Comparisons & alternatives · Cloud storage and online-only files
Why use Data Transfers instead of uploading through a cloud provider's website?
Short answer: For a few files, the website is fine. Data Transfers handles big, resumable jobs, account-to-account copies or moves without downloading first, schedules, and dry runs.
A browser upload is fine for a handful of files. Data Transfers is for jobs a browser handles badly:
- Big or long transfers — jobs survive restarts; anything that was running picks up where it left off, and only missing or changed files are sent again.
- Account to account — copy or move between two connected accounts (for example, one cloud provider to another, or a cloud account to an SFTP server) without you downloading everything first.
- Repeat jobs — schedule a transfer every few hours, daily, weekly or monthly.
- Choice of operation — Copy, Move (removes the source only after the copy is verified), one-way Sync, or Two-way sync, with a Dry run to preview.
You also get live progress, speed, time remaining and a plain-English reason if something fails. See Data Transfers.