{"slug": "magic-wormhole", "name": "magic-wormhole", "category": "files", "category_name": "Files, sync and backup", "description": "", "recommenders": 2, "commenters": 5, "warners": 0, "score": 2.338, "rising": 0.67, "first": "2025-11-28", "latest": "2026-09-08", "why": "why not just use the free and MIT licensed version", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 0, "compare": 3, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0], "listed": false, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "why not just use the free and MIT licensed version", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/magic-wormhole/magic-wormhole", "official_url": "https://github.com/magic-wormhole/magic-wormhole", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["magic-wormhole", "Magic Wormhole"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 793671760, "item_id": 49604485, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49604485", "by": "snake_doc", "date": "2026-09-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "why not just use the free and MIT licensed version", "excerpt": "Hmm.. why not just use the free and MIT licensed version: https://github.com/magic-wormhole/magic-wormhole you can host the relay and mailbox servers yourself as well", "context": "", "use_case": "file sharing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Secure temporary file sharing for AI agents and humans"}, {"id": 745329794, "item_id": 46583112, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46583112", "by": "Imustaskforhelp", "date": "2026-01-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "you use wormhole itself and now instead of these two having to send large chunks of data between each other, they can now just send 6 words", "excerpt": "Oh yeah this is a really funny story considering what thread we are on, but I remember asking chatgpt or claude or gemini or anything xD to make QTM work and none of them could figure out But I think in the end what ended up working was my frustration took over and I just copy pasted the commands from readme and if I remember correctly, they just worked. This is really ironical considering on what thread we are on bu", "context": "", "use_case": "pairing nodes / sending data", "switched_from": "", "story": "2026 is the Year of Self-hosting"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["file transfer", "file sharing", "pairing nodes / sending data"], "compared": [{"slug": "croc", "name": "croc", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49604280", "title": "Secure temporary file sharing for AI agents and humans", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49452990", "title": "Tailcat \u2013 Like netcat, but over Tailscale\u2019s data plane", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48882034", "title": "Croc: Securely transfer files and folders between two computers", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46580326", "title": "2026 is the Year of Self-hosting", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46032371", "title": "AltSendme: Another Alternative to MAgic Wormhole?", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"compare": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"compare": 1}, "2026-08": {"compare": 1}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 793671760, "item_id": 49604485, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49604485", "by": "snake_doc", "date": "2026-09-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "why not just use the free and MIT licensed version", "excerpt": "Hmm.. why not just use the free and MIT licensed version: https://github.com/magic-wormhole/magic-wormhole you can host the relay and mailbox servers yourself as well", "context": "", "use_case": "file sharing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Secure temporary file sharing for AI agents and humans"}, {"id": 791250640, "item_id": 49453165, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49453165", "by": "cpuguy83", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "compare", "quote": "friends talking me out of it b/c of existing alternatives such as wormhole", "excerpt": "Interesting. I thought about doing this immediately after reading their old blog[1] post on punching through NAT some time ago. Just a combo of never getting around to it and friends talking me out of it b/c of existing alternatives such as wormhole[2]. [1] https://tailscale.com/blog/how-nat-traversal-works [2] https://github.com/magic-wormhole/magic-wormhole", "context": "", "use_case": "file transfer", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tailcat \u2013 Like netcat, but over Tailscale\u2019s data plane"}, {"id": 782133376, "item_id": 48883336, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48883336", "by": "turadg", "date": "2026-07-12", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Key differences seem to be resumable transfers and proxy support.", "excerpt": "Sounds like Magic Wormhole (https://magic-wormhole.io/). The readme acknowledges Warner at the end. Key differences seem to be resumable transfers and proxy support. Another is a single binary, whereas MW is in Python, but there\u2019s now https://github.com/magic-wormhole/magic-wormhole.rs I appreciate that the project acknowledges its inspiration. I wish it were more common for projects to provide detailed comparisons w", "context": "", "use_case": "file transfer", "switched_from": "", "story": "Croc: Securely transfer files and folders between two computers"}, {"id": 745329794, "item_id": 46583112, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46583112", "by": "Imustaskforhelp", "date": "2026-01-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "you use wormhole itself and now instead of these two having to send large chunks of data between each other, they can now just send 6 words", "excerpt": "Oh yeah this is a really funny story considering what thread we are on, but I remember asking chatgpt or claude or gemini or anything xD to make QTM work and none of them could figure out But I think in the end what ended up working was my frustration took over and I just copy pasted the commands from readme and if I remember correctly, they just worked. This is really ironical considering on what thread we are on bu", "context": "", "use_case": "pairing nodes / sending data", "switched_from": "", "story": "2026 is the Year of Self-hosting"}, {"id": 737351505, "item_id": 46084469, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46084469", "by": "theodric", "date": "2025-11-28", "stance": "compare", "quote": "consistently pushes more Mbps than magic-wormhole", "excerpt": "I use runpodctl (https://github.com/runpod/runpodctl) to send files between hosts totally unrelated to runpod because it consistently pushes more Mbps than magic-wormhole, but is conceptually similar. I have made no effort to understand why it's faster.", "context": "", "use_case": "file transfer", "switched_from": "", "story": "AltSendme: Another Alternative to MAgic Wormhole?"}]}