BetterFileTransfer vs Google Drive

Google Drive is not a transfer service, and most of the trouble people have sending files with it comes from using it as one. Here is where the line actually falls.

Cloud storageFigures checked Google Drive

At a glance

BetterFileTransfer and Google Drive, measured the same seven ways.
MeasurementBetterFileTransferGoogle Drive
Send without an accountWhether a first-time visitor can send something without handing over an email address.Yes, up to 100 MBNo, sign-up required
Free transfer sizeThe largest single transfer on the free tier.1 GB15 GB total, shared with Gmail
Free link lifetimeHow long a link keeps working before the files are deleted.Up to 30 daysNo expiry; the link lives until you unshare
End-to-end encryptedEnd to end means the provider holds sealed bytes and cannot open them. Encryption "in transit and at rest" is a different, weaker promise: the provider still holds the keys.Yes. End to end, on by default, sealed in your browser before uploadNo. In transit and at rest; Google holds the keys
Cheapest paid plan$10 / month, or $100 / year$1.99 / month for 100 GB
Paid transfer size10 GB5 TB per file
Storage includedStorage is what stays on the service; a transfer is what leaves it. A product built for one is rarely the best answer for the other.10 GB free, 1 TB on Pro15 GB free, 100 GB from $1.99

Limits and prices are set by each service and change without telling us, and a figure we could not confirm reads "not confirmed" rather than being estimated. If something here is out of date or simply wrong, email contact@betterfiletransfer.com and we will correct the row. Say where you saw it and we will check it against their own pages the same way we checked the rest.

Almost everybody already has 15 GB of Google Drive, which makes it the default answer to "how do I send this, it is too big for email". It is a reasonable answer and a fairly bad one, for reasons that have nothing to do with Google being bad at software.

Drive is a place files stay. Sharing one produces a link to a file that is still sitting in your account, still counting against your quota, and still yours to forget about. A transfer is the opposite motion: the file goes, and then it is gone.

What Google Drive does well

Nothing else on this page will hold a 5 TB file, and nothing else lets the recipient comment on it, suggest an edit, or open it in a spreadsheet without downloading anything. If the file is a document that two people are going to work on, Drive is not the compromise. It is the right tool and a transfer link is the compromise.

It is also free at a scale that is genuinely hard to argue with, as long as you are not counting the 15 GB you have already spent on eight years of Gmail.

Where the two differ

  • The quota is shared. That 15 GB covers Drive, Gmail and Photos together. Most people discover this at the exact moment they need it, because the mailbox has quietly eaten it.
  • Nothing expires. A share link works until you remember to unshare it. Google began rolling out sharing expirations for Workspace in late 2025, but it is per-person access expiry rather than something you can attach to an "anyone with the link" link. A file you sent in 2022 is, in all likelihood, still open.
  • There is no password on a link. Not on any tier. This surprises people every time.
  • The permissions are the hard part. Half of all "the link does not work" messages are a Drive link set to restricted, and the other half are a link that turned out to be open to the entire internet. We wrote about what actually goes wrong with share links and Drive is most of the chapter.
  • You both need an account, effectively. Yours to share, and often theirs to open.

The encryption question

Google encrypts in transit and at rest and holds the keys, which is what makes search, previews and everything else Drive does possible. It is not end-to-end encryption and Google does not claim it is.

For a holiday photo that is fine. For a passport scan or a signed contract it is worth knowing that the file is readable by the provider, indefinitely, in an account protected by whatever your password habits are. Our checklist for sensitive documents is mostly about that gap.

What it costs

Google One starts at $1.99 a month for 100 GB. The 2 TB tier is now sold as Google AI Plus at $9.99 a month and 5 TB as AI Pro at $19.99, which is a rebranding worth watching, since storage tiers are now bundled with things that have nothing to do with storage.

As pure storage per pound, Google wins this page outright, and it should: it is a storage product. It is simply not priced or built to be a way of handing something over once.

Which one to use

Keep it in Drive if the file needs to be worked on, referred back to, or lived with. Send it as a transfer if the job ends when the other person has it. The mistake is not choosing Drive. The mistake is a Drive folder with four years of one-off links still open in it.

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