Let’s make no bones about it: As our file delivery needs continue to grow, we must turn to the Internet for help. Yes, we have baby servers in our homes, FTP accounts, and file sharing between computers—each option is great for some things, but they all lack one desirable feature or another.
Email services are handy for sending and receiving files, but they have caps on the size of file attachments you can send. Typically, 10MB or so is the limit. This limitation is a pain for anyone who needs to send a video clip or audio file and simply can’t, in some cases even after reformatting the file to a lower quality.
Historically, the alternative to emailing large attachments is using an FTP site, but these, too, have their limitations. One is the fact that you need to provide and maintain local storage for the site; another is that any type of online file transfer is only as effective as how well the person on either side of the transfer understands the process. Ever try explaining to a grandparent who lives far away how use an FTP client to retrieve the video you took of the family reunion?
Web file delivery services are a viable alternative to both of the above means of transferring. For one thing, they take the burden of administration off of your shoulders and put it on an Internet-based file delivery service provider.
Yes, we DIY types are understandably hesitant to give another entity control over . . . well, anything, really. But for the sake of convenience and ease of use, consider using one of the services. The only annoying thing about this type of service is that their names are all mashups. We wouldn’t mind seeing a space between the words in these names from time to time.
For the most part, we avoided services, such as online file storage, that tack on file sharing and delivery as additional, rather than primary, features. Most online backup services include some form of file sharing or delivery options, but for this article, we’re more interested in delivery services that may also offer some amount of storage, be it permanent or temporary.
The services we took a look at primarily hang their hat on delivering large files to other people rather than acting as an online storage space that allows users to retrieve files when they need them. Think of these online file delivery services as being similar to FTP sites without the storage.
 YouSendIt YouSendIt is a popular file delivery service, and with good reason. Although for a fee YouSendIt offers more feature-heavy options, anyone who needs to send a large file (up to 100MB) in a pinch can do so right from the Web site’s home page.
All you have to do is enter the recipient’s email address, your email address, and attach a file. Click Send It, and the task is complete. The recipient will receive an email with a download link, and they can simply follow it to retrieve the file. The download link remains active for a week.
This requires nothing from you monetarily, nor do you even need an account; however, you can only send one file at a time. You can sign up for a free Lite account, which offers simple amenities: the ability to send any file up to 100MB with 100 downloads per file and access to a Knowledge Base if you have questions. At this level, you can still only send one file at a time.
The next bump up, the Pro plan, offers much more. The maximum file size increases to 2GB, with 500 downloads per file. Additionally, you get 2GB of online storage, the ability to send multiple files and folders, the ability to control the expiration dates on sent files, and live chat or email support in addition to Knowledge Base. You also get a dropbox, which is essentially just a waiting room of sorts for all of the files people send you. Instead of having to follow each download link separately, you can just visit your dropbox and grab what you need, all from the same place.
The other available plans are designed for use by companies rather than individuals and have more features than the Pro or Lite plans. You can try any of the plans for free for 14 days. (Incidentally, this is our kind of free trial—no credit card required. Just sign up and enjoy.)
We were tempted to use our 14-day free trial testing out the Business Plus plan instead of the Pro, but a closer examination revealed that the options between the two differ little enough to warrant the extra cost for an individual user. A business would want those extra features, such as unlimited downloads of a particular file and detailed tracking, and be willing to pay for them. Thus, the Business Plus plan is appropriately named and aptly featured. Kudos to YouSendIt on that one.
You can also use the Pay Per Use option in a pinch. It’s actually a lot like sending a physical package in that you pay a fee for “postage.” The difference, of course, is that your “package” gets there faster and is digital. The fee for a one-time delivery of one file up to 2GB is $8.99 and includes the ability to track it. You can also spring for a return receipt, password protection, and certified delivery ($3.99 each).
YouSendIt Express is the desktop client for YouSendIt. It’s a free download and promises to offer you a 25% increase in upload speeds. In our tests, however, there was little difference in speed between a Web-based YouSendIt upload and one from the desktop client. An upload with the client was 5:47 (minutes: seconds); without the client, it was 6:03. Still, YouSendIt Express is a nice tool to have, as it offers drag-and-drop functionality, the ability to send folders, and extra options including password protection and certified delivery conveniently on your desktop.
Load YouLoad |
YouLoad
$9.95 (Basic); $19.95 (Professional)
Load
www.load.com |
YouLoad is one of the services provided by Load, which also offers hosted email, Web analytics, hosted DNS, and content management. It’s designed more for businesses than individuals, but you may find that it works for you.
We were disappointed to find that YouLoad offers no free trial. If you want to try the service, the best you can do is sign up for the Basic plan, which is $9.99 per month. The Basic plan offers middling features such as a 100MB file transfer size limit, no SSL protection for your stored files online, and 50 uploads and 100 downloads per month. On their own, the features are decent and include reporting and tracking tools, the ability to manage sent files and downloads, and SSL encryption for sent files, but for 10 bucks a month we expect a little more horsepower.
The other two available plans, Professional ($19.99 per month) and Enterprise ($29.99 per month) offer only slightly better features for the money. The Professional plan offers 1GB file transfers, SSL encryption for your dropbox, 100 uploads and 150 downloads per month, and longer access to sent and received files. The Enterprise plan offers a 2GB limit on file transfers, unlimited uploads, and 200 downloads per month.
Like YouSendIt, YouLoad does a good job of giving appropriate features to each plan. Both the Professional and Enterprise plans also offer branding options for your dropbox, which allows you to set up custom folders for other people to access. It’s an important option for businesses to have as they swap files with clients, though it’s not such an important feature for individual users. You don’t really need branding options to send a video to your brother-in-law.
One impressive feature of the Enterprise plan is that you can send visitors of your Web site to a YouLoad upload page and give them a custom URL from which to download files. The custom URL can build on your site’s address—such as www.[genericwebsitename].com/download1.
Overall, YouLoad has fairly low pricing options, especially for its top-drawer plans, with smart extras, but the core features are somewhat disappointing.
FileSend Like YouSendIt, FileSend lets you upload and send a file right from its home page. No account of any kind is required for these last-second or one-time file transfers. You can send a file up to 120MB to as many as three email addresses, or you can simply copy and paste the download link. Enter the email addresses, click Send It, and away it goes.
Creating an account requires that you enter a username and password, re-enter the password, and provide an email address. Click Register, and the process is complete.
One thing we found odd was that locating the list of features for the free account was an endeavor in link hunting. In fact, at press time, there was nowhere on the Web site that listed any of the features of the Basic account, other than the 300MB file size limit. You have to register for the free account first and then read the confirmation email carefully to learn the other details.
In the end, the Basic account includes some strong features, such as the aforementioned 300MB file size limit, the ability to recover lost file links and manage uploaded files, and less download wait time. You can store up to 300MB of files in a dropbox on the Basic account, although those files will be deleted 60 days after their last download.
You can upgrade to a Premium account to get more features and a larger file transfer size. Prices for a Premium account vary according to what length of time you register for. For example, you can get 30 days for $8.95, but if you pay for a year up-front, it's only $49.95 for all 12 months. A Premium account offers a file size limit of 1GB, fewer advertisements than a Basic account, and support for uploading multiple files. You also get unlimited parallel downloads, download acceleration, and no download wait time.
Another nice perk is that you can park your files in the My Files dropbox, and they’ll never be deleted as long as you maintain the account. (You can still download your files for 60 days after you terminate your account.) This is sort of a roundabout way to get online storage capability, in that you can upload a file, and instead of sending it, you can click the Files tab, and on that screen, you can create folders and move files. If you click one of the files, it will take you to a download page. So, you can park up some of your files online and download them as you need them.
A knock on FileSend is that download speeds were slow compared to the other services. Whereas the other services downloaded the test file in about 90 seconds or less, it took FileSend 4:45 to complete the task.
FileSend offers a Rewards program wherein you receive a point for each download on your account. You can build up points and exchange them for money off of the price of some services or, in some cases, cash. Granted, the first item you can cash in on requires 8,000 points (and therefore 8,000 downloads), but it’s nice to know the possibility is there.
We liked that FileSend is so simple. The Web site is relatively uncluttered save for the occasional ad, and it’s easy to use. Considering the low price and high performance of its services, FileSend is an attractive tool.
YouConvertIt Although it’s still in beta, YouConvertIt’s Send File(s) tab is a sublimely simple way to send large files online. There are no plans to compare and no account to register for. Just enter a recipient’s email address, browse for and attach a file (or files), and click Send It. You can also opt to include your own email address to get a delivery notification, add a title, and add a message. The recipient will get an email with a download link, and they can retrieve the file at their earliest convenience.
Yes, that sounds virtually identical to some other services described herein, but the difference is that YouConvertIt’s E-Z Web interface is not designed to entice you to use their service; it is their service, or part of it. Although it works well, YouConvertIt’s Web-based file-sharing functionality is not necessarily the site’s bread and butter. There are four tabs on the site: Convert Files(s), Convert Online Video, Send Files(s), and Convert Units.
With these other online tools, YouConvertIt converts files from one format to another, lets you download or convert online video, and even has a tab where you can convert various measurements, such as U.S. dollars to English pounds. Hundreds of file formats are supported, including various types of productivity, audio, and video files. All of this functionality is as simple to use as YouSendIt’s Send Files function. For example, to convert online video, you simply enter a URL and click Download, or enter an email address and a file format to convert it to another format.
Another aspect of YouConvertIt that makes it stand out from other Web file delivery services is that you can attach multiple files (up to five), up to a total of 1GB in size, right there on the home page. Thus, even in its free and simple status, YouConvertIt offers some strong features for sending files online.
The downside to YouConvertIt is that there is no dropbox to store and manage files. If you have several files in the mix at any given time, the only way to manage your uploads is by wrangling a pile of emails—one for each upload. That can be a tedious task, so in that sense, YouConvertIt is woefully under-featured.
The Web site’s interface is very clean and easy to use. What YouConvertIt will look like after it’s through beta remains to be seen, but it looks promising. If you need better FTP-like file management, skip this service for your file delivery needs. But bookmark this site, as you’ll find its other features eminently useful either way.
SendThisFile The strength of SendThisFile is that it offers plans for virtually anyone and everyone. That said, the features in the lesser plans are somewhat weak. With a free plan, your upload speed is slower than with a paid account, any uploaded files will be deleted after three days, files can only be downloaded three times before being deleted, and you can only upload a file at a time.
You get significantly more for a paid plan, including password protection for files, secure file transfers, download notices, deletion notices, the ability to delete a file after a user-specified number of downloads, and the option to have a copy sent to you as well as the recipient. You can send up to five files at a time.
The Starter Plan is inexpensive at $4.95 per month (or $49.95 per year), and offers full-speed file transfers, access to files for six days instead of three, and the option to set the maximum number of downloads per file. A downside is that you only get 500MB per month of files to transfer. The only differences between the Starter and Pro plans is that the Pro plan gives you 10GB of file transfers per month and files are available for eight days; it also costs twice as much.
The two top-tier plans are Business Plan ($19.95 per month) and the Enterprise Plan ($69.95) per month. Aside from greater per-month transfers (25GB and 90GB, respectively) and more days the files are available for download (10 and 14), they offer a host of additional features over the Starter and Pro plans. These features include ad-free and customizable FileBoxes, emails, and file link retrievals. The Enterprise plan also offers stronger encryption (192-bit Triple-DES) and immensely more options for administrative flexibility.
All the plans offer a FileBox, which is essentially an inbox where people can send files to you. With a Standard FileBox, you essentially get a short form visitors to your Web site can fill out to send large files to you; SendThisFile provides the code for it, so it’s easy to add it to any Web page.
Each plan also features a dropbox-type area called My Files, where you can keep track of the files you’ve been working with. It’s not particularly useful for managing the files in the sense that you can’t organize files into folders, but it does give all the information you could ever want about when files were uploaded and downloaded, who received sent files, and more.
by Seth Colaner
Web File Sharing
A close cousin of the file delivery services described in this article are file storage and sharing services. These are designed less specifically for sending and receiving large files and more for light to moderate file storage with sharing capabilities.
The idea is that you can move some of your storage to the cloud, which makes two things easier. One is the ability to transport your files more easily than keeping a flash drive in your pocket all the time. (Ever had one go through the wash? Or be gnawed on by a puppy? We have.)
The other computing activity these services make simpler is sharing certain files with other people. Basically, you get a certain amount of online storage and in many cases a desktop client. You can configure your account to be entirely private, but you can also make certain files and folders public so that other people can access them. Here are a few such services to try out.
Wuala
www.wuala.com
• 1GB of free online storage
• Desktop client that syncs with your online account
• Compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux
• No file size restrictions
DropBox
www.getdropbox.com/home
• 2GB of free online storage
• Desktop client that syncs your files between your online account and any other computers running the client
• Syncs files between PC, Mac, and mobile devices
• Share folders with specified users
Sugarsync
www.sugarsync.com
• 2GB of free online storage (upgradeable with paid plans to 30GB, 60GB, 100GB, or 250GB)
• Continuous real-time backup to cloud account
• Desktop client that syncs your files between your online account and any other computers running the client
• Syncs files between PC and Mac computers and iPhone, iPod touch, Windows Mobile, and BlackBerry devices
• Share folders with specified users
Need For Transfer Speed
Testing upload and download speeds is easy enough to do, but the results will vary widely depending on various factors, including the time of day, the type of Internet connection being used, and even geographical location. Thus, your results may vary. Further, some sites throttle speeds depending on the type of account you have, so that issue was an unavoidable factor, as well.
We tested these services on the same machine with the same wired Ethernet connection. All tests were conducted in mid-afternoon. Suffice it to say that each service was compared equitably to all the others.
We used a stopwatch to clock the upload and download speeds of a 42.7MB video file. When appropriate, we also checked speeds when using a desktop client. Results are reported in minutes:seconds.
| | Upload | Download | | YouSendIt | 6:03 | 0:48 | | YouLoad | 8:28 | 1:33 | | FileSend | 5:12 | 4:45 | | YouConvertIt | 6:13 | 1:03 | | SendThisFile | 8:32 | 0:25 |
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