Every tool in this category has a free plan, and every free plan works for the first job. The difference shows up on the second one. One tool stops you at the number of requests you can have open, another at the number of files, another at total megabytes, and one quietly counts the files against storage you were already using for something else.
So this is not a feature comparison. Feature lists in this category are nearly identical: a link, an upload page, an email when files land. What separates these tools is which limit you hit first, and how obvious it is when you hit it.
All numbers below were read off each vendor's own pricing page on September 10, 2026, except the Dropbox plan details, which come from Dropbox's own help article on file requests - their pricing page and their help pages disagree about whether free accounts get requests at all, and the help article is the specific one. Prices are quoted in the currency each page showed a European visitor, so yours may be the dollar or euro figure depending on where you are. Free tiers in this category change often, so check the date before trusting the table - including this one.
The table
| Tool | What the free plan runs out of first | Per-file cap | How long files stay | Cheapest paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500files.com | No account meter - the cap sits on each page: 5 GB / 500 files | 200 MB | 7 days, extendable to 14 | - |
| FileTRX | 2 active requests at a time, 250 MB each | Not published | Up to 14-day expiry | $12/mo |
| FileCollect | 3 files per month | 25 MB | Not published | €19.99/mo |
| Fileinbox | 100 responses, total (not monthly) | 10 GB | 30-day file access | $29/mo |
| Jotform (Starter) | 100 MB of upload space for the account | No separate cap - that 100 MB is the ceiling | Kept until 500 stored responses, then oldest may be dropped | $39/mo |
| Dropbox file requests | Your 2 GB account storage | 2 GB | Until you delete them | €9.99/mo |
Reading the table row by row
FileTRX limits concurrency, not volume: two requests open at once, 250 MB each. That is a sensible shape if your work is serial - finish a collection, close it, start the next. It breaks the moment you need three clients uploading in the same week, which is a normal week for a freelancer. Credit where it is due for the pricing model: instead of pushing you onto a subscription, FileTRX sells a $3 one-time Boost that lifts a single request to Pro limits - 5 GB and a 90-day expiry. For someone who hits the ceiling twice a year that is the honest way to charge.
FileCollect is the strictest of the group, and it is strict on the axis that costs the most: three files per month on one active request. It is a demo, not a working tier. Fair enough as a business decision - their paid plan starts at €19.99 - but worth knowing before you send the link to a client who has eleven photos.
Fileinbox gives you the most generous per-file ceiling here at 10 GB, then meters the thing you cannot see coming: 100 responses for the lifetime of the account, not per month. Collect from a class of thirty twice and you have spent most of it. Files stay reachable for 30 days, and the free tier is capped at three upload pages. Worth saying plainly, because it is the thing we get asked for and do not have: Fileinbox syncs collected files into Dropbox and Google Drive, and its free plan advertises every feature, so that sync is not held back for paying customers.
Jotform is a form builder that happens to accept files, and its free tier prices accordingly: 100 submissions a month sounds roomy until you notice the 100 MB of upload space sitting behind it. Two phone videos and the space is gone, regardless of how many submissions are left. The submission count resets monthly; the pricing page does not say the same about the upload space, so treat it as an account ceiling rather than a monthly allowance until they say otherwise.
Dropbox file requests are the odd one out, because the limit is not on the request at all. Requests work on every plan including free, but collected files land in your Dropbox and consume the same 2 GB the rest of your account uses. Deadlines require a Professional plan or higher, so on the free tier the page stays open until you close it by hand. We covered the failure mode this creates - uploads that stall silently once the account is full - in Dropbox file request alternatives.
Check whether a limit renews, because the pricing page rarely says it twice. FileCollect's three files and Jotform's 100 submissions are monthly, so they come back. Fileinbox's 100 responses are explicitly for the lifetime of the account, and Jotform's 100 MB of upload space is not described either way - a limit that never renews works perfectly while you evaluate the tool and is spent by the time it matters.
Where this comparison goes against us
One thing this table does not show, and it is the most common reason people pick something else: 500files has no push into Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox. Files stay on the upload page, and you download them individually or as one ZIP. If your workflow is "everything must end up in a Drive folder automatically", a Dropbox file request does that by definition and Fileinbox does it on its free plan, while we do not do it at all.
Two other honest limits. Pages are deliberately temporary - a page starts at 7 days, extends in 7-day steps, and cannot outlive 14 days total, with 3 more days to download after it expires. And there is no client-portal layer: uploaders never get an account, nobody is chased with automatic reminder sequences, and there are no reusable request templates to send the same checklist to forty clients. One thing people assume is missing but is not: turn moderation on and every image waits for your approval before it shows in the public gallery - though that is a visibility gate, not a document-approval workflow. If you need the workflow, a subscription tool is the right answer and we have written about when that trade is worth paying for.
Picking by the shape of the job, not the feature list
- One heavy collection, many files, soon. Volume caps decide this. Anything metering files per month or total megabytes will stop you mid-job.
- Several small collections running at once. Concurrency caps decide it. A two-request ceiling is invisible until the third client arrives.
- Files must land in a specific cloud folder. Fileinbox syncs to Dropbox and Google Drive and includes that on its free tier, and a Dropbox file request lands files in Dropbox by definition. We do not sync anywhere, so this is the one shape of job where we are the wrong pick.
- Occasional, low volume, and you already pay for the storage. The free tier of whatever you already use is genuinely fine. Not every job needs another tool.
Before committing, send yourself the largest realistic file through the free tier and check two things: does the uploader need an account, and does a dropped connection resume or restart? Both are invisible on pricing pages and both decide whether a non-technical person finishes the upload.
The short version
Free tiers in this category are priced on very different axes, so "free" tells you almost nothing on its own. FileTRX rations open requests, FileCollect rations files, Fileinbox rations responses for the life of the account, Jotform rations megabytes, and Dropbox charges the collection against storage you already own.
Ours puts the ceiling on the page rather than on your account: each page gets its own 5 GB and 500 files, and that allowance does not shrink as you open more pages - it pays for that with a short life instead. That suits collections with a deadline and suits archives badly. If the trade fits your job, create an upload page and send the link - no account needed on either side.