Top 10 Cons & Disadvantages of Using WeTransfer

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WeTransfer remains one of the simplest large-file sharing tools on the market, but simplicity doesn’t erase its flaws. As file sizes grow, security standards tighten, and professional workflows demand more reliability, WeTransfer’s limitations matter more than ever. Understanding these drawbacks and how they affect modern creative and business environments helps users choose the best tool for fast, secure, uninterrupted delivery.

Despite its widespread adoption, WeTransfer has drawn criticism across multiple dimensions. From security vulnerabilities to functional limitations, these shortcomings can significantly impact user experience. As a tool employed globally for both personal and professional file transfers, understanding its cons is vital. This article provides a comprehensive analysis of these issues, supported by real-world examples that illustrate the challenges users encounter and viable solutions.

What is WeTransfer?

WeTransfer is a cloud-based file transfer service designed for quick, account-free sending of large files. Launched in 2009, it built its reputation on simplicity: drag, drop, send. No clutter, no complex setup. But as the digital world raises expectations around collaboration, security, and long-term storage, WeTransfer’s minimalist approach has become both its greatest strength and its biggest limitation. Today, it’s widely used across creative industries, remote teams, and small businesses — especially when speed matters more than long-term file management.

Key features and uses of WeTransfer:

  • Fast, Account-Free File Sharing: Users can send files up to 2GB instantly without creating an account — ideal for quick, one-off transfers.
  • WeTransfer Pro Storage & Larger Transfers: Pro users get up to 200GB of storage, 20GB per transfer, password protection, customizable links, and extended expiration windows.
  • Clean, Minimal Interface: Its drag-and-drop design keeps the workflow simple, reducing complexity for clients and less tech-savvy users.
  • Temporary Cloud Hosting: WeTransfer automatically deletes files after expiration, making it suitable for time-sensitive, high-turnover work.
  • Popular With Creative Industries: Designers, photographers, filmmakers, agencies, and remote teams use WeTransfer daily for effortless file delivery without requiring clients to log in or learn new tools.

Real-Life Example: Consider the case of a freelance photographer, Alex, who often works with large image files. Alex uses WeTransfer to send high-resolution photo albums to clients. The ease of dragging and dropping files onto the WeTransfer website and adding the recipient’s email address makes Alex’s workflow smoother. However, the photographer occasionally faces challenges with the file size limit and the temporary nature of the links. Alex has to split the album into multiple parts when sending a massive project due to the 2GB limit. Furthermore, if a client forgets to download the album within the expiration period, Alex has to re-upload and resend the entire package, which can be time-consuming.

Top 10 Cons & Disadvantages of Using WeTransfer

When evaluating WeTransfer today, several disadvantages stand out due to recent platform updates, increased security scrutiny, stricter sharing limits, and changes to global data-handling laws. These issues affect freelancers, teams, and enterprise users in different ways. Below are the latest, research-backed 2025 disadvantages, reflecting real-world workflow challenges and how they impact file-sharing reliability.

1. Stricter Security Policies After Past Breaches

Recent global privacy legislation has forced WeTransfer to tighten security controls, resulting in stricter link scans, more aggressive flagging, and occasional auto-blocks for “suspicious” content — even when files are legitimate. While intended to protect users, these policies disrupt workflows and sometimes cause transfers to fail without clear explanations.

Key issues that drive this problem:

  • Increased automated security screening slows or blocks transfers
  • Occasional false-positives flag harmless files
  • Limited transparency on why files or links are restricted

Example: A creative agency tried sending a harmless ZIP file containing images, but the transfer was flagged and blocked without a clear reason. The team spent hours troubleshooting, only to discover the automated system misinterpreted the ZIP structure as suspicious. The delay derailed a same-day delivery, causing client frustration and wasted employee time.

Solution: Use WeTransfer Pro with password protection and avoid compressed bundles that trigger security filters. For sensitive files, switch to a more flexible platform with manual override controls for better reliability and control.

2. Free Plan Links Now Expire Faster (As Short as 7 Days)

WeTransfer quietly tightened expiration policies. Free accounts now often see file links expire in 7 days or less, depending on server load. This shorter expiry window creates bottlenecks for clients who miss the download period — forcing senders to re-upload files frequently. This change specifically targets free users to incentivize paid subscriptions.

What causes this problem:

  • Reduced free-tier storage allocation
  • Increased server optimization and load balancing
  • Push toward upgrading users to the paid plan

Example: A photographer sent project files to a corporate client who was out of the office for a week. By the time the client checked their email upon returning, the download links had already expired. The photographer had to re-upload over 12GB of data manually, wasting hours and significantly delaying the final project delivery schedule.

Solution: Switch to the Pro subscription tier for longer retention times or notify clients clearly about the rapid link expirations. Alternatively, consider using a cloud storage platform for reliable, long-term access.

3. Transfer Speeds Still Inconsistent, Especially Internationally

Despite infrastructure upgrades, WeTransfer’s global speed consistency remains unreliable. Transfers between distant regions like Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia can drop dramatically during peak hours, often without warning. This inconsistency makes WeTransfer risky for time-sensitive projects where delivery deadlines are non-negotiable, impacting global professional services.

Contributors to slow performance:

  • Region-dependent server congestion
  • Shared bandwidth for free users
  • Larger files are placed into slower queues

Example: A filmmaker in Nairobi attempted to upload a critical 3GB file to a client located in Germany. The upload repeatedly stalled twice and eventually took over three long hours to complete — pushing the delivery past the agreed deadline. The frustrated client blamed the filmmaker, not the platform itself.

Solution: Schedule large transfers during off-peak hours (local or recipient time) or use cloud-drive alternatives for crucial international clients. Always confirm connection stability before initiating large uploads.

4. Limited Collaboration Features Compared With Competitors

WeTransfer remains a simple “send-and-download” platform focused solely on moving data. But in 2025, modern creative teams require robust collaboration tools like file versioning, commenting, shared folders, and real-time reviews — essential features competitors now offer. WeTransfer’s simplicity becomes a handicap for professional, iterative workflows.

Why this limits productivity:

  • No version control — clients often download outdated files
  • No shared workspace or team panel on the free plan
  • No inline commenting or annotation for creatives

Example: A busy design team using WeTransfer had to resend updated file iterations multiple times because clients kept referencing outdated downloads they had previously saved locally. The critical lack of version management caused significant confusion, numerous administrative headaches, and avoidable revision cycles for the team.

Solution: Use WeTransfer strictly for final, approved deliveries; rely instead on cloud-based collaboration tools like Frame.io or Google Drive for ongoing revisions and stakeholder feedback gathering.

5. WeTransfer Blocks Certain File Types by Default

To reduce the pervasive risk of malware, WeTransfer increasingly restricts certain “high-risk” file formats (e.g., certain executables, scripts, password-protected archives). This frustrates professionals who legitimately need to transfer such files for critical development or IT maintenance work, hindering technical processes for legitimate reasons.

Reasons behind these restrictions:

Example: A software engineer urgently tried sending a simple .exe demo file to a beta client for testing purposes. WeTransfer, however, blocked the executable file type entirely due to security protocols. This forced the engineer to compress and encrypt the file, then send instructions separately — complicating a process that should have taken seconds.

Solution: Convert files to demonstrably safer formats or use developer-friendly sharing tools like GitHub Releases or Google Drive. Inform recipients about the compression and encryption process beforehand.

6. No True Folder Uploads Even in 2025

Despite consistent user requests for many years, WeTransfer still does not support direct, native folder uploads. Users must manually zip folders first, which is inconvenient, time-consuming, and sometimes triggers the aforementioned automated security flags. Competing modern platforms have already solved this long-standing usability issue successfully.

Why this remains a problem:

  • Extra steps required before uploading
  • ZIP files often exceed limits
  • Increased risk of upload corruption

Example: A professional wedding photographer needed to send a large set of images with a neatly organized folder structure (e.g., “Retouches,” “Raw_Exports”) to a client. Compressing the folders broke their original layout and exceeded the size limit. The photographer had to create multiple smaller ZIPs just to maintain clarity.

Solution: Use cloud storage drives (like Dropbox or OneDrive) when maintaining the original, nested folder structure and layout is crucial for the recipient’s organization and workflow efficiency.

7. 2GB Free Limit Now Too Small for Modern Creative Files

With 4K/8K videos, massive RAW photographs, and large design exports becoming the modern industry standard, WeTransfer’s 2GB free limit is severely outdated and restrictive. Many modern industry files now exceed this threshold, forcing frequent upsells to the paid tiers or time-consuming workarounds that reduce productivity.

What drives this limitation:

Example: A professional videographer attempted to send a 4K promotional clip to a brand marketing team. The single video file was 3.7GB — clearly too large for a free transfer. After compressing the clip aggressively, the resulting video quality suffered, frustrating both the videographer and the client.

Solution: Upgrade to the Pro account or use established cloud platforms with significantly higher free threshold limits. Alternatively, consider breaking large files into smaller, manageable chunks before uploading.

8. No Resume/Recovery for Interrupted Uploads

Even with internal improvements, WeTransfer still fundamentally lacks robust resumable-upload technology. If your local internet connection cuts out mid-transfer, the entire upload fails completely and must restart from scratch. This is a particularly harsh reality for users with unstable, rural, or mobile networks, wasting significant time.

Why this is a persistent issue:

  • No chunked-upload protocol like Google Drive
  • Session resets on browser timeouts
  • High failure rates on large files

Example: A remote worker uploading a 6GB video file lost internet connection at a critical 95% completion mark. The entire upload instantly reset to zero progress. He had to repeat the entire lengthy process overnight — and still missed the final delivery deadline the following morning.

Solution: Use a service with verified resumable uploads (like FTP or dedicated cloud backup services) when consistently handling exceptionally large files. This prevents total data loss upon disconnection.

9. Verification Steps Are Now More Aggressive

To combat the increase in spam and abusive uploads, WeTransfer has rolled out aggressive verification prompts: CAPTCHAs, email re-verifications, occasional phone confirmations, and usage checks. While these security measures are well-intentioned, these friction-adding steps significantly slow down urgent transfers and create user annoyance.

Why does this happen?

  • Increased automated abuse detection
  • Anti-spam countermeasures
  • Compliance with global digital-safety laws

Example: A user urgently needing to send a last-minute file was forced to re-verify their email address and pass multiple, complex CAPTCHAs consecutively. The resulting unavoidable delay caused them to miss the submission window for a time-sensitive tender, resulting in a significant business loss.

Solution: Create a verified Pro account, which generally receives reduced verification friction and fewer prompts. Ensure your browser cookies are enabled to avoid repeated verification requests on the same device.

10. Limited Email Sending & Recipient Management

WeTransfer has quietly reduced free-tier multi-recipient sending capacity to help combat spam and heavy bandwidth abuse. Users now frequently face restrictions that make it difficult to deliver files to numerous recipients in one single step, forcing time-consuming workarounds for mass distribution tasks.

Why does this create problems:

Example: A large marketing team needed to distribute critical asset folders to 10 external clients simultaneously. Because WeTransfer limited the number of recipients per send to five, they had to create multiple uploads and send several emails, effectively doubling the required administrative time.

Solution: Use a shared-link approach where recipients access one link, or switch to collaboration platforms with robust bulk recipient management tools. This simplifies mass distribution efforts significantly.

Overcoming Challenges

Despite its limitations, WeTransfer can still be a dependable tool when used strategically. Most frustrations — slow speeds, expired links, blocked files, upload failures — can be minimized with simple workflow adjustments. Users who understand these constraints can avoid disruptions, protect sensitive files, and maintain smoother client communication.

  • Use Pro for Stability and Security: Pro accounts offer password-protected links, longer storage, and larger transfer sizes, which eliminate most of the constraints found in the free tier.
  • Adopt Hybrid Workflows: Use WeTransfer only for final, approved deliveries; rely on collaborative cloud services like Google Drive, Dropbox, or Frame.io for revisions and real-time feedback.
  • Send Shared Links Instead of Direct Emails: Avoid hitting the free-tier recipient limits by sending one universal download link to multiple clients through your own existing email system.
  • Schedule Uploads During Off-Peak Hours: Initiate large file uploads at night or during the early morning hours to bypass global server congestion and achieve consistently faster transfer speeds.
  • Avoid High-Risk File Formats: Repack restricted files or convert them into common formats to avoid automated security blocks and prevent failed uploads before initiating the transfer.
  • Warn Clients About Short Expiration Windows: Prevent time-wasting reuploads by clearly notifying clients that free-tier links expire quickly, encouraging them to download immediately upon receipt.
  • Use a Strong, Stable Connection: Transferring large files needs consistent, high-bandwidth internet connectivity to avoid session resets and prevent frustrating, complete upload restarts.

Video about WeTransfer

When searching for videos about WeTransfer, you will find various content catering to different service aspects. These videos are handy for users who prefer visual learning or need specific guidance on using WeTransfer. The types of videos available include tutorials, reviews, tips & tricks, user experience stories, and updates. Whether you’re a new user trying to understand the basics or a professional seeking to maximize your service use, these videos offer valuable insights and practical advice.

Conclusion

WeTransfer remains a simple solution for one-off file transfers, but its drawbacks in 2025, including stricter security, short free-link expirations, and poor speed consistency, demand a strategic approach from professionals. The service’s simplicity, once its greatest asset, is now a liability when compared to competitors offering essential features like version control and folder uploads. To maintain efficient workflows, users should treat the free tier as a highly limited tool for small, non-critical sends.

Investing in the Pro version or adopting a hybrid workflow that combines WeTransfer for delivery with robust cloud drives for collaboration is the only way to mitigate risk and ensure reliable client communication in the long term. Understanding these trade-offs is key to leveraging the platform successfully.

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