One of the founders of WeTransfer — a popular free file-sharing service used by millions worldwide — is publicly criticizing the company’s new direction. Dutch entrepreneur Nalden, who co-founded the platform in 2009, says he’s deeply unhappy with changes made since Bending Spoons — a Milan-based tech firm known for buying and restructuring popular apps — acquired the service last year.

“Bending Spoons doesn’t really care about people. Even though I get that it is their private equity strategy, I notice that since I left [WeTransfer] in 2019, there were a lot of updates that were basically killing the product, in my point of view,” he told TechCrunch.

After the acquisition, WeTransfer made unclear changes to how transfer links work and laid off 75% of its staff. This year, the company sparked controversy over employing its users’ content to train AI models and had to backtrack on changes to its terms.

Soon after, Nalden says creatives began reaching out to share their frustration with WeTransfer. He realized he wanted to build an alternative to WeTransfer that recaptured the original ethos of the service around simplicity. That service is called Boomerang, and users can transfer files without logging in.

“Why do tech companies always make things so complicated? I’ve always struggled with this, and I just wanted to offer another tool that [is entirely focused on the] user experience, its ease of use. It’s the simplicity of sharing something quickly and that just saves time. You don’t need to sign up, you don’t need to verify via email,” Nalden told TechCrunch of the service.

For casual users, the non-login experience should be sufficient, though it has its limits. 1GB of total storage, and a 1GB file size limit with a seven-day expiration. Creating a free account bumps that to 3GB of total storage and a 3GB file size limit. You’ll also get the upload history, the ability to add and delete files anytime, and custom emojis for file-sharing pages.

If you want even more, a €6.99 per-month tier offers 200GB per folder and 500GB total storage with a 5GB file size limit, plus custom covers for folders, password protection, file expiration up to 90 days, and unlimited user invites per folder.

Nalden says he won’t offer advertising or collect unnecessary user data. He feels advertising adds complexity, and with Boomerang, he wants to collect as little information as possible.

“I just want to offer a tool that works for users. It’s like buying a hammer. You possibly don’t want to buy a fancy hammer, but a hammer that just works,” he noted.

Boomerang’s interface is intentionally barebones, which Nalden says is a refreshing change from design meant to impress investors. While many companies add more and more AI features, Nalden said he’s using AI to build the product but won’t add AI to user-facing features.

Boomerang is available on the web, with a dedicated Mac app coming soon.

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