ProtectedShare vs WeTransfer

WeTransfer's help center says files are encrypted in transit with TLS 1.2 or 1.3 and at rest with AES-256. It doesn't describe encryption in your browser for the standard plans; its pricing page lists end-to-end encryption as a feature of the Enterprise plan. The same help article says WeTransfer doesn't review the contents of transfers except in listed cases, such as when you've given permission, to investigate a suspected terms violation, or to meet legal obligations.

ProtectedShare's file drop encrypts every file in your browser with AES-256-GCM before upload, on every share. The key stays in the link after #k=, which browsers don't send to servers, and file names are encrypted too. The server stores ciphertext it has no key for. The security page lists every field it keeps.

For a 2 GB video or a folder of raw photos, WeTransfer is the better tool, and ProtectedShare isn't one: a drop stops at 25 MB. WeTransfer's free plan covers up to 3 GB and 10 transfers a month, for individual, non-commercial use, and its paid plans go much further.

For a signed contract, a scanned passport, a private key or a small database export, size matters less than who can open it. That's the case ProtectedShare is built for: encrypted before it leaves your device, deleted after 1 to 100 downloads or at expiry, and no account on either side. For a password that goes with the file, use a secure note or EnvShare.

WeTransfer keeps transfers on the Free and Starter plans for up to 3 days; on Ultimate you can keep them as long as you like. Its help center says files are deleted within 48 hours after the expiry date, or within a year if you turned on recovery.

A ProtectedShare drop lasts from 1 hour to 30 days. It's deleted after the last allowed download, at expiry, or when you revoke it from My links. A cleanup job runs every 30 minutes, and expired drops are refused before that.