Sending the file
Nothing to set up, but no preview, no receipt and no structured answer.
For a light file and a responsive client, an attachment is enough. colis adds what an attachment cannot say: whether the file was opened, which version was approved, and the client’s answer in a form a script can read.
An email attachment
In its own terms.
Attach the file to an email. Nothing new for anyone: your client already knows how to open it, and the conversation stays in the thread.
Side by side
Where they part ways.
| colis | An email attachment | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the file lives | Your bucket: S3, R2, MinIO, Scaleway, Wasabi | The sender’s and the recipient’s mailboxes |
| Knowing it was opened | Sent, opened, approved or changes, each with its time | None, unless the recipient agrees to send a read receipt |
| The client’s answer | Approve, or ask for changes with a comment, from the pickup page. Once, for good | A reply in the thread, in free text |
| Starting an automation | A signed webhook at every step, and an n8n node | Mail rules, depending on your email client |
| Large files | Straight from the browser to the bucket in parts, resumable; 2 GB by default | Capped by each side’s mail server |
| What the client needs | Nothing: a code or a link | An email address |
| When it goes away | When you say: ten minutes to your maximum, or at the first download | When each side deletes the message |
The differences
What actually changes.
Size
An attachment is capped by the mail servers on both sides. The delivery page sends large files straight to your bucket, in parts, and resumes an interrupted upload.
Which version was approved
With colis each version is its own parcel, with its own code and its own verdict. “Fine by me” in a thread does not say which attachment it answers.
The file stays yours
An attachment lives in two mailboxes for as long as they keep it. A parcel lives in your bucket until its expiry, and a lifecycle rule deletes it.
The decision
Pick the one that fits.
Keep an email attachment when
- The file is light and the client is used to email
- You need no trace of the approval
- Nobody should have anything new to open
Pick colis when
- You want to know the client opened it, and when
- The approval, or the changes asked, should be one click and on record
- The file is heavy, or should not sit in a mailbox
- The answer should start something: an invoice, a ticket, a message
More comparisons
The other ways.
Send it. They sign off. You know.
Your storage, a delivery page under your name, a webhook at every step. Nothing hosted by someone else.