To yourself, another person, or a small team — across any network. Works with your existing VPN, with no VPN setup required. No cloud drive. Encrypted on your device, so the relay only ever sees ciphertext. And you always know what happened to every file.
What TetherBay does — in under a minute.
One product for daily personal use, quick sharing, and small team collaboration.
Move files between your own Mac, Windows, Linux, and phone. No USB cable, no same Wi-Fi, no cloud upload. Just pick a file and pick your device.
Create an expiring encrypted link. Recipient downloads in browser — no app needed. You see when it's opened, downloaded, or expired. Revoke any time.
Create a folder with your team. Files sync across everyone's devices. Invite by link or QR code. Roles and access control keep things tidy.
No account required. No configuration. No same-network requirement.
Download for Windows, Mac, or Linux. One installer, no setup wizard.
Drag and drop or use the send button. Select photos, documents, folders — anything.
Your other device, a person, or create an encrypted link. Real names, real online status.
Watch it arrive. Delivered, waiting, downloaded, expired — you always know what happened.
Start with the network, devices, and transfer pattern you actually have.
Every competitor says "secure." TetherBay also makes you feel calm. Real status for every transfer, not just a progress bar.
Find any transfer in your history. Resend, revoke, copy link, or show in folder.
The server helps devices find each other and relays encrypted blobs. It can't read what's inside them.
Files in your synced folders and your clipboard are encrypted on your device with AES-256-GCM before they ever reach the relay. The keys never leave your devices — folder keys are exchanged device-to-device inside sealed envelopes — so the relay only ever holds ciphertext, even if it were compromised. Encryption is fail-closed: if a device in a folder can't yet decrypt, the upload is held, never sent in the clear.
One honest exception: browser share-links are decrypted in the recipient's browser, so the link is encrypted in transit and at rest on the relay, then deleted after download — use a synced folder when you need true end-to-end.
Start free. Upgrade when you need more devices, collaborators, relay capacity, and remote access.
Founder's Lifetime — $99 once
Limited to the first 1,000 accounts.
Need more than 30 managed participants? Contact us.
Nearby tools are great until devices are not actually nearby.
| TetherBay | LocalSend | Syncthing | Dropbox | Tailscale | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Works across networks | Yes | Same LAN only | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Works with VPN | Yes | Only if VPN allows LAN access | May need relay / proxy setup | May need firewall / proxy approval | Often conflicts with another VPN |
| No cloud storage | Yes | Yes | Yes | Cloud required | Yes |
| End-to-end encrypted | Folders + clipboard | LAN only | Yes | Server-side | Yes |
| Delivery status | Full | None | None | Partial | None |
| Expiring share links | Yes | No | No | Paid only | No |
| Offline device buffer | Encrypted relay | No | Sender must be on | Cloud | No |
| No setup / no config | Yes | Yes | Technical | Yes | VPN setup |
| Shared folders | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Via file shares |
| Free tier | Yes | Fully free | Fully free | 1.5 GB | Yes |
Download TetherBay for free. No account needed. No credit card. Works on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Prefer the terminal? One line installs TetherBay on macOS and Linux — and it skips the unsigned-app warning.
curl -fsSL https://tetherbay.com/get.sh | sh
macOS beta note: TetherBay is not notarized by Apple yet, so macOS may show “Apple could not verify TetherBay” on first launch. The download page includes the exact first-launch steps.
Questions, feedback, or partnership inquiries? We'd love to hear from you.
We typically respond within 24 hours on business days. For urgent issues, include "urgent" in the subject line.