files.link vs UploadThing: REST vs Typed SDK

UploadThing and files.link both target the same audience: developers who need to wire up file uploads in a web app. They differ in how they package the experience.

UploadThing ships a typed SDK with first-class Next.js / React integration: type-safe file routes, built-in upload validation hooks, a <UploadButton> component you drop into your JSX. The DX is polished and opinionated.

files.link ships a REST API and lets you wire it up with whatever HTTP client you already use. Three calls per upload, plain JSON, no SDK install. Less DX-polish, more flexibility.

• You're building on Next.js (or React + a serverless backend) and want the typed-DX integration.
• You like having upload validation rules expressed as code (f({ image: { maxFileSize: "4MB" } })) instead of writing them yourself.
• You want a drop-in <UploadButton> and don't want to think about presigned URL flows.
• You don't mind a per-upload billing model.

UploadThing's pitch is "skip the file-upload boilerplate." If you would otherwise spend a day writing a React component + a presigned URL backend, UploadThing saves you that day.

• You're on a stack other than Next.js / React (Django, Rails, Go, Rust, plain HTML+JS).
• You don't want a vendor SDK in your dependency tree.
• You'd rather pay for storage + bandwidth (prepaid credits) than per-upload fees.
• You want to handle UI yourself because your design system doesn't fit a generic upload button.

files.link's pitch is "REST that works with anything." If you already have an HTTP client in your stack and you're comfortable writing the upload UI yourself, files.link costs zero new dependencies.

Many teams pick UploadThing for the user-facing browser upload (typed components, validation hooks) and use files.link from backend services (CI pipelines, cron jobs, scripted uploads) where a typed React SDK isn't useful.

For dev-direct REST + prepaid credits, files.link as an UploadThing alternative is the framing. For React-tight integration, UploadThing's DX is hard to beat.