Delivery economics
MASV alternative.
Stop paying per gigabyte.
MASV is a courier, and a good one: any package size, no compression, no subscription. The open question is whether repeat client delivery should be a metered trip at all. This page prices both models with vendor numbers.
Video hosting for filmmakers · 5 GB free · Paid plans from USD 9/month
By uncompressed.io · Updated September 2026
The right frame
A courier bills movement.
A host bills shelf space.
MASV moves file packages of any size without compression, splitting, or a subscription, and charges $0.25 per GB after your first free 15 each month. That is a fair price for a trip. The problem starts when delivery stops being a trip and becomes a relationship.
Metered delivery bills every event. Each stakeholder who pulls the cut is a trip. Each revision is another round of trips. A lost link means a trip repeated, because nothing in the model keeps the file anywhere: an upload stays free for at least 5 days, then rents storage at $0.07 per GB per month or expires.
Feedback takes the same detour. A transfer hands over a download, and the notes come back by email, pointing at timecodes from memory. A review room keeps the conversation on the film itself: comments pinned to the frame, drawings on the picture, a red or green approval on each version, and the master one click away on the same page. Web clients need no account; the share link is the auth.
The rest of the courier category behaves the same way
MASV
$0.25/GB after the first 15 GB each month; packages of any size, no compression. Uploads stay free for at least 5 days, the minimum and the entry-plan figure, then storage bills $0.07/GB/mo.
Dropbox Transfer
Caps run from 2 GB on the free plan to 250 GB on Business Plus and Enterprise. Free links die in 7 days; paid tiers default to 30.
Smash
Free transfers beyond 2 GB join a queue behind Pro traffic. Links hold 7 days free and 30 days paid; Pro runs $10 a month excl. VAT.
WeTransfer
The free plan allows up to 10 transfers or 3 GB in any 30-day period. Ultimate raises the ceiling to 1 TB per transfer.
None of these tools is mispriced. They price movement, and movement is what they sell. Client delivery has a different shape: the same film, the same handful of people, several rounds, weeks apart. Our guide to delivering final video files to clients covers the handoff itself; the rest of this page prices the two models against each other.
The invoice
One worked month,
priced three ways.
Take one 40 GB master through a normal delivery: three stakeholders, two rounds (the first cut, then the revised cut after notes). Six downloads of 40 GB each puts 240 GB on the meter.
Pay-as-you-go arithmetic: MASV credits the first 15 GB each month, the remaining 225 GB bills at $0.25 per GB, and the month closes at $56.25. The 250 GB subscription covers the same month for $58 flat, billed monthly on an annual commitment. Next month, the meter starts over.
Flat hosting reads differently. Pro is $39 a month for 250 GB of hot storage, with 750 GB of cold archive behind it, and both cuts of this project occupy 80 GB of the hot side. The downloads cost nothing, and so does every stream a stakeholder watches before pulling the file, because streaming, uploads, and viewers are unmetered on every plan. No per-view charges, and the shelf still has 170 GB free.
MASV rates read from vendor pricing on 5 September 2026 (masv.io/pricing). Worked month: one 40 GB master, two delivery rounds, three stakeholders each pulling both cuts, 6 downloads, 240 GB moved. uncompressed.io column from current plan pricing.
Twelve months in
Repeat work makes
the meter compound.
Run the worked month across a year of steady client work and the curves separate: the metered routes land near $700, the flat plan holds at $468, and the films are still online in December.
MASV pay-as-you-go, 12 worked months
MASV 250 GB plan, 12 months
uncompressed.io Pro, 12 months
Cumulative cost of the 240 GB worked month repeated for a year. Pay-as-you-go: 225 GB billed at $0.25/GB each month after the free 15 GB; plans at $58/mo and $39/mo. MASV rates read from vendor pricing on 5 September 2026 (masv.io/pricing).
Beyond the invoice
A transfer link and a hosted link
are different objects.
One proves a file moved. The other is where the work lives.
Permanence changes behavior around the film. New versions keep the same URL, so approvals and comment threads stay attached to the project instead of scattering across expired transfers. Notes flow back into the edit through NLE sync: a DaVinci Resolve script, a signed Premiere panel, and a one-drag Final Cut bundle place client comments as timeline markers. When the work is sensitive, per-video passwords, expiring access, and forensic watermarking are on every plan, the free one included.
MASV link, rate, and package behavior from masv.io pricing and send-large-files pages, read on 5 September 2026.
When MASV wins
Questions
Frequently asked
Is uncompressed.io a replacement for MASV?
For repeat client delivery, yes: upload the master once and it streams byte-for-byte, downloads on demand, while your hosting account remains active, from $39 a month for 250 GB hot plus 750 GB cold. For one-off bulk moves of camera originals, MASV remains the right tool: it takes packages of any size, while our masters cap at 5 TB per file.
How much does MASV cost per gigabyte?
Pay-as-you-go is $0.25 per GB after the first 15 GB free each month, read from masv.io/pricing on 5 September 2026. Subscriptions lower the effective rate: 250 GB for $58 a month, 500 GB for $110, 1 TB for $215, billed as annual commitments.
Does MASV store my files after I send them?
Every upload gets at least 5 days of free storage, then MASV charges $0.07 per GB per month, per its pricing page. Its help centre adds that the number of free days depends on your plan and that 5 is the minimum, so 5 days is the entry-plan figure rather than the universal one. On uncompressed.io, storage is the plan itself: active paid accounts are exempt from free-account inactivity cleanup, subject to the Terms, and new versions keep the same link.
What is cheaper than MASV for monthly client delivery?
Flat-rate hosting, once the volume repeats. The worked month on this page moves 240 GB: $56.25 pay-as-you-go or $58 on MASV's 250 GB plan, against $39 flat on our Pro plan with unlimited streams and downloads. Over twelve such months that is $675 or $696 against $468.
Do clients need an account to watch or download?
No. The share link is the auth: a client opens it in a browser, streams the exact bytes you exported with no re-encode, leaves timecoded notes and drawings, and downloads the original file when you switch downloads on.
Deliver from a shelf, not a meter
Upload the master once. It streams byte-for-byte, downloads on demand, while your hosting account remains active. $39 a month covers 250 GB hot plus 750 GB cold with unlimited streams, downloads, and viewers.
Sources
- 1.MASV Pricing (fetched 5 September 2026: $0.25/GB pay-as-you-go after 15 GB free monthly, 250 GB plan $58/mo, 500 GB $110, 1 TB $215, storage $0.07/GB/mo after the free days)
- 2.How to send files using MASV, MASV Help Center (fetched 5 September 2026: the number of free days of storage depends on your plan, minimum free days is 5)
- 3.Send Large Files, MASV (packages of any size, no compression, splitting, or size restrictions)
- 4.Dropbox Transfer: an overview, Dropbox Help (per-plan transfer caps and link expiry rules)
- 5.Smash Pricing (free-tier queueing beyond 2 GB and 7-day link validity; 30 days on paid tiers)
- 6.How much do Smash subscriptions cost?, Smash Help Center (Smash Pro $10/mo excl. VAT)
- 7.Plan limits, WeTransfer Help Center (free tier 10 transfers or 3 GB per 30 days; Ultimate up to 1 TB per transfer)