Security measures

Here we describe how we work with security and GDPR, and let's start with the latter. The largest part of our Terms of Service concerns the handling of personal data and therefore also contains privacy and security aspects. In addition to what is stated in the agreement, we maintain a register of personal data processing, which includes, among other things, what data is stored per storage medium and for how long. We conduct regular reviews to ensure that we comply with GDPR, with the goal of limiting personal data storage and making it more secure.

Our production environment is maintained with regular updates of the operating system (Debian) and server software such as Apache, MariaDB, Tomcat and Java. We do not share servers with other companies. Users' passwords are stored encrypted (hashed) with a salt. Users' files are stored encrypted on the server provided that the user set a password when uploading.

Our software contains mechanisms to detect spam, and to limit the sending of emails and files.

In the development of our software, we follow common rules to prevent SQL injection and Cross-site scripting (XSS). User input is validated on both client and server side. All employee computers have encrypted hard drives.

Planned Measures

We plan to implement the following improvements and measures.

1. Less personal data in outgoing emails: The sender should be able to decide which personal data is sent in the email to the recipient. It should also be possible to require the recipient to identify themselves via email, mobile, or with Swedish BankID.

2. No American subcontractors: Sprend should replace suppliers outside the EU with Swedish or EU-based alternatives.

3. Conduct penetration tests: We should regularly test our production environment against known vulnerabilities.

4. Virus control: Sprend should offer automatic virus scanning of files sent.

5. Higher security at login: Multi-factor authentication for user accounts should be offered.

Arne Evertsson, 2026-02-05

Release history 2022-2024

Arne delivers all new features wearing his Spanish sombrero from Lloret de Mar

Here are a few of the things that we released between 2022 and 2024.

We have a new logo: Everybody loves our new logo, and the icon version is even cooler with its double 3D perspective (2024-02-23).

Triple storage space: Our trusted datacenter company GleSYS tripled the server storage space from 11TB to 33TB, without us lifting a finger (2024-01-02).

Our first newsletter: We have sent our first Newsletter ever, and it was long overdue. We took our time to find and evaluate a great newsletter service that is strictly GDPR-compliant, and we chose rapidmail in Freiburg (2023-12-06).

Create a link: We have made it possible to send a file without logging in. A link is created, which you copy and then send to the recipient. The fact is that 71% of parcels are sent via link, and only 28% via email (2023-08-01).

Sprend Backpack (beta): With the Backpack feature, your files will not expire. Sprend stores them until you remove them, and you can always send the files on to more people. Note that this feature is in beta and only available to Pro users (2023-08-01).

Edit contents of started parcel (Pause, add, and remove files, then continue): This update allows a sender to pause the upload, add or remove files, and then continue the upload (2022-12-21).

Send folders in folders: Zipping your files before sprending them is no longer necessary. Just drop a folder onto the Sprend window, and the entire contents will be transferred to the recipient, preserving the folder structure (2022-12-21).

Don't send. Receive! This new feature will allow you to receive files with all Pro advantages enabled, including support for larger files, more of them, password protection, and longer storage time (2022-09-02).

Five times bigger parcels: We have increased the maximum parcel size from 20 GB to 100 GB. This is a big deal (2022-06-16).

Original publishing date: 2024-03-08

Notification emails

This post details the notification and reminder emails that Sprend automatically sends to keep users informed about their file transfers. We believe in transparent communication about what emails you can expect to receive and when. Our email system helps ensure important file transfers don't get forgotten while respecting your inbox.

Arne has been delivering notifications since the 1980s

Notifications to the sender

Download notifications (Pro feature): When someone downloads your files, you'll receive an instant confirmation email. This helps you track who has accessed your shared content and when. This notification includes details about which files were accessed and by whom.

Parcel not downloaded - First notice: If your files haven't been downloaded after 4 days, you'll receive your first reminder notification. This gives you an early heads-up that your recipients might need a gentle nudge or that there could be delivery issues to address.

Parcel not downloaded - Final notice: As your files approach their expiration date, you'll get a final notification 2 days before they expire. This is your last chance to follow up with recipients.

Notifications to the recipients

Initial notification: Recipients receive an immediate email when you share files with them. This email includes the download link, file details, and your message.

First reminder: If recipients haven't downloaded their files after 3 days, they receive a gentle reminder email.

Final reminder: Recipients get a final reminder 3 days before the files expire. This creates urgency while still providing enough time to download the files before they become unavailable.

Account expiry notifications

Pro Account - Early warning: Pro account holders receive their first expiry notification 20 days before their subscription ends. This early notice gives you plenty of time to renew and ensures uninterrupted service.

Pro Account - Final warning: A final urgent reminder is sent 2 days before your Pro account expires. This last-chance notification helps prevent service interruption and loss of Pro features.

Team Admin notifications: Team administrators receive the same expiry notifications as individual Pro users - advance notice days before expiry for renewal coordination, and a final urgent reminder 2 days before to prevent service disruption for all team members.

Notification settings & timing

Customizable settings: You can adjust your notification preferences on the Settings page. File download confirmations to senders can be disabled if you prefer not to receive them. For recipients, both reminder emails (3-day reminder and 3-day-before-expiry reminder) can be disabled, but the initial download notification cannot be turned off, as it contains essential access information.

Synchronised timing: Our notification system is carefully coordinated - recipients are notified first (day 3, then 3 days before expiry), followed by sender notifications (day 4, then 2 days before expiry). This ensures recipients have the first opportunity to act, with senders informed shortly after to facilitate follow-up communication.

Original publishing date: 2025-10-10

MTR - The Fastest Frog in the Pond

Sometimes when sprending a file, the upload seems to go on forever. This article shows how a Sprend user can pinpoint bottlenecks using the My Traceroute (MTR) tool. Here are the installation instructions for Mac, Windows and Linux.

All comments made by a frog are underlined in frog green.

MTR - The Fastest Frog in the Pond

Chopping and hopping

Let’s start with a bit of background: wouldn’t you like to know how a file is transferred across the Internet from your computer to sprend.com? You bet I would

1. First, go to the sprend.com website. I am already having fun!

2. Select one or more files from your computer.

3. Click on the Send  button.

4. The Sprend web application will now read the first megabyte of data from your computer’s hard drive. On a Mac, the hard drive is usually named Macintosh HD, and it is not a hard drive but rather a set of interconnected memory chips. And fish?

5. Now the 1 MB chunk of data is sent to sprend.com. The operating system, e.g. macOS or Windows, further divides this chunk into small IP packets, normally 1.5 KB in size, each containing a slice of file data and the destination address.

6. Each IP packet is transferred to Sprend’s server computer through several routers. The packet hops from router to router, finally landing at sprend.com. As long as there are hops, there is pilsener

7. All packets arriving at sprend.com are reassembled into a file by the Debian Linux operating system and forwarded to the Sprend server application. Which holds the secret sauce

8. Sprend saves the file onto the server’s hard drive. And guess what? Sprend uses old-fashioned magnetic hard drives to store data! Hard drives can be larger than SSD disks and are cheaper per gigabyte of storage space. Good ol’ Sprend

The very busy frog

I have a friend, MTR is his name, and he is a frog. He is the quickest hopper in the pond. Yup that's me. The pond is so big that it encompasses the entire planet, and it is full of water lily pads (routers) to jump on. MTR loves to help out with understanding why a transfer is slow. MTR pretends to carry packets across the Internet towards the destination sprend.com. Please, MTR, let us know how you do it!

1. I start by taking one hop towards sprend.com, and then immediately I jump back to the start

2. I take two hops, turn around, and return to the start

3. I keep repeating that procedure until I've reached sprend.com and returned. There could be 10-20 hops before the destination is reached

4. For every lap, I note down the time in milliseconds
   

The procedure is typically repeated 600 times, which takes 10 minutes and allows calculation of the average time for each step. Why go just part of the route and return? Because this is how we can find out which router is causing trouble, if any. Let’s learn more by checking out two examples.

From Stockholm to Stockholm!

Sprend's office is at The Park Coworking in Stockholm. Frogholm? Sprend’s server is also located in Stockholm, in the GleSYS data centre. Many of our users are also based in Stockholm, which is good news for them, as their files will need to travel a shorter distance. The table below shows the results of running MTR for 10 minutes from my MacBook, targeting the sprend.com production server.

MTR
Start: 2024-03-13 16:02 (Swedish time)
No of cycles: 600 (10 minutes)
From: Sprend offices in Stockholm
To: sprend.com production server in Stockholm

Hop	Address	Organisation	Packet Loss %	Average time, there and back
0	My MacBook Pro	Sprend	—	—
1	172.16.0.1	The Park	0 %	4 ms
2	gw162.a137.corp.bahnhof.se	Bahnhof	0 %	16 ms
3	sto-ste-dr2.sto-ste-dr3.bahnhof.net	Bahnhof	0 %	9 ms
4	sto-ste-dr3.sto-cr3.bahnhof.net	Bahnhof	1 %	5 ms
5	sto-cr1.sto4-er1.as8473.net	Bahnhof	28 %	6 ms
6	be-13.cr2.sto2.se.portlane.net	GleSYS	1 %	5 ms
7	be-2.pe3.sto1.se.portlane.net	GleSYS	0 %	6 ms
8	eth-51-2.le1.sto1.se.portlane.net	GleSYS	0 %	5 ms
9	eth-51-2.le3.sto1.se.portlane.net	GleSYS	1 %	6 ms
10	www.sprend.com	Sprend	—	—

The IP packets have to take 10 hops to reach sprend.com. The first part goes through the routers of the Internet Service Provider Bahnhof, and the second part through the backbone of GleSYS AB, finally landing in the data centre where the sprend.com server is located.

In the Packet Loss % column, we can see that very few packets are lost en route to sprend.com. The only unexpected value is in hop 5, where we get 28 %. If that router drops so many packets, how come the final loss is only 1% in hop 10? This may be because the router, sto-cr1.sto4-er1.as8473.net, is configured to prioritise real packets. MTR sends a kind of testing packets that the router can choose to ignore. The conclusion is that this is not a problem.

In the rightmost column, we can see the average time for the packets to travel from the start to each hop and back. The average is measured on 600 attempts. We can see that the packets travel very quickly from start to finish and back: only 6 ms is needed for the full round trip. In hop number 2, there is a slightly longer round-trip time, 16 ms. This, however, is not a problem, since the delay is absent in subsequent hops.

From Singapore to Stockholm

In this MTR run, I wanted to try a longer distance with more hops, so I logged into a DigitalOcean-provided computer in Singapore. The target computer is still the sprend.com server in Stockholm.

MTR
Start: 2024-03-13 16:02 (Swedish time)
No of cycles: 600 (10 minutes)
From: DigitalOcean data centre in Singapore
To: sprend.com production server in Stockholm

Hop	Address	Organisation	Location	Packet Loss %	Average time, there and back
0	A Linux virtual server	Digital Ocean	Singapore	—	—
1	Not reported	Digital Ocean	Singapore	100 %	—
2	10.76.195.152	Digital Ocean	Singapore	0 %	1 ms
3	143.198.252.6	Digital Ocean	Singapore	0 %	0 ms
4	143.244.192.176	Digital Ocean	Singapore	0 %	0 ms
5	143.244.224.230	Digital Ocean	Singapore	0 %	1 ms
6	143.244.224.207	Digital Ocean	Singapore	0 %	0 ms
7	snge-b5-link.ip.twelve99.net	Arelion	Singapore	88 %	96 ms
8	snge-b7-link.ip.twelve99.net	Arelion	Singapore	60 %	1 ms
9	mei-b5-link.ip.twelve99.net	Arelion	Marseille	0 %	151 ms
10	ffm-bb1-link.ip.twelve99.net	Arelion	Frankfurt	0 %	157 ms
11	ffm-b18-link.ip.twelve99.net	Arelion	Frogfurt	53 %	155 ms
12	glesys-ic-384552.ip.twelve99-cust.net	Arelion	?	0 %	233 ms
13	be-13.cr2.cop1.dk.portlane.net	GleSYS	Copenhagen	0 %	187 ms
14	be-5.cr1.mal4.se.portlane.net	GleSYS	Malmö	3 %	165 ms
15	be-5.cr2.sto1.se.portlane.net	GleSYS	Stockholm	3 %	234 ms
16	be-1.pe4.sto1.se.portlane.net	GleSYS	Stockholm	4 %	256 ms
17	vl-3003.z3-26-05.sto1.se.portlane.net	GleSYS	Stockholm	0 %	250 ms
18	www.sprend.com	Sprend	Stockholm	1 %	250 ms

As expected, there are more hops for our fantastic frog to take, 8 more of them. We start with the DigitalOcean infrastructure, hop over to international backbone provider Arelion, and end, as before, in the GleSYS network.

As in the previous example, the packet loss in hops 1, 7, 8, and 11 can be safely ignored. Those routers don’t really care about the test packets MTR sends. The main point is that only 1% has been lost in the last hop.

The Average Time column is more interesting now that our famous frog is travelling to the other end of the pond. The interesting hop is number 9, with an average round-trip time of 151 ms. In subsequent hops, this number never decreases, indicating that this delay will be present when real files are sent. It also makes sense since in hop 9 the packets are travelling from Singapore to Marseille, a rather long geographic distance.

The next delay that accumulates towards sprend.com seems to be added in hop 15, with a round-trip time of 234 ms. The name of the router at hop no 14 indicates it is located in Malmö (be-5.cr1.mal4.se.portlane.net), and no 15 in Stockholm (be-5.cr2.sto1.se.portlane.net). That distance could possibly explain the longer time needed.

Conclusions

There are many more tests that we could (should) run, from different parts of the world, highlighting different kinds of problems. We should also run the tests in the opposite direction since the return path may differ.

As a Sprend user, you may download MTR and run it against sprend.com. Please also contact us so that we can run MTR in the opposite direction. Together, we might be able to find out why your transfer is slow. Happy hopping, happy sprending!

Original publishing date: 2024-03-20

Cake, cameras, and collaboration: Olle keeps on sprending

"One day you are in one world, the next day in another." Olle Karlsson, OPTV.

No story begins at only one precise moment. Olle had it since childhood. A fascination and a need for telling stories. “I was running around with my friend's parents’ camera”. That’s how it started”, says Olle. So this career was somehow really natural, and since 1999 he has been working with film productions.

— Back then, TV was a very different media, says Olle.

Working on many different productions, meeting numerous people and being curious took him far. He learnt a lot from his older co-workers at SVT and TV4 (Swedish TV channels).

OLLE WITH CAMERA

However, he has always been self-employed, and choosing this "one-man band" path has been both a success and a necessity.

Instead, Olle has developed his own customer base over time and has satisfied repeat customers.

To succeed in one's business, one still needs help with various things. From an early age, Olle heard his own self-employed father say:

— Let other people do what they do well, so that you can focus on what you are good at.

So Olle embraced that wise advice:

— Anything that facilitates and makes my workflow easier, so that I can spend more time with the customer, it helps, and that's where Sprend comes in.

Olle's work is less about technology these days and more about helping the customers get their point across. Knowing how to listen to people and make a story with a purpose. OPTV is clearly a film production company that gives its customers a voice.

— My job, I think, is to help customers with wording and making it look good in front of the camera, storytelling in that way. The camera is a tool. You initially ask questions and turn them into a movie: what do you want to communicate, what do you want to achieve, what is the purpose?

Getting the message right quickly is becoming increasingly important. "When I started, you could make very long films. Now, it's three minutes long. Often, you have to be very concise in one or two minutes as well. I always strive to find a new angle to develop. You can’t invent the wheel every time, but something that stands out for every production is fun to put a little extra energy into."

OLLE SKIING

To share his productions with the customers, Olle has been using Sprend for a long time.

— To "sprend" a file has even become a verb.

"And that’s actually what my customers and I tell each other: we’ll sprend it", says Olle.

— When the Sprend service came, there weren’t many other alternatives, and the alternatives available were not nearly as flexible as yours.

"It’s really a "basic" service you have, but it has always worked! My customers appreciate its simplicity. It must have been quite a cool journey for you, I believe. You started at such an early stage. Now there are so many options, but it's hard to beat Sprend if you ask me".

Olle doesn’t only use sprend.com to share large files with his customers.

— I use it as short-term storage for myself, since I work at several venues and on different computers.

Olle deems that with short-term storage, everything stays clean and tidy, and you don't have to keep clearing away accumulating redundant material on your drive. “Say I work on a project that is done within four weeks, it’s great to have everything easily accessible. I can then download the file, and it will be erased automatically".

SPREND CAKE

It’s always great to see how Sprend is put to good use. “OPTV has been with us for many years now”, says Sprend creator Arne Evertsson, and adds:

— We actually sent Olle a cake a couple of years back, to show our appreciation.

"When I told my children about this Sprend case study, they remembered how much they loved the cake", says Olle.

OPTV is an example of a small company, but the word “small” exists only in the wording.

The concept of a single person taking care of their own business is a large task, especially while also caring for their family.

The ingredients for the cake that are always required to start and run a company are courage, curiosity, persistence, creativity, the ability to listen to your customers, and the ability to adapt to the market. But let’s not forget the crucial ones: luck, good timing and good old hard work. Olle Karlsson from Värmland is a representative of all of those.

Orginal publish date: 2022-01-24

How Vasakronan builds the good city

If you’d like to learn about a successful company whose work recognises quality, success and has a bright future, check out Vasakronan! When we first visited their website, we were amazed by its contents concerning sustainability and the human angle. But what is Vasakronan?

Vasakronan was founded in 2008 by merging two former companies: AP Fastigheter AB and Vasakronan AB. A new, jointly-operated company was created: Vasakronan - The Crown of Vasa, in memory of King Gustav Vasa, who laid the groundwork for the state's property holdings.

MAGASIN X IN UPPSALA, THE BIGGEST SWEDISH OFFICE BUILDING WITH A FRAME COMPLETELY IN WOOD

Today, it’s the biggest real estate company in Sweden with 171 properties in total. Located in prime locations in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, and Uppsala, Vasakronan owns a total area of 2.3 million square meters and has more than 300 employees. The company also plays a significant role in the Swedish pension system, helping many people achieve a happy retirement.

To get work done, a file transfer service is sometimes needed, and Sprend is one such tool. We wanted to ask them why. But first, we needed to understand who they are. This is what we found out.

Vasakronan is all about taking responsibility and creating value. Their working philosophy includes always striving to be at the forefront of all aspects of development and to find the best solutions to achieve more. Jonas Wahlström, the Project Manager at Vasakronan Uppsala, shares his experience with us:

— It is simply the culture of the company that creates commitment. There's a responsibility and a mindset that make us successful.

JONAS WAHLSTRÖM, PROJECT MANAGER AT VASAKRONAN UPPSALA

The company values include openness and sincerity. They are not just building developers, but they stay on as landlords. So what matters to them is the overall living environment, both inside and outside.

— It should be a pleasant and encouraging working environment, that’s when you develop and do well.

And that’s how Vasakronan builds what they call the good city. For example, Magasin X in Uppsala is the biggest Swedish office building with a frame completely in wood. It incorporates all the know-how and the ambition to be the leading force, which is the core of the Vasakronan way. When making big decisions, the company is always guided by the policy that nothing should be to the detriment of people and environment. They don't have a dedicated unit that works with sustainability. Instead, they choose to integrate it into their operating activities by engaging every one of their employees.

The complexity of this company directly tells us how precious time is to them. The information must reach every user quickly and securely. This is how Sprend comes into play. While choosing services that will enable them in the process of expertise and efficiency, Sprend has become a reliable partner. The beauty of Sprend is in its simplicity. It only takes a few clicks and the information can achieve its purpose. Jonas sums it up:

— I think it works really well, I use it to share big files that are too heavy to send with regular email.

STROLLING THROUGH MAGASIN X — IT'S LIKE A WALK IN THE WOODS

Using Sprend for the first time was a coincidence for Jonas, but he has been using it regularly since.

— I tested the free version, and it felt pretty easy and fast, no fuss. You do want to make it easy for yourself. And it's a good thing that you get a notice directly when the recipient has downloaded the content.

Vasakronan is a transparent company, and it’s very important for them to listen to their customers and their needs. Jonas points out how easy it is for his recipients to access the information sent via sprend.com. Just a few clicks and the task is done:

— No one has ever complained about the Sprend service, and some of the people who used the service are not at all computer experts.

Another thing Jonas is pleased about is the ability to send files to multiple recipients at once with Sprend Pro. Again, that helps with time efficiency. It’s also easy to check your send history to find out who has downloaded your file.

— I’ve often been sending reports to newspapers about Magasin X, various presentations and similar things, always using Sprend.

The main aim is to make the creative process easygoing and fast. Satisfied customers enable social progress in the first place. Cooperation and communication among all parties are key. Everything starts with one person, but only people united can form a city. A quote from Shakespeare captures the spirit of Vasakronan:

What is the city but the people?

William Shakespeare

Original publish date: 2021-04-22

Sprend’s technical challenge is actually a cooperation test

Algorithmic puzzles have their place, but they don't tell us how we'll work together. Here is why our final interview revolves around a real-world bug, and why we are really just answering one question: "Do we enjoy working together?"

If you are an experienced developer, you've likely gone through your fair share of technical tests. While whiteboard algorithms and generic take-home assignments can be useful for establishing a baseline of knowledge, they often miss the most important part of senior engineering: the day-to-day reality of the job.

At Sprend, we take a different approach.

If you’ve made it past our agency partners and their rigorous (?) DNA screening—which you can read about in How we partner with agencies—I already know you can write code. My final test is about something much deeper: Can we solve real problems together, and do we actually enjoy the process?

I thought you said nobody ever looks inside this legacy module! - said one bug to the other

The Sprend Challenge

When we reach the final stage of our hiring process, which takes a couple of days, we invite you into our actual world. I will give you a real bug that currently exists (or recently existed) in the Sprend codebase. (If you want a head start on what you'll be looking at, check out The Sprend tech stack).

Your task is practical:

1. Set up the local development environment.

2. Reproduce the bug.

3. Solve it.

4. Step through the code with me and explain your fix.

What I'm actually testing

Yes, I want to see how you navigate an unfamiliar codebase. But the code is secondary. What I am really testing is your communication.

When you hit a roadblock setting up the environment, do you silently struggle for hours, or do you ask a sharp, targeted question? When you step through the JavaScript with me, can you articulate your thought process clearly? When we debate a different approach to the fix, can we do it with low ego and high standards?

This test is a two-way street. It is your opportunity to look under the hood of Sprend. You get to (some of) the codebase, and how I communicate as a founder and fellow developer. It’s a mutual audition.

Iron sharpens iron

I’ve been in this industry long enough to know a universal truth: Great developers don’t want to work for managers; they want to work with other great developers. I realise that if I am going to ask you to treat testing as non-negotiable, to dig for the absolute root cause of a bug, and to communicate transparently, I have to prove to you that I do the exact same thing.

When you join the Sprend team, you are not joining an assembly line. You are joining a partnership. This mutual audition is how we ensure you'll succeed in our culture—to understand the full philosophy behind this, I recommend reading Being a developer at Sprend.

What you can expect from me:

• I will pair program with you. Not to micromanage, but for problems that benefit from doubling up on engineering power.

• I will shield you from artificial urgency. I meant it when I said we have a "no-deadlines" culture. I will never ask you to push garbage code just to hit an arbitrary launch date.

• I will leave my ego at the door. If your pragmatic technology choice is better than mine, yours wins.

• I will obsess over the user with you. We leave the codebase cleaner than we found it, every single day. If you are a developer who takes immense pride in your work, who wants to understand exactly what is going on, and who wants to work alongside someone who feels the exact same way—we should talk.

• I will generate images with Gemini. But only funny ones.

How we partner with agencies to find great developers

As we evolve our remote team, we are setting what Gemini calls “an unapologetically high bar”. Here is what we expect from the agencies and freelancers we partner with.

Sprend has always been about moving data effortlessly, but how we build the machinery behind the scenes is constantly evolving. As we look toward the future and execute on our long-term vision—which you can read about in Sprend never quits—we realise our true strength lies in agility and working with the best professionals for the specific task at hand.

Today, Sprend operates as a decentralised, remote team. We partner with top-tier freelancers and agencies worldwide. Right now, we are working with incredible web design and copywriting specialists from Croatia to redesign our brand and marketing pages, and soon we will be bringing on new developers to help build our future.

But as we grow this model, we expect our agency partners to do the heavy lifting before a candidate’s name ever crosses my desk.

At Sprend, the real treasure is a perfectly understood and refactored piece of legacy code.

The checklist

At Sprend, we respect craftsmanship. We do not ask elite developers to jump through hoops before we have proven our interest. We expect agency partners to follow this order.

Phase 1: Cultural vetting

This phase is about proving the candidate is a Sprend-fit before a single line of code is discussed.

• ☑️ DNA Evidence: You have spoken to at least 3 former colleagues and have gathered specific, verifiable anecdotes for our 11-point Professional DNA. We want stories of "battle," not standard 1–5 ratings. Read more in the section below.

Phase 2: The multi-stage pitch

This is the core filter. Interest must be established before effort is requested.

• ☑️ Step 1: Pitch the dev to me. The agency’s technical lead calls me on Signal (+46 70 714 52 99) to pitch the candidate based on the DNA Evidence. Convince me why they are a perfect match. Do not reveal the project details to the developer yet.

• ☑️ Step 2: Pitch the project to the dev. Only after I am convinced by your pitch and give the green light, you present the Sprend vision and the specific project to the developer. Get them genuinely excited.

Phase 3: Selection

Now that mutual interest is confirmed, we request the developer’s time.

• ☑️ Technical Proof: If the developer is excited about the project, now is the time for your agency’s technical lead to verify their craft. You must watch the candidate step through code line-by-line (Asynchronous JS is our benchmark, see below).

• ☑️ Chemistry check: If they pass the technical verification, arrange a video call between the developer and me. This is for vibe and vision alignment—not a technical interrogation.

• ☑️ The Sprend Challenge: If we "click" on the video call, we move to the ultimate question: The Sprend Challenge: Do we actually enjoy working together?

Our 11-point Professional DNA

Technical skills are just the baseline. We aren't just looking for people to close tickets; we want craftsmen who fit the unique rhythm of our company (to get a feel for our internal culture, read this).

Before submitting a profile, the agency must interview three people who have worked alongside the developer. If the dev doesn’t have extensive experience, the agency could talk to university professors and classmates, read their blog posts, and check out GitHub repos.

As an agent, before the interviews, make sure you understand each of the following eleven points. It helps a lot if you have experience working in a software development team. Don’t settle for yes or no answers; ask for specific, verifiable stories.

1. They own the task: They’ve seen too many times team members who don’t take the task to completion. It could be someone who is “only the backend dev” and won’t touch the frontend code. It could be a project manager who lets another project’s problems dictate our success. The number one takeaway lesson from all writing on Agile methodology is to finish the current task before starting the next.

2. Deadlines hurt customers: A deadline is a very blunt tool, often based on the idea that pressuring people yields better results. It doesn’t. The result is a lower-quality product in every aspect, ultimately making the customer less productive. They know this and will fight for it.

3. Readable code is the foundation for great UX: They are naturally detail-oriented. They care about code readability and solid architecture throughout the tech stack and beyond, into the user experience. They build the app they want to use themselves.

4. Refactoring is not an afterthought: It’s tempting: let’s just do some “bypass surgery” here. But no, why would one increase the complexity of a system? Rather, the code they commit is better structured than it was found. Refactoring is what they do as part of every task.

5. Digging deep: So they fixed the problem, but it was just too easy. That’s why they dig deeper. They make sure you understand what is really going on and fix the real problem.

6. Schrödinger’s code: They know that untested code is exactly like Schrödinger’s cat: until you run the test and "open the box," your feature is simultaneously working and completely broken. Nobody needs to remind them to write tests.

7. Communicating freely: It’s a remote team. I would prefer it if I could roll my chair over to their desk to instantly double our intelligence. Since we can't, everyone has to proactively communicate—before, during, and after a task is implemented. In the team we talk about ideas, problems, and great solutions.

8. Low ego, high standards: I’m going to fix their code. They are going to fix mine. Let’s welcome feedback. Let’s learn together.

9. Pragmatic judgment: Every new tool or framework comes with a cost. As one thing becomes easier to achieve, another one becomes harder. They are pragmatic enough to choose the “boring,” stable tech over a trendy, hyped-up one because it is the smartest, most reliable choice for the product's long-term health.

10. Technology is but a tool (the goal is productivity and joy): We build software to help people climb the Maslow Pyramid: we aim for our users to feel more confident, connected, creative, proud, and respected.

11. Attitude and humour: They love software development. So do we. Our attitude is to have fun, let’s have a laugh. Let’s work magic together.

Technical proof: Running the code

At Sprend, trial-and-error coding isn't enough. We need developers who understand the deep mechanics of the language they are using. Therefore, before presenting a candidate, the agency must perform a rigorous technical screen. We expect the agency’s technical lead to run a practical test—for example, fixing a bug in asynchronous JavaScript code—and verify that the candidate can manually “run” their code. The candidate must be able to step through the logic line by line, explaining exactly how the execution works, what values variables hold, and how errors are caught and handled. The ability to read code has always been important; in an age of AI assistants, it is even more important.

Read about our tech stack.

Thoughts

This post is a work in progress. I’m trying to learn how to recruit great developers. Please leave feedback!

Sprend never quits

At Sprend, we don't just move files; we're building connections. Since 2004, we've been the team behind sprend.com, a leading file-transfer service committed to making digital exchanges effortless and reliable. We're proud to serve a diverse range of B2B customers, including the fast-paced construction industry, dynamic media businesses, meticulous public agencies, and municipalities. Our success is built on two pillars: unmatched simplicity of usage and customer service that genuinely cares, ensuring you always connect with a human, often without any wait (unless you call in the middle of the night). Additionally, our superior upload stability ensures that your crucial data reaches its destination.

We're not resting on our laurels, though. The digital landscape is evolving, and so are we. We're excited to share our ambitious plans for the future, focusing on three key areas that will enhance the file transfer experience.

Unrivalled deliverability

In a world where every second counts, the reliable delivery of your file packages is paramount. We understand the frustration of failed transfers and delayed projects. That's why our top priority is to achieve unrivalled deliverability. We continually optimize our sophisticated algorithms and leverage robust systems to ensure that your files reach their destination flawlessly, regardless of size or network conditions. This commitment means more certainty for your workflows and less time spent troubleshooting.

GDPR compliance

In today's data-conscious world, privacy and compliance are non-negotiable. We recognize the critical importance of protecting sensitive information, especially for our European clients. That's why we're making a significant move towards GDPR compliance with a unique European infrastructure. While many of our competitors (or all of them?) rely on American servers, we're committed to providing a solution where your data remains within the strict confines of European data protection laws. This strategic decision will provide an unparalleled level of security and peace of mind, particularly for organizations that handle sensitive personal and corporate data.

The joy of usage

Let's face it, transferring files can often feel like a chore, akin to "watching paint dry." We believe it doesn't have to be that way. Our vision for the future includes transforming the user experience from a mundane task into a genuinely pleasurable one. We're exploring innovative ways to infuse the plain joy of usage into every interaction. Imagine a file transfer service that engages you, tells a story, and makes the process not only efficient but also enjoyable. We're pioneering new approaches to include storytelling into the user interface, and constantly working to remove friction and irritation, ensuring Sprend always works in harmony with society.

Building the future together

These are exciting times at Sprend. We're not just building a product; we're shaping the future of file transfer and building a team that will lead the way.

• For Developers: We're a Product-Led Growth (PLG) company, which means much of our marketing and growth is driven by the software itself. We deeply value our free users; they're truly our marketing army, spreading the word through their positive experiences. We're building a world-class, distributed developer team focused on Europe, individuals passionate about innovation, user experience, and robust engineering. If you're looking to make a direct impact on product development and customer experience, we invite you to explore joining our team. You can find more about our collaborative team culture and our tech stack.

• For Our Valued Customers: Your trust is our greatest asset. These plans are designed with your evolving needs in mind. We aim to provide you with an even more reliable, secure, and enjoyable file transfer service, reinforcing our position as a serious and forward-thinking partner. Sprend has been here since 2004, and we intend to keep serving your file transfer needs into the next century.

The future of file transfer is here, and it's brought to you by Sprend. We're excited about what's to come and look forward to building this future with you.

Join the Flying Coffee Machine Team

Hi everyone, I'm Arne from Sprend. Let's discuss how we recruit new talent for our software development team.

The dev

From the software engineer's perspective, whether freelancing, working with a developer agency, or seeking a permanent position, the ideal scenario involves having control over the process. Engineers would discover us through a search engine, then thoroughly research our future plans, our technology, and way of working. Still interested? Tell your agent or call me directly, Arne: +46707145299. When I say agent, I also include your boss or salesperson—they are working for you.

The agency

Agents and agencies play a key role as bridge builders, connecting the engineer with the project. However, a conflict can arise between quality and quantity. We believe that relying solely on CVs emphasises quantity over quality, and that the agent should have a genuine understanding of the developer and be able to effectively advocate for them, rather than merely sending over a CV. The goal is for the agent to make us want to meet the developer so much that we're begging for a meeting! With that hurdle passed, the agent contacts the developer and “sells” the Sprend project to them.

The role of the company where the developer is employed is vital, as it provides a productive working environment. Well, of course, it is provided along with Sprend.

Read more details here: How we partner with agencies to find great developers

Let’s try working together

Finally, once there's a potential match, we like to have a "Let's work together" task for the engineer. This involves a programming challenge based on real Sprend issues. However, the true goal is to assess how well we communicate, collaborate, and solve problems together—do we genuinely enjoy working together? This is more important than raw technical skills alone. It's all about seeing if there's a good team fit. At Sprend, we're seeking developers who share our values and can truly thrive within our team.

Read more about it in: Sprend’s technical test is actually a cooperation test

From our perspective

For me, the ideal search engine for finding engineers would let me filter by skills, experience, and location, with an emphasis on matching attitudes such as a drive for excellence, a commitment to continuous improvement, and a strong sense of responsibility. It helps a lot if the developer has written about software development and their professional goals.

And then the magic happens

What would the Sprend workshop be like in the times of Leonardo Da Vinci, and what problems would we be solving? Would we be inventing a flying coffee machine that could deliver a fresh brew to crane operators, gladiators, and vaporetti pilots?

The Sprend workshop in the year 1492

Also, don’t forget to check out our future plans, our technology, and our way of working in the dev team.

The Sprend tech stack

Welcome to the Sprend.com development team! This document outlines our current technology stack and future aspirations to help you get up to speed quickly.

Backend

Sprend.com is built as a monolithic Java-based web application. We prioritize simplicity and maintainability, opting for a unified codebase over a distributed microservices architecture.

• Language: Primarily Java, with new development and ongoing refactoring transitioning to Kotlin. This move is driven by Kotlin's modern features and enhanced developer experience.

• Framework: We use Spring for our backend development, providing a robust and comprehensive framework for building enterprise-grade applications. However, we are not overusing it, particularly not when Spring pushes the architecture away from object-orientation.

• Server: The application runs on Tomcat instances, with an Apache server handling traffic forwarding. This setup allows for deployments of WAR files with minimal downtime, ensuring continuous service even during updates.

• Database: Our primary data store is MariaDB, which runs on the same physical server. We maintain a thin data access layer in our code, aiming to keep it close to standard SQL for clarity and direct control over data access. We are also incorporating NoSQL patterns where they demonstrably reduce development costs and complexity.

Frontend

Our frontend is designed for directness and performance.

• Language: The entire frontend is written in vanilla JavaScript. We appreciate its simplicity and direct control over the browser environment.

• UI Framework: We currently do not use any dedicated UI frameworks. However, I think Svelte looks promising.

Relax, enjoy the views and have some ice cream. Your files are safe with Sprend.

Infrastructure and operations

Understanding our infrastructure will help you navigate the development environment.

• Operating System: Our web application runs on a Debian Linux server.

• Server Location: The physical server is located in Stockholm, Sweden.

• Deployment: We deploy WAR files directly to our Tomcat instances. Our current setup allows for seamless deployments without interrupting ongoing file transfers.

• Hardware: Production runs directly on physical hardware with no virtualisation or containerization.

• Load Balancing/Failover: Currently, we do not utilise any dedicated load balancer or failover mechanisms.

Development workflow and tools

We believe in efficient and enjoyable development.

• Version Control: We use Git for all our source code management.

• IDE: Our preferred Integrated Development Environment is IntelliJ IDEA, offering excellent support for Java and Kotlin development. We rely on IntelliJ's built-in quality tools for code analysis rather than external platforms.

• Build Tool: We use Gradle for managing our project builds and dependencies.

• CI/CD: TeamCity is our Continuous Integration server.

• Testing: We place strong emphasis on testing to ensure code quality and confidence in our changes.

  • UI & API Testing: We use Cypress for both user interface (UI) and API testing, providing robust end-to-end coverage. Green tests give us the confidence to make changes and refactor the codebase.

• Team Communication: We use Trello for task management and Slack for real-time team communication.

Our philosophy

We are committed to a minimalistic approach to our tech stack. We only introduce new tools or technologies when they solve a concrete problem we are facing. Our goal is to ensure that enhancing the codebase is always a pleasant and straightforward experience.

Plans for the future

We are always looking to improve and scale Sprend.com, while staying true to our minimalistic philosophy. Here are some potential directions for our technology stack:

• Frontend UI Framework: We are considering adopting a frontend UI framework, such as Svelete, to enhance the developer experience and streamline UI development.

• Scalability: We aim to scale across multiple physical servers to enhance performance and reliability as our user base expands.

• Native Applications: We plan to expand our reach by developing native iOS and Android mobile applications, as well as potentially native macOS and Windows desktop applications.

Also, take a look at the Sprend way of teamwork and Joining the team.

Being a developer at Sprend

At Sprend, we're not just building a file transfer service; we're crafting an experience. We want to be the most loved file transfer service, always working in harmony with society. For us, this begins with a deep commitment to excellence, driven by our approach to developer teamwork and growth. We’re not unique in that approach, but that is also not the goal.

You're not just working for Sprend – We're working for you

We believe in a fundamental shift in perspective: Sprend isn't just a company you work for. Instead, we see Sprend as a platform designed to empower you. We provide the environment and resources to help you leverage your skills and creativity, enabling you to build truly great things. Your time and ambition are priceless to us, and we're committed to working together to create a product that's more than the sum of its parts.

Balance between speed, quality, and lasting Impact

In the fast-paced world of product development, the tension between speed and quality is constant. While our owners naturally want us to deliver value quickly, our development team is focused on ensuring that short-term gains don't compromise our long-term goals. We don't strive for quick, sloppy solutions. Our philosophy is to deliver partial, useful features with solid, excellent code. This approach allows us to get early feedback from customers, ensuring we're always building what truly matters. It’s not only possible but essential to align the goals of individual developers with those of our customers and owners.

New technologies and architectural excellence

We're not chasing shiny new trends just for the sake of it. Every new piece of technology comes with a cost, and our focus is on solving real problems. When a new technology offers a clear solution, the decision to adopt it becomes easier. We introduce new technologies step by step, ensuring seamless integration and stability within our system. Our architectural standards are so high that any part of our system could be the subject of a technical talk at a developer conference. We also believe in empowering you with the tools of your choice; whether you prefer Linux, Windows, or Mac, we care about enabling you to work effectively.

Sparks are flying when we are working together at Sprend

Crafting code together

Excellent developer experience (DX) is paramount. We continually refine our development environment and processes to make setup, coding, testing, and building as effortless as possible. We encourage a "love refactoring" mindset, embracing it during development rather than as an afterthought. For us, code readability is even more crucial than working software, because readable code is fixable code. We champion the "Boy Scout Rule"—always leave the campground cleaner than you found it. Collaboration is key: we encourage explaining solutions to teammates, inviting others to refactor your code, and writing tests for new code. We're also curious about the growing potential of AI tools to enhance our workflow.

One of our core practices is task mates, where two developers tackle each task. Note that I am not referring to pair programming, where two developers sit at the same workstation.

The task mates approach offers significant advantages:

• It enhances quality in UX, code readability, and test coverage.

• It helps us catch more bugs.

• It fosters continuous learning among team members.

• It builds resilience, as at least two individuals understand each module.

• It helps harmonize our coding style.

We actively encourage developers to step into different areas of the system, whether it's switching between frontend and backend tasks or having taskmates write tests. Our communication is open and frequent, both before, during, and after a task is completed. We ensure that every part of our system is well understood by at least two developers, fostering shared knowledge and resilience.

Space and time

Sadly, not all great engineers reside in Pula, Croatia. I would have preferred it. Nothing beats a physical office supporting both dedicated focus time and effective communication. The reality is that our team is distributed, but we try to inhabit the same point in the space-time continuum as often as makes sense.

Working remotely places high demands on an individual’s communication skills.

Owning the feature

At Sprend, a new feature isn't complete until the user gives it a thumbs-up. Even if a developer contributes to only a small part of a feature, their work isn't done until that feature is in the user's hands. We empower every developer to design solutions based on user needs and to encourage their teammates. We also limit work-in-progress (WIP) to prevent tasks from getting stuck and to reduce dependencies. The feedback from released features directly informs our next steps.

We Care

Ultimately, everything we do is rooted in a simple but powerful principle: We care. We care about ourselves, our colleagues, our users, the community, and deeply, profoundly, about our code. To write code is to create life. To me anyway. 😄

If you're a skilled and ambitious developer looking to make a significant impact in a collaborative and excellence-driven environment, we invite you to explore opportunities with us. We're building something great, and we'd love for you to be a part of it.

You may also want to take a look at the Tech Stack and Joining the team.

The bike thief?

Italy has always been an art canvas, a music stage, and a home to limitless creativity, from Leonardo da Vinci's visionary future to Michelangelo's chiseling of perfection in stone, from Florence's Uffizi Gallery to the Vatican Museums, shrines of timeless masterpieces framed by history and light. Italy invented how the world encounters beauty and culture. And today, we're honored to leave our brushstroke in that legacy  - because Sprend now speaks Italian!

For companies, artists, and professionals who operate internationally, language need never be a barrier. Now that Sprend is available in Italian, architects can share blueprints with customers smoothly, moviemakers can exchange footage with no additional steps, and designers can exchange high-quality files with Italian partners easily. Whether you are an entrepreneur interacting with a new market, a researcher sharing data with an Italian institution, or simply collaborating with Italian colleagues and friends, communication is now more transparent and efficient.

Grazie mille to Alice, whose keen eye and linguistic talent made this possible. She didn't translate Sprend - she wrote it and polished it with the clarity Italian demands. Sprend not only speaks Italian but thanks to her, it works in Italian. Why is this significant? Because language is more than words - it's connection. That is, in a reality where technology caters to the user, everything is much easier, much more intuitive, and much more convenient. In a globalized realm where businesses connect across oceans and experts use continuous communication, Sprend in Italian is not a luxury; it is a necessary, stronger tool for higher collaboration. And that is just the start.

We want Sprend to be as easy as possible, with the best language bridge between people who share and receive files. Italian is our newest language, but it won't be the last. For those of you in Milan, Rome, or anywhere around the world collaborating with Italian stakeholders, give Sprend in Italian a try. Spread the news, use it for your projects, and feel the difference. Cheers to easy digital sharing, one language at a time!

In the end, what better way to experience this all-important heritage than by diving headlong into Italian cinema and music? For a shivering dose of neorealism at its finest, reach for Ladri di Biciclette (Bicycle Thief): a heartbreaking epic of the grief and triumphs of post-war Italy. If you're feeling in the mood for something more lighthearted, crank up L'Italiano by Toto Cutugno, an evergreen hymn that precisely captures the Italian credo. Through film or song, let Italy's artistry take you to its sun-drenched streets and timeless piazzas.

Tihana Gardijan

Ladri di Biciclette

A Sprend User’s Story Born from an Unexpected Twist

Pula and Gothenburg, Bonded Across the Sea

Some cities have history that hangs over them like a scar. Some, such as Pula and Gothenburg, wear it like an old tattoo — inky, indelible, unchosen — consolidated into the tissue of their being, determining future not on their own terms. A Sprend customer recently saw Uljanik Crane at the Sprend website, and confused them with the ones in Gothenburg. It was an eye-opening moment that reminded us that beneath it, there runs something larger than itself — a bond that runs deeper than iron and shipbuilding contracts.

Legacy of Uljanik: A Shipyard That Built More Than Ships

Pula wasn’t always a shipbuilding city. Before Uljanik arrived in 1856 it was a sleepy coastal village and its biggest news might have been a particularly good catch at the fish market. Then the Austro-Hungarian Empire wanted to transform it into a mighty naval power, and Pula started to change. For over a century, Uljanik was not only shipbuilding — it was the creation of careers, communities and a lifestyle. It put Pula on the world map. The shipyard plowed through wars, political turmoil and economic storms, but no amount of welding and rivet-driving could stave off the inevitable. The shipyard closed its gates for good in 2019. Pula was left standing in the shadows of cranes that no longer moved, an artifact of a vanishing industry that had defined generations.

Divić Crane, Pula

Instead of knocking them down, the city lit them up — turning the urban giants of industry into a night-time spectacle, as if to say: We’re still here. We remember.

But there’s more to Pula than shipyards and nostalgia. It also happens to be home to one of the most beautiful Roman amphitheaters in the world — an architectural heavyweight that has somehow weathered emperors, dictators and enthusiastic rock concerts. Now, it hosts everything from film festivals to metal bands; if history has to linger, it may as well have a good soundtrack.

Ship–Shape Saga: The Rise, Fall and Espresso Revolution of This Swedish City

Just across the Baltic Sea, Gothenburg followed a similar blueprint. In the early 20th century, its shipyards — Götaverken, Eriksberg and others — cranked out ships that plied every ocean on the planet. The docks vibrated with life, whole families earned their living inside the shipyard walls, and if you asked anyone in those days what Gothenburg did best, the answer would have been plain: We build ships. But as the decades wore on, the industry that had molded Gothenburg began to unravel.

The 1980s came and, instead of workers finding jobs at the docks, there were questions: What now? Some shipyards lasted longer than others, but the answer was no longer in steel and shipbuilding. So Gothenburg started to reinvent itself. The old shipyards are converted into trendy waterfront apartments, cultural hot spots and coffee shops where people take about the nuances of oat milk.

Eriksberg Crane, Gothenburg

The Eriksberg crane remains, standing over a town no longer in need of it, but not ready for the town to relinquish it, either. In any case, Gothenburg also happens to be home to Liseberg, Scandinavia’s largest amusement park — and if you’re going to take an industry built on raw power and engineering and replace it with something else, you might as well replace it with roller coasters.

Cities That Won’t Be Defined by the Past

Pula and Gothenburg may have begun as shipbuilding cities, but their futures are unwritten. Gothenburg has already been rewriting its story, transforming its wharves into playgrounds for the modern age. Pula is waiting to see what comes next. The cranes of Uljanik are both a monument to history and a silent test of the future. Reinvention is not easy, and nostalgia doesn’t pay the bills — but both cities recognize that there’s no such thing as standing still.

A Shared Vision

That instant when someone confused Uljanik’s cranes for Gothenburg’s was not merely an amusing mistake; it was a preview of how industrial legacies extend across borders. The shipyards may be silent, but they continue to shape the cities that developed around them. They hang on in the architecture, the culture, and in the memories of people who once built and welded and dreamed below them.

Connecting Stories with Sprend

At Sprend, we’re not supposed to make an indication of cranes illuminating or an amusement park. Sprend is here to make sure you get the files where they need to go, when you are sending files all around the world, we are sharing ideas and preserving stories. No time for nostalgia, just a service that works and keeps stepping forward — like Pula, like Gothenburg. Perhaps one day replaced by its own version of cranes.

No Excuses, No Secrets, No Shortcuts

In file sharing, trust needs to be earned rather than being assumed. Numerous businesses handle your data daily. While some ethically do so, others (silently) monitor your activity, monetize your conduct, or trap you in confusing subscription structures. At Sprend, we do more than just move files; we conduct ourselves honorably throughout the entire process. This means no questionable data practices, no hidden costs, and no vague statements like "We take your privacy seriously" that don't really mean anything. Here's how we uphold the principles of accountability, transparency, and ethics - and why this matters to you. 

Transparency: No fine print, no black boxes

On terms and conditions that seemed like a legal document, have you ever clicked "I agree"? Have you ever signed up for a "free" service only to find out that the true cost was your privacy, data, or constant upsells? We detest that, and we have a suspicion you do too. 

How Sprend Successfully Adopts Transparency: No Covert Monitoring

Although many sites claim not to sell your data, they nevertheless keep tabs on everything you do. We don't do that kind of thing. No Complicated Pricing, no tricks with fine print.

Limitations are not buried deep beneath legalese; rather, we express what we truly mean. It costs money to run a safe, ad-free site, therefore we chose a simple, uncomplicated strategy rather than overcrowding Sprend with trackers and third-party ads. We had the option of hiding it behind deceptive "limited-time offers" or pushy sales techniques, but we just decided to be honest.

Do more than just send files - act with integrity, respect privacy, and support a digital world built on trust. At Sprend, ethical responsibility isn’t an extra step; it’s the foundation of everything we do.

Photo by Maria Teneva

Accountability is essential:  We take ownership of our mistakes

Nobody is flawless; servers may crash, systems may malfunction, and updates may not always go as planned. The way mistakes are handled, rather than whether they happen, is what separates a respectable business from a subpar one. When troubles occur, far too many tech companies give evasive justifications like "We're experiencing some issues.", "Delays have been caused by an unforeseen event.", "We regret any inconvenience this has caused."  

We communicate directly with our users, are always available, and take responsibility for errors. If anyone has found Sprend confusing, it is our fault. Software should be designed with intuitive UI/UX; if it fails to do so, we will fix it. There's no secrecy, no spin. This is how trust is grown, not just when things are going your way, but when choices and events have problematic implications. Certain ethical notions should be touched on: just because it is legal, it does not mean it is the right thing to do. Big tech mostly tries to do the least concerning privacy.

Most corporations would never even shield your data if a law akin to GDPR does not compel them. This, at Sprend, we believe should be more than with a legal yardstick. It is not just a case of hoarding information. Just because we can do it does not mean that we should.

Doing business the right way is the crux. Integrity should not only pertain to our processes but should extend to those surrounding us. Concerning whom we work with and what we accept: compliance should not be cut short (GDPR) and the company continuously reinvests into the service versus growth at any cost.

Trust is built, not bought

The internet is filled with companies stating that they care about your privacy. However, ask oneself: how many truly uphold this promise? At Sprend, we do not desire blind trust; instead, we promote it through honesty grounded in transparency each and every day in our decision-making. There are no mysteries, no excuses, and no shortcuts - just Sprend. 

New Improvement! Sprend Reminder: Getting Clearer Out of Chaos

Everyone has experienced receiving a file, promising to download it later, and then forgetting all about it. All of a sudden, the deadline is approaching, and you're rushing to locate it. As a brief reminder, the file you are waiting to download is not permanent. Sprend ensures that crucial papers don't get lost in the shuffle by protecting your files until a specific expiration date. Every Sprend Free § Pro user who hasn’t downloaded their received file will get a reminder email after three days. This email includes the file’s download deadline and key details about the sender, together with files to download of course.

It's more crucial than ever to maintain organization in a world where digital clutter slows us down. Complicated sharing procedures, disorganized data, and overflowing inboxes make work more annoying than it needs to be. We are here to streamline your process and assist you in concentrating on the important things. Making it simple to distribute enormous files, eliminating the need to trawl through cluttered folders or manage endless email attachments. No needless duplications, no misunderstandings - just safe, effective file transfers that maintain the efficiency of your process.

Forgetting to download a file is like putting leftovers in the fridge and being shocked when they turn into a science experiment a week later. Don't let your important files expire - grab them while they're fresh!

Photo by Getty Images

Get your file now before it disappears! With Sprend, you can adopt a more efficient, stress-free method of working together and get rid of distractions.

Cheers to Sprending!

Small Features Initiative: Minor Enhancements, Significant Impact

At Sprend, we recognize that seemingly insignificant details can lead to substantial changes. This is why we are excited to unveil our new initiative for 2025: consistent updates that introduce small, yet impactful features, specifically crafted to improve your experience, address minor inconveniences and enhance Sprend for your benefit. 

Think of it as a journey to rediscover the often-overlooked treasures of development - those minute enhancements that typically fade into the background while larger projects take center stage. These are the features that, akin to delicate bubbles in a vigorously shaken container of stones, tend to settle at the bottom. However, we are turning the jar upside down, allowing those bubbles to rise to the surface, where they rightfully belong. Although these adjustments may be minor, their impact is anything but. They are meticulously designed to enrich your experience through enhanced usability and convenience; moreover, they reflect our dedication to ongoing improvement and celebrate the excitement of development. As our development lead, Arne, articulates, “I’m doing it also for my joy and pleasure. There’s a selfish part to this, but it’s more about delivering value.”

Think of it as a journey to rediscover the often-overlooked treasures of development.

Photo by Sebastiao Salgado

We have selected a regular cadence for these updates (which is intended) to guarantee consistent progress without overwhelming ourselves or you. This rhythm allows us the necessary time to refine each feature, while also providing a steady stream of improvements for our users. As Arne often remarks: “You could feel anxious if you’re not doing good things every day; however, smaller features regularly are a manageable and rewarding pace.” It’s also effective because it ensures quality.

Among the initial features we are introducing is a reminder email system designed for recipients. Have you ever sent a file and found yourself pondering whether the recipient actually downloaded it? 

Now, Sprend will automatically send reminders to recipients after three days if they have not yet downloaded the file. This functionality is particularly beneficial for our Free users, who have a total of seven days to download files. With this reminder system, recipients retain four days to respond, which promotes smoother communication and reduces the likelihood of missed downloads. 

Furthermore, another enhancement involves automatic notifications regarding price changes: planning ahead has become significantly simpler. As soon as we anticipate a price adjustment, our notification emails will inform you of the current prices along with the forthcoming changes. 

However, there's an added advantage: you will have the option to Lock Your Price - secure the current price by paying in advance for multiple years. In the past, some customers have been able to lock in five years of Sprend at today's rates (a prudent strategy to protect against future price increases). Although these features are designed to enhance user experience, they also reflect our commitment to continuous improvement.

This rhythm allows us the necessary time to refine each feature, while also providing a steady stream of improvements for our users.

Photo by Sebastiao Salgado

We are currently engaged in the brainstorming process for forthcoming features and one concept that particularly excites us is a feature Sprend to Go. We were inspired by the Public Library. Why?  This functionality will enable users to upload files directly to the Sprend website, thereby eliminating the necessity of logging into your email. Upon completion of the upload, you will receive a single-use Code in Sprend inbox, which allows for secure file sharing. The most advantageous aspect? The code is designed to be utilized only once, thereby safeguarding your content's privacy and rendering it inaccessible after the initial download. So we are calling this feature Sprend to Go!

We are eager to unveil these advancements to you and await your feedback. Have an idea for a prospective feature? Please do not hesitate to inform us! Together, we can strive to make Sprend as exceptional as possible. Therefore, stay tuned for additional updates.

2025 Goals: Empowering our Customers and Elevating our Service

Life is indeed an unpredictable journey. It does not have any guarantees, no passwords for protection, and absolutely no book to follow its complex nature. It’s full of different kinds of moments - some we want to hold onto forever and others we would willingly trade for days in the woods. But the disorderliness of life gives us the opportunity to progress.

As we make our way through this highly unpredictable terrain, we always have with us a range of ideas and plans. Amidst the splendid chaos of existence, life remains undeniably rewarding (even if it involves stumbling over our own feet). It emphasizes the importance of persistence, the necessity of starting anew, and the pursuit of joy within disorder. 

File Not Found: “Peace of Mind”

Photo by Luis Villasmil (Unsplash)

However, while we cannot guarantee a resolution to life's peculiarities, Sprend is committed to accomplishing at least one task with ease: assisting you in managing the digital clutter that life generates. Consider us the dependable friend who always arrives with duct tape and snacks, prepared to mend what is broken and enhance the journey while making it a little more enjoyable. 

In a world where life frequently feels both congested and overwhelming, simplicity is an infrequent yet invaluable resource. Much like how Sprend simplifies file sharing, life, too, can gain from discovering methods to streamline and simplify the multitude of tasks and challenges we confront daily. But as we already mentioned, unlike Sprend, life does not provide encryption for our personal moments - our vulnerabilities, or our decisions. Sprend recognizes the significance of facilitating ease, offering features such as password protection and unlimited file transfers to conserve your time and effort. This similarity extends to life, where we frequently find ourselves yearning for tools that might assist us in managing our hectic days.

Sprend's simplicity in file sharing serves as a poignant reminder of how we can harvest the benefits of it in our everyday lives. Time is a precious commodity and we should not allow ourselves to overcomplicate matters. What we need are solutions that are not only quick but also efficient and reliable. Life, although it does not always present us with straightforward answers, offers Sprend as an exception, enabling us to concentrate on what genuinely matters.

Sprend Keeps You Connected

Photo by NASA

Looking forward, the year 2025 promises to be a period filled with thrilling developments and innovative features. More intelligent tools will facilitate file sharing, making it as effortless as locating your preferred pair of socks (you know, the ones that seem to vanish without a trace). There will, however, be a few delightful surprises.
Our primary objective, alongside all these gleaming new features, is to prompt you to consider, “Indeed, this is precisely why I selected Sprend!”

We are here to simplify our lives but also to add some humor down the way. Thank you for placing your trust in us, our customers are the reason we persist in our endeavors!

Sprend's Reflection and Vision for 2025

Sprend is not just a service; it is a safeguard in an unpredictable world and online realm. Founded on the basic needs of the pyramid developed by Maslow, every single service Sprend offers begins with the most intrinsic of all human needs - a feeling of security. There is a service for this: the Sprend way makes sharing of any files safe and private so that users can concentrate on the real issues at hand - be it a deal closure, a project, or interpersonal relationships.

But we argue that safety is merely the starting point of the journey. If we remove the fear of "what if" from the people, then we are setting them at a higher level of goals. The future of Sprend, however, extends far beyond just protected and secured file-sharing systems, it facilitates everyone to express themselves, work together, and create effortlessly. Fantastic, confident tools and a creative environment where people would be using Sprend to turn ideas into realities instead of merely securing their data. This is what we strive for to transform users from a secured position to an empowered position where they can achieve their fullest potential in every way.

Going forward, we seek to build on this base. Our objectives are challenging but quite realistic taking into account our faith in development and change. We see Sprend becoming a global market leader in secure communication, a platform that will become a Metaphorical safety net for millions and creativity. Furthermore, each feature will aim to become even more intuitive, security simplified and every interaction will be inspirational.

Thank you for supporting us and choosing a service that cares about its users. In 2025, our priority is to add new features and make the service even better and more creative in the sending process.

The Sprend team wishes you a happy and successful 2025. But first of all, have fun in December!

Photo by Joshua Hoehne (Unsplash)

Restoring Trust in a Surveillance-Driven World: How Sprend Protects Your Privacy and Data

Society has more than enough instances to cause one to wonder about one's privacy. One sends an email, a photograph, or a document, and the whole stuff can be transferred into a large-scale oversight control system.

It is enough to consider this a plotline of a fiction film, for example, the movie The Dark Knight, in which Batman resorts to unethical practices of using the surveillance system that operates throughout Gotham City in an effort to catch the villain. However, he even salvages the situation but is not comfortable when it comes to the ethical issue and upshots of the procedure and ends up shutting the whole system down. The issue here resides in that it is a matter of hope rather than certainty that such things in real life will not be abused - or even used.

Can you afford to be friends with the Joker?

Photo by Debasish Lenk (Unsplash)

This is not an imaginary concept. It is the essence of current supervision. An enormous length, such as the ones employed by certain organizations, encompasses not just the ‘bad guys’ but also interferes with the most private aspects of the majority including text messages, e-mails, and even sensitive business documents. So, what about privacy, autonomy, and trust?

Now let’s take this on a personal level. Let’s say one of you who is attending this presentation has been involved in preparing a very sensitive investment proposal. It may be in the middle of a heated negotiation. It may be a term sheet for an innovative new venture. You share the document through email or cloud storage. At a certain point in time, that document is intercepted not by cyber intruders but by normal day-to-day activities of advanced technology. It is tagged and it is copied to be saved in a central office. A document that is utterly innocuous, drowned out by the chorus of millions of other documents and files that could, through the ‘wrong’ circumstances, become prominent and significant one day. A rival gets a whiff of it, it interferes with your deal and now the faith you used to have in the precise tools is entirely reversed. In place is an insatiable suspicion. What else do these people have knowledge about?

That is where Sprend comes in

We are communitarians, and we are firm about our beliefs — privacy is not a privilege; it is an absolute right. Your pictures or business documents are yours, and no one has the right to infringe on them. What we have constructed is more than a file-sharing platform; we have indeed constructed a fortress. We have so much confidence in the processes, protection, and privacy that we begin to encrypt your data the moment you upload it to the platform when users choose this option. In order to access your files, not even Sprend developers have it. It is not a shortcoming; it is a decision. There is a reason why we decline to bend towards obliterated privacy.

Don't befriend those who can steal your peace of mind. Instead of the Joker, make it Batman!

Photo by Jon Tyson (Unsplash)

Strengthening the bond with other family members, developing a new relationship, or securing the past can be dull and restrained as you know from experience. You begin losing your cool as the government or even a business or hackers can ring your doorbell. However, with Sprend that door becomes a wall expanding technologies and trust. Moreover, we protect with confidence your most vested data.

There is one thing that cannot be questioned and that value is of our work, especially the certainty that one may hope for a sense of safety regarding information and files, which is imminent, alleviates pressure and restores lost trust. We are not a file-sharing service; it’s more than that; we are a company ensuring that what matters to you is never lost!