These applications offer support for, and management of, data access from and storage on mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets. Can automatically sync cloud-stored files to a local folder on your computer and vice versa.Ĭreate user accounts and distribution groups, set user permissions (e.g., "view only" or "editing"), match files to accounts based on email addresses, authentication type, pick storage zones and group memberships. Lets users sync the files they're working on directly from a native application (e.g., word processor). Offers an indexing and search functionality to help locate files by searching for a variety of parameters, such as: words or phrases in the title or body of the file upload and last-modified dates user interactions and more. File storage apps may include various versioning control, user access tools and file recovery functionality. Provides cloud-based file storage to upload and store files on either company or vendor servers. The core application that lets users upload files, tag or save them them under a specific department, category or folder and share the files with other users, internally, externally or both. Be aware that there may not always be clear lines dividing some of these applications from each other.
The following table illustrates the range of applications and capabilities available across the wide spectrum of file sharing offerings. Once you have a feel for the scope of applications, we'll look at some common use cases to help you decide which most applies to your business. To help you narrow down your search, we'll look first at the common features of file sharing software. For example, they don't support collaboration or content management and they don't integrate well with other business platforms, like CRM or project management software. There's a huge range of products that can be considered file sharing software, but the range of products that will meet your company's specific file-sharing needs is going to be much, much smaller.įor example, Gmail and Outlook both let users share files as email attachments, but these email apps would only meet the file-sharing needs of companies with extremely basic file-sharing requirements. The term “file sharing software" actually encompasses many different platforms, applications and add-ons. This Buyer's Guide will help you better juggle and more accurately weigh your priorities when selecting file sharing software.
Options for security, collaboration and mobility differ greatly between the many types of file sharing tools, and businesses need to weigh a wide range of variables during the selection process. However, because there are so many options available, businesses often struggle to choose among them. Thankfully, there's no shortage of file sharing tools and applications. It's almost impossible to imagine how modern businesses would operate without sharing digital files. File sharing is integral to many of the workflows found in modern digital offices.