pCloud Transfer is a free service offered by the pCloud Cloud Storage platform. This free service lets you send large files of up to 5 GB to other people without having to sign up. You just have to upload the file. No need to sign up.
In this article, I’ll show you how it works, what it is, and if you should use it as a free file-sharing service.
Quick summary
What is pCloud Transfer?
pCloud Transfer is a free tool to transfer files (up to 5 GB) without having to create an account with pCloud.
Simply, add the files, your email and an optional message, an add up to 10 recipients’ email addresses. The files will then transfer to pCloud’s secure cloud and be available to download by all email recipients.
Table of Contents
What Is pCloud Transfer?
pCloud transfer is a completely free file transfer service that lets you share files up to 5 GB in size with other people. The best part? You don’t need to create an account to do it. The people you share the file with also don’t need an account to download the file.
pCloud transfer is great for when you want to share a large file with a client, coworker, or friend. You can’t email them the file. Email-only supports files that are smaller than 25 MB.
If you want to share a large file with someone, you can just upload it on pCloud transfer and enter that person’s email address, and pCloud will send a download link to the file to the specified email address.
The best part about pCloud transfer is that it allows you to share files up to 5 GB. This is up to 10 times more than most similar services. Dropbox Transfer only supports files smaller than 100 MB.
I have used this service numerous times to send video games important work files to my friends. The upload speed is really fast. The best part about this service is that there’s no speed throttling. Other such file-sharing services put a cap on speed if you aren’t logged in.
With those services, both users need a premium account to enjoy high-speed downloads and uploads. pCloud, on the other hand, doesn’t have any such limits.
One thing I’ve noticed about this service is that it’s much faster than Google Drive uploading and sharing. Uploading a file to pCloud somehow takes a lot less time. It shouldn’t be possible, but it has been my experience.
If you’ve never heard of pCloud before, you should check out my pCloud cloud storage review. It explores pCloud’s features in depth, including their excellent LIFETIME cloud storage plans.
How To Use pCloud Transfer
pCloud Transfer is really easy to use.
First, drag and drop files into the box on the left or click the blue link in it to select the files you want to upload:
Now, enter the email address(es) of the recipient(s) for the files you’re uploading, and your email address:
You can optionally also add a message if you want.
Now, check the checkbox on the bottom to accept the Privacy Policy and click the Send Files button. That’s it! Your file will now be uploaded, and a download link to it will be sent to all the recipients whose email addresses you entered.
You can also choose to get a shareable link and share it with your recipients on your own:
Enter your own email address this time to get a shareable link delivered to your inbox once the file is done uploading.
If you are worried about the security or privacy of your files, you can choose to encrypt them with a password:
This way, the files will be encrypted when they are uploaded to the pCloud servers, and no one will be able to open them without the password.
Not even the people who have access to the pCloud servers will be able to view or download the files without your password.
Is pCloud Transfer Safe?
Yes, it’s one of the safest options for file sharing. pCloud is a trusted cloud storage provider with thousands of customers around the world. They have been in business for a very long time. They have great reviews from a large majority of their customers.
The download link that pCloud generates will not be known to anyone but the people who you send it to. If you enter an email address in the recipient field, that person will receive the download link and will be able to download the file.
If you are worried about the privacy or security of your files, you can always encrypt your file shares with a password:
Then, whoever you share it with will need to enter your chosen password to view or download the file. If you encrypt your file with a password, not even people who work at pCloud will be able to see the file without your password.
If you’re worried about the safety of your files, you shouldn’t be. Their other products such as their cloud storage service and their pCloud Pass password manager are used by thousands of people are the world.
Should I Use pCloud Transfer?
pCloud transfer is safe and reliable, and it’s better than almost all similar services on the market. Most other services will throttle the download speed of your file’s recipient and pester them with ads.
They will limit your recipient’s download speed if they don’t have a premium account with the service. pCloud doesn’t do that.
Neither you nor your file’s recipient needs an account with pCloud premium or otherwise. And the speed for download and upload is the same whether you have no account, a free account, or a premium account.
The best part about this service is the file size limit. Unlike other services, pCloud Transfer allows uploads of up to 5 GB in size. That means you can send almost any file you want to anyone on the internet.
Not only that, unlike other services, pCloud doesn’t limit you to just one file at a time. You can upload as many files as you’d like granted the total size of your uploads doesn’t exceed 5 GB.
I’ve found that it’s much easier and faster to upload large files directly to this service rather than uploading them to Google Drive or Dropbox and creating a shareable link.
pCloud also has its own virtual hard drive feature called pCloud Drive.
Summary – What is pCloud Transfer, and How Does it Work?
I’ve personally used pCloud transfer dozens of times to send files to my friends. Most of the time these are files that I don’t want to upload to my work Google Drive or Dropbox account.
Without pCloud, I would have to upload the large I want to share file to Google Drive, make a shareable link, send it to the recipient, and delete the file after they’ve downloaded it to save space.
But with pCloud Transfer, I just upload the file and enter the recipient’s email. That’s it! It’s sent and I no longer need to worry about anything.
