Smash: The Free Alternative to WeTransfer
Looking for an alternative to WeTransfer, to send files without size limits for free? Smash is the best alternative: your files are stored in your country, in United States 
and thanks to this proximity with our servers, uploads and downloads are super fast.
Looking for an alternative to WeTransfer, to send files without size limits for free? Smash is the best alternative: your files are stored in your country, in Canada 
and thanks to this proximity with our servers, uploads and downloads are super fast.
Looking for an alternative to WeTransfer, to send files without size limits for free? Smash is the best alternative: your files are stored in your country, in Irlande 
and thanks to this proximity with our servers, uploads and downloads are super fast.
Looking for an alternative to WeTransfer, to send files without size limits for free? Smash is the best alternative: your files are stored in your country, in France 
and thanks to this proximity with our servers, uploads and downloads are super fast.
Looking for an alternative to WeTransfer, to send files without size limits for free? Smash is the best alternative: your files are stored in your country, in Germany 
and thanks to this proximity with our servers, uploads and downloads are super fast.
Looking for an alternative to WeTransfer, to send files without size limits for free? Smash is the best alternative: your files are stored in your country, in United Kingdom 
and thanks to this proximity with our servers, uploads and downloads are super fast.
Looking for an alternative to WeTransfer, to send files without size limits for free? Smash is the best alternative: your files are stored in Europe 
and so uploads and downloads are super fast.
Looking for an alternative to WeTransfer, to send files without size limits for free? Smash is the best alternative: your files are stored close to you and so uploads and downloads are super fast.
If you buy a subscription for more than €200 a year, WeTransfer will allow you to send a file of any size to someone else. But if you don’t want to spend big to send big, they offer a free tier – but there’s a catch. On the free tier, you have hard limits on the size of the file that you send, the security of the transfer, and on branding options, too. Luckily, WeTransfer isn’t the only name in the file transfer game.
Smash is an online service that specializes in getting your large file where it needs to go. It has paid plans for professionals and teams – including a market leading API solution for developers – but it also offers a free plan with many of the same bells and whistles as their paid options.
So how do the free plans from WeTransfer and Smash compare?
WeTransfer Free vs Smash Free: Size, Speed, and Storage
Let’s start with the basics:
Is there a limit to the size of the file that I can send for free?
When I send a file, how long will it take to upload?
Is my file stored close to where it is uploaded?
When it comes to file size limits, WeTransfer doesn’t come close to Smash. The Netherlands-based service limits free users to a hard 2GB cap, while the French alternative allows free users to transfer files of any size. What’s more, tests have shown that uploading files with Smash is twice as fast as uploading the same file on WeTransfer. In part, this can be explained by another key difference between the services: Smash uploads the file to a server close to the user while WeTransfer does not.
| Smash | WeTansfer | |
|---|---|---|
| Transfer size limit | Unlimited | 2GB |
| File upload time | 1.20 minutes for 2GB | 2.40 minutes for 2GB |
| File storage close to user | Yes | No |
WeTransfer Free vs Smash Free: Security
Whether you are transferring a video file for editing, an important PowerPoint file for work, or a folder of images to your family, you want that transfer to be secure. At a minimum you want the transfer to be encrypted end-to-end but features like password-protection of your transfer, anti-virus protections, and encryption via HSM offer a higher level of security for your transfers to keep your data safe.
Both WeTransfer and Smash encrypt your files end-to-end, even on their free tiers. Only Smash, though, offers password protection and anti-virus protection for their free users, and only Smash offers additional encryption via a Hardware Security Module, or HSM.
So, we can ask:
Are my transfers fully encrypted with 256-bit AES and SSL/TLS?
Can I add additional password protection to my transfer?
Is there anti-virus protection offered for my transfer?
Is there additional encryption with HSM?
| Smash | WeTansfer | |
|---|---|---|
| 256-bit AES + SSL/TLS encryption | Yes | Yes |
| Password protection | Yes | No |
| Anti-virus protection | Yes | No |
| Encryption via HSM | Yes | No |
WeTransfer Free vs Smash Free: File Previews and Customization
Uploading a large file? Not a problem. Downloading a large file? That might be a hassle for your recipient depending on where they are and what sort of internet connection they are using. If they’ve got a strong, stable cable internet link then there won’t be problems, but if they have a less stable, less powerful, lower bandwidth mobile connection, having the opportunity to preview a file before downloading it can save time and money.
Another way to give your recipient some peace of mind before they download your file is to customize your URL. There’s nothing wrong with a URL files with random characters, but if you can customize the URL to reflect the file you’re sending (ImportantPPTv3 or VacationPics2023) it will inspire trust on the other end. How do the free plans from WeTransfer and Smash stack up on this front?
The important questions here are:
Can I preview image, video, and audio files?
Can I customize my sharing URL?
| Smash | WeTansfer | |
|---|---|---|
| Preview image files | Yes | Yes |
| Preview audio files | Yes | Yes |
| Preview video files | Yes | No |
| Customized URLs | Yes | No |
WeTransfer Free vs Smash Free: Overall
Comparing the two free file transfer service options and it seems clear there is a winner: Smash.
Whether it is getting the basics right with speed, storage, and transfer size limits, offering top-tier security and encryption features to free and paid users alike, or offering file previews and link customizations as standard, Smash has it all over its longer-established Dutch rival.
To match Smash feature for feature, a WeTransfer customer would need to subscribe to the most expensive monthly or annual plan. If they don’t, they’ll face limits on the size of the transfer even if they do get access to security features offered for free with Smash.
| Smash | WeTransfer | |
|---|---|---|
| Transfer size limit | Unlimited | 2GB |
| File upload time | 1.20 minutes for 2GB | 2.40 minutes for 2GB |
| File storage close to user | Yes | No |
| 256-bit AES + SSL/TLS encryption | Yes | Yes |
| Password protection | Yes | No |
| Anti-virus protection | Yes | No |
| Encryption via HSM | Yes | No |
| Preview image files | Yes | Yes |
| Preview audio files | Yes | Yes |
| Preview video files | Yes | No |
| Customized URLs | Yes | No |
Ready to get started transferring files for free with Smash?
Go to fromsmash.com and transfer your first file – no matter how big! – for free today!
Frequently Asked Questions
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Let’s put it this way: if you can upload it, you can send it for free with Smash. Even on the free tier there are no file size limits, and there are no shortcuts on security, link customization, or file previews, either. With Smash, you get first-class service even if you never spend a cent.
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Need to? No. Should you? Well, for peace of mind and another level of security, you probably should. Encryption prevents third parties from intercepting your data as it is transferred from your device to the Smash server, and the Smash server to your recipient. Password protection means that only a person with the password is able to download the file, and with Smash you don’t have to choose even on the free tier.
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You don’t live your life on one device, and neither does Smash! As well as easy transfers on the web, you can use the Smash Mac app, dedicated apps for Android and iOS, the Smash API, and the Smash email plugin for Microsoft Outlook.Smash Mac app
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