Pingvin Share X
Pingvin Share X is an open source, self-hosted file sharing platform — a WeTransfer alternative that lets you send large files by link, with optional expiry dates, password protection, and reverse shares for collecting files back.
What is Pingvin Share X?
Pingvin Share X is a self-hosted file sharing platform that turns an uploaded file into a download link you can hand to anyone — an open source WeTransfer alternative. It’s the actively maintained community fork of Pingvin Share: the original project was archived in June 2025, and its creator now points people to this fork, which is licensed under the permissive BSD 2-Clause license.
What is Pingvin Share X best for?
People and teams who need to send large files without size caps or routing them through a third-party cloud. It fits anyone who wants control over how a share behaves — how long the link lives, who can open it, and how many times it can be downloaded — while keeping the files on their own server.
What can Pingvin Share X do?
- Share files as a link with no size limit beyond your available disk space
- Set expiration dates and visitor/download limits on each share
- Protect shares with a password and email the link straight to recipients
- Reverse shares — let other people upload files back to you
- Sign in with OIDC or LDAP for single sign-on, plus per-user share size limits
- Scan uploads for malware with ClamAV integration
- Store files locally or on any S3-compatible bucket
- Self-host with Docker, with the interface translated into 30+ languages
Where does Pingvin Share X fall short?
- It’s a young, single-maintainer fork — the project started in September 2025 after the upstream was archived, so its momentum currently rides on one developer’s continued activity rather than a company or large team.
- It’s a send-a-file tool, not storage or sync. There’s no folder syncing, versioning, or shared team drive, so if you want a Dropbox-style workspace you want Nextcloud or Seafile instead.
- There’s no official managed cloud. Unlike WeTransfer, you can’t just sign up and send — there isn’t even a public demo instance yet, so you host every share yourself.
Is Pingvin Share X free?
Yes — Pingvin Share X is completely free and open source under the BSD 2-Clause license, with no paid tier and no open-core features held back. There’s no vendor to pay; your only cost is the server and storage you run it on.
What does Pingvin Share X replace?
Pingvin Share X is a self-hosted stand-in for WeTransfer and similar send-a-file services. It does the same core job — upload a file, get a shareable link — but without size caps, per-transfer limits, or your files living on someone else’s servers. It also serves as a spiritual successor to the discontinued Firefox Send.
FAQ
Is Pingvin Share X open source? Yes. It’s released under the BSD 2-Clause license, a permissive, OSI-approved license, and the full source is public on GitHub.
Is Pingvin Share X the same as Pingvin Share? It’s the maintained community fork. The original Pingvin Share was archived in June 2025; Pingvin Share X continues development from that codebase, and the original author recommends it.
Can I self-host Pingvin Share X for free? Yes. It installs with Docker and is free to run — you only pay for the server and the storage (local disk or an S3 bucket) it uses.
Is Pingvin Share X a good WeTransfer alternative? For people who want no size limits and full control over expiry, passwords, and downloads, yes. If you’d rather sign up for a hosted service and send a file with no setup, WeTransfer is simpler.