Are you looking for an online tool to share files with co-workers, family and friends?
There are many file sharing tools available that can safely share your documents with others. We have reached out to 30+ experts and asked them: which file sharing tool do you recommend others to use and why?
Here are the ones they recommend you to use.
Top File-Sharing Tools 2023
1. Dropbox (15 votes)
Dropbox is a file hosting service and a modern workspace designed to reduce busywork. That way you can focus on the things that matter.
1. Google Drive (15 votes)
Google Drive is a file storage and synchronization service developed by Google. It allows you to safely store and share your photos, videos, files and more in the cloud. Your first 15 GB of storage are free with a Google account.
3. WeTransfer (8 votes)
WeTransfer is the simplest way to send your files around the world. Share large files up to 2GB for free.
4. Box (3 votes)
Box offers a single place to manage, secure, share and govern all of the content for your internal and external collaboration and processes. Secure collaboration with anyone, anywhere, on any device.
5. Samepage (2 votes)
Samepage is a collaboration software that makes team communication and online project management easy from any device. It offers award-winning team chat, video conferencing and file-sharing.
5. Slack (2 votes)
Slack offers communication and tools, all in one place, so that remote teams will stay productive no matter where they’re coming from. Teamwork in Slack happens in channels (a single place for messaging, tools and files) helping everyone save time and collaborate together.
Read What The Experts Said
Find out what each expert had to say about their favorite software. Select the software from the list below.
Syed Usman Hashmi
Ben Walker
✓ Box.com
Without a doubt box.com is the best file sharing app.. Not only does it have APIs with about every other software on the planet it is also HIPAA compliant and has been since it’s inception. They have been 100% secure and safe to use sine they started and have maintained their HIPAA compliance the entire time, which no other file sharing software can say. If you need secure file sharing box.com is the company you should use.
Lee Savery
✓ Google Drive
As an SEO agency, we depend on file sharing between staff and clients and we trust Google Drive. It’s very easy to use with all documents saving and updating instantly, ensuring everybody always sees the latest version of a document. It’s also very secure with access given to external clients who have a link to documents related to them and nothing else. The cloud-based nature of the platform has been invaluable during the Covid-19 pandemic, as we can access Google Drive anywhere from any device while we work from home.
Adam Sargent
✓ Dropbox
I use Dropbox for all file-sharing internally and with clients. Dropbox offers selective sync to keep hard drive space free so your computer can keep moving quickly. Also works great on mobile devices for when on the go.
Muhammad Ammar Shahid
✓ Google Drive
If you’ve your hands-on Google ecosphere, then Google Drive is the perfect option for you. Its interface is easy to use and access, and it doesn’t take much time to understand its features. It provides a free storage space of 15 GB with backup and sync options. Its file uploading speed is also superb; that is 195MB file gets uploaded in just 45 sec.
Moreover, Google Drive’s paid account is also affordable, and you can subscribe for 200GB storage space for just $35.88/year.
✓ Dropbox
For individuals and professionals, Dropbox offers the best packages for as low as $119.88/year for 2TB storage space. Otherwise, you can also use a free account that gives you 2GB space with uploading speed 46 sec for 195MB. Besides, it integrates a variety of third-party apps to ease your work needs.
To give a better user experience, Dropbox has also upgraded its desktop client, which now advantages the users to create Google Sheets, Docs, and Slides besides keeping notes of to-do things. It has really helped the professionals to boost their productivity.
Colin Ma
✓ Dropbox
Dropbox is hands down the best file-sharing software. It lets you store documents in the cloud which you can share with contributors and stakeholders.
While this is nothing special, it allows you to collaborate on files while they are in the cloud. You can edit the files in the cloud, regardless if they are a word document or spreadsheet. It also lets you collaborate with others on that same folder, so that you can see the changes they are making.
Finally, dropbox has an awesome versioning feature so that you can look at changes made to documents and roll back changes you don’t like. Dropbox keeps all versions of a document so that you don’t have to worry about unsaved changes or worrying too much about what changes an intern might make.
However, Dropbox can be a bit of an overkill if you don’t need a lot of collaboration or you are a very small business. If you’re an individual or you just have a few others looking at the documents, Google One Drive is a great alternative. It doesn’t contain versioning for all file types like Dropbox does, but you can work on most documents in the cloud. It’s also free to store up to 10 GB of data so you don’t have to worry about any expenses you could incur until you reach a sizable amount of files.
As a software engineer consultant I have tried many file-sharing tools and software, but I truly believe the 2 that I mentioned are the best. Dropbox for those who require more cooperation or sharing the files with more people, and Google One Drive for individuals or small teams trying to cut down on expenses.
Justin Grau
✓ Dropbox
I use Dropbox for my team’s file sharing. It is not the cheapest file sharing tool out there, but I believe it is the most comprehensive.
It allows me to do things like website backup, team file sharing, setting permissions on who can access which files, and it is very established, so I am confident my files are safe and the company is not going to have financial issues resulting in having to make a change in the future.
Shivbhadrasinh Gohil
✓ Google Drive
The traditional Google Drive is used for permanent files that store our product data and which are updated from time to time.
Using google drive makes it easier to share the different level permissions with the team.
✓ Droplr
Using Droplr have been too much fun. Hosting a file on droplr’s server solves the storage issue. Also, sharing the automatically copied link of a file when uploaded to droplr with team members have never been this easy!
✓ Plutio
Plutio is a task tracking and team management tool. However, when an employee needs to submit a task in the form of a file, plutio can be a blessing. The record of the task, its time tracked, as well as the related files, everything can be shared among the project members at one place.
Ian Peterman
We use 3 file sharing tools, WeTransfer, Google Drive, and DropBox and we use each for different reasons.
✓ WeTransfer
We use WeTransfer for sending large files, internally or to clients, typically at the end of a project or when someone needs a set number of files.
✓ Google Drive
For ongoing access during a project we use Google drive primarily.
✓ Dropbox
For those clients who don’t have/want Google Drive, we use DropBox as it is neutral to the Apple/Google lines.
Internally we use Google drive for our main file system and between employees/contractors, this is partly because we run G-suite and the native integration is seamless.
For clients starting businesses, we recommend the Google ecosystem, including Drive. For one-off transfers, WeTransfer is great, doesn’t require an account and file delete after about a week. Dropbox is similar in features to Google Drive, but without the documents that Google provides. We do recommend it as a Google alternative, for those who don’t want to use any Google products.
Josefin Björklund
✓ Google Drive
I recommend using Google Drive because it is easy to share files, videos, music, photos, and more at one place with my team members. One of the best features of Google Drive is it automatically syncs data with all the devices linked to one account so that one can immediately retrieve and access the data they need. If any team member from the team will delete files by mistake, it is easy to restore and we will never lose any of our critical data.
✓ Dropbox Business
I highly recommend Dropbox as it allows us to share files and send file requests to other departments or clients even if they don’t have a Dropbox account. Multiple users can leave comments in the files and can collaborate with Office suite. It can recover deleted files and maintains a history of the file version in case the users want to recover old file versions. It can also back up all the photos as they are added.
Dan Edmonson
✓ Dropbox
My top recommendation for photographers or photography companies is Dropbox. Dropbox is a cloud service option that allows for a collaborative work environment and unlimited storage capability. Owners have complete control in terms choosing precisely who has access to what files with high security control such as access level, file encryption, and safe file sharing. With the ability to integrate seamlessly with third party services such as Office 365 and Outlook, Dropbox provides the perfect photography file-sharing tool. The flexibility of a three-tiered pricing plan and a 30 day free trial allows the service to be optimized and tested for your particular needs.
✓ Airtable
Airtable is a cloud-based spreadsheet that serves as a project management tool with the ability to share files in useful and highly customizable formats. Data and more importantly files can be shared in views such as tables, graphs, and calendars to name a few. We use Airtable to effectively manage our content calendar while sharing critical files. The best part of Airtable is the ease to quickly find the files you are looking for using simple and convenient views.
Manny Hernandez
✓ Google Drive
Many users are already familiar with Google Drive because they’ve used the platform’s 15 GB of free storage space for backing up personal files. This familiarity can help organizations that choose the platform to minimize the learning curves among employees. Data is automatically synced with all devices linked to the account and changes are saved automatically.
✓ OneHub
Several well-known brands such as Starbucks, Dell, Aflac, AARP, and others rely on Onehub. Features include an activity tracker to see who interacts with files, easy uploading, and file organization, plus the ability to post messages, assign tasks and collaborate with others. For those concerned with data security, OneHub promises robust permission controls and bank-level data encryption both at rest and in transit.
Joe Bailey
✓ SamePage
SamePage is the file sharing software tool I would recommend, because it is so much more than a file sharing tool. It is actually a collaboration software platform that provides file sharing, task management, online chat, and real time document collaboration capabilities, all in one.
Zhen Tang
✓ Box File Sharing
Box file sharing is an amazing file sharing platform, the more I have used it, the more I like it! Box is well suited for personal and business use. I feel it may be hard to the manager for large teams that all need to access the same files. External collaborators are an excellent feature for groups – allowing selective access to folders as needed. Loading files on the Box is quite fast and allows you to upload the files in just a few seconds. The free individual plane and of ease of use is enough reason for me to recommend Box.
✓ WeTranfer
WeTransfer is one of the best platforms to share big files in a short duration. WeTranser is used across our whole organization to send large invoice files, images, pitches, and contracts. WeTransfer’s free service allows to send up to 2GB of files to up to 20 email addresses. It also enables you to set a password to the download for protection as well as a download expiration/delete date.WeTransfer also allows the user to see if the document was opened by the recipient & how many times.
Peter Thaleikis
✓ Firefox Send
One killer file sharing service is “send” by the Firefox team. It allows you to send files up to 2.5 Gb without any worries to friends and family. All encrypted end-to-end and with automatic expiry.
Christopher Liew
✓ WeTransfer
Sometimes, you have to share a file instantly without creating or signing an account, and the file will be valid for a specific time, at this time, WeTransfer is the best option. I recommended this software for simplicity, and it allows me to personalize file transfers like personalized URL and background images for emails. When sending pictures or videos through WeTransfer, the quality of images and videos are not compromised.
✓ Google Drive
I’m using Google Drive for my office projects because it automatically syncs all our team member’s data and receives the notification when someone from team members has made changes. This feature allows us to work on the same file at the same time. One of the best things about Google Drive is it’s user- friendly UI. I don’t have any security concerns with Google Drive because it uses 256-bit AES encryption with files in transit and 128-bit AES encryption.
Mimi Banks
✓ Google Drive
Real time updates, track changes, comments and all on the cloud
✓ Monday.com
Project management tool which enables you to collaborate across various projects, timelines, and deliverables. You can track status, time spent and each team member’s role.
✓ Dropbox
Oldie but goodie. It’s helpful for larger file share and collaboration. It mostly online now and has new features to enable commenting and realtime updates
Ali Ubaid
✓ Google Drive
Google drive is the product of Google that allows all the Gmail account holders to save and share their files with others. In google drive, you can save your save you doc, sheet, and other data and easily share and link them with others
✓ WeTransfer
WeTransfer is the best tool that helps us to transfer large files all around the world digitally. This is a software that allows us to send and share our big files without any registration or fee.
✓ Dropbox
Just like Google Drive, Dropbox also help the business to simplify their work by giving centralize place to access and share the data
Ty Stewart
✓ WeTransfer
Where possible, I will always try to use WeTransfer. It isn’t the most comprehensive, but it is accessible for everyone – and this is really important to take into consideration when you don’t know another business’ set up. A lot requires both parties to have downloaded or have an account with the sharing tool, but WeTransfer can be used by everyone, and is easy to use
Shagun Chauhan
✓ Slack
– Slack is the famous file-sharing software used by a wide range of businesses. It creates team channels and sends messages. Adding to it, it lets you drag and drop files, bookmark messages, and pin documents. It’s quicker, more efficient, and more user-friendly.
– Features: Messaging, File Synchronization, Drag and Drop, User Management, Workflow management, etc.
✓ Samepage
– Samepage is the leading collaboration software that provides a collaborative environment for business employees. It allows to access and write the files which are on Samepage, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.The user is allowed to share the files without any limitations by using Samepage. Project-related files can be accessible under one page from anywhere in the world as it’s remote-friendly.
– Features: Document management, Audit Trail, Encryption, Version control, etc.
✓ Flock
– Flock is the leading team messenger and online collaboration platform which offers the best file sharing features to all the business users. The user can share the files with a simple drag-and-drop feature to the other team member and find the shared file easily. One can increase business productivity by good communication, file sharing feature, andsearch tool in Flock.
– Features: Chat / Messaging, Document Management, Drag and Drop, File synchronization, etc.
Trishan Mehta
✓ Notion.so
I discovered Notion only recently but it has quickly become my favorite file sharing and collaboration tool for working with my team members. Notion is like Lego blocks; you have everything in front of you, it’s up to you what to create from it. I can create blog posts, calendars, to-do lists, excel sheets, reading lists, and much more. Then, I can share all this with my team for easy collaboration. Using the Notion web clipper, I can save entire webpages for reading offline. It makes me much more productive and organized.
✓ Dropbox
What would I do without Dropbox? I can easily share files and information with anyone I want at the click of the mouse. If I want my blog subscribers to download an ebook, I can set public sharing on for the PDF. I can also create Dropbox Paper and invite my team members to work on it for easy collaboration. The easy sync feature that Dropbox offers makes file sharing an absolute delight for me.
✓ Hightail
If I want to share large files with my team using password protection, I turn to Hightail. With 128-bit SSL security, my files are secure from eavesdroppers. I can share large files of over 2 GB using this file-sharing tool and set an expiry date to auto-delete the files once they have been downloaded by my team. Also, I don’t have to worry about running out of space since Hightail offers unlimited cloud storage, which is a definite advantage over other file-sharing tools.
Jeff Gapinski
✓ Google Drive
Google Drive is great, affordable, and connected to the entire suite of Google Apps allowing for a lot of efficiencies.
✓ DropBox
Prior to fully adopting Google Apps, DropBox was our primary file sharing tool. It’s also a super affordable sharing tool. It’s easy to understand interface and flexibility of integration with multiple other software makes it a clear choice.
✓ ProofPoint
While Google Drive and Dropbox are great for general file sharing, they shouldn’t be trusted for sharing personal documents. If you have sensitive information to share or collect, we’d suggest going with Proofpoint. Of the similar ‘secure’ file share tools, we feel this one is the most intuitive to use.
Alexandre Beauchet
✓ Dropbox
Without any doubt, I would recommend Dropbox as a first choice. I’ve been using it for the last 3 years either with my partner, service providers (accountant, freelancers, etc.), or side projects. So far, I haven’t experienced any issues or even a little bug. It’s both easy to set up and very easy to use.
✓ WeTransfer
When I need to send a large file, I generally use WeTransfer with the free version. It works pretty well. I love their landing page, straight to the service, no boring and useless blah blah.
✓ Google Drive
With my partner, we also use the Google Suite and, therefore, Drive. I must confess that I’m not a huge fan of Drive’s information architecture. In addition to that, downloading and uploading traditional documents (Doc, PPT, Excel, etc.) is a real bother. In a perfect world, I would love to sync Dropbox files with Drive’s ones.
Kaelum Ross
In my experience as both a long-term IT professional and technology enthusiast, the below are the top file-sharing tools available today (in order):
✓ Microsoft Teams
Microsoft has created a fantastic offering here that I have had the pleasure of implementing in my career and seeing its wide utility.
The tool shines for file-sharing in a lot of areas. Most notably its great in-built co-authoring tools for teams who need to edit the same documents simultaneously. You also have a lot of utility to share large documents in a multitude of other ways (individual IM chats, different team groups, etc). This, tied with its other features and great UI, make this a fantastic option for file-sharing.
✓ WeTransfer
If your focus is purely on transferring files in a simplistic way, WeTransfer is the best “no thrills” choice. The value point is excellent for free users and cheap for those who require additional space. Finally, I’m very impressed with the architecture they’ve built their offering on, allowing excellent transfer speeds that surpass my experience with other platforms.
✓ Dropbox
If you’re looking for an online file-sharing tool with cloud/sync based options, Dropbox still reigns supreme. With great file compatibility, size allowance and security provisions; it covers all the essentials very well with quality infrastructure and UI.
Yes, there are smaller cloud services that are a tad cheaper for similar storage, but the convenience of having a product that is universally used (not to mention trusted, important when it comes to file transfer) is worth the additional cost.
Norhanie Pangulima
Thanks to technology and the internet, saving and sharing files has been made easier and more efficient than ever. Gone were the days when I needed to run to a photocopy machine or write manually in order to obtain copies of notes and lessons. Nowadays, you can easily share data or content in a click of a button. File-sharing software became a must-have, in fact, 80% of employees request for this in their workplaces in order to become more productive.
So whether it’s for personal, school, or office use; here is my top 2 most recommended file-sharing software:
✓ Google Drive
Google Drive is perhaps the most widely used software for sharing and storing files. It’s super easy to use and anyone with a Gmail account gets it for free. You can easily link your documents, PowerPoint presentations, or spreadsheet files with Google Drive and share it by inputting another person’s email address. And anyone whom you shared your document to can edit it. What’s more, it provides a free 15GB storage but can be extended to 200GB for about $30 per year. But, what I personally love about it is its ability to organize your files on its own.
✓ DropBox
Now for business use, DropBox is my go-to software. It has so many perks such as commenting on files, password encryption on folders, third-party applications, and etc.. Although you only get a free 2GB storage upon creating an account, you can extend it to 2TB for only $10 a month. A bit pricey but its actually a great investment for your business in the long run.
Lennart Meijer
✓ WeTransfer
I highly recommend wetransfer as a tool to share file access. it is such an easy to use cloud bases software that is free. It makes it easy and accessible to share files through custom links.It also lets you know when the receiver has downloaded the files which can come in useful as well.
Allison Chaney
✓ Google Drive
I recommend Google Drive. For most small businesses, the free storage is more than enough. It also is very easy to collaborate on documents and you don’t have to worry about overwriting someone’s work if two people are in the document at the same time as changes can happen simultaneously. Everything is automatically saved to the cloud so if your computer crashes, you don’t risk losing anything.
Adam Watts
I would recommend 2; Box and iCloud Drive. The reason for two is simple; it depends on the use case.
✓ iCloud Drive
iCloud Drive integrated seamlessly with all apple products. This makes it a great choice for a creative agency that primarily use Mac and don’t require too much cross collaboration with other businesses. It allows you to share files and folders with a simple right-click (or command-click) and adjust file permissions without ever having to leave the comfort of the base operating system (MacOS). As with all Apple products, the security and privacy of your information should be the least of your concerns. This is the file sharing solution we use at TenderCo.
✓ Box
Box, on the other hand, is much more friendly with non-apple devices and the best value-for-money solution. It has a strong integration game and has some impressive sync speeds. Information security and privacy for box has even been endorsed by the Vice President and CIO of Broadcom; ensuring that your data is safe. In the past, Box has been viewed as DropBox’s younger, less-equipped brother; that simply isn’t the case anymore.
TL;DR: Use iCloud Drive if you primarily collaborate using Mac or Apple products. Use Box if you need the flexibility of multiple users using many different operating systems
Milos Djordjevic
✓ Google Drive
I would recommend using Google Drive as the best sharing software for companies of all sizes. The best thing about Gdrive is that you don’t need to install new software since most people use Gmail anyway and have Google accounts. WIth Gdrive it’s easy to collaborate on projects with people inside and outside your company since you can manually adjust the file access settings.
Since it’s drag-and-drop and overall easy to use, I find it to be the most practical solution for file-sharing within my company. Gdrive also integrates docs and photos from the Google account, which most employees are familiar with using, so there is not much of a learning curve involved. Lastly, the security of your files is in the hands of Google, since the files safely stored in the Google cloud.
One reply on “Best File Sharing Tool 2023 – Voted By 31 Experts”
If you are running a small business Google Drive is the best, the box will definitely help you to sync, store, and share files.