How to send files only after payment is received

To send files that only unlock after payment, use a payment-gated link: upload the files, set a price, and send the client one link. They see a watermarked preview, pay through your own Stripe account on the same page, and the clean files unlock instantly. There's no invoice to chase and no gap where either side has to trust the other first. Here's the manual way, the automatic way, and what each one actually costs.

The manual way (and why it breaks)

The way most freelancers do it: finish the work, send an invoice, wait for the money to land, then email a download link. It sounds fine. In practice there's an awkward gap in the middle where nothing is happening and both sides are nervous.

The client is being asked to pay for files they can't see, so they stall. "Can you send a version to check first?" You either say no and sound difficult, or send something usable and give up your leverage. Meanwhile you're refreshing your bank app, and the moment the money does arrive you have to notice, stop what you're doing, and manually send the files. If you're asleep or on another job, your client waits hours for something a machine should have done in seconds.

It's a trust problem in both directions. The client doesn't want to pay blind, and you don't want to deliver on a promise. Manual invoice-then-send forces one side to blink first. If it's already gone wrong and the files are out there unpaid, that's a different guide: what to do when a client won't pay after delivery.

The automatic way: a payment-gated link

A payment-gated transfer collapses the whole dance into one link. Here's the full workflow on FileFlippers:

• Upload the files like any normal transfer, images, video, project files, whatever the deliverable is.
• Set a price and switch on the payment gate. First time, you connect your own Stripe account, which takes a few minutes and is where every payment lands from then on.
• Pick a watermark, text, your logo, or your name, tiled or placed. That's what protects the preview. Details on the watermark feature page.
• Send the one link. The client previews, pays, and downloads on the same page. You do nothing else. The unlock is automatic the second Stripe confirms the payment.

This is the mechanism behind getting paid before you deliver, which covers the why in depth. The paid file delivery page has the feature detail. The short version: delivery and payment become the same action, so there is no gap for anyone to stall in.

What your client sees, step by step

Worth knowing exactly what lands on their screen, because it's the part clients ask about:

• They open your link. No signup, no account, no app. Just a download page with your files listed.
• They preview the work, watermarked. Images and video render in the browser with your watermark across them, so they can check it's the right cut, the right edit, the finished thing.
• They hit pay. Stripe Checkout opens, they enter their card, done. The charge goes to your Stripe account directly, FileFlippers never holds the money.
• The files unlock instantly. Same page, clean full-quality files, no watermark. You get notified. Nobody emailed anybody.

What it costs

Two separate fees, and it's worth being straight about both:

• FileFlippers' platform fee: 0 percent on Pro and Squad, 5 percent on the free tier. Pro and Squad also include 50 watermarks a month; on free, watermarks come out of purchased credits. Full breakdown on the pricing page.
• Stripe's card processing fee: roughly 1.5 percent plus 20p on UK cards. That one isn't ours and isn't avoidable, it applies to any Stripe payment anywhere, including every alternative below. Any tool that claims card payments with no processing fee is hiding it in the price somewhere.

So on Pro, a £500 delivery costs you Stripe's cut and nothing else. On free, it's Stripe's cut plus £25 platform fee, which is also roughly the point where Pro pays for itself twice over in a single invoice.

Alternatives, compared honestly

A payment-gated transfer isn't the only way to charge for a file, it's just the right shape for client work. The others:

• Storefront tools (Gumroad, SendOwl, and friends). Built for selling one product to many buyers: a preset, a template, an ebook. Genuinely good at that. Clunky for a one-off client delivery, because you're creating a "product" and a listing for something exactly one person will ever buy, at a price you negotiated privately. A payment-gated transfer is the reverse shape: one client, one set of files, one price, one link.
• Escrow services. The right call for large contracts where money should sit with a third party against milestones and disputes. Heavier, slower, and with fees to match. For "pay me the balance and the files are yours", escrow is a sledgehammer.
• Bank transfer plus manual send. The manual way from the top of this guide. Zero tooling, full awkward gap. It works right up until the one time it doesn't.

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