Launching today
BurnLink
Share encrypted files that are ephemeral
57 followers
Share encrypted files that are ephemeral
57 followers
BurnLink lets you share sensitive files with end-to-end encryption and one-time links that burn themselves after access. No accounts. No permanent storage. No trust required.
BurnLink
Hey Product Hunt,
I'm Joy, the maker of BurnLink — a product by Paperfrogs/Open (paperfrogs.dev) — and I want to tell you exactly why I built it.
I kept sending sensitive files the wrong way. Credentials over Slack. API keys in email. Config files on Google Drive with "anyone with the link." Every time, a quiet voice saying this is a terrible idea. So I built the thing I actually wanted to use.
What is BurnLink?
BurnLink is a zero-knowledge, one-time file sharing tool. You upload a file, get a link, share it. The recipient opens it once — and it's gone. Permanently. No second chances, no recovery, no trace.
What actually makes it different?
Every other "secure" sharing tool makes one quiet assumption: trust us with your data. They encrypt in transit. They store on their servers. They hold the keys. You just hope.
BurnLink flips that model entirely:
Zero-knowledge by design — encryption happens entirely in your browser via the native WebCrypto API (AES-256-GCM + PBKDF2). Your file never travels the network unencrypted. Ever.
The key never hits our server — it lives in the URL fragment (#). Browsers don't include fragments in HTTP requests. We are architecturally incapable of decrypting your file. Not policy. Not a promise. Physics.
True one-time links — not "expires in 7 days." Burns on first open. One view, gone forever. The moment someone opens it, it's dead.
No accounts, no metadata, no logs — we can't tell you who opened it or when, because we genuinely don't know. That's the point.
Why not just use [X]?
Bitwarden Send — great, but requires a Bitwarden account on both ends
OnionShare — powerful, but needs an install and technical setup
WeTransfer / Google Drive — no real encryption, files persist, they can read it
Just emailing it — please don't
BurnLink is just a link. No installs. No accounts. You paste it, they open it, it's gone. We don't ask you to trust us — we built it so you don't have to.
Under the hood
Built at Paperfrogs Labs as a solo project, using Node.js + Express, Netlify serverless functions, Supabase for storage, and the browser's native WebCrypto API — no heavyweight crypto libraries. Clean, auditable, minimal.
Who is it for?
If you've ever cringed sending a password over Slack, shared credentials in a Notion doc, or emailed a .env file — this is for you. Perfect for developers, ops teams, freelancers, and anyone handling sensitive files without a proper secrets manager.
@joy0x1 Would love to see a CLI or API version of this for developers who want to automate secure credential handoffs in deployment pipelines. Is that on the roadmap? Congrats on this!
BurnLink
hey @jerrybyday, thanks so much for the suggestion!
A CLI/API version is actually on our roadmap - we’re planning to build it so developers can automate secure credential handoffs easily. Really appreciate the idea and your support!
Nice concept. I like the idea of truly one-time links that disappear after access.
Curious: how do you handle cases where the recipient opens the link but doesn’t fully download the file? Is the burn triggered on first access or only after a successful transfer?
BurnLink
@cosmin1907 Hey, really glad you asked this, and thanks for checking it out!
Right now the burn triggers the moment the recipient opens the link and the download begins — not after it completes. If someone opens the link but doesn’t complete the download, the file isn’t destroyed immediately. It stays available for a short period before burning automatically.
As soon as that first request hits, the link is immediately marked for destruction and can't be reused. So even if the transfer gets interrupted, the link is already dead.
We designed it this way to avoid cases where a file disappears because of a failed or interrupted transfer.
That said, we’re still experimenting with different burn behaviors (especially around stricter view-once modes), so feedback like this is super helpful for shaping the next iterations. Really appreciate it 🙌
What I appreciate most is the scope discipline. Congrats on this! Longer term — have you thought about a “burn after N minutes” time-limited option in addition to the one-open model? Sometimes you want the link to self-destruct before anyone opens it if it was sent to the wrong person.
BurnLink
@jacklyn_i Thank you! Really Appreciate that!
And yes, a time-based burn option is something we’ve been thinking about. Right now BurnLink focuses on the one-open model and view-once mode to keep the system simple and predictable, but a “burn after N minutes” mechanism could definitely help in cases where a link is sent to the wrong recipient.
It’s a great suggestion and something we’d love to explore in a future iteration.
BurnLink
Hey everyone! 👋
Excited to share that BurnLink is now live on Product Hunt and available at burnlink.page.
I’m Niloy, one of the makers and the product designer behind BurnLink, and it’s been amazing seeing this idea evolve into a real product.
BurnLink is a product of Paperfrogs/Open, where we build and release open-source tools and systems.
The project is fully open source, and we’re hoping to grow it with community feedback.
If you get a chance to try it, I’d love to hear your thoughts on:
• the design and experience
• potential use cases
• how you’d use a tool like this in real workflows
• ideas for features or improvements
• the privacy approach
• the design and experience
• the open-source direction
Feedback, ideas, and suggestions are all welcome!
Thanks for checking out BurnLink and supporting the launch ❤️
—
Niloy
Co-Maker & Product Designer @BurnLink
What an amazing project, simple, useful, and secure. I've been searching for something like this for ages, and BurnLink solves the problem perfectly. I'll definitely start using it from now on. Congratulations on the launch!
BurnLink
@matheusdsantosr_dev Really appreciate it! Glad BurnLink is useful for you. Let us know if you have any feedback while using it!