Files.com is the File Orchestration Platform AWS Transfer Family asks you to build yourself. AWS named it a family, not a product, for a reason: it’s a pile of separate, barely-integrated services you cobble together. It puts SFTP, FTPS, FTP, and AS2 in front of an S3 bucket, and that is where it stops. The trading-partner setup, the audit log, the automations, the screens your users see, the file conversion — all yours to build in AWS Lambda code.
Files.com ships all of it as one assembled, finished product — easy to use, on day one, for $199 a month, less than a single AWS Transfer Family SFTP connection.
AWS’s own guide is titled “How Transfer Family can help you build a secure, compliant managed file transfer solution.” The word that matters is build. AWS sells you a part. The finished file-transfer product is your job.
Every example AWS publishes wires AWS Transfer Family together with eight to fourteen other AWS services, plus the screens, the API, and the login system you write yourself.
Files.com is the better choice: buy it finished instead of building it. You get SFTP, FTPS, FTP, WebDAV, AS2, Automations, Inboxes, Share Links, the Agent, PGP encryption, a complete audit log, and the REST API and SDKs in 8 languages — one product, one price. Your S3 bucket stays right where it is and we connect to it. Your Amazon SNS notifications stay where they are and we send to them.
Singular Genomics replaced AWS Transfer Family and on-premise MFT servers with Files.com — delivering 100 TB sequencing runs in hours, with HIPAA-grade controls live in a single afternoon.
AWS Transfer Family charges $0.30 an hour for every protocol you turn on, plus $0.04 per GB of data. The hourly charge runs around the clock whether or not a single file moves. The per-GB charge can reach five figures a month once you are moving a few terabytes a day.
Because the clock never stops, teams switch protocols on only when they need them. That defeats the point: you are paying for an always-on service and then keeping it off to save money.
AWS Transfer Family added a web app, but it has its own separate logins. A partner who connects over SFTP cannot sign into that web app with the same username and password. You manage two sets of accounts for the same people.
AWS Transfer Family has no built-in concept of a trading partner and no way to convert one file format to another. You write both yourself in AWS Lambda code, then you own, test, and maintain that code forever.
AWS Transfer Family moves files in and out of an S3 bucket. It does that one thing. Everything else that makes file transfer actually work, they make you build — and we just give it to you.
Partner onboarding. They make you build a trading partner out of an AWS login and a folder-naming rule you invent — AWS’s own FICO example needed 145+ infrastructure resources and two custom Lambda functions just for that. We just give you partners as a real, built-in thing: folders that flow one direction, permissions that are enforced, and reporting for each partner.
File conversion and routing. They make you write Lambda code for every JSON, XML, CSV, X12, EDIFACT, or HL7 v2 conversion — AWS Transfer Family can’t convert a file at all. We just give it to you: files scanned for viruses, converted, and sent to the right place based on what is inside them, the moment they land.
Waiting for the whole file. They make you write code to ignore half-written uploads — AWS Transfer Family writes straight to S3 as a file arrives, so a .filepart object fires an alert and your other systems start working on a file that isn’t finished. We just give you the right behavior: Files.com signals a file has arrived only once the upload is complete, so a half-finished file never starts a job.
Partner workflow, file conversion, waiting for the full file — three things AWS sells you the parts to build. We just give you all three, inside the same product that moves the files.
Files.com Starter is $199 a month with every protocol included. AWS Transfer Family is $216 a month just to keep one protocol running ($0.30 an hour across 720 hours), and each protocol is billed separately, before a single file moves.
SFTP, FTPS, FTP, WebDAV, and AS2 all run from one Files.com site for one price. AWS Transfer Family charges a separate hourly fee for each protocol you turn on.
Files.com handles trading partners out of the box: folders that flow in one direction, permissions that are enforced, and reporting for each partner. AWS Transfer Family has none of this. You build it yourself out of other AWS services and your own custom screens.
Files.com scans incoming files for viruses, converts formats (JSON, XML, CSV, X12, EDIFACT, and HL7 v2), and can send files to the right place based on what is inside them — all built in. On AWS Transfer Family, each of these is more Lambda code you write and maintain.
SFTP users, the web interface, share links, and single sign-on all use one set of accounts. With AWS Transfer Family, the web app has its own logins, separate from your SFTP users.
Files.com support stands behind the entire product. AWS supports its raw services; the application you built on top of them is yours to keep running. Files.com also carries SOC 2 Type II, a HIPAA BAA, and a GDPR DPA for the product itself.
Price an AWS Transfer Family deployment line by line against the same workload on Files.com, billed annually. Set your transfer volumes, region, users, partners, and protocols. Every AWS number links to the pricing page it comes from, so you can check the math.
AWS charges $0.30 an hour for each protocol you turn on, all year — even when no files move. 2 × $0.30/hr × 8,640 hrs.
Transfer Family pricing — protocol-enabled endpointsAnyone who isn't a script needs a browser to use. AWS bills the Web App at $0.50 an hour, all year, and it's a separate login from your SFTP users. $0.50/hr × 8,640 hrs.
Transfer Family pricing — Web AppsAWS charges $0.04 for every GB that moves, in or out. 24,576 GB this year.
Transfer Family pricing — data uploaded/downloaded12,288 GB/yr × $0.40/GB + per-call charges.
Transfer Family pricing — SFTP Connectors12,288 GB/yr inbound × $0.10/GB. Transfer Family can only decrypt files coming in — to encrypt files going out, you write the code yourself.
Transfer Family pricing — PGP decryption12,288 GB/yr outbound × $0.090/GB in US East (N. Virginia).
Amazon S3 / EC2 pricing — data transfer out2 NAT gateways × $0.045/hr + $0.045/GB. Needed to give partners a fixed IP address they can allow through their firewall, across two availability zones for high availability.
Amazon VPC pricing — NAT GatewayThe plan you need once you use AS2 or GPG. Includes single sign-on, the on-prem Agent, and a custom domain, plus everything in Starter.
1 TB beyond the 2 TB the plan includes, at $100 per TB per month.
Estimated annual savings with Files.com
$13,766
At this workload Files.com costs about 68% less than AWS Transfer Family — $6,469 a year versus $20,235. And you don’t have to build anything. Setting up partners, converting files, the audit trail, the web app your people use, share links, PGP — it’s all already in the box. On AWS you build and run every piece of that yourself.
AWS rates are list pricing as of May 2026 from the AWS pricing pages linked on each line. Files.com figures use published Starter and Power annual list pricing and overage rates. S3 storage is excluded on both sides — Files.com mounts your existing bucket, so you pay the same S3 bill either way. The Lambda / Step Functions orchestration layer AWS has you wire up isn’t priced here; its runtime cost is small and the real cost is the engineering to build it. Run a free trial on a real workload to verify your own numbers.
What buyers ask most when comparing Files.com to AWS Transfer Family.
If you choose AWS Transfer Family, you will be building for weeks and maintaining code forever. The partner workflow, the file conversion, the audit log, and the screens your users see all become Lambda code you write, test, and own.
The better choice is Files.com. Every protocol, the partner workflow, the audit log, the automations, and the file conversion run on day one, in front of the same S3 bucket you already have. Connect your bucket with the S3 integration, keep sending Amazon SNS notifications, and buy it through AWS Marketplace against the AWS spend you’ve already committed to. Start a free trial on a real workload first.
Every protocol, the partner workflow, the audit log, and the file conversion — in one product, in front of the S3 bucket you already have. Talk to our team or run a free trial on a real workload.
No pushy sales process