File Upload Infrastructure Decisions Every Early-Stage CTO Faces

At some point in a company’s early stage, a small question comes up: how should we handle file uploads? At first, it may look like a simple feature. You might just want users to upload profile pictures, documents, or images for a feature in your product. But file uploads are not as simple as they seem. They affect many important parts of your system, including user experience, application security, compliance requirements, and even your cloud costs. If file uploads are handled poorly, the problem isn’t just a slow upload button. It can create security risks, increase your cloud costs, and take weeks or even months of engineering time to fix. Because of this, it’s important to think carefully before deciding how to handle file uploads. In this guide, you’ll learn how to decide whether to build file uploads yourself or use a managed API, and what factors to consider before choosing a provider. Before going deeper into the technical and strategic decisions, here are the key ideas to keep