Do I need an account to share a snippet?

No. Paste the text, choose an expiry, and share the link. The list of pastes this browser has made is kept locally.

It is unlisted. There is no feed, no search and no directory - the only way to reach it is the URL. Anyone with that URL can read it, so redact secrets before sharing.

How long does a paste last?

As long as the expiry you choose when creating it. Once that passes it is gone, and the link stops working.

No. There is no advertising anywhere on the site, and no interstitial between the link and the content.

A Pastebin alternative without the account or the public feed

Pastebin has been the default place to put a snippet for two decades. What has changed around it is the expectation: people now share logs and configuration far more often, and a permanent, publicly listed, ad-supported page is a poor fit for that.

Open the Paste →

Pastebin and Softland, side by side

	Pastebin	Softland
Public listing	Public pastes appear in a browsable feed	None - links are unlisted only
Advertising	Ad-supported unless you pay	None
Expiry	Optional	Built in, chosen when you create the paste
Account	Needed for history and longer retention	None - history is kept in your browser
Syntax highlighting	Extensive language support	Basic

Most things people paste should not be permanent

The realistic lifespan of a shared snippet is the length of the conversation about it. A stack trace pasted into a support thread, a config file sent to a colleague, a chunk of output someone is helping you read - none of that needs to exist a year later, and a good deal of it should not.

Defaulting to expiry inverts the usual arrangement. Instead of remembering to clean up a page that will otherwise outlive its usefulness indefinitely, you choose how long it should live at the moment you already know the answer.

The public feed is a real hazard

Pastes marked public are browsable, and they are scraped continuously by people looking for exactly what gets pasted by accident: API keys, connection strings, tokens, internal hostnames. Credentials have been found and used within minutes of appearing there.

There is no public listing here at all. A paste is reachable only by its unguessable URL, which means the visibility setting cannot be got wrong in a hurry - the safe option is the only option.

Still worth redacting first

An unlisted URL is not encryption. Anyone who has the link can open the paste, so a link forwarded into a group chat or pasted into a ticket is as public as that chat or that ticket.

Treat expiry and unlisted URLs as risk reduction rather than protection. Strip credentials out of a log before you share it, whichever service you use.

When Pastebin is the better choice

You want a permanent, citable page for a snippet - documentation, a bug report that will be read for years, a reference someone will link back to.
You need rich syntax highlighting across many languages, or a public profile of pastes people can browse.
You rely on an API or an editor integration that already targets Pastebin.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need an account to share a snippet?: No. Paste the text, choose an expiry, and share the link. The list of pastes this browser has made is kept locally.
Is my paste public?: It is unlisted. There is no feed, no search and no directory - the only way to reach it is the URL. Anyone with that URL can read it, so redact secrets before sharing.
How long does a paste last?: As long as the expiry you choose when creating it. Once that passes it is gone, and the link stops working.
Are there ads?: No. There is no advertising anywhere on the site, and no interstitial between the link and the content.

Try it yourself

Share a snippet or log with syntax highlighting.

Open the Paste

Pastebin is a trademark of its respective owner. Softland is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Pastebin. This comparison reflects how each product works rather than what either costs, because pricing and plan limits change; check Pastebin’s own site for its current terms.