8 WeTransfer alternatives compared (2026): limits, expiry and the catch in each

WeTransfer used to be the answer to one question: how do I send a file that is too big to email? Then the free plan tightened. Today it caps a free send at 3 GB, limits you to around ten transfers a month, and deletes the link after roughly three days. If that stings, you are not looking for a cheaper WeTransfer — you are looking for a different kind of tool.

Below are eight options compared on the things that actually decide it: how big a free send can be, how long the link survives, whether anyone needs an account, and the catch that never makes it onto the pricing page.

First, the thing that changed

WeTransfer was acquired by Bending Spoons in 2024, and the free tier was reshaped afterwards. The per-transfer size went up (2 GB → 3 GB), which is the number everyone quotes, but two limits appeared underneath it: a monthly cap of roughly ten transfers (or 3 GB in total across a rolling 30 days, whichever you hit first), and link availability cut from seven days to about three.

That is why the tool suddenly feels worse even though the headline number improved. Most people did not need 3 GB. They needed the link to still work on Friday.

The eight compared, at a glance

Third-party limits checked September 2026 and quoted from each provider's public plan pages. These change often — confirm on the provider's own pricing page before you rely on a number.

How long does the link actually live?

This is the chart nobody puts in their marketing, and it is the one that decides whether you get a "can you resend that?" email next week.

And how big can the file be?

Here is the same eight on raw size, where we lose badly and say so. If your actual problem is a 40 GB camera dump, do not use us — use SwissTransfer or Smash and enjoy it.

The rundown, one paragraph each

WeTransfer — fine for one big file, today

Still the smoothest upload experience on the list, and the recipient screen is famously clean. The free plan is now a genuinely small allowance, though, and the three-day window makes it useless for anything you want to reference later.

SwissTransfer — the size winner

Up to 50 GB per transfer, free, with a password option and up to 30 days of availability. Run by Infomaniak and hosted in Switzerland, which matters to some teams for data-residency reasons. There are daily caps on how many transfers and downloads you can rack up, so it is built for the occasional huge send rather than a steady stream.

TransferNow — the closest like-for-like swap

5 GB free with no account, password protection, and a familiar flow. It is the option to reach for if you liked WeTransfer before the squeeze and just want the old feeling back. The free tier is ad-supported.

Smash — no size ceiling, with an asterisk

Smash advertises no file-size limit even on free, which is true and slightly misleading: above roughly 2 GB, a free transfer is de-prioritised and queued behind paying users, which can mean a long wait before your file is ready. Great for patient people, painful for a deadline.

Filemail — transfer with a desktop app

5 GB free and about a week of availability, with a desktop client and API if you send files as part of a workflow. Most of the interesting controls — password, custom expiry, branding — sit on the paid plans.

Dropbox Transfer — only makes sense if you already pay

On a free Dropbox account the transfer cap is small enough to be a rounding error. It becomes genuinely good on a paid plan, where the ceiling climbs into the tens or hundreds of gigabytes. If you are not already a Dropbox customer, this is not a free alternative — it is a subscription with a transfer feature attached. We break the differences down in the Dropbox alternative comparison.

Google Drive — permanent, until permissions bite

Drive is not a transfer tool and does not pretend to be. The link is permanent as long as the file does not move, get renamed into a restricted folder, or lose its "anyone with the link" setting. The failure mode is not expiry, it is the request access wall — and you never find out it happened. More in the Google Drive alternative breakdown.

Link in Seconds — a hosted link, not a countdown

Different category on purpose. You upload a file and it gets a permanent, readable address like linkinseconds.com/p/proposal that opens in the browser — no download step, no expiry timer, a QR code included, and a view count so you know it was opened. Free covers files up to 100 MB and 20 links. Pro raises the ceiling to 200 MB per file with 10 GB of storage, and adds passwords, expiry dates, custom slugs and view-only mode ($7/mo or $29/yr).

So which one should you use?

The question that actually splits this list

Ask yourself: does this link need to be alive in a month?

• No — you are delivering something once, to one person, right now. Any transfer service works. Pick on size and take the biggest free number.
• Yes — it goes in a portfolio, an email signature, a printed menu, a job application, a listing. Every transfer service is the wrong answer, because deletion is the feature they were built around. You want hosting.

Most of the frustration people blame on WeTransfer is really this mismatch: a transfer tool used as a hosting tool. We wrote about the underlying problem in why your share links keep expiring, and there is a feature-by-feature WeTransfer alternative page if you want ours specifically.

Common questions

What is the best free WeTransfer alternative?

It depends on which limit hurt you. For raw size, SwissTransfer. For no sign-up, TransferNow. For a link that has to stay alive, none of them — that is a hosting job, not a transfer job.

How long do WeTransfer links last?

Roughly three days on the current free plan, down from seven. Paid plans allow custom expiration. After the window the file is deleted and the link is dead.

Is there an alternative with no expiry at all?

Yes — but you have to leave the transfer category. Hosted links (Link in Seconds, Google Drive, MEGA) have no countdown. The trade-off is a smaller per-file ceiling than a pure transfer service.

Do the people I send to need an account?

Not with any transfer service here, and not with a hosted link either. Cloud drives are the exception: that is exactly where the request access screen comes from.

Which is safest?

Look for a password option on the free tier — SwissTransfer and TransferNow both have one, WeTransfer does not. But "secure" means less than people assume for any link-based tool; we go through the honest limits in how to share files securely by link.