Generate MD5 & SHA hashes instantly

For anything security-related, use SHA-256 or higher. MD5 and SHA-1 are fast to compute and fine for checksums or detecting accidental changes, but both have known cryptographic weaknesses and should not be relied on for security purposes.

Not for security purposes. MD5 is cryptographically broken — researchers can deliberately create two different files with the same MD5 hash. It's still fine for basic checksums, like verifying a download wasn't accidentally corrupted, just not for anything where someone might try to fake a match.

No — none of the algorithms here are appropriate for storing passwords, including SHA-256 and SHA-512. Password storage needs a slow, salted, adaptive algorithm specifically designed for it, such as bcrypt, scrypt, or Argon2, which intentionally resist the fast brute-force checking that general-purpose hashes like SHA-256 make easy.

The output length reflects the hash's bit size: MD5 produces 128 bits (32 hex characters), SHA-1 produces 160 bits (40 characters), SHA-256 produces 256 bits (64 characters), and so on. A larger output space makes accidental or deliberate collisions dramatically less likely.

No. All hashing happens locally using your browser's Web Crypto API (with a small local implementation for MD5, which isn't part of that API). Nothing you type is ever sent to a server.