Send vs WeTransfer
Send is a European alternative to WeTransfer — same cloud & hosting use case, built under EU data-protection law.
By the EU Alternatives team Last updated
Share encrypted files securely with automatically expiring links. Protect sensitive documents from staying online permanently with time-limited access.
- Jurisdiction
- EU / EEA
- GDPR by default
- Yes
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- No
- Open source
- No
- Free tier
- No
A curated collection of the best European alternatives to WeTransfer.
- Jurisdiction
- US
- GDPR by default
- Requires DPA + TIA
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- Yes
About Send
Send is a free, open-source, end-to-end encrypted file sharing service that continues the legacy of the discontinued Firefox Send, maintained by Dutch developer Tim Visée and deployable by anyone on their own infrastructure. It gives users and organisations a simple link-based transfer tool where neither the hosting server nor the developer can read the file contents.
Files are encrypted in the browser with AES-256-GCM before being uploaded, and the decryption key lives only in the sharing link — never on the server. Senders choose expiry rules by number of downloads or time window, optionally add a password, and the encrypted blob is deleted automatically once the link expires or all downloads are consumed.
Key benefits:
- Browser-side end-to-end encryption keeps file contents invisible to the server
- Firefox Send compatible with the familiar UX that Mozilla discontinued in 2020
- Self-hostable under Mozilla Public License on any Docker-capable infrastructure
- Password protection and download-limit controls tighten access on top of encryption
- Auto-expiring links minimise data retention for sensitive transfers
- No account required — senders just open the page and drop a file
The flagship instance at send.vis.ee is hosted in the European Union and run by an individual EU-based maintainer, with GDPR as its default operating context. Organisations can self-host on their own European servers for complete data sovereignty.
Ideal for privacy-conscious individuals, small teams, and technical organisations that want a transparent, open-source WeTransfer alternative they can audit, fork, or host inside their own network.
Why choose Send over WeTransfer?
The decisive argument is data jurisdiction. WeTransfer is headquartered in US, which means personal data processed through it can be subject to non-EU legal regimes — the US CLOUD Act, FISA 702, or similar laws depending on the provider. After the 2020 Schrems II ruling, EU organisations must carry out a transfer impact assessment for every such data flow.
Send removes that overhead. As a Netherlands-based provider, it operates natively under GDPR, and data stays inside the EU/EEA by default. For regulated sectors — health, public administration, finance — that's not a nice-to-have but a requirement. For everyone else, it's concentration-risk insurance: you avoid depending on a single non-EU jurisdiction that can change the rules without warning.