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Filemail vs Spike

Filemail is a business send: large files, a link, often a receipt that it arrived. Spike can send too, then keep the folder, show a preview, and collect payment on that URL if the send was a delivery you are owed for.

Jonas Berglund

UmeåUpdated 3 min read

Filemail vs Spike is tracking versus a shelf. Filemail is good at "it left, it arrived, here is a notice." Offices like that. Spike is good at "the pack still exists, the preview is treated, the URL can be a till." If you only need the notice, stay on the send. If you need the shelf, add the library.

This is closer to DropSend vs Spike than to a drive comparison. Both Filemail and DropSend live in the business-transfer drawer. Spike's extras do not try to out-track them. They try to make the next week cheaper: same URL, optional pay, preview that is not the master.

A send can show progress. Spike adds a stop at the end: preview, then pay if you priced it.

What Filemail is for

  • Large files that have to leave the building.
  • A recipient who should not join your cloud.
  • A paper trail that the send happened.
  • Jobs where the file should not become a shop window.

What tracking does not replace

A receipt that they downloaded does not give you a gallery they can reopen in June. It does not blur the unpaid stills. It does not take a card. Those are extras on a Spike folder. You can still use Filemail for the legal-looking send and Spike for the client pack. Use each for the day it is good at.

What you getFilemail-style transferSpike folder link
Send large filesYesYes
Delivery trackingA usual extraNot the headline extra
Files stay for re-downloadDepends on the productYes, in the library
Blur or watermarkNot the usual jobBuilt in
Checkout on the URLNoOptional

When the tracked send is actually an invoice

If they owe you for the pack, tracking that they took it before they paid is the wrong extra. Put the price on the folder. Charge for a download link. Spike takes 5% / 1% / 0% from the payout on Free / Pro / Business. Stripe's card fee still applies.

Heavy files

Filemail is often in the tab because the file is huge. Spike will take the same master. Show a short clip unpaid. Let them pull the original after they are sure, or after they pay. How to send large video files is the craft version.

A tracking email says it arrived. A library says it can arrive again.

If the send brand is Hightail, the creative-review cousin, continue to Hightail vs Spike. If it is a consumer smash, FromSmash vs Spike. If it is WeTransfer, WeTransfer vs Spike.

Offices sometimes need the receipt more than the shelf. That is a real preference. Spike does not fake a legal trail it does not have. It gives you a folder you can still open when the receipt is a week old and the art director is new. Pick the extra you are actually buying.

Questions

Good to know

Use Filemail when the job is a tracked send. Use Spike when you also want a library, a protected preview, or checkout on the same page. Tracking a download and owning the folder are different extras.

Keep reading

Related articles

Try the workflow in the article.

Upload a folder, protect the preview, share or sell from one link.

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