Why Freelancers Are Leaving WeTransfer (And What Comes Next)
WeTransfer built something genuinely useful. In the early 2010s, it solved a real problem elegantly: you needed to send a large file to someone, you didn't want to deal with FTP or Dropbox sharing links, and you certainly didn't want the recipient to need an account. Drop the file in the box, get a link, done. Designers loved it. Photographers used it for every client delivery. For a decade, the “WeTransfer link” became shorthand for professional file delivery.
That changed.
What happened in 2023
In May 2023, Bending Spoons — the Italian software company known for acquiring and monetizing established apps — purchased WeTransfer. Within months, WeTransfer reduced its workforce by approximately 75%. The creative community noticed immediately.
Then came the Terms of Service updates.
New clauses in WeTransfer's ToS raised concern about how uploaded content might be used for AI training and related purposes. The company issued clarifications, but for many users — particularly those sending client work, unreleased photography, or commercially sensitive files — the changes introduced a level of uncertainty they hadn't had before.
Why this matters more for freelancers than for enterprises
For a large enterprise using WeTransfer Business, the legal team reviews the TOS, the procurement team accepts the risk, and the IT team enforces the policy. Individual decisions get diffused.
For a freelance designer, photographer, or videographer, there's no legal team. You're personally responsible for the tools you use and the data you send through them. If a client's unreleased campaign assets, or a confidential brand identity project, or an unfinished documentary gets swept into a data set you didn't consent to — that's a professional and legal problem you own alone.
What freelancers are actually looking for
Based on what we've heard from creators who've made the switch, the requirements are straightforward:
- Explicit, simple privacy policy. Not a 40-page document with carve-outs — a plain statement that says: we do not and will not use your files for AI training, advertising, analytics, or any commercial purpose beyond delivery.
- A business model that doesn't depend on your data. If the product is free, you are the product. Subscription and volume-based models align incentives: the company makes money when you pay, not when your data is harvested.
- Equivalent or better functionality. Switching tools is a friction cost. The alternative needs to match the experience — ideally improve on it.
- Reasonable pricing. WeTransfer Pro at €23/month made sense when the alternative was nothing. Paying for something you use twice a month is harder to justify.
What actually changed in how people use file transfer tools
Something else happened in the WeTransfer transition that got less attention: many freelancers realized they'd been paying for features they didn't use. They needed to send large files occasionally. Not every month. Not on a predictable schedule. A subscription optimized for regular use was never the right model for irregular use.
The desire for a pay-when-you-need-it alternative existed before Bending Spoons. The acquisition accelerated the urgency.
A note on alternatives
There are several alternatives worth evaluating — TransferNow, Smash, MASV for video professionals, and others. Each has different tradeoffs. This isn't a piece about OneShare being the only answer — it's a piece about why the question is being asked more urgently now.
If Smash is one of the names you keep seeing, our Smash file transfer review explains where it genuinely beats WeTransfer, where the queueing tradeoff matters, and when OneShare is the better option instead.
What we built at OneShare was our answer to the same frustrations: volume-based pricing so you pay only when you transfer, explicit privacy commitments we've made core policy rather than buried in terms, and branded delivery because the last impression clients get of your work is the delivery page.
Whether that's the right fit for your workflow is something only you can decide. But the conversation is worth having.