NudgeHost vs Netlify Drop in 2026, a file against a website
Where the two differ on what you can hand them, on how long the link lives, and on what the free plan meters.
| Feature | NudgeHostFree plan | Netlify DropFree plan |
|---|---|---|
| An unclaimed link lasts | 7 dayssigned out | One hourto claim the project |
| A PDF, CSV or Word file | A pagein a viewer for the type | No pageDrop takes a folder, ZIP or HTML file |
| What the free plan counts | 10links live at once | 300credits a month |
| At the limit | Uploads stoplive links keep serving | Site pausesvisitors see Site not available |
| What traffic costs | Nothingno visit is capped or charged | 20credits a GB of bandwidth |
The short answer
NudgeHost is the better place to share a file. A PDF, a CSV or a Word document becomes a page at its own address, a link made without an account lasts longer before it has to be claimed, and a busy link costs nothing and cannot be paused by usage. Netlify Drop serves a site dragged onto it, and its free plan is a credit budget that pauses a project when it runs out.
Summary
| Theme | NudgeHost | Netlify Drop | Ahead |
|---|---|---|---|
| One project over its limit | Nothing about one link affects another | Every project on the account pauses, per their FAQ | NudgeHost |
| How long counts are kept | As long as the link exists | One day of analytics on Free | NudgeHost |
| What a publish costs | Nothing is charged | 15 credits a production deploy | NudgeHost |
| Publishing without an account | Yes, up to 25MB and 3 links | Yes, for a site dragged in | Level |
| API and MCP server | Both, on every plan | Both published | Level |
Netlify figures from its pricing page and docs, verified 5 September 2026.
What each one takes
NudgeHost ahead| Feature | NudgeHost | Netlify Drop |
|---|---|---|
| What you can drop in | Any file. A ZIP with an index.html serves as a site at its own subdomain | A folder, a ZIP or a single HTML file |
| A PDF, an image or a video | A page at its own address, in a viewer built for the type | Not one of the three things Drop takes |
| A CSV or a JSON file | A table or a tree up to 10MB, and a download above that | Not one of the three things Drop takes |
| A Word document | Converted at upload and shown as a page. A file that will not convert, and a legacy .doc, stay a download | Not one of the three things Drop takes |
| A site that needs building | Served as uploaded, with no build step | Logged out, published as it is. Logged in, the framework is detected and built first |
This section decides the page for anybody holding a document. A PDF, a CSV, a Word file or a photograph opens as a page at its own NudgeHost address, and Drop has nothing to serve for any of them.
The row Netlify takes is the one where the input is a website that still needs building. A site you have built yourself can go up here too, because you can zip the files and upload the archive and it serves at its own subdomain.
How long the link lives
NudgeHost ahead| Feature | NudgeHost | Netlify Drop |
|---|---|---|
| A link published signed out | Runs for 7 days from publishing | A temporary project that has to be claimed within one hour |
| Claiming it | Signing up takes the files over and keeps every address | A claim step on the temporary project |
| Updating what is behind the link | Every account plan, keeping the link, the view count and any password or end date | Drag the rebuilt output folder onto that site's Deploys page |
| One project over its limit | Nothing about one link affects another | Their FAQ says all projects on the account are paused |
A NudgeHost link made signed out covers a file sent on Friday and opened on Monday, and signing up keeps its address rather than issuing a new one.
Keeping a link alive is the other difference. A NudgeHost link stops when you delete it, when an end date arrives or when a signed-out link runs out, and nothing done elsewhere on the account can stop it.
What the free plan is
NudgeHost aheadNetlify sells its plans in credits, and every publish and every visit spends some. The NudgeHost free plan counts live links and sets a size for each file.
Free
$0
No subscription
- 25MB a file
- 10 live links
- 2 API keys, 20 requests a minute
- No custom domain
Pro
$12 a month
or $120 a year
- 250MB a file
- Unlimited live links
- 10 API keys, 60 requests a minute
- 1 custom domain
Studio
$29 a month
or $290 a year
- 1GB a file
- Unlimited live links
- 30 API keys, 150 requests a minute
- 5 custom domains
| Feature | NudgeHost | Netlify Drop |
|---|---|---|
| What it holds | 10 active links at 25MB a file | $0 with a hard limit of 300 credits a month, and one member |
| What a publish costs | Nothing is charged per publish | 15 credits a production deploy |
| What traffic costs | No cap and no charge per visit | 20 credits a gigabyte of bandwidth, 2 per 10,000 web requests and 10 a GB-hour of compute |
| What happens at the limit | The next upload is refused, and published links keep serving | The project pauses and visitors get a Site not available page |
| Custom domains with SSL | 1 custom domain on Pro, 5 custom domains on Studio | Included on the free plan |
A budget and a ceiling fail in different places. Ours stops the next upload while every published link keeps serving, and theirs pauses the site in front of the people opening it.
Their free plan cannot run up a bill, because the credit limit is a hard cap. The domain row goes to them, since on NudgeHost a custom domain waits for the paid tier.
Link controls
NudgeHost ahead| Feature | NudgeHost | Netlify Drop |
|---|---|---|
| How long the numbers are kept | A view count for as long as the link exists, and the time and country of each open on Pro and Studio | One-day analytics retention on Free, seven days on Personal, thirty days on Pro |
| Private before it goes live | No. The link is live as soon as the file lands | Projects are private by default until you publish |
| What a visitor sees when it stops | A 404 for a deleted or lapsed link, and an expiry screen where you set the date | A holding page while the project is paused |
Retention decides this section. A count that lasts as long as the link is one you can still check a month after the file went out.
Staging is Netlify's, and NudgeHost has no answer to it. If a file should not be open to anyone holding the address, you can put a password on the link on Pro and Studio.
For developers and agents
Level| Feature | NudgeHost | Netlify Drop |
|---|---|---|
| What one API call does | Returns the address a file is reachable at, in two calls with the upload between | Creates a deploy from a file digest or a ZIP |
| API access | Every plan, free included | Deploys can be created through their API |
| MCP server | Four tools, on every plan | Published, with agent instructions at netlify.ai |
| Running a coding agent for you | None. An agent calls our MCP server from wherever it runs | Agent Runners run Claude Code, OpenAI Codex and Google Gemini from their dashboard |
| Seeing a change before it is live | None. A replacement swaps the file at the same link | Unlimited deploy previews, and one for every agent run that changes a file |
| Between the call and a live page | Nothing. The address answers once the file is stored | A build, one at a time on Free and three at once on Pro |
Both publish a REST API and an MCP server, so the section turns on the rows around them. Netlify takes the two about running and previewing work, and NudgeHost has nothing that answers either.
What NudgeHost has is a call that ends in a live address, with no build in between and nothing spent. A script that publishes every day meets a budget on one of these products and not on the other.
A NudgeHost free account can call the v1 REST API, so a script runs before any money changes hands.
curl -X POST https://www.nudgehost.com/api/v1/uploads \
-H "Authorization: Bearer nh_sk_REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_OWN_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"filename": "report.pdf",
"contentType": "application/pdf",
"fileSize": 182734
}'The first call returns the slug, the address and a URL to PUT the file to. A second call to /api/v1/uploads/{id}/complete finishes the upload.
The MCP server gives an AI client these tools against your account: share_text, create_upload_url, complete_upload and list_links. Request and response shapes are in the v1 API docs.
Publishing without an account
The whole sequence runs signed out, and nothing in it asks for an email address.
Drop the file in
On the home page, signed out. A quick browser check runs first and asks you nothing, and a file over 25MB is refused before the upload starts.
Take the link
It is live as soon as the file lands. A ZIP with an index.html gets its own nudgehost.site subdomain instead.
Send it
You can keep 3 links like this at once, each with an end date. HTML pages, sites and Word files carry a small NudgeHost bar, and PDFs, images and media carry nothing extra.
Sign up to keep it
A free account takes over the files from your browser, clears the end date and drops the bar. The links stay the same.
Moving from Netlify Drop to NudgeHost
Moving from Netlify Drop is a file job rather than a migration. Start from the built output on your own machine, zip the folder with its index.html, and drop the archive into NudgeHost. There is no build to wait for, so the address answers once the upload finishes.
Plan the address before you switch. A netlify.app address you have already shared will not follow the site, so if people have it, put the new copy on a subdomain of your own domain. Custom domains are on Pro, and the old site can stay up until the new one answers.
Which one to choose
Choose NudgeHost if
- You are sharing a document, a spreadsheet export or a photograph rather than a website.
- You want a link made signed out to last long enough to claim later.
- You do not want a credit budget behind anything you publish.
- You want an API and an MCP server where one call ends in a live address.
Choose Netlify Drop if
- The project needs building. Logged in, Drop detects the framework and builds it first, and NudgeHost builds nothing.
- You want a custom domain with SSL without paying, which their free plan includes.
- You want deploy previews, or a coding agent run from the host's own dashboard.
- You want a project kept private until you choose to publish it.
The verdict
NudgeHost is the pick for sharing a file. A document, a spreadsheet export or a photograph opens as a page at its own address, a link made signed out leaves time to claim it, and no plan caps visits or charges for them.
Netlify Drop is the better tool when the input is already a website. It builds a framework project for you, and its previews and dashboard agents have no NudgeHost equivalent.
Try it with the PDF you could not drop on Netlify, and open the link the way the person you send it to will.
Frequently asked questions
If I cancel a paid NudgeHost plan, does anything stop serving?
Only a custom domain, which stops serving and is released after 30 days. Every link stays up on the free plan, and new uploads wait while the account holds 10 links or more.
Can I still claim a NudgeHost link made signed out once its window has closed?
No. Once the window closes the link stops answering and the file goes in the next daily cleanup, so make an account before then to keep the address.
Does the person I send a NudgeHost link to need to sign in?
No. The file opens in the browser for anyone holding the link, unless you have added a password, which Pro and Studio can set. A password-protected site doesn't serve on a custom domain, so pick one or the other.
More comparisons
Try the free plan with a real file
25MB a file, 10 live links and no banner. The first upload needs no account.