Two names, two philosophies
WeTransfer is the brand your clients already know, polished and increasingly monetized. Smash is the French challenger that made "no size limit" its banner. Both send files fine. The differences live in the fine print of limits, expiry, and what happens at busy hours.
The free tiers
WeTransfer free has tightened year after year: you now need an account to send, transfers cap at 3 GB, you get 10 transfers in any rolling 30-day window, and links expire after 3 days. Miss the window and you're re-uploading.
Smash free takes the opposite approach: no size cap and no account. The catch appears above 2 GB, where free transfers drop into a non-priority queue at peak times, sometimes hours of waiting. Links last 7 days, and password protection is included.
For free use, Smash wins on nearly every axis unless your files are small and infrequent, in which case WeTransfer's polish is fine too.
The paid plans
| WeTransfer Starter | WeTransfer Ultimate | Smash Pro | Smash Team | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $6.99/mo | ~$25/mo | $10/mo | $25/mo |
| Max per transfer | 300 GB per rolling 30 days | 1 TB | 250 GB | 1 TB |
| Transfers | 10 per 30 days | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Expiry | 3 days | Custom | Up to 30 days | Up to 30 days |
| Password protection | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Branding | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Two details deserve a highlight. WeTransfer Starter keeps the 10-transfer ration and the 3-day expiry: you're paying $6.99/month largely for bigger files, not more freedom. And Smash tops out at 30-day retention even on paid plans, which is short if clients come back for files months later.
Trust and track record
Mid-2025, WeTransfer shipped terms of service granting itself broad rights to user content, including language about machine learning, then walked it back within days after creative professionals revolted. The company insists no user files were ever used to train AI. The episode still cost it exactly the audience it built its brand on. It also discontinued its Portals collection feature at the end of 2025.
Smash markets a privacy-first, EU-based posture, though its homepage loads Google's tag manager, an odd choice for a privacy pitch. Neither service is open source.
Who should pick what
- You send small files occasionally and clients know the brand → WeTransfer free is fine, rations and all.
- You send big files occasionally and can wait out a queue → Smash free is the best zero-dollar deal among stored services.
- You send constantly and files must stay up for months → neither: Smash caps at 30 days, WeTransfer's custom expiry needs the $25 Ultimate tier.
The third option both comparisons miss
Transfer.zip attacks the same job differently:
- Free: Quick Transfer streams files browser-to-browser with no size limit and no queue, end-to-end encrypted, no account. The Smash queue and the WeTransfer ration simply don't exist here.
- Paid: from $6/mo (billed yearly) for stored transfers, up to 1 TB per transfer and 365-day retention on Pro, with download tracking, custom branding, and a custom domain.
- Open source, unlike both.
Transfer.zip's homepage.
For the detailed head-to-heads: Transfer.zip vs WeTransfer and Transfer.zip vs Smash.