Sharing photos from your last night out with friends or videos from your last vacation with your loved ones can quickly seem like a headache for you, as well as for the people you want to send these files to.
Rather than storing everything on a USB stick or hard drive that will have to be passed around between the hands of all parties involved, the simplest solution is probably to transfer your large files through a dedicated online storage service.
Cloud storage platforms are plentiful, but they don't all offer the same benefits or guarantees, especially when it comes to security. This is especially true if you're looking for a free service. The editors have selected ten free online services for sending large files.
1. SwissTransfer
As its name suggests, Swiss Transfer is a service based in Switzerland. Offered by the hosting company Infomaniak, it allows you to send up to 50 GB of files at a time. Its main advantage is that it is completely free and does not require any registration to use it. All sent files are stored for around thirty days before being deleted from the servers.
In terms of security, all elements stored on Swiss Transfer are protected by an encryption system. For each upload, the user has the option to configure password protection, the expiration period (1, 7, 15 and 30 days), as well as the number of authorized downloads (1, 20, 100 and 250).
Furthermore, the platform offers two options for sharing files. You can either send the link directly by email to your friends and family, or generate a sharing link that you will then distribute to the people concerned.
- Discover SwissTransfer on Telecharger.com (Free)
2. Wormhole
Wormhole is an open source project developed by two industry experts, Feross, the developer behind WebTorrent, and John Hiesey, author of the Stream-http project. With Wormhole, these two developers wanted to offer a large file sharing service that was easy to use, but above all focused on security. To do this, Wormhole relies on an end-to-end encryption system (AES-GCM 128 bits) and a sharing link that expires automatically so that the data does not remain stored online.
To share your large files up to 5 GB, the service stores them on its servers for a maximum of 24 hours. You can, if you wish, reduce this duration, but also limit the number of downloads (1, 5, 10, 20, 50, or 100). A download link will then be automatically generated, and you will only have to share it with your friends so that they can download the files.
Beyond 5 GB (and up to the limit of 10 GB), Wormhole relies on peer-to-peer sharing. This is where its main particularity lies. For files larger than 5GB, Wormhole creates a live transfer from your PC's web browser and your recipient's. This is why you'll need to keep the sharing page open until your recipient has finished downloading the large file(s) you're sharing.
- Discover Wormhole (Free)
3. Free Transfer
Free Transfer is the large file sharing service offered by Free. It offers two free plans: the first, Free Transfer, is accessible to everyone, while the second, Free Transfer Premium, is reserved for Free subscribers only.
In its classic offer, Free Transfert allows you to send files of up to 10 GB per transfer, with a validity of 7 days and the possibility of sharing the items with around ten recipients. The Premium offer, meanwhile, allows you to send files without size limits, for a duration of 30 days and up to 50 recipients.
For each of these plans, Free Transfert offers sending by email, or the generation of a link that you must then share yourself. All transfers made on the platform are secure and can be protected by adding a password. Finally, all data is stored on servers located in France.
- Discover Free Transfert on Telecharger.com (Free)
4. Smash
Smash is a French service, based in Lyon, that allows you to share your files without any size limit, but with a limit. Up to 2 GB of files sent, the transfer is immediate. Beyond 2 GB, your uploads are considered low priority and may therefore take longer.
In its free version, Smash requires no registration and is ready to use as soon as it is loaded in your browser. You just have to drag and drop your files into the window and Smash will ask you to choose how to share your files: by email, or by generating a sharing link that you will then have to share yourself.
For each share initiated on Smash, you can choose the validity period of your choice (7 days by default) to access your files, add a protection password, enable a preview of shared files, or be notified of the creation of the transfer, the download or non-download of your files.
Files hosted on Smash are protected using 256-bit AES encryption and are generally stored as close as possible to the location from which they are sent. Since Smash has chosen to use Amazon Web Services servers, files shared from the platform can therefore be located on five continents.
- Discover Smash on Telecharger.com (Free)
5. WeTransfer
WeTransfer is undoubtedly the most well-known platform for sending large files. In its free version, WeTransfer allows you to send up to 2 GB of files per month without an account, and up to 3 GB if you create an account, all with a limit of 10 transfers per month.
The service is free to use without registration and allows you to share your files with a simple drag and drop. You can choose to directly send the sharing link accompanied by a message to up to three people, or generate a link that you will have to share manually. WeTransfer protects all stored files with encryption.
The platform does not allow you to set a limit on the number of downloads, but offers, in its free version, to keep your data online for a period of 1 or 3 days.
- Discover WeTransfer on Telecharger.com (Free)
6. FileMail
FileMail is a large file sharing service developed by a Norwegian company. In its free version, FileMail allows you to transfer up to 5 GB of files. Data remains accessible online for one week by default for an unlimited number of downloads. However, you can change this duration so that your files are only accessible for one day, one month, one year, or forever. All files transferred securely with encryption.
To protect your files, FileMail offers the option to create a password. This password must then be entered by your loved ones to download the shared items. Filemail offers file sharing via email, but also offers the option to generate a link that you can then share yourself. It is possible to transfer entire directories and configure, or not, an alert each time your files are downloaded.
- Discover FileMail on Telecharger.com (Free)
7. TransferXL
TransferXL is a large file transfer service based in the Netherlands. The service, which offers a free plan, limits the size of files sent to a maximum of 5 GB, with a maximum upload limit of 10 GB per day.
Files transferred to the platform are kept for seven days before being automatically deleted from the servers. All items uploaded to TransferXL are protected with end-to-end encryption.
The platform, which has servers all over the world, even allows you to select the location of the servers to which you send your large files. You can store your documents on servers located in the Eastern United States (Virginia), Asia (Singapore), South America, or Europe (Germany).
- Discover TransferXL (Free)
8. TransferNow
TransferNow is a French service with servers located in Europe, as well as in the Americas and Asia. The service offers several options, including one that is completely free.
Accessible from both a computer's web browser and a mobile phone, TransferNow also has mobile apps for Android and iOS. With its free offering, the service offers easy sending of large files and directories of up to 5 GB. Transferred files remain available for a week, are all encrypted, and can be password protected.
In its free version, TransferNow even scans transferred files with an antivirus to ensure that no malware can be spread. You can also choose to enable notifications to be informed when your files are downloaded, or about to expire.
The platform also allows you to choose whether or not to enable previews of sent files.
- Discover TransferNow on Telecharger.com (Free)
9. Grosfichiers
Like SwissTransfer, Grosfichiers.com is a large file sending service based in Switzerland. Completely free, it allows you to send large files of up to 10 GB (with a maximum of 300 files per upload), without registration.
The files you share via the platform can be accompanied by a message, and can be shared with up to thirty recipients.
All data sent on Grosfichiers.com is stored on servers located in Switzerland or France. Furthermore, all files sent are kept for 14 days on the servers before being deleted.
- Discover GrosFichiers on Telecharger.com (Free)
10. DropChaprilOrg
Offered by APRIL (an association for the promotion and defense of free software), Chapril brings together various completely free and open-source services. Among these, DropChaprilOrg offers easy sharing of your large files, while guaranteeing their confidentiality.
The service, which allows you to send files up to 1 GB, ensures the security of your uploads thanks to an end-to-end encryption system and an automatically expiring link.
You can configure an automatic expiration after a certain number of downloads (from 1 to 100), or a certain duration (5 minutes, one hour, one day, two days, and five days). It is also possible to protect access to downloading shared files with a password. Once the files are sent, DropChaprilOrg automatically generates a download link that you will need to copy in order to share it with your friends and family.
- Discover DropChaprilOrg (Free)
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