A quick search on the Internet reveals a plethora of sites that can be used to share local files. Here, we will try to review them al. If we forget a site, please, write about it in the comments. Note, that we are interested in sharing local files, i.e. files that are stored on our computer, and not cloud files. We will review those sites/apps in a different article.
Since there are so many sites for file sharing, it does not make any sense to review each one of them separately. That would have lead to a very long, and hard to read article. Instead, we create two categories: File Size, and Security, and we report which site falls into which (sub)category.
File Size
In this category we group the sites based on the size of the files that we can share
Unlimited
- FileSend: It is Free
- GoFile: It is Free
- i-SmartShare: It is Free.
More than 20GB
- Hightail: Up to 50GB, the cost is $28 per user per month.
- Hightail: Up to 25GB, the cost is $12 per user per month.
Up to 20GB
- Files.fm: It is Free.
- TransferNow: The cost is 8.50€ per month.
- WeTransfer plus: The cost is $12 per month or $119.99 per year.
Between 2GB and 10GB
- SendTransfer: Up to 10GB, it is Free.
- TransferNow: Up to 4GB, it is Free.
- Filefox Send: Up to 2.5GB, it is Free
- WeTransfer: Up to 2GB, it is Free.
Less than 2GB
- Filefox Send: 1GB
- Hightail: 100MB
Security
When we share a file, that file is stored on a server. We then get a link which we share with other people. Our main concern about this process is who can access the files that are stored on the server, when will those file be deleted.
About the first question, we found that only GoFile allow us to protect our files with a password. The other sites do offer the option to use a password, but that password is not used to encrypt the files. Instead, it is used to authenticate the user. This is certainly useful, because it means that people can not gain access to our files by simply pasting the link to a browser.
Regarding the 2nd issue, we found that all sites offer this feature. Note, however, that the sites that have a free and paid version, they offer that feature only in the paid version.