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We Found the Best Filestage Alternatives for Content Reviews

Filestage is a great content review tool, but it’s not the best fit for every scenario. Looking to switch or try out similar solutions? Here’s our selection of the top five Filestage alternatives to guide your search.

Filestage Alternatives Visual

Helpful Summary

  • Overview: We review five of the best alternatives to Filestage for content reviews in 2024.

  • Why you can trust us: We’re easily one of the best tools for collaborating with teammates and clients on visual content. We’ve helped agencies, photographers, video producers, and brands to create stunning galleries and source stakeholder feedback efficiently. 

  • Why this is important: Filestage has a lot of flaws that push users away (that’s probably why you’re here). This guide introduces alternatives that address these flaws.

  • Action points: 

  • Further research: Check out how Picflow compares to similar review and approval software on the market.

Filestage Alternatives for Creative Professionals 

While Filestage is certainly a great tool for sharing various file formats and getting them approved by clients and stakeholders in record time, it won’t satisfy every user. There are plenty of use cases where it falls short, and as a result, it might not be the best fit for every creative professional.

This Picflow article will help you find the best Filestage alternative for your use case. But first, here’s why you should trust our recommendation.

Why Listen to Us? 

First off, we’ve done our homework. 

We’ve tested tons of content review tools ourselves and combed through tons of user reviews on sites like G2 and Capterra for insights and alternative perspectives.

Beyond that, Picflow is a leading tool for photographers, videographers, marketers, and creatives. We’ve simplified content review and approval for 10,000+ teams worldwide.

What Is Filestage? 

Filestage is a content review platform where creators share their work files for seamless assessment, approval, and storage. It serves as a feedback and approval collection platform for creators’ digital assets like:

  • Images

  • Videos

  • Documents

  • Graphics

  • Audio

…and pretty much any other kind of digital file you can think of.

With Filestage, users can easily gather feedback and approval from team members, clients, or stakeholders, all in one centralized platform. This streamlines the review process and saves time and effort for everyone involved.

Why People Look for Filestage Alternatives 

As helpful as Filestage is for creatives, it has limitations that make people seek alternatives. For example, it is not specifically designed to suit the needs of photographers and designers due to its lack of gallery building and layout features. 

But beyond use case issues, users have identified a bunch of issues with the app, including:

  • Video and image quality issues: Lots of users complain that large video files quickly exceed the Filestage storage limit, forcing upgrades. And if you compress files to save space, you aren’t sharing the final version with clients and team members. Alternatives like Picflow solve this problem thanks to high-quality image and video support and expandable storage on all plans.

  • Clunky UI: Some users have found the Filestage interface to be cumbersome and not intuitive enough, especially when navigating multiple projects and files. This can lead to frustration and wasted time figuring out how to use the app effectively.

  • Pricing: Even though there’s a free version of Filestage, it only allows 2GB of storage and 2 active projects. To get more storage space and work on multiple projects simultaneously, you’d have to upgrade to a paid version—starting at $49/month billed yearly. This pricing is a bit high, and some users may find it hard to justify. 

5 Best Filestage Alternatives 

  1. Picflow

  2. Frame.io

  3. PageProof

  4. Pixieset

  5. PhotoShelter

1. Picflow

Picflow is the perfect filestage alternative for photographers, designers, videographers, marketers… and pretty much anyone who works with visual content. 

markup toolsOur proofing gallery is designed to help you share your work with anyone who needs to see it and get feedback on it effectively. With Picflow, you can easily upload your files, organize them into stunning galleries, and share them with clients or team members for review with a simple invite link—no signup needed.

Feedback is easy to collect and action, thanks to a suite of tools ranging from image and video annotations to to-do list comments for action items. And with built-in version control and security features, you can relax knowing that your work is always safe and secure.

Key Features 

  • Easy Sharing: Share gallery access with anyone who needs it by adding collaborators, sharing an invite link, or embedding the gallery.

  • Gallery Designer: Create stunning galleries without code by adding sections, embeds, and customizing fonts and colors.

  • Image and Video Annotations: Get feedback and collaborate in real-time with annotations directly on images or videos.

  • To-Do Lists: Check off comments when you’ve actioned them to keep things organized and on track.

  • Review & Approval Tools: Let reviews and approvers create lists, download from your gallery, and add tags.

  • Version Control: Keep track of changes and easily revert to previous versions.

Pricing 

Picflow's free plan allows unlimited galleries and reviewers. Our paid plans start at $8/month, giving you more storage and review options.

Picflow pricing

Pros and Cons 

  • Intuitive features for visual creatives

  • Affordable pricing

  • Excellent UI and UX

  • Storage limitations on the free plan

2. Frame.io

FrameioFrame.io is a platform that lets you collaborate on video content with highly targeted feedback from team members. It features frame-accurate comments and annotations, great access controls, and integrations with popular editing software like Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro.

Key Features 

  • Frame-accurate feedback and comments 

  • Hashtags, emojis and @ mentions

  • Unlimited sharing

  • Integrations

  • Shareable links 

Pricing

Frameio pricing

Frame.io starts with a free plan that allows up to 2 users. If you upgrade to the Pro or Team plan, you’ll pay $15 and $25 per user per month, respectively.

Pros and Cons 

  • Simplifies the review and approval process for videos

  • Very collaborative

  • Fairly affordable

  • Storage gets eaten up quickly

  • Video only

3. PageProof

PageproofPageProof is a Filestage alternative that caters to users across all kinds of industries. It’s suitable for multiple file formats, including video, audio, PDF, HTML, and more, and it comes with a ton of great tools for proofing and reviewing at scale.

Key Features 

  • Invisible comments to limit reviewer conflict

  • Microsoft Teams and Slack integrations

  • Automatic reminders

  • Keyboard shortcuts

  • Customization options like logo and custom headers

Pricing 

PageProof has a 10-day free trial and three pricing tiers, including the Team ($249/month), Team Plus ($399/month), and Enterprise (contact sales for a quote). All these plans allow for unlimited team members and reviewers.

Pageproof pricing

Pros and Cons

  • Unlimited reviewers for a fixed price

  • On-demand security consultation

  • Tons of features

  • No free plan

4. Pixieset

PixiesetPixieset lets photographers create beautiful online galleries to showcase their work and deliver photos to clients. It offers an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, customizable templates, and options for password-protected galleries and digital download sales.

It simplifies the client review process thanks to a great favorites system.

Key Features 

  • Website builder

  • Favorite system for tracking, downloading, and sharing client top picks

  • Lightroom plugin

  • Automatic print fulfillment system

  • Mobile-responsiveness

Pricing 

Pixieset offers six plans, starting with a free plan that has limited features and a basic client gallery plan which costs $8/month.

Pixieset pricing

Pros and Cons

  • High storage capacity on all plans

  • Easy photo download

  • Limited customization options

5. PhotoShelter

PhotoshelterPhotoshelter is a digital asset management (DAM) system and online content gallery that simplifies the content distribution and review process. It ensures file security and ease of sharing between marketers, creative teams, and all relevant third parties working on campaigns. 

Key Features 

  • Personal onboarding manager

  • Unlimited invited users

  • Customizable permissions and user types

  • 20+ integrations for cross-platform collaboration

  • AI visual search

Pricing 

PhotoShelter has three plans for various business sizes, but you need to book a demo to request their pricing information.

Pros and Cons 

Pros

  • Good file organization 

  • Powerful search features

  • Collaboration tools

Cons

  • Pricing information is not public

Power Up Your Content Review Processes With Picflow 

With all the tools mentioned above, you have a lot of great options to choose from. We’d still recommend Picflow above all else, though.

Picflow is the best Filestage alternative for photographers, videographers, marketers, and anyone who regularly works with visual content (if we do say so ourselves). It helps you easily manage, showcase, and get approvals for your visual content via a modern, customizable online gallery.

Ready to give it a try? Try Picflow for free today.