BetterFileTransfer vs WeTransfer

WeTransfer is the name most people mean by "send a big file". It is also the one that has changed most in the last two years: a monthly transfer quota on the free tier, three days on a link, and ads paying for it.

Transfer serviceFigures checked WeTransfer

At a glance

BetterFileTransfer and WeTransfer, measured the same seven ways.
MeasurementBetterFileTransferWeTransfer
Send without an accountWhether a first-time visitor can send something without handing over an email address.Yes, up to 100 MBYes
Free transfer sizeThe largest single transfer on the free tier.1 GB3 GB, 10 transfers a month
Free link lifetimeHow long a link keeps working before the files are deleted.Up to 30 days3 days
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; WeTransfer holds the keys
Cheapest paid plan$10 / month, or $100 / yearStarter and Ultimate; price not confirmed
Paid transfer size10 GB1 TB on Ultimate
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 Pro2 TB on Starter

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 If something here is out of date or simply wrong, email contact@betterfiletransfer.com and we will correct the row.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.

WeTransfer invented this category as most people understand it. Drop files on a page, type an email address, hand over a link. Nearly everything else here, including us, is a variation on a shape it drew in 2009.

What has changed is the free tier. It used to be a flat 2 GB whenever you liked. Today it is 3 GB and a rolling quota: up to ten transfers, or 3 GB in total, in any thirty-day period. If you send files occasionally that is invisible. If you send them for a living it is the whole story.

What WeTransfer does well

Recognition, which is worth more than it sounds. A WeTransfer link arriving in an inbox is a link people open without thinking, and if you are sending to clients who have never heard of any of the alternatives, that matters more than any feature on this page.

The paid tiers are genuinely capable. Ultimate carries transfers up to 1 TB with custom expiry dates and branded download pages, which is a real product for an agency handing work to clients who should see the agency's name and not ours.

Where the two differ

  • The clock. A free WeTransfer link lasts three days, and so does a Starter one. Ours lasts a day or a week with no account, up to thirty days on a free account, and can be set never to expire on Pro. Three days is a genuine problem when somebody is away for a long weekend, which is the most common reason a link is reported dead.
  • The quota. Ten transfers a month is a limit on how often you send, not on how much. Nothing here counts your transfers.
  • The account. Neither of us needs one to send. Ours caps an anonymous send at 100 MB rather than 3 GB, which is the honest trade for the rest of this list.
  • The ads. WeTransfer is paid for by full-page advertising on the upload and download pages, and reportedly still shows them to Starter subscribers. Whatever you send arrives framed by somebody else's campaign. There are no ads here on any tier.

The encryption question

WeTransfer encrypts your files in transit and at rest, and holds the keys. That is a real and normal security posture, and it is not end-to-end encryption: WeTransfer can decrypt what you uploaded, so anyone who can compel or breach WeTransfer can too.

Here the files are sealed in your browser before a byte leaves your device, and the key never reaches us. That is the literal meaning of the term, and it is worth understanding the difference before you accept either word on a marketing page. The cost of ours is real and worth stating: lose the key and the files are gone, because there is nobody who can recover them.

Password protection on a WeTransfer link is an Ultimate feature. It is also not the same thing as encryption, on their service or anybody else's.

What it costs

WeTransfer sells Starter, Ultimate, Teams and Enterprise. We are not printing prices for them, because their pricing page would not render for us on the day we checked and the figures circulating elsewhere disagree with each other by a factor of two. Read it yourself before you buy; if you find the current numbers, tell us and we will put them in the table.

Ours is ten dollars a month or a hundred a year, and the free tier is not a trial.

Which one to use

If the recipient's comfort matters more than the mechanics, and three days is long enough, send the WeTransfer link. If you send often, need the link to outlive a weekend, or would rather the service could not read the files, this one is built for that.

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