Smash vs Filemail: How Do They Compare?
Faster, more secure, bigger files and so easy to use. Any way you stack them up, Smash comes out on top.
IN THIS ARTICLE, YOU’RE GOING TO READ A COMPARISON BETWEEN FILEMAIL AND SMASH:
There are a bunch of file transfer services out there – which one is the best for you?
In this article we compare two of those services – Smash and Filemail – to find out whether they really offer. We look at the free tier, the paid tiers, the different functionality on offer, and the limits and constraints that they put on the use of their service by individuals, teams, and organizations.
In the past we’ve compared WeTransfer, Transfernow, and Smash, and there’s usually been a pretty clear winner. Will our comparison here prove Smash is out in front? Will we find that Filemail is legit? How do the services stack up and where are they different? Read on to find out where Filemail and Smash stand!
How to Compare Two File Transfer Services
We’ll compare Smash and Filemail across the following components:
Their Free Tier offer
Their Paid Tier offers
Their speed, security and personalization options
Their Outlook plugin, user management and API functionality
By looking at all of the different tiers of service plus all the most important functionality for individual and business users, we’ll be able to conclude which of the two is the better bet for transferring large files effectively, efficiently, and without breaking the bank.
Smash vs Filemail: Free Tier
There are some clear differences between the free tier offers from Smash and Filemail when it comes to anything except cost (both are free) and the availability of the files (7 days) – and all those differences favor Smash.
Filemail puts a hard 5GB limit on every transfer while, at Smash, there are no limits on the size of the file that you share. Filemail also limits free users to sharing just two files every day while, again, at Smash there are no limits on how many transfers you make.
Finally, when it comes to security, Smash offers full password protection on every transfer, even those on the free tier. At Filemail, password protection is something reserved for paying customers so free users are left to manage without it.
| SMASH | FILEMAIL | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | Free |
| Maximum File Size | Unlimited | 5GB |
| Upload Limits | None | 2 per 24 hours |
| Password Protection | Yes | No |
| File Availability | 7 days | 7 days |
One other difference to keep in mind is the UI.
Here’s what you get with Smash:
And here’s the alternative at Filemail:
No Registration. And Free.
Smash vs Filemail: Paid Tiers
Smash and Filemail both offer paid tiers for individual, team, and enterprise users. While the names of the offers are different, they align around three different levels: one for individuals, one for small teams, and one for enterprise customers.
When it comes to the cost of the service, Smash is ahead with a best price of €4.80 each month for the Pro plan and €12 each month for 10 users on the Team plan. This compares to Filemail where – even with an annual discount – the Pro plan is more than twice as expensive (€10/month) and the Business plan is €15 each month, a 25% premium over Smash.
Smash is also ahead when it comes to the size of the file you can transfer (always unlimited) and the amount of storage that it offers users (twice as much on the Team/Business plan). Filemail does retain the files on their server for longer than Smash does once you step up to the Business or Enterprise plan, but that raises environmental questions that Filemail doesn’t respond to on their website.
| SMASH | FILEMAIL | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost/Month | Pro | Team | Enterprise | Pro | Business | Enterprise |
| Cost * | 4.80 | 12 for 10 users | Custom | 10 | 15/user | 40/user |
| Transfer Size | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | 250GB | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Storage | 1TB | 2TB | Custom | 1TB | 1TB/user | 5TB/user |
| Availability | 30 days | 30 days | 30 days | 30 days | Forever | Forever |
* prices in Euros
Smash vs Filemail: Functionality
As well as the top level, big picture view of the two services and their free and paid tiers, we can also take a deeper dive into the different functionalities that Filemail and Smash offer, or don’t offer.
Outlook Plugin
Both Smash and Filemail offer plugins for Outlook to help users send large files from their Microsoft email client. Using these plugins, your emails stay nice and small and, instead, a link to the file on the service’s server instead. It’s fast, convenient, and you never have to leave the Outlook client to send a file far larger than any email could support.
Easy. Secure. Responsible.
Speed
Smash and Filemail are fast. Lightning fast. In both cases your files are available for download as soon as they are uploaded to the service’s servers. If you can upload the file, the moment that upload is done you’ll be able to share straight away – fast, and easy.
Personalization
Smash offers users from the free tier on up the chance to customize their sharing URL. This makes it possible to share a file where the URL is not a random collection of numbers and letters but instead something like HolidayPhotos24 or ClientPPTFinal. All of the paid plans at Smash also offer the chance to customize logos, backgrounds, and promotional messages, too.
User Management
Smash offers granular user management options for Team and Enterprise accounts. There are three roles available for account managers to assign:
Collaborator: can send files and access their own transfer history
Marketer: can send files and access their own transfer history, plus manage the account design customization and control settings for ‘promotional pop-ins’ for communication purposes
Analyst: can send files and access the history of ALL users on the Team or Enterprise account
Filemail also offers user management tools with defined Administrators having the capacity to assign privileges to users in a team or organization. The Administrator of an account also manages the addition of new users to the team and is in charge of the billing/payments for the account, too. Unfortunately, there is little information on the granularity of the user roles publicly available on the Filemail website.
Security
Both services take security seriously.
While Filemail doesn’t offer password protection on its free tier like Smash does, it does have it as an option for all paid tiers like Smash. Both encrypt their transfers from end-to-end and apply top-notch encryption standards for the files that are at rest on their servers worldwide.
API
Smash has an API for developers that allows developers to integrate its file transfer service into organizational workflows. In only a few lines of code and a couple of minutes it’s possible to deploy Smash enterprise-wide and manage all sharing and billing from a single endpoint.
Filemail also offers an API for organizations that need to transfer a lot of files or have workflows where sharing large files is regularly required. Filemail offers an extensive set of endpoints, and their API is the very same one that their core service uses, and it is available to use with all major programming languages.
Conclusion: The Better File Transfer Service is Smash
As direct competitors both Filemail and Smash compete neck-and-neck in many areas but there are just a few more where the advantage swings clearly towards Smash.
Smash is more cost effective than Filemail whether you choose the Pro or Team plan. It’s also your best bet when it comes to sharing the largest files as every tier – free or paid – allows unlimited file size transfers at no extra charge. Over at Filemail, on the other hand, you’ll be paying Business or Enterprise prices before you get that same service.
Also worth noting is the constraint that Filemail puts on free users transferring files. Try it out and you’ll be limited to just two transfers every 24 hours. At Smash? No limits, none. And all of those transfers come with password protection, too, something that Filemail will only offer to paying users.
On many of the other areas of comparison things are fairly even. The API, security, user management, personalization options and speed of transfer are all closely matched. Filemail has a little extra storage space for free users, Smash has double the storage space for Team users. It’s all pretty similar when it comes to this sort of functionality and the best choices will depend on your specific use case.
If you’re ready to try Smash out for yourself the easiest place to start is the web portal at fromsmash.com. You can also try Smash on your Mac or on your iOS or Android smartphone with native apps that make it easy to transfer files to anyone, anywhere. Get started with Smash today and experience file sharing the way it is meant to be: smooth, easy, secure, and fast.
| Features | Smash | Filemail | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Pro | Team | Enterprise | Free | Pro | Business | Enterprise | |
| Cost/Month * | 0 | 4.80 | 12 for 10 users | Custom | 0 | 10 | 15/user | 40/user |
| Transfer Size | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | 5GB | 250GB | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Upload Limits | None | None | None | None | 2 per 24 H | None | None | None |
| Availability | 7 days | 30 days | 30 days | 30 days | 7 days | 30 days | Forever | Forever |
| Storage | None | 1TB | 2TB | Custom | 5GB | 1TB | 1TB/user | 5TB/user |
| Password | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Outlook Plugin | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Speed | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ||||||
| Personalization | ★★★★★ | ★★★ | ||||||
| User Management | ★★★★★ | ★★★ | ||||||
| Security | ★★★★★ | ★★★ | ||||||
| API | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ||||||
* prices in Euros
Frequently Asked Questions
-
Enterprise accounts are encouraged for large organizations, generally any with more than 10 regular users. Both Smash and Filemail limit their Pro plans to individuals, and both also offer Team or Business options for small businesses and specific teams in larger organizations. It’s only when you push that team size into double-digits that you need to think about upgrading to an Enterprise plan.
-
Yes! Other file transfer services put hard limits on the size of the file that can be transferred on a free tier but, at Smash, there are no limits. You can try Smash for free today and send a file of 10GB (or even bigger!) with all the bells and whistles: password protection, customized URL, download notifications, and speedy service!
-
Any type of file! Each day thousands of people use Smash to send videos, music, images, documents, PowerPoint presentations for a client and photo albums for grandma. If you can upload it to Smash, you can send it. It’s fast, secure, and unlimited – that’s the Smash way!
