ShareFile

ShareFile is a secure document workflow platform built for regulated industries—accounting, legal, financial services, and healthcare. Originally a standalone product, it's now owned by Progress Software Corporation and has evolved from a file-sharing tool into a more complete client collaboration platform with e-signatures, request lists, and workflow automation built in.

Pricing

ShareFile uses per-user monthly pricing with a minimum of three users (five for VDR). Prices shown are billed annually:

• Advanced — $17.60/user/month: Encrypted file storage and sharing, granular access controls, SSO/Active Directory, real-time co-editing. No client portal or e-signature.
• Premium — $27.50/user/month: Adds custom-branded client portals, e-signature, document request lists, task management, workflow automation, and HIPAA/FINRA/SEC compliance support. This is the tier most client-facing teams will need.
• Industry Advantage — $45.83/user/month: Everything in Premium plus accounting-specific templates, bulk client onboarding, pre-filled engagement letters, and direct import from tax software like CCH Axcess, Drake, Lacerte, ProSeries, and UltraTax.
• Virtual Data Room — $75.00/user/month (min 5 users): Designed for M&A, audits, and litigation. Adds watermarking, NDA enforcement, granular document permissions, and real-time audit trails.

Plans start with 3TB of account storage (aggregated at 1TB per license).

Core Features

The Premium tier is where ShareFile becomes genuinely useful as a client portal. Teams get custom-branded portals, document request lists, and e-signature with up to 100,000 documents per month at the account level. Knowledge-Based Authentication (KBA) is included for identity verification on signed documents, and bulk send covers situations where the same document needs to go to multiple signers.

File handling is solid: AES-256 encryption, link expiration dates, file drop links (a secure URL clients can use to upload files without an account), full-text search, and version history. The desktop and mobile apps provide access across devices, and administrators can remotely wipe ShareFile data from lost devices.

Workflow automation lets teams build repeatable document-based processes—useful for recurring engagements like annual tax preparation or client onboarding sequences.

Compliance

Compliance coverage is a genuine differentiator. Premium and above support HIPAA for healthcare, FINRA and SEC for financial services, SOC 2 Type II, and GDPR. Activity logs and scheduled reports support audit prep. ShareFile also scans uploaded files for malware.

Integrations

Native connectors cover Microsoft 365 (Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint Online), Google Drive and Gmail, QuickBooks, Dropbox, and Box. Zapier extends this to 4,000+ additional apps. An API is available for custom integrations.

Industry Advantage for Accountants

The accounting-specific tier is unusually specialized. It includes pre-built PBC list templates and questionnaires, pre-filled engagement letters with e-signature, a centralized engagement dashboard, and direct file import from major tax platforms. For firms running high volumes of individual and business returns, this reduces a lot of manual setup.

Limitations

The base Advanced plan lacks client portals and e-signature entirely, so smaller teams wanting both will be pushed to Premium at $27.50/user. The minimum user requirements (3 users for most plans) make it a poor fit for solo practitioners. The platform is feature-dense, and the interface reflects that—it's functional but not particularly modern compared to newer entrants in the space. Teams that don't need compliance-grade security may find simpler alternatives more approachable at lower price points.

Who It's For

ShareFile makes the most sense for professional services firms—accounting, legal, financial advisory, healthcare—where document security and regulatory compliance aren't optional. The accounting tier in particular is hard to match for tax practices handling high client volumes. For general-purpose client collaboration without compliance requirements, there are lighter and cheaper options.