Dropbox for large files: a comparison
Dropbox is not a competitor of ours in the usual sense, and that belongs in the first paragraph: Dropbox is sync and storage, we are delivery. Those are two different jobs, and this page tries to show you which one you actually need done.
We read the Dropbox figures below from their plans page and help center on 27 September 2026, and the links are at the end of the page. We quote no amounts. We link to their pricing page and to ours instead.
What Dropbox does better than us
The file lives there. It syncs across your devices and stays available until you delete it. For a project folder you work on for months, that is exactly what you want. Premium can hold a link with no expiry too, but Dropbox remains the right product for sync and ongoing work on the folder.
2 TB of permanent storage on Plus. We do not sell permanent storage by the gigabyte and we are not trying to. Our plans pay for delivery, not for keeping things.
It has a real delivery product too. Dropbox Transfer sends a download link, and the recipient does not need an account to open it. Their help center says so in as many words. If someone tells you Dropbox "can't send files", they are wrong.
If you already have Dropbox Plus and are sending a client a 3 GB file, use Dropbox Transfer. We mean it.
Where the difference starts: control of the link above the Plus plan
The basic difference is not size. It is who gets control over the link.
On Basic, Family and Plus a Dropbox Transfer expires after 7 days, and that is it, you do not choose the interval. Dropbox lists the password on a transfer and the custom expiration date for Standard, Professional, Education, Essentials, Business, Business Plus, Advanced and Enterprise. Basic, Family and Plus are not on that list, checked on 27 September 2026.
In other words, to put a password on a client link at Dropbox you need a plan above Plus. At Transferify the password and download confirmation start on Basic, our first paid plan. What it costs is on the pricing page.
Download confirmation is not behind that line: Dropbox shows the number of views and downloads next to each transfer in the sender's account, and you can turn on the email notification per transfer. It is just off by default.
The second break is storage. A transfer you sent leaves your account when it expires, but files shared from Dropbox stay in your free 2 GB or your 2 TB on Plus until you delete them. For repeated deliveries, photo shoots, video edits, archives handed over, that adds up.
Comparison table
| What you are comparing | Dropbox | Transferify |
|---|---|---|
| What it is built for | Sync and storage, with Dropbox Transfer for delivery | File delivery |
| Free storage | 2 GB on the Basic account | Active storage included on free accounts; it frees up when you delete a transfer |
| How much you send for free | 2 GB per transfer | Hosted, per transfer, with no cap on the number of transfers; peer-to-peer free up to 5 GB, then a one-off payment per transfer |
| How much on the entry plan | 50 GB per transfer, on Plus | 50 GB per transfer, on Basic |
| How much on the larger plans | 100 GB on Professional, Standard, Essentials and Advanced | 100 GB on Plus, 1 TB on Premium |
| Link expiry | Fixed at 7 days on Basic, Family and Plus; your choice on the plans above Plus, 30 days by default | Your choice: 1–3 days free, 1–7 days on Basic, 1–30 days on Plus; on Premium 1–30 days or no expiry |
| Account for the recipient | No, for a Dropbox Transfer link | No, never |
| Account for the sender | A Dropbox account is required | Email confirmation with a code, no password to choose |
| Password on the link | Listed for the plans above Plus | From Basic |
| Download confirmation | Views and downloads in the sender's account; the email notification is turned on per transfer and is off by default | From Basic |
| Who holds the encryption key | Dropbox, which says it "doesn't support the creation of your own private keys" | Us; with the zero-knowledge mode on the Premium plan, only you |
| Where the prices are | On dropbox.com/plans | On the pricing page, monthly and yearly |
Where Transferify wins
Control starts on the first paid plan. A password before download, a download limit and a confirmation when someone has downloaded, all from Basic. On the free plan you have 50 downloads in total per calendar month, and the number of transfers is not capped.
Recipients with no account. Whoever gets the link downloads in the browser, with no sign-up and nothing to install. Only the sender confirms an email address, with a one-time code.
You choose the expiry. 1–3 days on the free plan, 1–7 days on Basic, 1–30 days on Plus, and on Premium 1–30 days or no expiry. You do not wait out a fixed 7 days, and you do not move up a plan to change one number.
Encryption you choose. Hosted files are encrypted on your device with AES-256-GCM before upload. By default we hold the key, wrapped by a cloud-managed encryption key, so a lost link can be recovered. With the zero-knowledge mode, available on the Premium plan, the key never reaches us: we cannot read the file, but we cannot recover it for you either.
Over 100 GB without moving up a plan. The peer-to-peer transfer is free up to 5 GB on the free plan, then a one-off payment per transfer unlocks any size, with no limit on a paid plan; the bytes travel straight between the browsers, end-to-end encrypted. The condition: you keep the tab open until it finishes, and the recipient has to be online at that moment. The features page explains the difference between the two modes.
About prices
We quote no Dropbox amounts on this page. An amount printed here could belong to another country, another billing period or another month by the time you read it. Read the amount for your country and billing period on dropbox.com/plans. There you pay for storage, and delivery comes bundled.
With us you pay for delivery, monthly or yearly. The current amounts are on the pricing page, read from the same catalogue used at checkout.
How to choose
Pick Dropbox if you need permanent storage and sync, if your team works on the same files, or if you are already on a Dropbox plan that includes the transfer password.
Pick Transferify if delivery is a job of its own: you send once, to someone outside, want a password and download confirmation without moving up a plan, want to choose how long the link lives, or send more than your plan allows. The full process is on the page about how to send large files, and the other two storage products are compared on Google Drive and OneDrive.
Sources and review date
We read the Dropbox facts at the source on 27 September 2026:
- The free 2 GB and the 2 TB on Plus, and the plan amounts we do not print here: dropbox.com/plans
- The Dropbox Transfer limits per plan and the recipient needing no account: dropbox.com/features/share/file-transfer
- The 7-day expiry on Basic, Family and Plus, the 30-day default on the plans above Plus, the plans with a transfer password, and the 250 GB on Business Plus and Enterprise: help.dropbox.com/share/dropbox-transfer
- The views and downloads in the sender's account and the email notification that is off by default: help.dropbox.com/share/sent-received-transfers
- No support for your own private keys: how Dropbox keeps your files secure
The Transferify figures come from the plan catalogue the product enforces, published on the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
How much free storage does Dropbox give me?
2 GB on the Basic plan, which is free. That is storage, not a cap per transfer, so your files use up the 2 GB until you delete them. Checked on 27 September 2026 on the Dropbox plans page.
How large can a Dropbox Transfer be?
2 GB on the free Basic plan, 50 GB on Family and Plus, and 100 GB on Professional, Standard, Essentials and Advanced. The 250 GB that Dropbox lists applies to Business Plus and Enterprise, or to buyers of the Replay add-on. Checked on 27 September 2026.
How long does a Dropbox Transfer stay online?
7 days on Basic, Family and Plus. Dropbox lists the plans that can set their own expiration date separately, and Basic, Family and Plus are not on that list. On the plans above Plus you pick the date, and if you do not, the transfer expires after 30 days by default. Checked on 27 September 2026 in the Dropbox help center.
Does the recipient need a Dropbox account?
No. The Dropbox help center says plainly that the recipient does not need an account to open or download a transfer. The sender does need a Dropbox account. Checked on 27 September 2026.
What does Dropbox do better than Transferify?
Permanent storage and sync. If the file needs to live on all your devices and stay there until you delete it, Dropbox is the right product. We are not going to argue otherwise.
When is an alternative to Dropbox worth it?
When you deliver once, to someone outside, and do not want the file to keep using your storage afterwards; when you need a password on the link without moving above the Plus plan; or when the transfer is larger than your plan allows.