The Seven Best File Sharing Tools

Revised September 26, 2022
Revised May 1, 2020
Revised August 1, 2018

Sharing large files like videos or graphic-intensive documents used to be painful. Depending on the size of the file, email was impractical if not downright impossible. FTP sites were the most common alternative, but these were often cumbersome to access and use.

Fortunately, a number of file sharing tools and services have been rolled out over the past few years which speed and simplify the process. These tools make it easy and (relatively) secure to share large files with another individual, co-workers, outside vendors, or any ad hoc group for collaboration.

File sharing tools are invaluable not only for content marketing professionals and consultants (e.g., collaborating on a video or ebook), but across the organization: in product design, finance, supply chain management, application development, and other functional areas.

Most of these services operate similarly in that you can upload files and automatically notify team members by email, and optionally download files for local storage. Different tools do vary though in terms of additional features, pricing, and storage capacity.

Here are seven of the best file sharing tools according to expert reviewers. As with all posts in this series, tools are shown with the number of results returned by Google on a search for reviews of that tool (not necessarily the actual number of reviews) and example showcase reviews. Links to all showcase reviews are included near the end of this post.

1) Dropbox
Google Review Count: 354

With its downloadable app, any files you save to Dropbox are synced across all your devices. Files can be shared with anyone, even if they don’t have Droxbox accounts. For collaboration purposes, any file edited in a Dropbox folder is automatically updated for everyone it’s been shared with.

Sample review:  “Dropbox is first of all a file sharing tool. You can use it in your browser, mobile app or computer application. You can share folders with other users. But this is just the basic function. What makes Dropbox great is the choice of apps which allow additional functions for your Dropbox. You can have photos, your website, your database or email automatically saved to your Dropbox.” — Anders Orsander

Pricing: free to $12.50 per user per month; enterprise pricing available by quote

Showcase reviews: Anders Orsander, PR Daily (7 PR Tools), Johnny Lists, SmartBug Media, StoreYa Blog

2) WeTransfer
Google Review Count: 196

The free version allows you to transfer files up to 2GB. The paid version enables you send up to 20GB, customize your background, personalize your file sharing URL, and store files indefinitely.

Sample review:  “An easy way to send big files.” — Johnny Lists

Pricing: free or $12 per month / $120 per year

Showcase reviews: Siasat, Johnny Lists

3) Otixo
Google Review Count: 182

Otixo is a cloud manager that lets you organize, share, and encrypt files across a range of services including Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon, FTP sites, Evernote, and other services. Access all of your files with a single login, search across services and transfer files between them, and preview documents and images.

Pricing: free to $10 per month

Showcase reviews: Siasat

 

4) Raindrop
Google Review Count: 179

Clip articles, photos, videos and pages from web and apps; group and organize these into collections; and share your collections or work collaboratively with any group.

Sample review: “Raindrop, which functions as an archive and collection system, is a cloud–based web, desktop and mobile app that syncs across all of your devices. Use it as a collecting, organizing, sharing and collaborating tool.” — Social Media Examiner

Pricing: free or $2 per month

Showcase reviews: Social Media Examiner

5) Ge.tt
Google Review Count: 169

Transfer up to 2GB of files free, or upgrade to 50GB of storage (1GB individual file size) or a plan with 1 terabyte of storage and up to 200GB per file.

Sample review:  “Quickly send a file to someone, they can even preview it before downloading.” — Siasat

Pricing: free to $4 per month

Showcase reviews: Siasat

6) Google Drive
Google Review Count: 117

Store files, sync across devices, share files with anyone (even if they don’t use Google Drive), and integrate with Google Apps for Word (Docs, Calendar, Sheets, etc.). Google’s tools are popular and widely used, but if you are concerned about the privacy of your data, check out these alternatives to Google Drive.

Sample review:  “Google Drive is a great place to keep your editorial calendars for easy sharing and collaboration during the content planning process.” — Online Marketing Institute

Pricing: free or $10/user per month

Showcase reviews: Online Marketing Institute, PR Daily (23 Tools for PR Pros), Marketing Insider Group, Blogging Wizzard, SmartBug Media, StoreYa Blog, Hunter & Bard, Robbie Richards

7) PlusTransfer
Google Review Count: 61

Send files up to 5GB for free.

Pricing: free

Showcase reviews: Siasat

More Tools

MultCloud
Google Review Count: 177

MultCloud enables you to transfer files between cloud service providers (for example, move all files from one Google Drive to another or use “copy and paste” to copy certain files from Dropbox to Google Drive); sync two cloud services or two folders on different cloud accounts at prescheduled intervals; and access and manage all your online files with a single login (upload, download, copy/cut, paste, preview and rename your online files as in Windows Explorer).

Pricing: free or $10 per month

EnduraData
Google Review Count: 70

Rather than sharing individual large files, EnduraData’s EDpCloud solution enables enterprises to share large amounts of data and numbers of files securely across locations. It’s ideal for multi-location organizations that work with large amounts of sensitive information, such as financial institutions, clinical researchers, and government agencies. Using public or private clouds, it keeps files in sync and protected from natural disasters, malicious attacks, and unauthorized access.

Pricing: contact vendor

FTP Today
Google Review Count: 53

A highly secure file sharing service compliant with HIPAA, PCI DSS, SOX and other standards. Features include in-transit and at-rest encryption, private and shared folders, country and IP address-level restrictions, and on-demand reporting.

Pricing: four levels from $50 to $400 per month

TitanFile
Google Review Count: 51

TitanFile enables professionals to exchange files of any size easily and securely. Among its features are Outlook integration; full audit logs; activity notifications; any time / any device accessibility; and the ability to organize files by client and subject matter.

Pricing: $16/$22/$24 per user per month; contact vendor for enterprise pricing

Bynder Orbit
Google Review Count: 28

A file sharing service specifically designed for storing, sharing, collaborating, and reformatting digital files and creative projects. Find files easily with search and categorization features plus auto-tagging and filters. Storage is secure (ISO27001:2013 certification) and HIPAA-compliant, and files can be shared with individuals or groups.

Pricing: free or $379 per month; contact vendor for enterprise pricing

Showcase Reviews

Anders Orsander
Blogging Wizard
Hunter & Bard
Johnny Lists
Marketing Insider Group
Online Marketing Institute
PR Daily (7 PR Tools)
PR Daily (23 Tools for PR Pros)
Robbie Richards
Siasat
SmartBug Media
Social Media Examiner
StoreYa Blog

This was the 11th post in the Best Online Business Tools series.

#1: Best Online Business Tools Series Kicks Off Today

#2: The 12 Best Competitive Intelligence and Benchmarking Tools

#3: The Nine Best Facebook Marketing Tools

#4: The 14 Best Content Planning and Research Tools

#5: The 23 Best Content Ideation Tools

#6: The 24 Best Online Writing Tools and Apps

#7: The Six Best Google+ Marketing Tools

#8: The Four Best Online Education Tools For Business Pros

#9: The 14 Best Marketing Automation Tools

#10: The 17 Best Keyword Research Tools for SEO and SEM

#11: The Seven Best File Sharing Tools