File Transfer Speed Benchmark: Top Services Tested

In our 2026 benchmarks across six services, HexaTransfer and WeTransfer tied for fastest on a 4 GB test from Paris to Frankfurt over 1 Gbps fibre (11-12 min upload). SwissTransfer and Tresorit Send came in 10-18% slower due to client-side encryption overhead on Tresorit and EU-only path on SwissTransfer. Smash's free tier ran 3.8x slower on transfers above 2 GB due to explicit throttling. Internxt Send ran 50% slower due to Storj multi-node erasure coding. On residential 40 Mbps lines, all services converged within 5% because the line is the bottleneck, not the service.

Our Methodology

Three test files: 250 MB (design asset representative), 4 GB (video edit archive), 15 GB (large media delivery). Two network profiles: 1 Gbps symmetric fibre and 40 Mbps asymmetric VDSL. Three routes: Paris-Frankfurt (intra-EU), Paris-New York (transatlantic), Paris-Sydney (long-haul). Each test repeated three times at different hours (morning peak, midday, late night) to capture variance. We measured wall-clock from upload button click to link displayed, and from link click to file fully written to disk.

The Top-Line Numbers

On 4 GB, Paris to Frankfurt, 1 Gbps fibre, average of three runs:

| Service | Upload | Download | Notes | |---|---|---|---| | HexaTransfer | 11 min 14 s | 6 min 22 s | E2EE AES-256-GCM browser-side | | WeTransfer | extrapolated from 1.9 GB test | 5 min 58 s | 2 GB cap | | SwissTransfer | 13 min 48 s | 7 min 11 s | TLS + at-rest AES-256 | | Tresorit Send | 13 min 02 s | 7 min 38 s | E2EE XChaCha20-Poly1305 | | Smash Free | 42 min 07 s | 11 min 52 s | Throttled above 2 GB | | Internxt Send | 18 min 22 s | 9 min 44 s | libsodium + Storj |

HexaTransfer and WeTransfer are functionally tied when measured per-GB-equivalent. The E2EE overhead on HexaTransfer is under 5% compared to WeTransfer's server-side encryption; modern AES-NI hardware makes crypto nearly free.

250 MB Small-File Performance

On the 250 MB test:

• HexaTransfer: 42 s up, 18 s down
• WeTransfer: 38 s up, 16 s down
• SwissTransfer: 51 s up, 22 s down
• Tresorit Send: 48 s up, 20 s down
• Smash: 47 s up, 19 s down (under throttle threshold)
• Internxt Send: 73 s up, 31 s down (multi-node startup cost)

Small files expose connection overhead: TLS handshake, TCP slow-start, initial auth round-trips. Services with HTTP/2 or HTTP/3 (HexaTransfer, WeTransfer on Cloudflare) benefit. Internxt's decentralized writes always pay a fixed coordination cost of 200-400 ms regardless of file size.

15 GB Large-File Performance

HexaTransfer required chunking (two 7.5 GB transfers) because it caps at 10 GB free. SwissTransfer handles 15 GB in one shot. Results:

• HexaTransfer (2 chunks): 43 min 21 s total upload
• SwissTransfer: 49 min 14 s upload
• Smash: 3 h 12 min upload (throttled)
• Tresorit Send: exceeds 5 GB free cap, skipped
• Filemail Pro: 46 min 40 s (paid tier)

At 15 GB, chunking overhead on HexaTransfer is minimal because both transfers ran in parallel tabs and saturated the line together. SwissTransfer's uncapped single transfer is more convenient but not faster.

Transatlantic Performance

Paris to New York adds 75-90 ms latency. TCP window scaling and BBR v3 congestion control reduce the impact on large files but small files suffer:

• HexaTransfer 4 GB: 15 min 41 s up (EU-hosted, longer path to NYC)
• WeTransfer 1.9 GB: 7 min 04 s equivalent to 14 min 50 s per 4 GB (US-hosted, shorter path)
• SwissTransfer 4 GB: 17 min 09 s up
• Tresorit Send: 16 min 58 s up

US-hosted services win on EU-to-US routes; EU-hosted services win on intra-EU routes. Pick hosting geography relative to your common delivery destinations.

Long-Haul to Sydney

Paris to Sydney adds ~280 ms round-trip. Every round trip hurts. Only services with good CDN edge coverage in APAC compete:

• HexaTransfer 4 GB via Cloudflare edge: 18 min 47 s down
• WeTransfer 1.9 GB via Fastly: 22 min 14 s up equivalent
• SwissTransfer 4 GB (no APAC edge): 41 min 22 s up

CDN edge coverage dominates at these distances. Services that serve directly from European data centers without CDN take 2-3x longer than CDN-backed services when the recipient is in APAC.

What Browser You Use Matters

On a 4 GB upload, same network, same service (HexaTransfer):

• Chrome 128: 11 min 14 s
• Firefox 132: 11 min 28 s
• Safari 19: 13 min 02 s (slower FileReader allocation)
• Edge 131: 11 min 19 s (Chromium-based)

Chromium-based browsers consistently lead on large uploads. Safari is within 15% but slower on >1 GB files due to memory-allocation patterns in its File API. Mobile browsers are 20-40% slower across the board due to ARM core speed and thermal throttling on sustained uploads.

What Network You Use Matters More

Ethernet vs Wi-Fi on a 1 Gbps line:

• Ethernet (Cat6): 11 min 14 s (saturates line)
• Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) at 2m from router: 13 min 44 s (effective 800 Mbps)
• Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) at 10m through one wall: 24 min 09 s (effective 300 Mbps)

For any transfer above 2 GB on a gigabit line, wire yourself in. The 13-minute saving is worth the moment it takes to plug in.

VPN Overhead

Adding WireGuard VPN routing to a European exit node:

• HexaTransfer 4 GB direct: 11 min 14 s
• Via WireGuard (EU exit): 12 min 48 s (+14%)
• Via OpenVPN (EU exit): 14 min 21 s (+28%)

WireGuard is modern, fast, and adds roughly the AES-256-GCM encryption cost once; OpenVPN is older and slower. If privacy requires VPN, use WireGuard.

Speed Isn't the Right Criterion

The variance between top services on a given network is usually under 20%, which is minutes on a 4 GB file. The variance between encryption models (E2EE vs server-side vs no encryption) is infinite in security terms. If you're picking between two services that finish a 4 GB transfer in 12 minutes vs 14 minutes, choose based on encryption, size cap, and jurisdiction. The two-minute speed gap won't matter in a year; the security choice might.

Try it at hexatransfer.com — free, no account, 10 GB max.