Files.com vs. FileCloud

Overview of Files.com

Files.com is a U.S-based cloud-native Managed File Transfer (MFT), automation, and integration platform that enables organizations to securely store, transfer, and share files between users, teams, and organizations. MFT technology provides the secure transfer of data efficiently and reliably compared to insecure technologies such as FTP and HTTP. Files.com provides a cloud-centric approach to file-based automations and integrations while emphasizing security, compliance, and data residency for business-critical file transfers and exchanges.

Files.com is primarily designed for business-critical MFT workloads. And it has been providing these services to enterprise customers for over 10 years now, servicing 6500+ global customers across key industries like healthcare, finance, media, technology, and more. Files.com acts as both a client and a server for SFTP, FTP, and Applicability Statement 2 (AS2) protocols. This allows you to easily connect to any partner, customer, or system without compromising security.

Key features and capabilities include:

Full custom domains, with custom SSL certificates and dedicated IP address
Real-time and scheduled sync integrations with third-party storage services such as Amazon S3, Azure, Google Cloud, SharePoint, Box, Dropbox, and more.
Bi-directional FTP/SFTP—which means Files.com can act as an FTP/SFTP client in addition to a server, enabling complex workflows.
Provides native apps for high-performance internal transfers.
Advanced automation and workflows, including bi-directional webhooks, GPG encryption/decryption, click wraps, and watermarking
Enterprise Single Sign On (SSO) services that support all major SSO providers
Out-of-the-box integration support for various third-party services and technologies
Encryption at-rest and in-transit protects the confidentiality of data during storage and transfers.

Files.com offers a free 7-day trial with full access to the entire platform, including all integrations, automations, protocols, and APIs. When you’re ready to buy, your trial environment will seamlessly convert into your paid environment.

Overview of FileCloud

Figure 2.0 | Screenshot of FileCloud home page

FileCloud is a U.S-based content collaboration platform (CCP) that offers file sharing and synchronization capabilities on public, private, and hybrid clouds. FileCloud is ideal for organizations that are looking to implement enterprise file sharing and remote access to files across devices and platforms. Other common use cases include cloud file servers, self-hosted file-sharing services, virtual data rooms, content services platforms, enterprise records management, white label file sharing and sync, FTP service replacement, and partner file sharing portal, among others.

FileCloud application comes in two flavors:

FileCloud Enterprise Online A fully managed, cloud-based enterprise file sharing and collaboration platform. FileCloud Enterprise Online has servers across multiple geographical regions across the globe to support your data residency regulatory requirements. There’s also an AWS GovCloud option for organizations that work directly with the U.S. government.
FileCloud Enterprise Server An enterprise-grade private cloud file-sharing and content collaboration software. It allows you to run your own private Dropbox-like file sharing and sync solution, integrated with your IT infrastructure and storage. This is ideal for organizations that want to have complete control over their data.

FileCloud offers a variety of features, including the ability to integrate with your existing file server, and the ability to lock files to avoid conflicting changes.

Other features and capabilities include, but are not limited to:

Alerts users when shared files or folders are changed
Allows access to files from iOS and Android
Mounts your remote files as a network share in Windows Explorer
Public and private sharing with expiration dates and other global policies
Highly customizable to reflect organization’s brand
Multi-Tenancy architecture for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and large enterprises
Helps you comply with various regulatory standards such as HIPAA, GDPR, and others

A free 15-day trial of FileCloud online, and a free 30-day trial of FileCloud server are available on request.

Files.com Vs FileCloud: How They Compare

Installation and Setup

Files.com is a SaaS-based MFT application, which means there are no installation hassles other than the usual sign-up process using an internet-connected device with a supported browser. Once the sign-up process is completed, your account will be activated instantly, and you can dive in and start exploring.

The admin portal makes onboarding easy and allows you to email invitations to new users. During this process, you can add users to groups with global share settings or define individual share access permissions. Desktop apps are available for Windows and macOS, and after users log into their account, it creates a mapped drive for swift access to shared cloud folders. Desktop apps extend your Windows or Mac devices with a Files.com drive, so you can open and save files in any application. A personal web portal provides access to private and shared folders, with options to upload and download files and folders.

FileCloud offers a flexible deployment option. The FileCloud Enterprise Online is a fully managed cloud service, which means there are no installation hassles other than the usual routine sign-up process. On the other hand, the FileCloud Enterprise Server requires installation on your infrastructure either locally on Windows and Linux servers (Debian/Ubuntu, CentOS/Red Hat) or on your AWS or Azure cloud server with full control of your data. This deployment model is ideal for organizations that want to have granular control, but it comes at a cost—you need to have all the human and material resources to manage it in-house.

Cloud Storage and Backup

Files.com isn’t really designed for online storage and backup, but it performs this function indirectly. It is primarily a cloud-based MFT application, which means its focus is on the secure transfer of files. This also implies that the huge amount of file data that passes through the Files.com network for file transfers is also securely stored on their cloud storage servers. Uploading files, copying files, creating, or updating new versions all contribute to addition in storage usage. In addition, Files.com also allows you to schedule sync integrations with 3rd party storage services such as Amazon S3, Azure, Google Cloud, SharePoint, Box, Dropbox, and more.

Similarly, FileCloud isn’t really a dedicated online storage and backup service. Nonetheless, the fact that it offers file sharing and synchronization services allows it to also provide file storage and backup services. If you need a dedicated online backup solution, check out our best online backup and storage solution. FileCloud allows you to back up and restore files across all platforms, and to access them from anywhere. It comes with features such as file versioning, automatic media backup from mobile devices, and a backup scheduler.

Collaboration and Sharing

The real power of Files.com is made manifest when it comes to business-critical Managed File Transfer workloads, Content Collaboration, and File Sharing. Some Files.com customers deploy the service to their entire organization, unifying MFT and File Sharing. Others leverage the built-in integrations with SharePoint, Box, Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, and others to build workflows and automations around content stored in another platform.

Files.com allows you to share individual files, groups of files, or entire folders via a unique secure link that functions as a bearer key. Once the link is generated, you can send it to the chosen recipient via email, chat, or any other method. In addition to the “Share Links” capability, Files.com also comes with user history logs, custom branding, built-in web hosting mode for hosting entire static websites (including JavaScript and CSS files) with web hosting features, share permissions that allow you to password protect, preview-only, add an expiration date, and even watermark the files you share.

One unique feature that makes Files.com stand out among the rest is the share link inbox, which is designed for receiving files uploaded by anonymous users from anywhere in the world. Imagine the simplicity of providing a hyperlink in an email or on your organization’s website for anyone needing to upload documents such as invoices, receipts, legal documents, reports, and more. All these are designed and executed in a way that does not compromise the security of other files or your site as a whole.

For FileCloud, hosting your files on their platform means that you can also share them easily with others. In fact, when it comes to file-sharing and collaboration, FileCloud performance and the set of options available are quite impressive. It allows you to securely share folders and documents with users across the internet by using links and URLs that FileCloud generates for you. Unlike other services, FileCloud enables you to customize these links by letting you rename the URLs to get rid of those random alphanumeric characters. You can also change the share permissions by allowing everyone or only select users to access the share. Once you’re done with link customization and permissions, you can then choose to copy or send the link via email or other channels.

There is no specific file size limitation in FileCloud. You can share large-size files running into GBs with users inside and outside your organization, and also have conversations around those shared files. You can also restrict the types of files that can be shared or uploaded, and design custom workflows to automate business processes. All these are geared towards enhancing your sharing and collaboration experience.

Integrations and Extensions

Files.com does not intend to replace your existing cloud file-sharing and collaboration solutions, rather, it wants to work with them. This is why it comes with out-of-the-box integrations with all key cloud providers such as Microsoft (Azure, SharePoint, OneDrive, Active Directory & Office), AWS (S3 & SNS), Google (Cloud & Drive), Box, Dropbox, Zapier, and dozens of others. Developers can also leverage Files.com native SDKs, API, and CLI tools to build custom integrations, and connect to any folder located almost anywhere. and extend the capabilities of the application.

FileCloud’s approach to integration is mostly geared towards providing access to third-party productivity, cloud hosting, and security tools. As an enterprise file-sharing service, one would expect to see integration support for a wide array of native and third-party productivity tools to boost collaboration. Instead, what it does offer is a Microsoft Office integration, so you can preview and edit Office files, which of course requires an Office 365 subscription to edit those files. However, there is integration support for Apple, AWS, Digital Ocean, Salesforce, SIEM tool, and other security tools, but they’re mostly available for the “enterprise” editions. Nonetheless, FileCloud just like Files.com provides FileCloud Developer API with the tools necessary to build a variety of apps and clients. This allows the extensibility and integration of FileCloud with your existing enterprise systems and frameworks.

Security and Privacy

Files.com is loaded with lots of security features to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of data. The security features include encryption for data-at-rest and data-in-transit, four types of two-factor authentication, nine enterprise identity (SSO) integrations, and support for customer-managed GPG keys, SSH keys, and SSL certificates, built-in integrations with Yubikey, FIDO/U2F, Google Authenticator, Duo, Authy, and SMS. Highly configurable security settings include password policies, session policies, 2FA policies, and brute force rules. Files.com has servers across the globe and provides the option to configure the geographic region (and by extension, political jurisdiction) where your files will be stored in order to meet regulatory requirements.

Similarly, when it comes to security, FileCloud comes with essential security features such as two-factor authentication (2FA), single sign-on (SSO), heuristic file content scanning engine to detect and block Ransomware, SIEM integration to monitor FileCloud alerts and audit events, data loss prevention in real time, encryption for data at rest and in motion, among others. In fact, the security features are so much that there is hardly any security function that you’re looking to perform that is not available in FileCloud. However, when it comes to data encryption, FileCloud manages your key if you choose to store files on its servers, which gives it the power to decrypt your files and hand them over to law enforcement if the need arises. But if you self-host, you will be able to manage your encryption key and secure it with your own password in order to gain control of your privacy.

Licensing and Price Plans

Files.com offers affordable pricing options for businesses of all sizes. Its pricing plans are broken into Starter, Power, and Premier price plans as shown in the table below. Plan pricing is partially based on user count, which means that you must commit to a minimum number of users. Charges are based on one total monthly number called “Usage,” representing your total billable usage of the Files.com service. This “Usage” number is the sum of your “Storage Usage” and your “Transfer Usage.”

Features	Starter	Power	Premier
Minimum User Commitment	5	Minimums Apply	Minimums Apply
Monthly Usage Included	1 TB	5 TB	10 TB
Daily API Request Limit	50,000	250,000	2,000,000

Table 1.0 | Files.com Pricing Plans

FileCloud licensing and price plans are grouped according to the Server and Online editions of the software. The FileCloud Enterprise Online comes in three price plans: Essentials ($12.50 user/month), Advanced ($18.75 user/month), and GovCloud (price available on request). The FileCloud Enterprise Server price plans include Essentials ($6 user/month), Advanced (price available on request), and Service provider plan (price available on request).