It’s 2017, but for some reason email clients still limit attachments to mere megabytes. This makes sending large files via the Internet between family, friends and work colleagues a royal pain. There are a number of services that can help you get around this pesky problem, but some can be a hassle to use, not to mention expensive. So if you’re looking for easy-to-use solutions that don’t cost you a dime, you’re in luck.
Send Anywhere
Send Anywhere allows users to send large files in a variety of different ways, including your browser, mobile and desktop apps, and plugins for browsers and email clients.
If you can’t be bothered downloading or installing anything, you can still use the Send Anywhere website. The website allows users to send a file up to 4GB without registering or signing up. Just pop in your email address and the address of your recipient and hit “Send.”
If you opt to install the Chrome extension or Outlook plugin, the file size limit is bumped up to 10GB. The mobile apps for Android and iOS increases it even more to 20GB. Additionally, if you install the Send Anywhere app on Windows or macOS, the size limit increases to a whopping 1TB.
Firefox Send
Mozilla’s approach to file sharing is akin to the self-destructing tapes of the Mission Impossible series. Firefox Send is a web-based tool allowing users to upload a file up to 2GB in size to the Mozilla servers. The file is then encrypted, and a one-time link for sharing is generated. Users can then simply send the link to the person they want to share the file with. Once the person downloads the file, it is automatically deleted. This ensures that shared stuff does not remain online forever.
We should note that Firefox Send is described as an “experiment” in that it is still in early stages of development. This means that there can be some bugs and hiccups when using the service.
MediaFire
MediaFire has been at the forefront of cloud-based storage for more than a decade. While it does require the creation of an account, you get 10GB of storage space right off the bat. You can easily increase your storage by linking your social media accounts and referring friends. To share files, you can generate links to your uploaded content.
MediaFire also has a Premium version which starts at $3.75/month and eliminates the obtrusive ads and annoying Captchas of the free version. In addition, the paid option gives users 1TB of space, ups the individual file size limit to 20GB, and gives the option of generating one-time download links, similar to Firefox Send.
MailBigFile
MailBigFile operates on a freemium model with four tiers of their service available to users. The free version allows users to upload multiple files (5 max) up to 2GB in size via the web-based interface. Those files are then available to download for ten days.
The Pro account ups the file size limit to 4GB and makes the files available to download for twenty-eight days for $29/year. The Business Lite account makes files available for thirty days and bumps the file size limit to 5GB at $120/year. Finally, the Business account allows files up to 20GB and makes them available for sixty days at $240/year.
WeTransfer
WeTransfer is an extremely user-friendly file sharing service. The web-based interface is simple to use and walks you through the upload process step by step. The free version allows you to send up to 2GB to up to twenty different recipients, with your files being available to download for seven days. For $12/month or $120/year, you can opt for WeTransfer premium. This increases the file size limit to 20GB and also gives you 100GB of cloudstorage.
DropSend
This is a file-sharing service with multiple plans catering to the needs of both individuals and businesses. With the DropSend free plan, you get a 4GB maximum file size limit and five transfers per month.
However, you can try out the standard plan for $9/month that will increase the file size limit to 8GB with forty-five transfers per month and many additional features. Their business plan for $99/month offers unlimited transfers with an 8GB file size limit and all features unlocked with maximum file transfer speed.
Do you use any of the file-sharing services mentioned above? If not, how do you send large files online? Let us know in the comments!
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