LucidLink vs Shade (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, LucidLink and Shade share a 2.0 GPA, neither has a free plan, and LucidLink starts cheaper, at $7 a month for each person against $29.75 a month for each person.
Checked Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
LucidLink grades higher on the free plan. Shade grades higher on features. They get the same grade on value for money, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
LucidLink
Cloud file system that streams large files to your desktop
Shade
Cloud storage and review for video teams, with AI search
Which one is for you
Pick LucidLink if
- Fits if a small remote team passes around video or design files too big to sync
- Works for people who want a mounted drive without full local copies
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you're one person on a budget, since every plan is priced per member
- Tight if you have more than 1 TB or 10 people on Starter, and extra storage is $7 per 100 GB a month
- Pricey if you need snapshots, unlimited filespaces or guest links at scale, all on Business at $27 a member
- Watch out: SSO, audit trail and bring-your-own storage are Enterprise only, with no price shown
- Watch out: the $7 Starter price doesn't say how it's billed
Pick Shade if
- Fits if you edit video and want review comments on the files themselves
- Works for creative teams that deliver files to clients
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you just want storage, at $29.75 a seat a month
- Not for you if you have over 15 seats or 150 guests, as that needs Enterprise at no published price
- Watch out: SSO, SCIM and audit logging are Enterprise only
- Watch out: the comparison claims against LucidLink, Frame.io and Dropbox are the vendor's own
How we grade them
| 2.0GPALucidLinkFair | 2.0GPAShadeFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | DStarter is $7 a member a month, the middle for file storage, but it caps at 10 members and 1 TB. Business is $27 a member ($135 a month for five), well above the $11.99 the dearer quarter starts at, and that's where unlimited filespaces and snapshots live. | D$29.75 a seat a month billed annually ($35 monthly), against $7 in the middle for file storage, though it is a different kind of product from plain storage. |
| Free plan and trial | C30-day free trial with no card needed, and no free plan after it. | DA free trial on Growth with no length stated on the pricing page, and no free plan. |
| Features | CA mounted drive that streams files, folder permissions, guest links and snapshots. But storage is shared across members, and SSO, audit trail and your own S3 storage are Enterprise only. | BMounted drives, AI search, transcription, face recognition, time-stamped review comments and client delivery on the same files. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. You install a desktop client and set up a filespace first, which is a bit of work before anyone opens a file. | CNo store rating on record, and workspaces and drives have to be set up. |
| Platforms and integrations | BMac, Windows, Linux, iPhone and Android, with Adobe Creative Cloud, Frame.io and AWS hooks. No web app is listed. | BWeb, Mac, Windows and Linux with Slack. No phone app is listed. |
| Best for | streaming huge files to a shared drive | video and creative teams sharing large files |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: LucidLink and Shade. How we grade
Price against what you get
LucidLink starts at $7 a month for each person and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Shade starts at $29.75 a month for each person and scores 2.7.
Shade scores higher, and starts $22.75 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other file storage and sync services on the chart, 22 score higher than LucidLink for less, and 13 score higher than Shade for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- LucidLink is end-to-end encrypted, according to its own site.
- Shade also covers transcription.
At a glance
| LucidLink | Shade | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | $7 per member / month (billing basis not shown) | $29.75 per seat / month, billed annually ($35 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 30-day free trial, no credit card required | Free trial on the Growth plan; its length is not stated on the pricing page |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Linux | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | LucidLink | Shade Inc. |
| Price read from | lucidlink.com | shade.inc |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
LucidLink
- Storage is shared across members: 100 GB per member on Starter and 400 GB on Business, with overage billed per 100 GB.
- Starter is capped at 10 members and 1 TB, and Business at 25 members; the page recommends contacting sales above 25 TB.
- SSO, audit trail and bring-your-own storage are limited to Enterprise.
- The Business price is read from a monthly/annual toggle that shows $32 and $27 with a 15% annual saving; the $7 Starter price has no basis stated.
Shade
- Growth is capped at 15 seats, 150 guests and 1 workspace; larger teams need Enterprise, which has no published price.
- Storage is 500 GB of active storage per seat on Growth, and the page says storage add-ons are available.
- SSO/SAML, SCIM and audit logging are limited to Enterprise.
- The site markets Shade as a replacement for LucidLink, Frame.io and Dropbox; these claims are the vendor's own.
Key features
LucidLink
- Streaming filespaces
- A filespace is a shared cloud drive that mounts on a desktop and gives real-time access to files without downloading them first.
- Zero-knowledge security
- The vendor says encryption means only you and your collaborators can read the data and LucidLink cannot view it.
- Access control and guest links
- Folder-level permissions for users and groups, and guest links for outside parties, with automatic expiry on Business and Enterprise.
- Snapshots
- Manual or scheduled snapshots recover data: 30 days on Business and unlimited on Enterprise.
- Add-ons and developer tools
- LucidLink Connect brings existing data stores into a filespace and TeamCache caches files on-premises; both are add-ons on Enterprise. A developer tools set and an MCP server are also listed.
Shade
- Mountable drives
- The homepage describes drives that mount on a computer like a local disk; the pricing page lists unlimited drives, with multi-mount on Enterprise.
- AI search and indexing
- Search by sentence, facial recognition and transcripts, with unlimited AI indexing on both plans.
- Review and approval
- Time-stamped comments, annotation and markup, and a Slack integration appear in the plan comparison.
- Client delivery
- Role-based access, download permissions and published links are listed for sharing work with clients.
- Video proxies and metadata
- Web playback and downloadable proxies, plus EXIF, IPTC, XMP and timecode metadata.
Plans
LucidLink
Starter$7
per member / month, billing basis not shown
Limited to 10 members and 1 TB, with 100 GB included per member and 1 filespace. Extra storage is $7 per 100 GB a month.
Business$27
per member / month, billed annually ($32 billed monthly)
Up to 25 members, 400 GB included per member, unlimited filespaces, 30-day snapshot recovery and 100 guest links. Extra storage is $8 per 100 GB a month.
EnterpriseCustom
Unlimited members, unlimited snapshot recovery and guest links, SSO, audit trail, bring-your-own S3 storage and premium 24/7 support.
Shade
Growth$29.75
per seat / month, billed annually ($35 billed monthly)
1 workspace, unlimited drives and AI indexing, up to 15 seats and 150 guests, and 500 GB of active storage per seat.
EnterpriseCustom
Unlimited workspaces and seats, up to 250 guests, 1 TB of active storage per seat, SSO/SAML, SCIM, audit logging and a dedicated account manager. Sold through sales.
Ways to pay less
LucidLink
- Annual discount
Save 15% with annual billing
The pricing page offers a 15% saving when billing annually.
Shade
- Annual discount
Annual billing: $29.75 against $35 monthly
The pricing page shows $29.75 per seat a month on annual billing against $35 per seat a month billed monthly for Growth.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, LucidLink or Shade?
As of Nov 13, 2026, LucidLink is cheaper to start with: $7 a month for each person, against $29.75 a month for each person for Shade. LucidLink starts at $7 per member / month (billing basis not shown), and Shade starts at $29.75 per seat / month, billed annually ($35 billed monthly).
Which has a free plan, LucidLink or Shade?
As of Nov 13, 2026, neither LucidLink nor Shade has a free plan. Both have a free trial.
Which platforms do LucidLink and Shade run on?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only LucidLink lists iOS and Android apps and only Shade lists a web app. Both list macOS, Windows and Linux apps. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.