Gaffa vs Perkoon

Simple REST API for Automation

Gaffa abstracts the complexities of frameworks like Playwright, Selenium, and Puppeteer into a straightforward REST API. This means you can control real browsers at scale with a single API call, leaving behind the need to manage frameworks, configuration, and low-level browser drivers. It dramatically reduces the learning curve and development time, allowing you to implement powerful browser automation without deep expertise in specific testing or automation libraries.

Real Browser Interaction & JavaScript Rendering

Unlike basic HTTP clients, Gaffa uses real browsers by default, ensuring full JavaScript rendering and eliminating the quirks associated with headless browsers. This guarantees that your automations interact with web pages exactly as a human user would, which is critical for navigating modern, dynamic websites that rely heavily on client-side scripts for content loading and functionality.

Built-in Global Proxy Network

Gaffa seamlessly integrates with a network of residential proxies, managed for you. You simply specify your target geographic location, and Gaffa handles the rest, providing fast and reliable access from across the world. This removes the significant operational burden of sourcing, rotating, and maintaining your own proxy infrastructure to avoid IP blocks and geo-restrictions.

Advanced Data Processing & Observability

Gaffa goes beyond fetching raw HTML. It can process page data into simplified HTML, LLM-ready markdown, or even save a self-contained offline version. Furthermore, it offers full observability by recording your automation sessions. This allows you to easily replay and debug interactions, providing clear visibility into what happened during each request, which is invaluable for maintaining robust data pipelines.

Unlimited Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Transfers

This is the foundational, free-forever feature. Using WebRTC technology, Perkoon establishes a direct, encrypted connection between two browsers for real-time file transfer. Since the data never passes through Perkoon's servers, there are no file size limits, no mandatory sign-ups, and absolute privacy. This model is sustainably free because it incurs negligible infrastructure costs, passing the savings and freedom directly to the user.

Honest Encrypted Cloud Storage

For situations where the recipient is offline, Perkoon offers a paid cloud holding service. Files are encrypted on Perkoon's servers before storage. This feature is transparently priced to cover the actual costs of server maintenance and bandwidth, representing an ethical alternative to services that hide real costs behind data mining and privacy invasions.

Native AI & Automation Integration

Perkoon is architecturally prepared for the future. It exposes a dedicated JavaScript object (window.__perkoon) allowing AI agents and automation scripts to interact with the transfer service programmatically. This eliminates the need for unreliable screen-scraping, enabling machines to send, receive, and manage files as a native utility within automated workflows.

Simple CLI and Browser Tools

Complementing its web interface, Perkoon provides a straightforward Command Line Interface tool. This caters to developers, power users, and automated systems, enabling file transfers to be integrated into scripts, build processes, and backend operations, ensuring flexibility across different user environments and technical proficiencies.

Competitive Intelligence and Market Research

Startups and enterprises can use Gaffa to automate the collection of pricing, product listings, and promotional data from competitor websites at scale. This provides a reliable, up-to-date stream of market intelligence to validate business strategies, track market movements, and inform critical decisions without manual, error-prone data gathering.

Building Data-Driven Products

Companies building products that rely on external web data—such as price comparison engines, lead generation platforms, or content aggregators—can use Gaffa as their core data ingestion engine. Its scalability and reliability ensure their product has a consistent and high-quality data feed, allowing the team to focus on product features and user experience instead of pipeline maintenance.

Automated Content Extraction and Archiving

Researchers, journalists, and compliance teams can leverage Gaffa to systematically scrape, archive, and convert web content into structured formats. Whether saving web pages as self-contained offline documents for legal records or converting articles into clean markdown for analysis by Large Language Models (LLMs), Gaffa automates and simplifies the entire process.

Automated Testing and Monitoring

Development and operations teams can utilize Gaffa to automate complex user journey tests on live production websites or monitor third-party service uptime and content changes. By executing real browser interactions, it can verify that critical user flows work correctly and alert teams to unexpected changes or outages on external sites they depend on.

Sending Large Project Files to Clients

Freelancers and agencies can instantly send massive video edits, design prototypes, or code repositories directly to a client's browser without worrying about compression, split archives, or expired download links. The P2P transfer handles unlimited sizes with no account required from the client, streamlining professional delivery.

Asynchronous Collaboration Across Time Zones

When a team member is offline, a user can upload files to Perkoon's encrypted cloud storage. The recipient receives a notification and can securely download the files at their convenience, ensuring work continues smoothly without being constrained by simultaneous online presence or insecure email attachments.

Integrating File Transfer into Automated Workflows

Developers can use the CLI tool or AI API to automatically upload build artifacts, backup logs, or transfer processed data between services. An AI agent can be instructed to fetch a report and send it via Perkoon as part of a scheduled task, making file transfer a reliable, programmable step in a larger process.

Privacy-Conscious Personal Sharing

Individuals sharing sensitive documents, personal photos, or large media collections can use Perkoon's P2P mode for peace of mind. The direct browser-to-browser transfer ensures that no third party, including Perkoon itself, can access or scan the content, upholding a strong standard of digital privacy.

Gaffa represents the next evolutionary step for developers and businesses that have outgrown the fragile, time-consuming nature of DIY web data extraction and browser automation. In the early stages of a project, managing proxies, headless browsers, and CAPTCHA-solving scripts might be a manageable hurdle. However, as your ambitions grow and you target more complex, anti-bot protected websites, these homemade systems become a major bottleneck, consuming valuable engineering resources that should be focused on core product development. Gaffa solves this by providing a sophisticated, production-ready REST API that abstracts away the entire infrastructure headache. It empowers teams to progress from simple data fetching to executing complex, human-like browser interactions at any scale, without the operational overhead. Whether you're a startup validating a market with competitive data or an enterprise building a data-driven product, Gaffa provides the reliable, scalable foundation to fuel your growth. It lets you concentrate entirely on deriving insights and value from web data, not on maintaining the fragile tools to collect it. By handling the complexities of real browsers, global proxies, scaling, and data processing, Gaffa is the engine that powers your data evolution.

Perkoon represents a pivotal evolution in digital file transfer, moving beyond the stagnant model of surveillance-based "free" services. It is built for a new generation of users and automated agents who prioritize efficiency, privacy, and straightforward utility. The product serves anyone frustrated by artificial file size limits, mandatory account creation, and platforms that monetize user data. At its core, Perkoon offers two distinct, purpose-built pathways: a truly unlimited and free peer-to-peer (P2P) transfer for direct, real-time sharing, and an honest, encrypted cloud storage solution for asynchronous sends. This dual-engine approach reflects a mature understanding of real-world needs. Its most significant evolutionary leap is its native design for an AI-augmented workflow, providing built-in APIs that allow machines to interact with the service directly, eliminating clunky workarounds. Perkoon's progression is clear: from solving the basic human need to share files without friction, to seamlessly integrating as a fundamental utility for the autonomous digital workforce.

What is a credit worth and how is usage calculated?

Browser requests are charged in credits based on two primary factors: request length and proxy bandwidth. Request time is billed at 1 credit per 30 seconds (or 2 credits per 30 seconds if screen recording is enabled). Proxy usage is billed at 1500 credits per 1GB of bandwidth when a specific proxy_location is used. Each successful request deducts the corresponding credits from your monthly allowance, providing a clear and predictable cost structure for your automation workload.

Does Gaffa offer a free trial period?

Yes, Gaffa offers a free way to experiment with all key features. You can sign up and use the API to build and run automations on a dedicated demo site (demo.gaffa.dev) without requiring a credit card. This allows you to fully explore the API's capabilities, test your automation logic, and understand the platform's value before upgrading to a paid plan for use on the open internet.

What is Gaffa's refund policy?

Gaffa is happy to offer a refund if requested before any credits have been used within the current billing month. This policy ensures that customers can commit to a plan with confidence, knowing they can receive a refund if their needs change before actively consuming resources on the platform. More details are available in the full policy documentation.

Do unused credits roll over to the next month?

No, credits do not roll over from month to month. The credit allowance included with your monthly subscription plan is reset at the start of each new billing cycle. This is a common model for usage-based services and helps keep pricing simple and predictable. It's designed to align with typical monthly operational budgeting for data extraction projects.

Is the P2P transfer really free forever?

Yes. The peer-to-peer transfer technology operates directly between user browsers. Since Perkoon does not use its own servers or bandwidth to facilitate the data transfer for P2P, the operational cost is effectively zero. Therefore, this service can be offered without charge indefinitely, with no hidden catches or data monetization.

What happens if the recipient is not online when I send a file?

If the recipient is offline, the P2P connection cannot be established. In this case, you can use Perkoon's encrypted cloud storage feature (a paid option) to upload the file. The file is held securely on Perkoon's servers until the recipient comes online and accesses their unique download link.

How does Perkoon ensure my privacy?

For P2P transfers, privacy is inherent; files stream directly between devices and are never stored on or accessible to Perkoon's servers. For cloud storage, files are encrypted on your device before being uploaded. Perkoon maintains a strict policy of no scanning, no selling of data, and no "corporate nonsense" regarding user files.

Can AI agents or scripts really use Perkoon without a browser?

Yes. Perkoon is built for automation. It provides a dedicated JavaScript API (window.__perkoon) on its web interface for AI agents to interact with programmatically. Additionally, a Command Line Interface (CLI) tool is available, allowing scripts and backend systems to initiate and manage file transfers directly, enabling full integration into automated pipelines.

Gaffa is a sophisticated web data extraction and browser automation platform, designed to evolve projects from fragile, DIY coding to simple, scalable API calls. It falls into the productivity and management category, helping teams automate complex data workflows. As projects mature, users often explore alternatives to find a solution that aligns perfectly with their evolving needs, whether due to budget constraints, specific feature requirements like custom integrations, or the need for a different technical approach. When evaluating options, it's crucial to consider your project's growth stage. Early-stage ventures might prioritize ease of use and quick setup, while scaling enterprises need robust reliability, advanced anti-bot circumvention, and hands-off infrastructure management. Key decision factors often include the sophistication of stealth technology, the flexibility of data handling and exports, and the total cost of ownership beyond just the initial price point. The right tool should not only solve today's data challenges but also provide a clear path for future evolution. Look for a platform that abstracts complexity without sacrificing power, enabling your team to focus on deriving insights from data rather than maintaining the machinery that collects it. This ensures your data pipeline scales in tandem with your business ambitions.

Perkoon is a modern file transfer service in the productivity category, defined by its commitment to unlimited, free peer-to-peer transfers and a refreshing lack of mandatory sign-ups. Users often explore alternatives as their needs evolve, seeking different pricing models, specific platform integrations, or advanced collaboration features not central to Perkoon's streamlined, private design. When evaluating other options, consider your core priorities. Are you looking for deep team collaboration, extensive cloud storage, or perhaps a service with a more traditional business model? The ideal alternative aligns with your workflow's growth stage, whether you're an individual prioritizing privacy or a team needing structured file management. --- FAQ_SEPARATOR--- [
{"question": "What is Perkoon?", "answer": "Perkoon is a straightforward file transfer service that offers free, unlimited peer-to-peer transfers directly between browsers and optional encrypted cloud storage for offline delivery."},
{"question": "Who is Perkoon for?", "answer": "It's built for individuals and professionals who value privacy, dislike artificial limits and mandatory accounts, and want a no-nonsense tool for moving files."},
{"question": "Is Perkoon free?", "answer": "Yes, its core peer-to-peer transfer service is completely free and unlimited with no signup. Encrypted cloud storage for offline transfers is a paid feature."},
{"question": "Why choose Perkoon?", "answer": "Perkoon stands out for its honest approach, privacy-focused P2P technology, and native design for automation with built-in tools for AI agents and a CLI."}
]