filego.at logo
← Blog

What is FileGoat?

A look at what FileGoat is, how it works, and why it was built the way it was.

What is FileGoat?

FileGoat is a no-nonsense file sharing service. Upload a file, get a link, share it. No account required, no email, no tracking. The link works for whoever has it.

The goal is to make sharing files as fast as possible especially for developers, designers, and anyone who regularly needs to send something to someone without wrestling with cloud storage permissions or attachment size limits.

How it works

Upload

Drag files into the upload box on the homepage, or tap to browse on mobile. You can also paste files directly from your clipboard with Ctrl + V, useful for screenshots.

Files up to 5 GB are supported, any type (except application binaries due to abusement concerns).

Expiry

Before uploading, you choose how long your files should be available:

  • 1 day for quick, temporary shares
  • 7 days the default for most use cases
  • 30 days for ongoing projects
  • 90 days for long-lived references

Optionally you can enable Extend on view. Every time someone opens the bucket link, the expiry is pushed forward by 7 days. Files that people keep coming back to stay alive automatically.

The link

After uploading, you get a unique bucket URL. Share it however you want chat, email, anywhere. The recipient opens it in their browser and can preview or download the files immediately.

On mobile, the share button opens the native OS share sheet so you can send the link directly to any app.

What you can preview

FileGoat renders files directly in the browser, no download needed to see what’s there:

  • Images shown inline, full width
  • Videos playable in the browser
  • Audio browser audio player
  • PDFs rendered in an embedded viewer
  • Text files JSON, YAML, Markdown, CSV, logs, diffs are shown with syntax highlighting

Privacy

FileGoat stores no personal data. There are no accounts, no login, no cookies beyond what the browser requires.

Files are stored on object storage and permanently deleted when their expiry date passes. There is no recovery after deletion.

Infrastructure

FileGoat runs on a infrastructure hosted in Germany 🇩🇪

The upload limit of 5 GB exists because of practical infrastructure constraints, not artificial restrictions. Most file sharing services cap at a few hundred MB. FileGoat is aimed at people who actually need to send large things.

FileGoat is intentionally minimal. It does one thing and tries to do it well.