# croc

13 Hacker News commenters recommended croc and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended for sending files between machines, even behind NATs, for reliability and speed; the common caveat is its command-line interface, hard for non-technical users.

## Why people recommend it

- Reliable and fast transfers (3 comments): "In my testing the throughput is higher than magic wormhole because it uses multiple TCP connections to transfer the files." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48884520)) "I've found croc to be more reliable than MW in across different network architectures" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48884255)) "it's just the most flexible and seems to be reliable and fast from my use" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49747801))
- Works behind different NATs (2 comments): "you can transfer files between two PCs on both behind different NATs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48884954)) "I've found croc to be more reliable than MW in across different network architectures" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48884255))
- Simple, gets the job done (2 comments): "Sometimes it just does the job and is finished" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48893197)) "Used it a few times to send files from A to B" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46123349))
- Easy to install and packaged (2 comments): "without having to resort to "weird" installation methods like Obtanium or Fdroid" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49750486)) "It is a bit more commonly packaged." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49295966))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Magic Wormhole](https://hackerapproved.com/p/magic-wormhole.md): 21 recommend
- [OpenSSH scp](https://hackerapproved.com/p/scp.md): 12 recommend
- [FileZilla](https://hackerapproved.com/p/filezilla-pro.md): 12 recommend
- [Transmit by Panic](https://hackerapproved.com/p/transmit.md): 10 recommend
- [syq](https://hackerapproved.com/p/syq.md): 6 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "croc", https://hackerapproved.com/p/croc/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).