An ordinary sftp server. No reason for this to be web based.
this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2025
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Try nextcloud. It can generate links to files like this.
100% this. I have one running in a lxc, and I expose it to the world through a CloudFlare tunnel so I needn't worry about dyndns or people probing my public IP.
I use ownclowd
Not selfhosted but after I found catbox.Moe I haven't had yo worry about sharing files.
I would not rely on catbox for the long term.
That's always sound advice
Are both parties online at the same time?
Maybe something like this is a good solution: https://github.com/magic-wormhole/magic-wormhole
It will figure out the fastest p2p connection and send even very large files without hassle.
It's not quite self hosted, but Soulseek allows you to share share private directories with buddies. Soulseek might require a port forward.
Other than that, there are the many pasteboard solutions that have been mentioned. They'll either require a port forward or reverse proxy (nginx etc.) to access outside the network though.
https://file.pizza/ just because the pizza toppings URLs are fun and nasty
not self-hosted
Could be tho. Link to github ("fork me") at the bottom.
Do you have a public-facing internet-presence? If so, then I've heard good things about copyparty.
I'm using Nextcloud for this, but that seems a bit overkill for your usecase.
Edit: they explain how to use a cloudflare tunnel, so no public IP needed, actually.
How do I learn all these terms?
Having come from zero knowledge, to now self-hosting for over a year, I can tell you that you just search for them one at a time. Sometimes they will make sense. Sometimes not yet.
Stick around here, ask questions, and look things up.
I'm not sure if I'm using all of those 100% correctly (e.g. "Public facing"). But either use a search engine,, or just ask.
What terms do you have in mind that you want to learn about?
Sorry I meant more what's in that git summary,
Portable file server with accelerated resumable uploads, dedup, WebDAV, FTP, TFTP, zeroconf, media indexer, thumbnails++ all in one file, no deps
I know FTP but the rest I dont really understand. Im often confused by stuff on git.
I haven't looked at that GitHub but I'm familiar with most of the terms so here goes (verify them if you wish, I can't promise full accuracy).
portable file server with accelerated resumable uploads: portable most likely means it's easy to transfer from one server to another should you ever upgrade servers or anything else. resumable means you can pause the transfers if you desire.
dedup: it will automatically deduplicate files. so if you upload the same file twice it will just use the one you previously uploaded, saving space.
webdav is for distributed authoring and versioning. I don't know a crazy amount about it but assume it means there's some code in place that aids with collaboration as far as sending a file, working on it, and reuploading goes.
ftp: file transfer protocol.
tftp: trivial file transfer protocol. good for small things but iirc it's not inherently secure
zerconf: plug and play. no messing with configs needed.
media indexer/all in one file: most likely indexes media uploaded and stores the generated thumbnails in one big file. most likely this is so it'll be easier to transfer the install to another server if needed (you can move one big file containing all the thumbnails instead of a bunch of tiny ones).
no deps: no dependencies, everything you need is self contained in that repo.
again, double check things your curious about but that's my interpretation of what most would agree is kind of just a keyword filled description lol
Webdav is just a http "file system". You can then e.g. mount the storage space as a webfolder in your operating system.
Copyparty is easy, but if you can both set up syncthing, that makes it a breeze. I have a sibling that lives across the Pacific and last time they visited I set up syncthing on their laptop and when either of us wants to share something, we just drop it in that folder and wait a minute or two.
Dang. I never thought of using the discovery servers for that purpose. Creative! Just hope that one side doesn't accidentally delete everything in there...
Just run a web server and expose the specific files you want to share through that?
Yea just draw the rest of the owl duh! 🙄
python3 -m http.server
If you have Docker hand you can use my project Directory Lister to do just this quick and easily (Docker docs).
I haven't bothered to set up anything that complex, but mega.nz gives you an encrypted 50GB of free space. I'm not crazy about supporting Kim Dotcom's crazy ass, but it periodically solves problems for me.
I was also a founding member of box.com so there's another free 50.
This is still a selfhosted sub isn't it?
You can consider using a Pikapods service for this. It's dead simple to strand up a server when you need one.
https://www.pikapods.com/apps#storage
They have Gokapi and/or PrivateBin for just about a buck per month. You can turn the service on and off whenever you like. Good company to work with, IME, too.
Another vote for Syncthing. Might be a little too complicated for some though
Any particular reason why you can't do something like host a Send instance instead? Better to treat "filesystem behind the network" and "files to share" as two different things: one is imanent, the other is punctual and sporadic.
Do you have a domain? If you do, maybe try Nginx Proxy Manager and SFTPGo. I previously used File Browser but the developers made some fairly large breaking changes and I never went back. SFTPGo lets you add accounts easily and I have specific folder setup for sharing with friends. It has a clean interface too. If you don't have a domain, maybe try Tailscale?
There are a few implementations of wormhole that might work.
If you're ok with exposing a server to the internet, I've had good luck with sharry. https://eikek.github.io/sharry/
I've also had good luck running a Nextcloud instance to share with friends and family. But that is probably overkill here.
this link is broken? I had to copy+paste it
Cheers, fixed it
I use Pingvin. You upload a file to it and it generates a link. Has expiration on the link.
You can allow anonymous uploads or not, give friends logins etc.
I have it locked down to just me with a login and I use it to let others download the files.
I tried it but Copyparty worked better, it has a massive community suddenly and tons of cool features that mostly stay out of the way unless you enable them
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