Is hoistbay.app safe?
http://hoistbay.app/
Checked on
How we checked
Coverage: complete · 6 of 6 applicable core capabilities
- Antivirus (57 of 93 engines answered): completed
- Google Safe Browsing: completed
- page reading: completed
- page capture: completed
- domain records: completed
- web research: completed
Free open-source S3/CloudFront desktop app with public source, but unsigned installers and a 26-day-old domain with no named operator
hoistbay.app is a single-page site for Hoistbay, a free MIT-licensed desktop client for Amazon S3 and CloudFront for macOS and Windows. There is no price, cart, checkout or subscription anywhere on the page; the only money path is a voluntary tip jar on a third-party coffee site, and the installers are served from a public GitHub repository. The score sits in the low-risk band rather than Safe because the domain is 26 days old, the page names no company, email, phone or address, and the site itself tells visitors to override macOS Gatekeeper and Windows SmartScreen to run binaries that are not code-signed.
Where this site sits
- Dangerous1–20
- High Risk21–44
- Moderate Risk45–69
- Low Risk70–84
- Safe85–100
The score combines saved evidence strength and analysis quality. Coverage is reported separately.
Why 72/100
Low Risk covers scores 70–84. 2 findings pulled the score down; 4 pushed it up.
What pulled the score down
- ModerateThe site instructs visitors to bypass macOS Gatekeeper and Windows SmartScreen because the builds are not signed or notarized.
- ModerateNo direct contact email was found on the captured page, and no company, phone or address is named; identity rests on a GitHub handle and a tip-jar profile.
What pushed the score up
- SupportsThe site says the full source is on GitHub under the MIT license and the README lists the exact IAM permissions each feature needs.
- SupportsIndependent listings describe the same free S3/CloudFront desktop app, including a Product Hunt launch page and a public GitHub repository.
- SupportsNo price, cart, checkout, subscription or payment field appears on the page; the only money link is a voluntary tip jar on a separate donation site.
- SupportsNo Safe Browsing warning, zero detections across 93 engines, valid TLS, and a hosting IP with no abuse reports.
No points per finding are stored for this report: our analysis weighed all findings together to set the score. Each finding shows its saved severity instead (Decisive, Strong, Moderate or Minor).
01 · Investigation Brief
Investigation Brief
hoistbay.app is a single-page site for Hoistbay, a free MIT-licensed desktop client for Amazon S3 and CloudFront for macOS and Windows. There is no price, cart, checkout or subscription anywhere on the page; the only money path is a voluntary tip jar on a third-party coffee site, and the installers are served from a public GitHub repository. The score sits in the low-risk band rather than Safe because the domain is 26 days old, the page names no company, email, phone or address, and the site itself tells visitors to override macOS Gatekeeper and Windows SmartScreen to run binaries that are not code-signed.
A free tool with its code published, not a shop or a paywall
The page describes a desktop app that handles S3 uploads, bucket header rules and CloudFront invalidations, and states that every line is on GitHub under the MIT license, with the README listing the exact IAM permissions each feature needs. It is offered free, with the option to build it from source with Flutter.
The download buttons do not lead to a merchant checkout: the macOS and Windows builds are fetched from the project's public GitHub releases, and the header links to the source code and changelog on the same code host. The only commercial link on the page is a 'Buy me a coffee' tip jar on a separate donation site, which is voluntary and takes no order or subscription.
The page also states plainly that it is an independent project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Amazon Web Services, and that AWS, S3 and CloudFront are Amazon trademarks. No price, cart, checkout or payment field appears anywhere in the rendered page.
Clean scans, but unsigned installers and an unnamed operator
Automated checks came back clean: no threat warning from the browser threat feed, zero malicious and zero suspicious detections across 93 engines, a valid encrypted connection, and a hosting IP with an abuse confidence score of 0/100 across no saved reports. Those results mean nothing malicious was detected, not that the software is trustworthy.
The real caveat is stated by the site itself. It says the app is not notarized by Apple and walks visitors through right-clicking Open and using 'Open Anyway' in Privacy & Security, and for Windows it tells them to click 'More info → Run anyway' past SmartScreen. Anyone following those steps is disabling the operating system's own warning about an unsigned program.
The app asks for AWS access keys, which is a serious credential to hand to any program. The page says keys are encrypted at rest through the platform keystore (macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Manager), are read only when calling AWS, and that the app contacts official AWS endpoints with no middleman backend and no analytics. That is a reasonable design, but it is the operator's own claim; the only way to check it is to read the published source or build the app yourself.
Identity is thin. The registrable domain is 26 days old, and no direct contact email was found on the captured page; the operator is identified only by a GitHub handle and a tip-jar profile. Independent coverage does exist — a Product Hunt launch listing and a public repository describing the same S3/CloudFront tool — which is why this is not scored as a scam, but none of it verifies who runs the domain or whether the release binaries match the published source.
What happens when you click Download
Clicking 'Download for macOS' or 'Download for Windows' takes you off hoistbay.app to the project's GitHub releases, where you get a zip archive rather than an installer signed by a known developer.
On first launch the operating system will object: macOS shows a warning because the app is not notarized, and Windows SmartScreen shows 'Windows protected your PC'. The site's instructions are to override both, which is exactly the step that normally protects people from unwanted software.
Once running, the app is designed to hold AWS access keys in the system keystore and to talk only to AWS endpoints, so the exposure is limited to what the binary actually does — something the published MIT source lets you verify before you run it.
Why the score is 72
The saved checks found no material threat, but the evidence was not strong enough for the highest Safe tier.
02 · Security Evidence
Security evidence
Antivirus Engines
0/ 93
No detectionsFresh result
No detections across 57 engines that rated this URL
No antivirus engine that answered raised an adverse result; 36 had no rating for this URL. This is one signal, not a guarantee.
- Malicious
- 0
- Suspicious
- 0
- Total
- 93
All 93 engine results
- 0xSI_f33d - Unrated
- Abusix - Clean
- Acronis - Clean
- ADMINUSLabs - Clean
- AILabs (MONITORAPP) - Clean
- AlienVault - Clean
- alphaMountain.ai - Unrated
- AlphaSOC - Unrated
- Antiy-AVL - Clean
- ArcSight Threat Intelligence - Unrated
- AutoShun - Unrated
- Bfore.Ai PreCrime - Unrated
- BitDefender - Clean
- Bkav - Unrated
- BlockList - Clean
- Blueliv - Clean
- Certego - Clean
- ChainPatrol - Unrated
- Chong Lua Dao - Clean
- CINS Army - Clean
- CRDF - Clean
- Criminal IP - Unrated
- CSIS Security Group - Unrated
- CTX AI - Clean
- Cyan - Unrated
- Cyble - Clean
- CyRadar - Clean
- desenmascara.me - Clean
- DNS8 - Unrated
- Dr.Web - Clean
- EmergingThreats - Clean
- Emsisoft - Clean
- Ermes - Unrated
- ESET - Clean
- ESTsecurity - Clean
- Forcepoint ThreatSeeker - Clean
- Fortinet - Clean
- Fortra - Unrated
- G-Data - Clean
- GCP Abuse Intelligence - Unrated
- Google Safe Browsing - Clean
- GreenSnow - Clean
- GreyNoise - Unrated
- Gridinsoft - Unrated
- Guardpot - Unrated
- Heimdal Security - Clean
- Hunt.io Intelligence - Unrated
- IPsum - Clean
- Juniper Networks - Clean
- K7AntiVirus - Unrated
- Kaspersky - Clean
- LevelBlue - Clean
- Lionic - Clean
- Lumu - Unrated
- Malwared - Clean
- MalwarePatrol - Clean
- MalwareURL - Unrated
- Mimecast - Unrated
- Netcraft - Unrated
- OpenPhish - Clean
- Orcapot - Unrated
- PhishFort - Unrated
- Phishing Database - Clean
- Phishtank - Clean
- PREBYTES - Clean
- PrecisionSec - Unrated
- Quick Heal - Clean
- Quttera - Clean
- Rising - Clean
- SafeToOpen - Unrated
- Sangfor - Clean
- Sansec eComscan - Unrated
- Scantitan - Clean
- SCUMWARE.org - Clean
- Seclookup - Clean
- Snort IP sample list - Unrated
- SOCRadar - Unrated
- Sophos - Clean
- StopForumSpam - Clean
- Sucuri SiteCheck - Clean
- Synthient - Unrated
- ThreatHive - Clean
- URLhaus - Clean
- URLQuery - Unrated
- Viettel Threat Intelligence - Clean
- VIPRE - Unrated
- ViriBack - Clean
- VX Vault - Clean
- Webroot - Clean
- Xcitium Verdict Cloud - Unrated
- Yandex Safebrowsing - Clean
- ZeroCERT - Clean
- ZeroFox - Unrated
How security vendors categorise this site
- Forcepoint ThreatSeekernewly registered websites
Each vendor’s own label for the site, saved with the antivirus result. Labels are separate from the engine verdicts above and can disagree with each other.
Security Scans
Checked against the browser threat feeds available to this scan — no hit.
What we observed
Visual context from the captured page
Headline reads 'Manage S3 and CloudFront Without the AWS Console' with a badge 'FREE & OPEN SOURCE · MACOS & WINDOWS'. Two primary buttons: 'Get Hoistbay' (download icon) and 'Interactive Demo'; header shows 'Source Code' and 'Download App' buttons. A Product Hunt badge reading '#3 Product of the Day' is displayed below the hero buttons. Subheading states keys stay in the OS keychain and 'the app talks to nobody but AWS'. No price, cart, checkout, subscription or payment fields are visible anywhere in the rendered viewport.
What the captured page showed
5 observations- 01
Headline reads 'Manage S3 and CloudFront Without the AWS Console' with a badge 'FREE & OPEN SOURCE · MACOS & WINDOWS'.
- 02
Two primary buttons: 'Get Hoistbay' (download icon) and 'Interactive Demo'; header shows 'Source Code' and 'Download App' buttons.
- 03
A Product Hunt badge reading '#3 Product of the Day' is displayed below the hero buttons.
- 04
Subheading states keys stay in the OS keychain and 'the app talks to nobody but AWS'.
- 05
No price, cart, checkout, subscription or payment fields are visible anywhere in the rendered viewport.
What the page says about itself
Quoted from the pages we read: the site's own words, not our findings.
- Page title
Hoistbay — Desktop app for Amazon S3 & CloudFront
- Meta description
Hoistbay is a free, open-source desktop app for Amazon S3 and CloudFront. Upload with automatic Cache-Control rules, clear CloudFront cache, manage multiple AWS accounts. Keys stay in your OS keychain. macOS and Windows.
Pages we read
- Main page/Read
03 · Investigation Story
Investigation story
What the site claims
Hoistbay — Desktop app for Amazon S3 & CloudFront
What we observed
The page content was captured and checked alongside 57 antivirus results.
What independent research found
4 external findings were saved and compared with the page evidence.
What remains unverified
The checks completed, but ownership, business claims, and future site behavior can still change after this snapshot.
What kind of site and risk is this?
Threat category
No threat category confirmed
Service and business model
Saas
Observed behavior
Evidence behind this classification
- 01The site says the full source is on GitHub under the MIT license and the README lists the exact IAM permissions each feature needs.
- 02The site instructs visitors to bypass macOS Gatekeeper and Windows SmartScreen because the builds are not signed or notarized.
- 03No direct contact email was found on the captured page, and no company, phone or address is named; identity rests on a GitHub handle and a tip-jar profile.
Web research findings
Independent findings for hoistbay.app, including public complaints, named review sources, registration records, and look-alike-domain evidence.
- Chris Pirillo (Mastodon)open
"Hoistbay puts S3 uploads, bucket header rules and CloudFront invalidations in a desktop app for Mac and Windows. https://hoistbay.app/"
- Product Huntopen
"Hoistbay is a free desktop app for macOS and Windows that takes the repetitive work out of S3 and CloudFront."
- GitHub - mekartikshah/hoistbayopen
"Hoistbay — a free, open-source desktop app for Amazon S3 and CloudFront. Your keys stay in your OS keychain, and the app talks to nobody but AWS."
Reputation Sources
How this domain rates across independent threat-intelligence and blocklist providers.
04 · Domain & Infrastructure
Domain & infrastructure
The plumbing behind the site — who registered it, how it’s encrypted, where it’s hosted, and where it links out. A valid certificate or a calm server doesn’t mean the business is honest — scam sites pass these checks too.
Infrastructure map
- Domainhoistbay.app
- Redirects tohoistbay.app
- Hosted byCloudflare, Inc.
- Referencesgithub.com · producthunt.com
Domain Timeline
- Oct 9, 2026Domain registered
First appeared in WHOIS records — 26 days old when this review was saved.
- Nov 4, 2026Saved security review — Rated Low Risk
This saved scan found no material threat, but the evidence was not strong enough for the highest Safe tier.
Contact Verification
Saved contact details can help identify the operator. Their presence supports traceability; it does not prove the business is trustworthy.
- No direct contact email found on the captured page.
- Links to 6 social profiles.
Domain & Encryption
Cloudflare DNS is used by legitimate and scam sites alike, so it does not identify who runs the site.
A certificate issued weeks or days before the scan on a domain registered recently is common on short-lived sites, though new legitimate sites look the same.
Certificate issued for hoistbay.app.
A shared Cloudflare address answers for many sites, so it is not the site's own server and says nothing about who runs it.
Analytics and ads
- Cloudflare Web Analytics
Payment providers the page loads
None seen among the outside domains we saved.
Read from the first 20 outside domains the page loads and the shop platform it uses; the web server and platform rows are under Hosting & Technology. A payment script on the page does not prove the shop accepts that method at checkout, or that you are protected.
Redirect Chain
- 1301http://hoistbay.app/
- 2200https://hoistbay.app/
Server Reputation
Referenced Domains
Outbound domains this page links to or loads resources from. Each links to its own security scan.
05 · Evidence Ledger
Evidence ledger
- Antiviruscomplete
- Browser threat feedcomplete
- Page contentcomplete
- Analysiscomplete
- Visual evidencecomplete
The conclusion is supported by the evidence saved with this report.
Technical threat
unknownMalware, phishing, credential theft and hostile infrastructure.
No confirmed evidence in this dimension.
Operator / customer risk
suspiciousComplaints, withdrawals, business conduct and commercial traps.
The site instructs visitors to bypass macOS Gatekeeper and Windows SmartScreen because the builds are not signed or notarized. · No direct contact email was found on the captured page, and no company, phone or address is named; identity rests on a GitHub handle and a tip-jar profile.
Source coverage and freshness
Status shows whether usable evidence was saved; finding shows what that evidence observed.
| Source | Result | Completion | Finding | Freshness |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antivirus | 0 of 93 engines flagged | Completed | No adverse finding | fresh · analysed Nov 4, 2026 |
| Browser protection | No browser threat-list match | Completed | No adverse finding | this scan · Nov 4, 2026 |
| Page content | Page fetched · HTTP 200 | Completed | No adverse finding | this scan · Nov 4, 2026 |
| Visual evidence | 5 visible observations saved with the page capture | Completed | No adverse finding | this scan · Nov 4, 2026 |
| Independent research | 4 independent findings were saved | Completed | No adverse finding | this scan · Nov 4, 2026 |
- Antivirus
- Result0 of 93 engines flagged
- CompletionCompletedFindingNo adverse finding
- Freshnessfresh · analysed Nov 4, 2026
- Browser protection
- ResultNo browser threat-list match
- CompletionCompletedFindingNo adverse finding
- Freshnessthis scan · Nov 4, 2026
- Page content
- ResultPage fetched · HTTP 200
- CompletionCompletedFindingNo adverse finding
- Freshnessthis scan · Nov 4, 2026
- Visual evidence
- Result5 visible observations saved with the page capture
- CompletionCompletedFindingNo adverse finding
- Freshnessthis scan · Nov 4, 2026
- Independent research
- Result4 independent findings were saved
- CompletionCompletedFindingNo adverse finding
- Freshnessthis scan · Nov 4, 2026
07 · Safety FAQ
Safety FAQ
Answered from the saved verdict and evidence in this report.
Is hoistbay.app a scam or is it safe?
Is hoistbay.app safe to use?
Has hoistbay.app been flagged by antivirus engines?
Is hoistbay.app on any phishing or malware blacklists?
How old is the hoistbay.app domain?
Does hoistbay.app have a valid SSL certificate?
Where is hoistbay.app hosted?
How often is the hoistbay.app report updated?
08 · Final Verdict
Final verdict
Free open-source S3/CloudFront desktop app with public source, but unsigned installers and a 26-day-old domain with no named operator
hoistbay.app is a single-page site for Hoistbay, a free MIT-licensed desktop client for Amazon S3 and CloudFront for macOS and Windows. There is no price, cart, checkout or subscription anywhere on the page; the only money path is a voluntary tip jar on a third-party coffee site, and the installers are served from a public GitHub repository. The score sits in the low-risk band rather than Safe because the domain is 26 days old, the page names no company, email, phone or address, and the site itself tells visitors to override macOS Gatekeeper and Windows SmartScreen to run binaries that are not code-signed.
09 · Community
Community
Are you the owner of hoistbay.app?Verify and reply