ShareFile Security Stacks Up to Dropbox
Where there's room for error, there's room for competition. That's what's been happening in the file sharing realm lately, at least. When Dropbox reported that thousands of user passwords had been compromised a few months ago, Dropbox users began to look elsewhere – and just as those users were looking for alternatives, companies with better options pounced.
Enter ShareFile by Citrix.
ShareFile makes no qualms about being a direct Dropbox competitor. ShareFile claims to be a more secure alternative to Dropbox, and the site has also gained a lot of traction with all kinds of users. When you sign up for a free ShareFile account, here's what you get.
Citrix ShareFile Plan For $29.95/Month
- 256-bit SSL encryption on all shared files
- Mashed passwords that ShareFile does not have access to
- Unlimited client users
- Telephone and email support
- 5GB of storage
Citrix ShareFile Plan For $59.95/Month
- 10GB of storage
- Unlimited clients
- Custom branding
- Encrypted transfers
- Email and phone support
- Outlook plugin
- Desktop sync
Citrix ShareFile Plan For $99.95/Month
- 20GB of storage
- Encrypted file sharing
- Email and phone support
- Outlook plugin
- Desktop sync
- Enterprise synch
More Options For Fileshare
ShareFile notes that you can contact the company to set up an Enterprise account that would provide you with more storage options, but most small businesses and startups are going to go for the basic $29.95 option, right? Well, let's compare that option to Dropbox.
A Closer Look at Dropbox ShareFile Plan $29.95 Option
Dropbox provides users with 2GB of free storage. After that, you have to pay $9.95 per month for 100, 200, or 500 GB. From there, you can move up to 1TB for business purposes (inquire with Dropbox for rates). I also want to point out that Google Drive provides you with 5GB of storage for free. But what about security?
ShareFile's claim is that this sharing service is more secure than Dropbox. How accurate is that claim? You get a 256-bit SSL encryption with ShareFile. Dropbox provides you with the same security. The difference is that Dropbox holds the keys while ShareFile (presumably?) does not. That might be a more secure feature when you think about it, but that $29.95 per month is really hard to swallow.
Is It Worth It?
If you're running a startup with a small budget, forking over $29.95 per month for a file sharing service is a lot of coin. There's always the chance that Dropbox might have a security breach again, but, hey, there's also a chance that ShareFile might go through a hack too. Really, Dropbox didn't have any issues until it did, and that means that ShareFile can have the same problem in the long run.
So, in my opinion, forking over $29.95 for ShareFile seems excessive. But, then again, maybe there are some ShareFile users out there that will, and can, prove me wrong. How about it? Do you use ShareFile? Have you had a good or bad experience? Let me know below!
