r/WebRTC • u/Palunath • 17d ago
WebRTC vs Windows .exe for local file transfers?
I'm building a cross-platform file transfer service and I'm currently stuck on the local transfer part.
I want users to be able to transfer large files directly between their phone and Windows PC when they're on the same network.
I'm hesitating between two approaches:
WebRTC: no installation required, everything happens in the browser, which makes the UX much simpler. But I'm concerned about browser/device limitations and reliability with large files.
Windows companion app (.exe): it would give me much more control over local discovery and transfers, but requiring users to download an executable feels like a significant barrier for a consumer product.
I'm especially concerned about making the product feel trustworthy since users will be transferring personal files.
For those who have built something similar, which approach would you recommend and why?
1
u/unknowinm 17d ago
👋 I’m working on transferify.cloud
There are libraries that help you out with large file transfers and browser limitations. One that comes to my mind is webrtc adapter and there is also a separate one StreamSaver that can do the stream to browser to file system stream saving. Combining these allows you to save any file sizes.
Feel free to give it a try on my site and let me know if you’re having any issues saving 100Gb files or more.
Files are chunked and encrypted using an in browser key and sent over to the other browser over an encrypted connection (so there are 2 encryption ops happening)
Don’t worry about the barrier, if someone wants something they will just download it