BetterFileTransfer vs Wormhole

Wormhole is properly end-to-end encrypted, free, and beautifully made. It also keeps files for 24 hours, has never shipped a paid tier, and above 5 GB it needs your browser tab left open.

Encrypted transferFigures checked Wormhole

At a glance

BetterFileTransfer and Wormhole, measured the same seven ways.
MeasurementBetterFileTransferWormhole
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 GB5 GB stored; larger goes peer to peer
Free link lifetimeHow long a link keeps working before the files are deleted.Up to 30 days24 hours
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 uploadYes. End to end; the key travels in the link fragment
Cheapest paid plan$10 / month, or $100 / yearNo paid tier
Paid transfer size10 GBNot applicable
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 ProNone; transfers only

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 If something here is out of date or simply wrong, email contact@betterfiletransfer.com and we will correct the row.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

Wormhole is the other genuinely end-to-end encrypted option in this comparison, alongside Tresorit Send. Their own words: only you hold the keys, we cannot see your Wormhole files. AES-GCM, key in the URL fragment, no account, no advertising.

It is also the fastest thing here for a small send. Drop a file, get a link before the upload has finished, close the tab.

What Wormhole does well

The design. Sharing begins before the upload completes, which makes a 200 MB send feel instant in a way nothing else on this page manages. The interface is stripped to nothing and there is no signup, no plan chooser and no advertising anywhere in it.

The encryption is real and the key never leaves your browser, which puts it in a category of two or three on this entire page.

Where the two differ

  • 24 hours. Server-stored files are kept for a day. That is the shortest window in this comparison, and for a lot of ordinary sending it is simply too short.
  • The 10 GB headline needs an asterisk. Up to 5 GB is stored on their servers. Above that it becomes a peer-to-peer transfer that requires your tab to stay open while the other person downloads, which works and is clever, and is not the same product as a link you can send and forget.
  • No password protection. The link is the whole security model.
  • No paid tier, ever. Wormhole Pro has been listed as a future plan for years. A free service with no revenue is a service whose future is a question, and it is worth weighing that before you build a workflow on it.
  • No record of anything. No dashboard, no download counts, no revoking early.

The encryption question

There is no argument here. Both services seal files in the browser, both put the key in the link fragment so it never reaches a server, and both are unable to recover a lost key. Wormhole uses 128-bit AES-GCM; we stretch a typed or generated secret with PBKDF2 and seal each chunk under AES-256-GCM with the chunk index mixed in, so parts cannot be reordered.

The differences that remain are about what happens around the encryption: whether you can choose the secret yourself, whether the filenames are sealed as well as the files, and how long any of it lasts.

What it costs

Nothing, and that is both the appeal and the caveat.

Which one to use

Wormhole for a fast, private, throwaway send that will be collected today. This for anything where a day is not enough, where the recipient might be asleep in another timezone, or where you need to know whether they actually downloaded it.

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