Softonic

Hash Generator

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Algorithm
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Verifying a download, comparing two strings byte-for-byte, or producing a fingerprint for a signature workflow all depend on cryptographic hashing. This tool computes the common families, MD5, SHA-1, SHA-2 (256/384/512) and CRC32, and gives you a copy-ready digest for each one. The text you enter is sent to our server so the digest can be computed.

How to generate a hash

  1. 1

    Paste or type input

    Enter the text you want to hash. This generator works with text: there is no file upload.

  2. 2

    Pick a hashing algorithm

    Choose MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512 or CRC32 depending on your use case.

  3. 3

    Generate the hashes

    Click "Generate Hashes". The digest for the selected algorithm appears, and the list below shows every algorithm at once.

  4. 4

    Copy the digest

    The resulting fixed-length digest is ready to paste into a checksum file, signature header or comparison dialog.

Which hash algorithm should I pick?

Not every hash is suitable for every job. MD5 and SHA-1 are fine for uniqueness checks but broken for anything security-related. SHA-2 remains the conservative default for new projects.

Algorithm reference

Algorithm Output size Security status Typical use
MD5 128 bit Broken, practical collisions since 2004 Non-security checksums, ETags, cache keys
SHA-1 160 bit Deprecated, SHAttered collision in 2017 Legacy Git object IDs, old TLS chains
SHA-256 256 bit Secure, recommended default TLS, signing, file integrity, blockchain
SHA-384 384 bit Secure TLS 1.3 suite B, stronger integrity
SHA-512 512 bit Secure Very large datasets, HMAC construction
CRC32 32 bit Not cryptographic, trivial collisions Error detection (ZIP, PNG), quick integrity checks

Hashing is not encryption

A hash is one-way: from the digest you cannot recover the input. Two properties matter:

  • Collision resistance, no two inputs produce the same hash. Broken in MD5 and SHA-1.
  • Preimage resistance, given a digest, you cannot find an input that produces it. Still holds for MD5 and SHA-1, so checksums still spot accidental corruption.

Do not use plain SHA-256 for passwords

Passwords need a slow, salted function: bcrypt, scrypt, Argon2id or PBKDF2 with at least 600,000 iterations. A fast hash like SHA-256 can be brute-forced at billions of guesses per second on modern GPUs.

Text encoding matters

Hashing a string means hashing its byte representation. "café" as UTF-8 produces a different digest than the same word encoded as Latin-1. This tool hashes UTF-8 bytes by default.

Frequently Asked Questions

Almost always an encoding or trailing-whitespace difference. Check whether the other tool uses UTF-8 vs Latin-1, and whether it appends a newline to the input before hashing.

For detecting accidental corruption of a download, MD5 is fine. For anything an attacker might try to forge (certificates, code signatures, password storage) MD5 is broken and must not be used.

No. This generator hashes text only. To check a file, use the checksum command built into your operating system, such as sha256sum on Linux and macOS or Get-FileHash on Windows.

The text you enter is sent to our server so the digest can be computed. We do not store it afterwards.

SHA-2 is the family of algorithms; SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384 and SHA-512 are its members. When someone says “SHA-2” without specifying a size they usually mean SHA-256.

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Tool available in other languages