Introducing dbimg: Free Media Hosting with Permanent Links
dbimg is a free media hosting platform with permanent direct links, high file sizes, no account required, and privacy by default. Here's what it is, what it does, and why it exists.
Why dbimg exists
Most media hosting platforms have gotten worse for the people who actually use them. Links expire after a few months. Uploads get compressed into mush. File size limits are tiny. And nearly every service wants you to create an account before you can do anything at all.
dbimg started as a reaction to all of that: a hosting platform built around the things users actually ask for — permanent links, high file sizes, and no account required.
What is dbimg?
dbimg is a free media hosting platform for images, videos, and audio. Upload a file, get a permanent direct link, share it anywhere. That's the core loop, and everything else is built around keeping it fast and painless.
The core features
Permanent direct links
Your uploads stay up. No six-month deletion windows, no purges of inactive files, no surprise 404s on links you shared years ago. Unless you deliberately expire a file, it stays live.
High file size limits
75MB per file on the free tier for everything — images, videos, and audio alike — and Pro raises that to 250MB. Over 15 formats are supported, from JPEG, PNG, GIF, and WebP to MP4, WebM, MP3, and FLAC.
No account needed
Upload, copy the link, done. Anonymous uploads work without registration, and every one comes with a deletion link so you can remove it anytime. Accounts are only needed for the things that genuinely require them: albums, API keys, and the premium tier.
On-the-fly effects from the URL
Effects are applied straight from the URL, with no editing software involved. /greyscale, /blur, /rounded, /circle, and the rotations are free; /pixelate, /duotone, and /enhance come with Pro.
Albums and galleries
Group uploads into albums and galleries so you can share a collection instead of a single file.
Password protection, expiry, and view limits
Privacy controls for every use case: password-protected uploads for private sharing, expiry dates (1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months) for temporary links, and maximum view counts for one-time sharing.
Privacy by default
Every upload has its EXIF metadata stripped automatically — GPS coordinates, camera settings, device information, and timestamps are removed before the file is stored. Combined with anonymous uploads and deletion links, that means what you share is the media and nothing else.
An API for developers
dbimg ships a public API with API keys, so you can plug uploads straight into your own tools — screenshot workflows, scripts, automation. The docs live at /developers.
Self-hosting
The platform is built to be self-hosted: Docker Compose with an external PostgreSQL, migrations and backups included, and full setup docs in the repo. If you'd rather run your own instance than trust a third party, you can.
What's next
dbimg is a one-person project, and that's deliberate — it keeps the product simple and the decisions honest. Feature requests and bug reports are taken seriously, and the fastest way to reach the person running it is the Discord server: https://discord.gg/zNdKYVKQBK
Try it
Head to dbimg.app and upload something. If you hit a problem or want a feature, say so — every message gets read.
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