Question 1

What is the difference between MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, and SHA-512?

Accepted Answer

All four are cryptographic hash functions that produce a fixed-size digest from arbitrary input. MD5 produces 128-bit (32-hex-char) digests; SHA-1 produces 160-bit (40-hex-char) digests; SHA-256 produces 256-bit (64-hex-char) digests; SHA-512 produces 512-bit (128-hex-char) digests. They differ in security: MD5 and SHA-1 are considered cryptographically broken (collision attacks are feasible) and should not be used for security-sensitive applications like digital signatures or password hashing. SHA-256 and SHA-512 remain secure for most use cases. However, all four are still widely used for non-security purposes like file integrity verification and checksums.

Question 2

Is it safe to hash sensitive data in this tool?

Accepted Answer

Yes — all computation happens entirely in your browser using the W3C Web Crypto API (for SHA) and a pure-JS implementation (for MD5). No data is ever transmitted to any server. The tool has no network calls after the page loads. You can verify this by using your browser's developer tools Network tab: no requests will be made when you type or drop a file.

Question 3

Can I use this to verify a file download?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Switch to File mode, drop the downloaded file into the drop zone, and compare the generated SHA-256 (or whichever algorithm the publisher specifies) against the checksum published on the software's download page. Paste the expected checksum into the Verifier section — the tool will confirm whether it matches. This is how you verify that a file was not corrupted or tampered with during download.

Question 4

Why does the same text always produce the same hash?

Accepted Answer

Cryptographic hash functions are deterministic — the same input always produces the same output, and even a single character change produces a completely different hash. This is the 'avalanche effect': 'hello' and 'Hello' will produce entirely different hashes. This property makes hashes useful for integrity verification: if a file's hash changes, the file has been modified.

Question 5

What is Base64 encoding for hashes?

Accepted Answer

By default, hash digests are displayed in hexadecimal (base 16). Base64 is an alternative encoding that represents the same binary data more compactly using 64 printable ASCII characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9, +, /). A SHA-256 hash is 32 bytes, which in hex is 64 characters but in Base64 is 44 characters. Many systems use Base64-encoded hashes (e.g., JWT signatures, HTTP digest auth, S3 ETag headers) — this tool lets you generate the Base64 representation directly.

Hash Generator & Verifier,
MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-512.

What are cryptographic hashes and when do you need them?

The core properties of hash functions

MD5 and SHA-1: why they are deprecated for security

SHA-256 and SHA-512: the current standard

Practical uses for this tool