Shade review (2026): is it worth $29.75 a month per seat, billed yearly?
Cloud storage and review for video teams, with AI search
Black Friday: is there a Shade sale?
Shade report card
Fair · out of 4.0 · graded Nov 13, 2026
Best for video and creative teams sharing large files
Shade mounts drives like a local disk for creative and video teams and adds AI search, transcription, review comments and client delivery links. It is $29.75 a seat a month, far above what file storage typically charges, Growth stops at 15 seats and the trial length is not stated.
Who Shade is for
- Fits if you edit video and want review comments on the files themselves
- Works for creative teams that deliver files to clients
Who Shade is not for
- 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
Why Shade gets a 2.0
Five grades, each with its reason. The GPA is their average: an A is 4 points, an F is none.
- DValue for money$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.
- DFree plan and trialA free trial on Growth with no length stated on the pricing page, and no free plan.
- BFeaturesMounted drives, AI search, transcription, face recognition, time-stamped review comments and client delivery on the same files.
- CEase of useNo store rating on record, and workspaces and drives have to be set up.
- BPlatforms and integrationsWeb, Mac, Windows and Linux with Slack. No phone app is listed.
What these grades rest on. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Shade's own pages on 13 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. How we review and grade.
Make Shade? Put this grade on your site
Paste this where you want the badge. It links here and follows the grade if it changes. About badges
<a href="https://toolgpa.com/tools/shade#review"><img src="https://toolgpa.com/badge/shade.svg" alt="Shade: 2.0 GPA on ToolGPA" width="196" height="56"></a>Where Shade stands among file storage and sync services
Shade's GPA of 2.0 is higher than 13 of the 91 other file storage and sync services we grade, and level with 20.
It stands best on features (B, above 70 of 91) and worst on value for money (D, above 0).
Its paid plans start at $29.75 a month for each person, against a middle price of $6.64 for the category: 55 of the 60 others that charge start lower.
On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.7 out of 4. 13 tools score higher and cost less.
Each grade against the category
Every bar is all 92 file storage and sync services we grade, cut by the letter each got. Shade’s own letter is outlined.
- DValue for moneyAbove 0 of 91, level with 13
- DFree plan and trialAbove 9 of 91, level with 8
- BFeaturesAbove 70 of 91, level with 21
- CEase of useAbove 22 of 91, level with 37
- BPlatforms and integrationsAbove 31 of 91, level with 38
Price against what you get
Each dot is one of 66 file storage and sync services. Further left costs less, and higher up scores better on features, ease of use and platforms. Point at a dot to see which tool it is.
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
Keep Shade, or make your own?
Keep it
To replace Shade you would be making files kept in step across devices without losing one. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one.
That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 58 of the 91 other file storage and sync services grade higher. It costs $357 a year.
What you could not
- Files kept in step across devices without losing one.
- Storing and serving files for other people.
- Speech turned into text you can trust.
- Apps for macOS, Windows and Linux that stay in step with each other.
- It is priced for each person, which means accounts and billing for a team.
- AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself.
- What a company asks for before it lets staff use something: roles and permissions.
- The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job.
What this rests on. Shade’s listing: what it does, where it runs, what it plugs into and what it costs. It is a judgement about the kind of software this is. We have not built a replacement for it, and making your own means looking after it too. How we decide, and every tool’s verdict.
What is Shade?
Shade is a cloud file system for creative and video teams. Drives mount on a computer like a local disk, and the service adds AI search, transcription, facial recognition, time-stamped review comments and client delivery links on the same files. It is sold per seat, with a Growth plan and a sales-quoted Enterprise plan.
Worth knowing
- 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
- 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.
Shade pricing
As of Nov 13, 2026, Shade is a paid product with a free trial, starting at $29.75 per seat / month, billed annually ($35 billed monthly).
- Starts at
- $29.75 per seat / month, billed annually ($35 billed monthly)
- Free plan
- None
- Free trial
- Free trial on the Growth plan; its length is not stated on the pricing page
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Growth | $29.75per 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. |
| Enterprise | Custom | 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. |
Read from shade.inc on Nov 13, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Shade before you buy.
Ways to pay less
- Annual discountAnnual 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.
Stated on shade.inc
Works with
Shade alternatives
- Shade vs LucidLink
Free trial · from $7/mo
- Shade vs Dropbox
Free plan · from $9.99/mo
- Shade vs Suite Studios
Free trial · from $75/mo
- Shade vs MASV
Free plan · from $58/mo
- Shade vs Box
Free plan · from $5/mo
Common questions
Does Shade have an Android app?
No Android app was listed when its pages were read on Nov 13, 2026. Shade is listed for Web, macOS, Windows and Linux.
Does Shade have an iPhone app?
No iPhone app was listed when its pages were read on Nov 13, 2026. Shade is listed for Web, macOS, Windows and Linux.
Is Shade open source?
Shade is not described as open source on its own site, as read on Nov 13, 2026.
Sources for this page
The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026.