14 Low Cost File-Sharing Services That Your Whole Team Can Use

The days of filing cabinets and fax machines over. With most business practices being performed through the cloud, the world is more connected than ever. However, if you want to make sure your information is safe and sound, setting up a file-sharing service is a necessary step to take in building your business.

We asked 14 entrepreneurs what their favorite low cost file-sharing services were that can be easily used by an entire team. Check out their answers below:

Box

Box is a UK-based file sharing service that has both personal and business options. It offers unlimited storage on business accounts and it integrates with Microsoft Office 365. It’s simple to use, secure and affordable.”

– Jonathan Long of LAWYE.RS

Google Drive

“We use Google Drive for file sharing among our team and also clients. It is free till 15 GB for each user and get 100 GB is only $2 a month. We can share any type of file and also create Google office files and share. It comes with apps for desktops and smartphones that we can download and synch from there. It maintains the versions. Also, many people have Google accounts, so we can share easily.”

– Piyush Jain of SIMpalm

BitTorrent Sync

“BitTorrent Sync is the best file sharing solution we’ve used by a mile. For most use cases, it is completely free no matter how many users you have. It has higher security because it never gets stored in the “cloud.” It’s also fast, especially within a local network, precisely because it goes directly between the users rather than uploading and then downloading on other cloud services.”

– James Simpson of GoldFire Studios

Slack

“People think of Slack as a chat, but it’s a lot more than that. It’s a perfect solution for a remote-working and mobile-friendly team to search, share and store files that need to be ready at a moment’s notice.”

– Brennan White of Cortex

Copy

Copy is a great service that I’ve used over the past couple of years. It works basically the same as Dropbox, but you get a few more bells and whistles while spending around half the yearly price as most other services like it.”

– John Rampton of Calendar

A Shared Server

“All of our computers are connected and have a shared folder via Wi-Fi. This method is very low-cost and secure.”

– Andrew Namminga of Andesign

 

Hightail

“We have a unique Hightail upload link that makes it easy for employees and clients to send bulk files all at once, without dealing with multiple emails. Since our business heavily relies on receiving photo and video content from clients, Hightail has made our lives much easier.”

– Micah Johnson of GoFanbase, Inc.

Dropbox

“I find Dropbox relatively inexpensive for what you get, and with the new functionality of being able to comment on files, it makes my life much easier. If I were to pick a negative, it would be purchasing more storage for your account, which can get pricey for multiple users.”

– Jayne Cooke of EVENTup

WeTransfer

“I love Google Drive for many things, but for sharing it doesn’t always work right. Wetransfer.com is my go-to solution for quick, free and painless sharing for anything up to 2 GB. You don’t even need an account to send anything, and I’ve used it at least 200 times over the years.”

– Josh Sprague of Orange Mud

OwnCloud

“The available SaaS file-sharing services aren’t always a great fit: they have limited features, aren’t easily customized and security is a coin toss. OwnCloud is a self-hosted file-sharing and collaboration solution with great encryption. It’s hosted on your own servers, in a data center or in the cloud. The major benefit is that your IT department has full control over where and how data is stored.”

– Vik Patel of Future Hosting

Chatter

“If you’re already a Salesforce customer then you may be familiar with Chatter, what we describe as our internal social network. We communicate in department groups and often share relevant information — such as training material or marketing collateral — by posting it directly to the group. Chatter shows a PDF preview of uploaded files and allows people to like, comment and download a copy.”

– David Ciccarelli of Voices.com

MediaFire

“If you have a lot of files to share but not a huge budget, MediaFire is a great choice for you and your company. There is no limit on storage space and the interface is extremely easy to work with and show to your teams. There is no limit on how many users can dial in to this tool, and it is a great space for team members to communicate, share files, bounce ideas back and forth and more.”

– Miles Jennings of Recruiter.com

Streamfile

“With Streamfile, you can send and share files up to 300 MB for free. No registration is required, and your files are encrypted. You also get 1 GB of bandwidth each month, and premium accounts are available starting at only $79 per month.”

– Andrew Schrage of Money Crashers Personal Finance

Seafile and OwnCloud

Seafile and OwnCloud have seen some some good success, are actively supported and offer community editions that are free. They also have paid versions that are reasonable and low-cost compared to more mainstream big tech companies.”

– Kevin Conner of BroadbandSearch

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Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world's most promising young entrepreneurs. YEC members generate billions of dollars in revenue and have created tens of thousands of jobs.
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