COMPARE
How Burnbox compares to other file transfer services
The Bottom Line
Email lives forever. Chat compresses your files. WeTransfer reads them. Burnbox burns them.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | Burnbox | WeTransfer | Bitwarden Send | OnionShare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| End-to-End Encrypted | ✓ Yes | ✗ No | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Zero-Knowledge | ✓ Yes | ✗ No | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Account Required | ✓ No | ⚠ Yes | ✗ Yes | ✓ No |
| Burn After Read | ✓ Yes | ✗ No | ✗ No | ✓ Yes |
| Password Protection | ✓ Yes | ⚠ Pro only | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Kill Switch | ✓ Yes | ✗ No | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Works in Browser | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✗ Tor only |
| Max File Size | 50MB | 2GB | 500MB | Unlimited |
| Jurisdiction | 🇦🇺 Australia | 🇳🇱 Netherlands | 🇺🇸 USA | P2P |
| Can Read Your Files | ✓ No | ✗ Yes | ✓ No | ✓ No |
The Real Competition
Most people don't choose between encrypted file services. They default to whatever's convenient.
📧 Email Attachments
What people actually do: attach the PDF to Gmail and hit send.
| Permanence | Email lives forever — sent folder, inbox, backups, forwarded copies |
| Control | Once sent, you cannot revoke access |
| Size limits | 25MB max on most providers |
| Encryption | TLS in transit, but not E2E. Google can read it. |
Burnbox: Send a link that burns. No permanent record. No server copies.
💬 Signal / WhatsApp
What people actually do: drag files into a chat thread.
| File limits | Signal compresses aggressively. WhatsApp: lossy compression. |
| Professional? | "Here's the contract" via chat looks informal |
| Revoke access | WhatsApp: 48hr window. Signal: can't unsend after delivery. |
| Context | Client docs mixed with family photos in same app |
Burnbox: Professional link. Full quality. Revoke anytime via Kill Switch.
☁️ WeTransfer / Dropbox
What people actually do: "I'll WeTransfer it to you."
| Encryption | Not E2E — WeTransfer holds keys, can decrypt and scan files |
| Scanning | Files analysed for "content moderation" and AI training |
| Jurisdiction | Subject to US CLOUD Act via US servers |
| Tracking | IP addresses, file metadata, access patterns logged |
Burnbox: True zero-knowledge. We mathematically cannot read your files.
Jurisdiction Matters
The US CLOUD Act allows American authorities to compel disclosure of data stored by US companies, regardless of where that data is physically located.
| Burnbox | 🇦🇺 Australian-operated, AU servers |
| WeTransfer | 🇳🇱 + 🇺🇸 EU servers, but US CLOUD Act applies |
| Bitwarden | 🇺🇸 US jurisdiction |
| Dropbox | 🇺🇸 US jurisdiction |
For Australian legal and corporate users, this matters. Burnbox is Australian-operated with encrypted files stored on Australian servers. And because we use zero-knowledge encryption, even a legal order returns only encrypted blobs we cannot read.
When to Use What
| Maximum anonymity (journalists, whistleblowers) | OnionShare |
| Large casual file transfers | WeTransfer |
| Password/credential sharing | Bitwarden Send |
| Australian data sovereignty | Burnbox |
| Zero-friction + zero-knowledge | Burnbox |
| Legal/corporate documents | Burnbox |
| Burn-after-read in a browser | Burnbox |