WeTransfer made sending a large file effortless, and it also made sending a large file mean handing the transfer to an American company along with your email address and whatever metadata comes with it. For a one-off that may not matter. For a habit — sending client files every week — it adds up.
The good news is that file transfer is the easiest category in this series on moving off American software to escape. The services are simple, several need no account at all, and switching costs are near zero: you upload, you share a link, you're done. If your work involves pushing files around, the same logic applies to tools that process files entirely in your browser — BrowserStay is built on that idea — but for sending files to other people, you need a transfer service.
Here are seven European options, with the details that actually differ between them: size limits, whether an email address is required, and what encryption you get.
SwissTransfer: the biggest free limit
SwissTransfer comes from the Swiss hoster Infomaniak. The headline numbers: a 50 GB size limit and no email address required to share files. Transfers are end-to-end encrypted and can additionally be secured with a password. For most one-off large transfers, this is the default recommendation — the 50 GB limit dwarfs everything else on this list.
Smash, TransferNow, WeSendit: the mid-sized options
Smash is French with a 2 GB limit on free transfers, and an email address is required for the free tier. TransferNow, also French, allows free transfers up to 5 GB, requires an email address, and includes advertisements on the free tier. WeSendit, from Switzerland, requires no email but caps transfers at 2 GB.
None of these is complicated to use; the differences are the trade-offs. If you refuse to hand over an email address, WeSendit works within its 2 GB cap. If your files are bigger, Smash and TransferNow both want an email, and TransferNow adds ads on top.
FileMail and SendGB: five gigabytes, different conditions
FileMail is Norwegian. Its free plan needs no email address and handles files up to 5 GB. SendGB is Estonian and offers free password-protected transfers up to 5 GB, but requires an email address. So at the 5 GB tier you choose between anonymity (FileMail) and password protection (SendGB). That is a genuinely useful distinction: password protection matters when the file is sensitive, anonymity matters when you simply don't want another service holding your contact details.
TeraShare: the different model
TeraShare, from Belgium, is built on the open-source libtorrent library and works peer-to-peer rather than via an uploaded copy on a server. You and your recipient both install TeraShare, and then you can share any file on your computer with each other for free. There is no size limit imposed by a service because the file never sits on one — it moves directly between you.
The trade-off is obvious: both parties need the app, which rules out the "send a link to a random client" case. TeraShare fits recurring transfers between people you work with regularly, not cold handoffs.
How to choose
- Largest files, no fuss: SwissTransfer, at 50 GB, encrypted, no email needed.
- 5 GB, anonymous: FileMail. 5 GB, password-protected: SendGB.
- No email under 2 GB: WeSendit.
- Regular transfers with the same people: TeraShare, if installing an app on both ends is acceptable.
None of these will feel unfamiliar. Pick one for the size limit and privacy conditions you care about and send the file.
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