Hello there! A new era for ProjectSend
Why we decided ProjectSend needed more than Patreon and AdSense to survive; and how that led to a full rewrite, renewed momentum, and a new paid Cloud option that keeps the open source app free and thriving.
· By Eliana Bracciaforte
ProjectSend was created over fifteen years ago, and Nacho never imagined the impact it would have on the open source community. With scarce time to develop it and maintain it, he helped thousands of users and companies have their own private file sharing application. The last few years were harder to keep up, and the project saw little to no development.
This is when Nacho came to Mati and Mati came to me. They believed ProjectSend could be much more. Nacho is a core developer, Mati is an expert in community and brand development, and I'm a tech entrepreneur. And the project, well, the project was lovely — an open source app that was still loved by its community even after years of hardships.
If we wanted the open source project to grow, we needed a better income source than Patreon and Google AdSense. We studied other open source projects that had a private paid option (n8n, WordPress/Automattic), and this seemed like the best way to support it.
Thus, a new era for ProjectSend started. We gave the legacy app tons of fixes in case people in the community wanted to keep that version. We launched a totally recoded version in Laravel (we decided to keep PHP instead of moving to Node). The new app has had weekly and even bi-weekly releases in the last month. And now we are launching Cloud (www.projectsend.cloud), the paid option for companies that lack the tech savviness to implement their own instance of ProjectSend and want an easier path to it, with the option for them to move to the open source app whenever they want, and vice versa.
We wish to make ProjectSend the best way for companies to own how they share files with their clients and partners.
We are just getting started, and we thank you for being part of how we came to be, and hope you can accompany us in this renewed path.
Got a file to send? Start with it.
Drop it on our home page and confirm your email — no account first, no card. On the free plan you get a private link to share it and 2 GB of space, for as long as you need the account.
Or ask Claude or ChatGPT to do it
Connect your assistant to your ProjectSend account and ask in plain words. Everything it does shows up in your account as done by your AI assistant.
- “Save this summary as a PDF and give me a private link for my client.”
- “Did anyone download the contract I shared on Monday?”
- “Create a client account for Dana at Acme and send her the Q3 report.”Pro and Business
Keep reading
- Google Drive for Client Files: 3 Risks
Google Drive is built for teams, not for sharing files with clients. Three risks: permissions, files in personal accounts, and per-user pricing.
- Clinked Alternative for Agencies
ProjectSend Cloud is the Clinked alternative for agencies and professional-services firms: pay per active client account, start free, no credit card.
- What Is an Active Client Account?
An active client account is the unit ProjectSend Cloud bills on. Here's what counts, what doesn't, and how to keep your plan cost predictable.