What has to exist before the first file goes out
NudgeHost
No account
for up to 25MB and 3 links, each live for 7 days
WeTransfer
An account
to send, required since November 2024
Compare
NudgeHost vs WeTransfer (2026)
Published 16 September 2026
Where the two differ on what a free account can do, how long a link lasts, and what each plan costs.
Figures last verified 16 September 2026
WeTransfer sends files to people, and it moves far larger files than NudgeHost does. NudgeHost hosts a file at an address, and on a free account that address has no expiry unless you set one. The free plan holds 10 live links and publishes before you sign up.
nudgehost.com/your-file
How much the free plan carries
NudgeHost
10 links
live at once on a free account
WeTransfer
10 transfers
in any 30-day rolling window
How long a link lasts
NudgeHost
No expiry
on a free account's links, unless you set one
WeTransfer
3 days
the longest a transfer stays online on Free and Starter
The cheapest paid plan
NudgeHost
$12/mo
for Pro, at 250MB a file
WeTransfer
$8/mo
for Starter, at 300 GB over any 30-day rolling window
Summary
| Theme | NudgeHost | WeTransfer | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| What the free plan holds | 10 links live at once, with no expiry unless you set one | 10 transfers or 3 GB in any 30-day rolling window | NudgeHost |
| Publishing without an account | Yes, up to 25MB | An account is required to send, since November 2024 | NudgeHost |
| Emailing the file to a recipient | No, you send the link yourself | Yes, up to 10 recipients on Free and 50 on paid plans | WeTransfer |
| Serving a file as a page at a URL | Yes, a file opens in the browser at its own address | Not stated on their pages | NudgeHost |
| Account storage | No storage allowance to compare | 2 TB by default | WeTransfer |
| Entry paid price | $12/mo, or $120 a year | $8/mo, or $84 a year | WeTransfer |
| Team seats | One person per account | Teams, from 2 users up to 50 | WeTransfer |
| Custom domain | A subdomain of your own domain, 1 on Pro | A WeTransfer subdomain | NudgeHost |
| Developer access | API and MCP on every plan | No public transfer API or MCP server documented | NudgeHost |
At a glance
NudgeHost
- A file host. You upload a file and it lives at its own address, which you send to people yourself.
- A free plan that holds 10 live links, with no expiry unless you set one.
- A link before an account, for files up to 25MB.
- PDFs, Word files, CSVs and JSON open in the browser rather than as a download.
- A REST API and an MCP server on every plan, the free one included.
WeTransfer
- A file-sending service. You upload files and WeTransfer emails them to your recipients or hands you a download link.
- Far larger transfers than NudgeHost takes, with 300 GB over any 30-day window on Starter.
- An account is required to send, and a transfer on Free or Starter stays online for up to 3 days.
- Account storage of 2 TB by default, and Teams workspaces from 2 users up to 50.
- Expired transfers can be recovered on Ultimate, Teams and Enterprise, if recovery was left on when sending.
The quick verdict
| If you want | Choose |
|---|---|
| A link that stays up after this week | NudgeHost |
| To send a file of several gigabytes | WeTransfer |
| To publish without making an account | NudgeHost |
| The file emailed to the people you name | WeTransfer |
| A document that opens in the browser | NudgeHost |
| Storage for a large archive of files | WeTransfer |
| An API or an MCP server on the free plan | NudgeHost |
| More than one person on the account | WeTransfer |
| The address on your own domain | NudgeHost |
The free plan
| Feature | NudgeHost | WeTransfer |
|---|---|---|
| What the free plan holds | 10 links live at once, each with no expiry unless you set one | 10 transfers or 3 GB in any 30-day rolling window |
| Publishing without an account | Yes, up to 25MB and 3 links, each live for 7 days and kept at the same address once you sign up | No, an account is required to send, since November 2024 |
| Largest single file on the free plan, and how long it stays up | 25MB a file, and a free account's links have no expiry unless you set one | Up to 3 GB, and a Free or Starter transfer stays online for up to 3 days |
| Recipients need an account to open it | No | No, recipients download from the link |
WinnerNudgeHost
WeTransfer takes the bigger file, and the row that says so is printed above. What the free plan here does differently is keep things online. 10 links stay live at once with no clock on them, where a free WeTransfer transfer is gone after 3 days at most.
The other gap is what has to happen first. A NudgeHost link exists before you have an account. WeTransfer has asked every sender for one since November 2024, with a verification code sent to your inbox before the transfer goes out.
Sending and hosting
| Feature | NudgeHost | WeTransfer |
|---|---|---|
| Emailing the file to a recipient | No. You copy the link and send it however you like | Yes, up to 10 recipients on Free and 50 on paid plans |
| Serving a file as a page at a URL | Yes. A PDF, a Word file, a CSV or a JSON file opens in the browser at its own address, and a ZIP serves as a site | Not stated. Previews show a transfer's content before it is downloaded |
| Custom domain | A subdomain of a domain you own, 1 on Pro and 5 on Studio | A WeTransfer subdomain on plans with branding |
| Recovering something after it expires | Nothing to recover. A link has no expiry unless you set one | Ultimate, Teams and Enterprise only, for up to a year after expiry for smaller files and up to 90 days for larger ones |
| Account storage | No storage allowance. The free plan counts live links and paid plans set a per-file ceiling | 2 TB by default, and up to 5 TB on Teams |
Even
This is the section where the two products do different jobs. WeTransfer emails your files to the people you name and keeps 2 TB of them in your account. NudgeHost does neither of those.
What NudgeHost does is give a file an address. A PDF or a spreadsheet opens in the browser at that address, and on a paid plan the address can sit on a subdomain of your own domain. If the job is a document people should read in place, you can put a PDF online in a minute.
What the money buys
The three NudgeHost plans
What each plan carries, before the comparison starts on price.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual | A file | Live links | API access | Domains |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 25MB | 10 active links | 2 API keys at 20 requests a minute | 0 custom domains | |
| Pro | $12/mo | $120/yr | 250MB | 10 API keys at 60 requests a minute | 1 custom domain | |
| Studio | $29/mo | $290/yr | 1GB | 30 API keys at 150 requests a minute | 5 custom domains |
WeTransfer sells three plans with a published price above its free one. Starter adds 300 GB of sending in any 30-day rolling window, keeping the 10-transfer count. Ultimate adds unlimited transfers, custom branding per transfer, automatic malware scanning and recovery of expired transfers. Teams adds shared workspaces, team creation and centralized billing for up to 50 members, and is priced per user with a minimum of 2 users. Enterprise is priced on request.
| Feature | NudgeHost | WeTransfer |
|---|---|---|
| Paid plans to choose from | 2, Pro and Studio | 3 with a published price, and Enterprise on request |
| Entry paid price | Pro at $12/mo, or $120 a year | Starter at $8/mo, or $84 a year |
| Team seats | One person per account, with nobody to invite | Teams at $19 a user a month, from 2 users up to 50 |
| What happens when you stop paying | The account moves to the free plan and nothing is deleted, though uploads pause while it holds 10 links or more. A custom domain stops serving and is released after 30 days | Active transfers stay online for up to 28 days, then are permanently deleted |
| Refunds | Cancelling takes effect at the end of the billing cycle, and partial periods are not refunded | Within 20 days of a monthly charge or 60 days of a yearly one, for the most recent charge |
WinnerWeTransfer
WeTransfer takes this section on its own figures. Starter is $8 a month against $12 for Pro, Teams sells seats where a NudgeHost account is one person, and their refund policy covers a charge for 20 or 60 days where ours refunds nothing partial.
The row that points the other way is what happens when you stop. A lapsed NudgeHost account keeps every link it had. A lapsed WeTransfer account keeps its active transfers for up to 28 days and then loses them.
For developers and agents
| Feature | NudgeHost | WeTransfer |
|---|---|---|
| API access | Every plan, free included, on the same v1 REST API | No transfer API documented, beyond an activity-log API for Enterprise workspaces |
| API keys and rate limit | 2 keys at 20 requests a minute on free, up to 30 at 150 on Studio | None published |
| MCP server | Yes, four tools over Streamable HTTP, on every plan | None published |
WinnerNudgeHost
A NudgeHost free account can call the API, so a script can upload a file and get its address back before anybody pays. The 2 keys on the free plan are enough to try that and rotate once.
WeTransfer documents no transfer API in its help centre. The one API it does describe streams a workspace's activity log into a security tool, which is a different job.
The same upload from a script
Three calls give a file its address, on any plan, at 2 keys and 20 requests a minute on free.
bash
# 1. Ask for an upload URL
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
}'
# 2. PUT the bytes to the upload URL that call returned
curl -X PUT "UPLOAD_URL_FROM_STEP_1" \
-H "Content-Type: application/pdf" \
--data-binary @report.pdf
# 3. Finish it, and get the address back
curl -X POST https://www.nudgehost.com/api/v1/uploads/ID_FROM_STEP_1/complete \
-H "Authorization: Bearer nh_sk_REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_OWN_KEY"The third call returns the address the file is reachable at. WeTransfer documents no comparable public API, and the email step in its send flow has no NudgeHost equivalent. The MCP server answers at https://www.nudgehost.com/api/mcp with four tools, share_text, create_upload_url, complete_upload and list_links. Request and response shapes are set out in the API reference.
What each one is better at
Where NudgeHost is stronger
- A link that stays up. A free account's links have no expiry unless you set one, and 10 of them can be live at once. A document you send on Monday is still there when somebody opens it a month later.
- No account before the first link. Drop a file in signed out and it has an address, up to 25MB and 3 links. Signing up later keeps every address as it was.
- The file opens where the link points. A PDF, a Word file, a CSV or a JSON file opens in the browser at its own address, so the person you send it to reads it rather than downloading it.
- An API and an MCP server from the free plan. A script or an AI client can upload a file and hand back its address without a subscription first.
Where WeTransfer is stronger
- It moves large files to people. 300 GB over any 30-day window on Starter, emailed to up to 10 recipients on Free and 50 on paid plans. NudgeHost's largest file is a fraction of that.
- It holds files for an account and a team. 2 TB of account storage by default, and Teams workspaces from 2 users up to 50. A NudgeHost account is one person with no storage allowance to compare.
Sending on WeTransfer, publishing on NudgeHost
WeTransfer's help centre sets out five steps for somebody who is not logged in. Beside each one is what the same moment looks like on NudgeHost.
Your email and your files
WeTransfer: "Enter your email address and upload your files." NudgeHost asks for no email address, and takes a file up to 25MB signed out.
A code sent to your inbox
WeTransfer: "You'll be asked to verify your email address by having a verification code sent to the address you entered." NudgeHost runs a browser check before the upload starts and asks you for nothing.
Paste the code back
WeTransfer: "Go back to WeTransfer and paste the verification code." There is no code on NudgeHost. The link comes back as soon as the file lands.
Verify and send
WeTransfer: "Click on Verify and Send." Their page adds that a Free account is created once the address is verified. On NudgeHost no account is created, and you can hold 3 links this way, each live for 7 days.
A link, or an email to your recipient
WeTransfer: "If you choose the email transfer option, your transfer will be sent to your recipient(s). If you choose the link transfer option, you'll get your transfer link." NudgeHost only gives you the link, and you send it yourself.
Signing up for a free NudgeHost account afterwards keeps those links at the same addresses and clears their deadline.
Moving from WeTransfer to NudgeHost
Download the transfer from WeTransfer while it is still live. Once it expires, only Ultimate, Teams and Enterprise accounts can recover it, and only if recovery was left on when it was sent.
If the files arrive as a single archive, unzip them. WeTransfer's help centre says a folder is flattened into one zip file unless it was zipped before sending.
Upload each file to NudgeHost, or upload a ZIP to serve it as a site. The ceiling is 25MB a file on the free plan, 250MB on Pro and 1GB on Studio, and anything larger than your plan's ceiling will not move.
Replace the old WeTransfer link wherever you shared it. The new address does not expire unless you set it to, so it only needs sending once.
Choose NudgeHost if
- You want a link that stays live at one address, with no expiry unless you set one.
- You want to publish before signing up, for files up to 25MB.
- You want the document to open in the browser rather than download.
- You want a script or an AI client to publish from the free plan.
- You want the address on a subdomain of your own domain.
Choose WeTransfer if
- You are sending files of several gigabytes. WeTransfer takes far larger files than NudgeHost does.
- You want the files emailed to the people you name. NudgeHost gives you a link and nothing else.
- You want account storage to keep files in. WeTransfer gives 2 TB by default, and NudgeHost has no storage allowance.
- You want a team workspace. WeTransfer Teams covers 2 to 50 users, and a NudgeHost account is one person.
The verdict
Pick by the job. If you are sending a large file to somebody who will download it, WeTransfer is the better tool and this page says so throughout. If you want a file to live at an address that still works next month, and to open in the browser when somebody clicks it, NudgeHost is.
The quickest test is to share a file now, then open the link on another device. For the same question asked of other hosts, read how NudgeHost compares to Tiiny.host or NudgeHost vs Linkyhost.
Frequently asked questions
How much does WeTransfer cost?
WeTransfer is free to start. Starter is $8 a month or $84 a year, Ultimate is $23 a month or $228 a year, and Teams is $19 a user a month with a minimum of 2 users. Enterprise is priced on request. NudgeHost Pro is $12 a month or $120 a year.
Do you need an account to use WeTransfer?
To send, yes. WeTransfer has required an account for every sender since November 2024, and people receiving a transfer do not need one. NudgeHost publishes a file up to 25MB without an account.
How long does a free WeTransfer link last?
Up to 3 days on the Free and Starter plans. A NudgeHost free account's links have no expiry unless you set one, and a link published without an account lasts 7 days.
What happens when a WeTransfer transfer expires?
It can be recovered only on Ultimate, Teams and Enterprise, and only if recovery was left on when it was sent, for up to a year after expiry for smaller files and up to 90 days for larger ones. On the free plan an expired transfer cannot be recovered.
Which should I use for what?
Use WeTransfer to send large files to people, to email them directly, to keep files in account storage, or to work as a team. Use NudgeHost to give a file an address that stays up, opens in the browser and works before you have an account.
See for yourself
The free plan is genuinely free. Try it before you decide.
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