File uploaders are an important feature of many modern web apps and websites. It enables end-users to upload files, such as documents, images, and videos. In fact, most of us use file uploaders frequently. For example, you use a file uploader whenever you upload an image or video on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. Similarly, we use file uploaders to upload our CVs, portfolios, or resumes on sites like LinkedIn or Indeed. Many company websites also have a file upload feature to accept job applications. In addition to end-users, internal teams sometimes need a file uploader to upload images and videos on their website, such as product images, promotional videos, etc. However, implementing file upload functionality can be a challenging task for developers. For instance, developers must ensure the uploader is user-friendly, blazing fast, and highly secure. Additionally, the uploader should handle large file uploads efficiently.
Fortunately, several efficient file uploader apps and services are available in the market that enable developers to easily add a beautiful and high-performance file uploader to your web apps. This article will show you the top five file uploader services.
What is a File Uploader?
For end-users, a file uploader is a simple ‘upload’ button, or it can be a drag-and-drop interface. Drag-and-drop uploader is more user-friendly as it lets users upload files quickly and easily. A good file uploader also has features like file previews and progress bars so users can see how fast their files are uploading. Moreover, a file uploader should allow users to upload multiple files simultaneously and be highly secure. For instance, the uploader should validate the uploaded files to determine if the app supports the file type and size.
Once users upload files, they need to be stored somewhere. Developers can store them directly in a database, on the web server, or in the cloud. Storing files in a database or on the web server isn’t recommended, especially when you have to store a large number of files. However, we can store as many files as we want in the cloud and access them anytime. Additionally, storing files in the cloud data center nearest to you can help deliver files quickly.
What are the Best File Uploader Apps to Streamline Your Workflow?
Filestack
Filestack offers a comprehensive set of robust tools and APIs for file upload, transformation, and delivery.
Features
- The Filestack File Uploader or File Picker enables developers to implement a blazing-fast, production-ready file uploader in less than an hour. The File Picker has a beautiful, user-friendly interface, and it is highly configurable. You can easily customize it to meet your app’s overall theme and design. Additionally, the File Picker utilizes the powerful Filestack API that developers can access various SDKs.
- Filestack enables developers to connect their apps directly to more than 20 sources, such as AWS, Facebook, Instagram, Google Drive, Dropbox, and more. Hence, developers don’t need to worry about maintaining integrations with popular services.
- With Filestack drag-and-drop, you can implement drag-and-drop file upload functionality in your app with just three lines of code. This feature enhances the user experience significantly.
- Filestack shows file previews and progress bars when users upload files. It also supports uploading multiple files simultaneously. It even allows users to crop files before sending them to your website or web app.
- Filestack guarantees upload success of 99.9999% thanks to its Intelligent Ingestion™ system that can adjust according to changing network conditions.
- In addition to File Picker Widget for file uploads, Filestack also provides multiple ways to upload files over HTTP.
- Filestack’s Content Ingestion Network (CIN) enables fast transfer of files to the cloud no matter which part of the world your users are uploading files from.
- Managing and handling large file uploads is easy with Filestack. For instance, multipart uploads allow you to split large files into multiple smaller pieces. These pieces are then uploaded one by one, and Filestack combines them efficiently once they are uploaded. It also supports parallel upload of these pieces.
- Filestack also supports image transformation and enhancement.
UPPY
UPPY is a modular, user-friendly JavaScript file uploader for uploading images, documents, etc. It is open-source and has a sleek interface.
Features
- You can quickly implement file upload functionality into your web apps using UPPY’s robust API.
- UPPY can integrate seamlessly with React, JS, Vue, and SVELTE.
- Retrieving files is quick and easy with UPPY’s Golden Retriever. It allows you to retrieve files even if you navigate to another page accidentally or if your web browser crashes.
- UPPY File Upload can efficiently fetch files from the user’s device, URLs, camera, etc. It can even fetch files from remote places, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Instagram, and Facebook.
- With UPPY File Uploader, you can efficiently handle large files. It supports resumable file uploads with open tus standard.
FilePond
FilePond, a simple yet robust JavaScript library, provides a user-friendly drag-and-drop file uploader.
Features
- FilePond supports various file types and provides a smooth user experience. It also allows users to upload several files simultaneously. Additionally, it supports both Async and Sync Uploading.
- With FilePond File Uploader, you can drag and drop, copy, paste, choose files from the file system, and even add files using the API.
- You can integrate Pintura Image Editor with FilePond File uploader to edit image files before uploading them to your app. With this feature, users can rotate files, resize files, adjust the aspect ratio, apply filters, etc.
- FilePond efficiently optimizes images and speeds up the file-uploading process. For instance, it automatically resizes and crops images to increase upload speed and prevent server disk space issues.
- FilePond supports many major frameworks, such as JavaScript, React, jQuery, Angular, and more.
- It accepts several input formats, such as files, directories, local URLs, blobs, remote URLs, and Data URIs.
Uploadcare
Uploadcare is a powerful tool for efficiently managing file upload, processing, and delivery.
Features
- With Uploadcare, you can add an easy-to-use and responsive HTML 5 file uploader to your apps. The uploader allows users to upload files from various sources, including local storage, major cloud storage services, camera, and social media services like Facebook and Instagram.
- Uploadcare File Uploader shows image previews and progress bars to enhance user experience. It also allows users to enhance images using various filters. Users can also resize large image files.
- Uploadcare File Uploader supports file validation for file size and format for secure file uploads.
- It also supports drag-and-drop file uploads and allows users to upload several files simultaneously.
- Uploadcare File Uploader supports a wide range of file types and up to 5 TB file sizes.
- With Uploadcare Uploading Network, which works like CDN, you can speed up the uploading process and improve user experience.
Uploadcare
Uploadcare is a powerful platform that lets its users efficiently manage file upload, advanced media processing, and quick file delivery.
Features
- With Uploadcare, you can add an easy-to-use and hyper-responsive uploading widget to your apps. The uploader allows users to upload files from 12 various sources, including local storage, major cloud storage services, camera, and social media services like Facebook and Instagram.
- Uploadcare file uploader takes advantage of AI that analyzes an image and sets the correct compression level just before visual artifacts appear.
- Uploadcare provides an API for building custom sources. After your files are uploaded, they are accessible via their CDN which includes on-the-fly image processing and can also work as a proxy.
- Uploadcare File Uploader shows image previews and progress bars to enhance user experience.
- With Uploadcare you can reduce image size by up to 80% with no visual loss.
- It also allows users to enhance images using various filters. Apart from resizing large image files users can detect objects, and colors, automatically put overlays and watermarks, and use smart crop and face detection just to name a few.
- Uploadcare File Uploader supports file validation for file size and format for secure file uploads.
- It also supports drag-and-drop file uploads and allows users to upload many files simultaneously.
- Uploadcare File Uploader supports a wide range of file types (including WebP and AVIF) and up to 5 TB file sizes.
- Uploadcare uses a multi-vendor CDN Network, so you can speed up the uploading process and improve user experience without fearing of system performance outage.
- Uploadcare lets you transform images on the fly without ever modifying the original file. Each time the user applies an image processing operation, a new version of the image is created and cached on CDN nodes, while the original file remains untouched. This ensures extremely fast media delivery to every part of the globe.
Conclusion
A file uploader is a must-have feature of many web apps and websites. From Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to LinkedIn and Indeed, many popular sites use a file uploader to enable users to upload files, such as photos, videos, PDF files, resumes, CVs, etc. However, creating a file uploader from scratch can be time-consuming and challenging. Fortunately, you can use a reliable third-party file uploader like Filestack, Uploadcare, UPPY, Simple File Upload, or FilePond, to implement the file upload functionality in your apps quickly and easily.
