What is device-to-device transfers? And how does it work?
With cloud-based hosting, your files need to sit around on someone else's server, waiting to be downloaded. At some point, they also need to be removed, either by you or by the provider.
Direct transfers, on the other hand, are ephemeral. They start when the sender selects the files, and end when they're received. There's nothing to clean up afterwards. We think it's easier that way. It also turns out to have many other benefits.
There are plenty of sites for file hosting! So why go through the hassle of downloading an app?
Well, to build a fantastic file transfer tool, the web didn't cut it for us. First, a number of important use-cases are poorly supported on web:
Over time, we found more use-cases, from quality-of-life improvements to networking optimizations. We think you'll find it worthwhile too!
Your files belong to you and those you trust, nobody else. We use full end-to-end encryption for all transfers (including the file names), no exceptions. Nobody, not even us, can access your files.
End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is the only way to fully protect against unauthorized access. Since E2EE is difficult, many products don't bother with it. If you see any other marketing term, like "encrypted in transit", "encrypted at rest", "password protected" or the creative "military grade encryption", it's not E2EE. Without it, the provider is vulnerable to attacks both from within (rogue employees) and outside hackers.
In the last few years, many companies are increasing their security posture, and don't want their data to sit on servers they don't control, hosted by companies they don't trust, in a foreign jursidiction they don't want to rely on. E2EE doesn't solve every security problem, but it greatly reduces the amount of trust you need to give to the provider.
In our view, transfers should be limited only by network capacity between sender and receiver. If we're the bottleneck, we're not doing our job. Payload is built from the ground up to reach this limit.
Web-based transfers just can't reach the same speeds. In fact, some providers throttle your speed deliberately, to prevent "excessive use" of their service. Clearly, we don't roll that way. But don't take our word for it. Try it out, and let us know how we did.
That said, sometimes your network is just... slow. Payload is (currently) limited by physics, so we can't do anything about that. But there are things you can do! For instance, simply switching from Wifi to cable can help a lot. We're working on a practical speed guide with all these tips and tricks. Stay tuned!
To transfer online, you need data (nearby transfers are always free). When you sign up, you get a bunch of monthly data to use. Note that you can use your data with guests (people who don't have an account). See our plans.
We are working on bringing Payload to Android and iOS! If you want it too, let us know and we might work a little faster.