As a YouTuber, you’ve definitely found yourself facing this question: How to transfer large video files?Â
No matter if you’re doing a collab with other creators, or if you need to send your latest raw footage to your video editor: Sending video files is an essential part of many video creation workflows. However, since video files are usually huge – especially if you shoot in 4K – sharing them can be tricky.Â
To help you, we’ve rounded up the best file transfer services to help you save time and cut back on your cloud budget.
Contents
Heading the list is MASV. By our reckoning, this is the best file transfer service out there, especially for video files.
MASV stands out through its superior speed, ease of use, and flexible pricing.Â
To start with, it’s designed specifically for massive files (hence the name) of up to 15 TB each. Yes, that’s terabytes. That’s way more than enough to accommodate several hours of raw footage in 4K for your next action vlog. Or a two-hour Twitch stream.
Plus, MASV transfers these huge files at frankly impressive speeds, using AWS and proprietary file acceleration to slash upload and download times. Whoever you’re sending them to, they’ll appreciate the speed of delivery and overall ease of use of the platform. And the faster your editor can get started, the sooner you will have a finished video to publish.Â
You can even send files that aren’t done recording yet, so your collaborators can get started before you’ve even finished shooting – a long streaming session or a whole event, for example. As an added bonus, this gives you an instant backup.
Features
Another advantage of MASV is that it guarantees intact folder structures. If you’ve already arranged your footage into folders and sub-folders for your editor, for instance, you can be sure that they’ll get them in the same configuration.Â
Going further, MASV also offers integrations with most major cloud storage providers, like Google, Dropbox, Azure and Amazon S3 as well as with several media pro tools like Frame.io and Premiere Pro. You can use MASV to upload your files lighting-fast and slash time on transfers.Â
You can, in fact, use MASV as your single service for moving files to connected shared storage, or for having anyone else upload to them without giving them any access details (they call this “centralized ingest“). There are also automation features – you can have all files in a watched directory transferred automatically, without you having to babysit the process.
At the receiving end, you get fine-grained control – a permission system for all users, specific locations to upload files to, and you can set limits on sizes and formats. And a dashboard to visualize and manage all transfers.
Another big plus of MASV is the flexible pricing. It offers both subscription options (starting at $110/month) and pay-as-you-go pricing (starting at $0.25/GB downloaded, with a discount if you cross 2 TB a month). Uploading itself is free.
Finally, there’s also MASV’s long list of prominent customers to recommend it. From corporate clients like Disney, Spotify and the BBC to creator economy players like Jellysmack and MrBeast, MASV is the gold standard of large file transfers. It also holds the Motion Picture Association’s TPN Gold Shield, a measure of just how secure and reliable the the service is.Â
At Tasty Edits, we use it as a backend for our VOMA platform.Â
Next up, there’s WeTransfer, one of the best-known file transfer services out there. A big reason for that is its persistence. It has been around since 2009 and is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.Â
WeTransfer is the simplest of file transfer services. You go to the homepage, upload your files or a whole folder, and choose whether you want to create a download link or send an email directly to your recipient. Boom, you’re done.Â
You can also set up an upload page to request files from others.
In terms of pricing, WeTransfer is flexible and generous with small-scale transfers. Its free plan allows you to send up to 2 GB of files in one go. At the Starter level ($10/month), that limit rises to 300 GB sent or received, with 10 transfers a month. Transfers expire after 7 days.
With the Ultimate plan ($25/month), you have no size limit on transfers as well as unlimited storage. Transfers will also stay active for a whole year (unless you set something else). There is, finally, also a Teams plan for enterprise customers.
The higher-tier plans also let you create portals for feedback, and specify details such as when a transfer link expires.
WeTransfer can also be used as something like a shopfront – with a Stripe integration, you can paywall downloads, even on the free plan. If you’ve created work for someone else, this is one way of ensuring that they’ll pay you before they download it.
Another solid file transfer service for YouTubers is Send Anywhere. This works a little differently from other options on the list. You can also generate a basic link, but the core idea is you share a code with whoever you want to send your file to. Anyone using this 6-digit key can then download the files you uploaded – in real time, and starting within 10 minutes.Â
There are also several apps and add-ons for more regular users.
In its basic form, you can use Send Anywhere via its online portal and send up to 10 GB for free. Things get more interesting with the paid plans, though – because that’s where Send Anywhere becomes available as an email add-on.Â
For $5.99/month – the Lite plan – you can send up to 200 GB of data via email. And in the standard plan ($9.99/month), that limit rises to 500 GB. You can also manage links, set passwords, and customize download pages.Â
When it comes to sharing files, another well-known option is plain old Google Drive (in both its personal and business versions).
Unlike the options we’ve listed so far, Google Drive is a cloud storage provider rather than a specialized file transfer service. However, once you’ve uploaded your files to the cloud, you can easily create share links or add people as viewers, commenters, or editors, using their Google accounts.
On its free plan, Google Drive offers 15 GB of storage, though that is shared with Gmail. The paid plans fall under Google One for personal use: For $1.99/month, you can get 100 GB of storage. And for $9.99, you can store up to 2 TB. You can share that storage with up to five others as well.
Google Workspace’s business plans, and the enterprise Cloud Storage service, of course give you a lot more.
A key advantage of Google Drive is that it’s well-established and integrates with tons of other apps out there. Conversely, transfers aren’t particularly fast.
Finally, no list of file transfer services would be complete without Dropbox. Like Google Drive, Dropbox offers not just file transfers but also cloud storage.Â
Once upon a time, Dropbox was a straightforward online storage option. Now, it is much more versatile, although also more complicated. You can upload and share files, sync your local folders using the Desktop app, collaborate on documents, and even add signatures. Plus, like Google Drive, Dropbox offers native integrations with a huge amount of platforms out there.Â
One downside of this provider is that it’s fairly pricey, though. It only offers 2 GB of free storage. After that, paid plans start at $11.99 per month or $119.88 per year for 2 TB. Transfer file sizes are also limited, going up to 100 GB in the solo plans and up to 250 in the business ones.
One upside for video creators specifically, however, is the Dropbox Replay feature. You can use it to do video edit collaborations right on the platform – there’s even a timeline annotation tool much like frame.io’s.
The Bottom Line
When all is said and done, MASV is the clear winner in our comparison of file transfer services. It stands out through its lighting-fast speed, ease of use, and flexible pricing.Â
However, any option on this list is a solid choice when it comes to transferring large video files as a YouTuber or video content creator.
FAQs
Hands-down the best file transfer service out there is MASV. It’s fast, budget-friendly, conserves complex file structures, and comes with an intuitive interface.
File transfer services help you send files that are simply too large for email attachments. They’re a fast, global alternative to saving files on a drive and passing them along manually.
To send large files, the best way to go is a file transfer service, like MASV or Dropbox. Unlike email attachments, these services provide cloud storage space to let you upload your files and share them with whoever you want to send them to.
The best way to send large video files is to use a file transfer service, such as MASV or WeTransfer. Here, you can upload all your files and either enter the email address of the recipient, or request a download link that you can pass on.
If you want to send large video files, or a large folder containing multiple files, use a file transfer service. These services let you upload your files and folders to the cloud and then send a download link to your recipients.
