the file: after the gate, f.php redirects to the raw Litterbox address, which anyone given it can fetch until it expires. Encryption closes this; a password alone does not.
The health probe misreports. It sends HEAD, Litterbox answers HEAD with 405, and the status says there is a connectivity issue while Litterbox is serving pages.
Short lifetimes (1–72 hours) and a 2.24 GB ceiling; Wormhole takes 10 GB and WeTransfer's free plan 3 GB in 30 days.
Throttled per address: one post every three seconds and 120 a day.

6The verdict, by the checklist

Choose File Share for a no-account, short-lived link with optional encryption and a proper landing page — and tick “encrypt” for anything private; choose Wormhole when encryption must be the default or the file is larger.

File Share wins on what it layers over a plain host and on needing no account to send. It loses where the rivals are bigger or encrypt by default, and the evidence turned up two caveats its own page does not lead with: the unencrypted-file redirect and the false alarm from its health probe. With encryption on, the first disappears.

Try File Share on labs.llc