OnionShare

OnionShare is an open-source application that enables secure, anonymous file transfers, temporary website hosting, and private chat by running services as Tor onion services. It provides both a desktop GUI and a command-line tool plus mobile clients developed with partner projects.

Key Features

• Share files via an ephemeral Tor onion service with one-time or time-limited access.
• Host a static website over an onion address for private, temporary publishing.
• Private chat mode that runs as an onion-hosted web chat session.
• Desktop GUI and CLI interfaces; platform packaging for Windows, macOS, and Linux (Flatpak/Snap).
• Mobile clients developed in collaboration with partner projects for Android and iOS.
• Integrates with the Tor control interface and uses Tor-related libraries and tooling for onion services.

Use Cases

• Send large files privately between two people without relying on third-party cloud storage.
• Publish an internal or temporary static website to a small, private audience via an onion address.
• Run an ephemeral, private chat session reachable only by users with the onion URL.

Limitations and Considerations

• Performance and responsiveness are constrained by the Tor network (latency and throughput) and are not comparable to clearnet transfers.
• Packaging and dependency constraints have affected some platforms (for example, ARM/armhf packaging challenges related to Qt/PySide availability).
• The project uses Python web components where upstream changes can require maintenance (e.g., noted framework deprecations/warnings).

OnionShare is a mature, actively maintained open-source project focused on privacy-preserving file sharing and short-lived hosting using Tor. It is well-suited for users who need ad-hoc private exchanges without using centralized services, while accepting Tor-related performance and packaging trade-offs.