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How Foldr compares

Built to work with your files. Not to own them.

Most cloud file platforms are destinations. Box, Dropbox, Egnyte and ShareFile each give you a place to put your files, and a UI on top. They’re a sensible choice for greenfield estates.

Foldr is a different shape. Files stay where they already are: SharePoint, OneDrive, S3, SMB, Google Drive, even Box or Dropbox if that’s where you keep them. Foldr works in front and gives you one access surface, with its own permissions on top of whatever the storage enforces.

Topic
Foldr
Destination platforms
Where files live
Wherever they already do: SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, Google Drive, S3, Azure Blob, SMB, Box, Dropbox and more. Foldr is a layer in front. On Foldr Cloud you can also start with storage we host.
Usually in the platform’s own cloud. Files are uploaded into it and managed from there.
Migration
None for files on your own storage. Connect it in minutes; disconnect just as fast.
Usually required. Files move into the platform to be shared and governed from inside it.
Permissions
Where the storage has its own permissions (SMB, and Microsoft 365 when Foldr acts as the signed-in person), the storage can still say no. Everywhere else you set who sees what once, per share, in Foldr.
Set inside the platform, rather than read from the storage you already run.
Identity
SAML (including Google Workspace) and Microsoft Entra on Foldr Cloud and the appliance; Active Directory, LDAP and Kerberos on the appliance.
Varies by vendor and plan. Check their current documentation.
Document editing
Foldr Bureau. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, the OpenDocument formats, CSV and text open and edit in the browser on Foldr’s own engines, so nothing goes through Microsoft or Google, and an appliance with no route out to the internet behaves exactly the same. Saves leave untouched parts of a file byte for byte. The editors are beta today, and the desktop apps carry on working as they always have.
Varies by vendor and plan. Check their current documentation.
AI assistant
Grace. Answers only from the shares you’ve chosen to index, and only from files each person is allowed to read, checked on every question. Can also build and run automations on demand. From Business, an AI assistant that speaks MCP can read your files through Connected Apps, as the signed-in person and with exactly their permissions.
Varies by vendor and plan. Check their current documentation.
Document capture
Captur. Intelligent extraction by default, templates for high-volume layouts. Native positional reading of text PDFs; OCR fallback for scans. MaSH routes the result.
Varies by vendor and plan. Check their current documentation.
External sharing and signing
Public links with expiry, passwords and field collection on every tier. Folio portals, Foldr Sign and Forms on Enterprise (add-ons on Business).
Varies by vendor and plan. Check their current documentation.
Automation
Three surfaces, one engine. Mashup is the visual block editor; MaSH is the plain-text script checked into source control; Grace is the verbal route via the AI assistant. Switch between any of them on the same workflow. Bundle with shares and fields into a Foldr Flow file.
Varies by vendor and plan. Check their current documentation.
Deploy
Self-hosted virtual appliance for your own datacentre, your own cloud account, or an air-gapped network, or fully managed Foldr Cloud with UK and EU data residency. The same Foldr Next on either; a few things follow the deployment, and we tell you which before you choose. Configuration travels between them via Foldr Flow.
The platform runs in the vendor’s cloud. Where a vendor offers customer-side components, check what they cover.
Pricing model
Foldr Cloud per-seat tiers, or a fixed annual licence on the appliance. Disconnect Foldr and files on your own storage are still where they were; files kept in Foldr Storage you copy out first.
Typically a per-seat subscription. Leaving means moving your files back out.
Best fit
Estates that don’t want vendor lock-in, that need to keep files on their own storage for privacy or compliance, or that need a self-hosted option. Existing SharePoint, S3, SMB or mixed estates that don’t want to migrate.
Greenfield deployments where the storage destination is open. Teams that want a single vendor for the whole stack and are happy to put their data inside it.
Why teams pick Foldr

Why teams pick the layer over the destination.

No vendor lock-in

Disconnect at any point and your files are already where they should be.

Foldr is a layer over the storage you already run. Switch it off and the SharePoint, S3, SMB and Drive estate behind it is untouched. No migration in and no migration out for files on your own storage. (Files you chose to keep in Foldr Storage on Foldr Cloud you copy out first.)

Your data, your storage

Your files stay on your storage.

If you turn search on for a share, Foldr keeps the extracted text so it can search it, and you choose which shares that covers. Where the storage has its own permissions, such as an SMB file server, it can still say no. For regulated and privacy-sensitive estates, that’s the difference between “our files in their cloud” and “our files on our storage.”

Self-host if you need to

The same Foldr Next on your hardware, in your VLAN, even fully air-gapped.

The Foldr Appliance is a virtual machine you run in your own datacentre or hypervisor, with a fixed annual licence and no per-seat billing surprises. Air-gapped installs are supported. Foldr Cloud and the appliance run the same Foldr Next, with a few differences we spell out before you choose; configuration travels between them via Foldr Flow.

Build automation your way

Visual, code, or verbal. Same workflow, three surfaces.

Mashup is the visual block editor. MaSH is the plain-text script you can check into source control. Grace is the verbal route via the AI assistant. Pick whichever way of thinking suits the task; switch between them on the same workflow.

When a destination platform fits better

Greenfield estate, single vendor, everything inside one stack.

Box, Dropbox, Egnyte and ShareFile each give you a place to put your files inside their own cloud. If you’re starting from a blank slate, have no existing storage to honour, and want one vendor to own the whole stack, pick the one whose features fit best.

Specific comparisons

Foldr next to a particular vendor.

The structural argument is the same in every case. These pages restate it with the right column scoped to one vendor.

Curious whether Foldr would fit?

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