Cloud drives weren't built for client work
Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive are great at storing files. They're not great at being a client experience. Permissions are a maze. Anyone with the link can edit. Your personal recipe folder is one tab away from the client's logo files. Droplana gives every client a clean, isolated portal — file sharing with per-file comments, with none of the drive baggage.
| Feature | Droplana | Cloud Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | Seconds — no permissions to configure | Minutes per client — folders, sharing, access levels |
| File sharing | Files organised per client, download tracking | Shared folders — clients need an account |
| Per-file comments | Built-in, per file | Not available — requires a separate tool |
| Client experience | One link, no account needed | Requires an account or public link with no visibility |
| Cost | Free to start | Free tier has storage limits; paid plans from €2.99/mo |
The "just share a Drive folder" problem
Most people start here. It's free, you already have it, the client probably has it too. Then reality kicks in:
- A client accidentally deletes a file. You don't notice for a week.
- You forget to set "view only" — they edit your master file.
- They share the link with someone else. Now a stranger has access.
- Your folder structure makes sense to you and confuses them completely.
- You have 14 client folders mixed with your tax returns and vacation photos.
- Six months later, half the clients still have access to old work you forgot about.
- There's no way to leave a comment on the file. So you go back to email. And the cycle starts again.
Cloud drives are a filesystem. Client work needs a workspace. For a detailed breakdown of how this plays out in practice, why shared Drive folders are a mess for client work covers the failure modes one by one.
Side-by-side comparison
| Google Drive / Dropbox / OneDrive | Droplana | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for client work | ❌ Built for personal/team storage | ✅ Built specifically for client portals |
| Per-client isolation | ⚠️ Manual folder setup | ✅ Each client = their own portal |
| Mixed with personal files | ❌ Yes | ✅ Never |
| Accidental edits/deletes | ❌ Real risk | ✅ Read-only for clients by design |
| Per-file comments | ❌ No native file comments | ✅ Comments on each file, in one view |
| Client experience | ⚠️ Looks like your drive | ✅ Looks like their portal |
| Permissions | ❌ Easy to misconfigure | ✅ Simple by default |
| No client account needed | ⚠️ Often required | ✅ Just open the link |
| Revoke access cleanly | ⚠️ Hunt through sharing settings | ✅ One toggle per client |
When Droplana wins (real scenarios)
A client deletes the wrong file
Drive: They had edit access because you needed them to upload. They delete the master logo. You restore from trash if you catch it in time. Droplana: Clients can upload but can't touch your master files. Boundary problems disappear.
Onboarding client number 12
Drive: New folder. Set permissions. Share link. Send welcome email separately. Hope they bookmark it. Pray they don't share it. Droplana: Click "new client". Done. Send link. Each portal is isolated by default.
A new project for an existing client
Drive: New subfolder? New folder? Share again? Permissions inherit weirdly. Droplana: It's the same portal. Just upload. They already know where to look.
Wrapping up a client relationship
Drive: You probably forget to revoke access. They probably still have the link saved somewhere. Droplana: One toggle archives the portal. Cleanly, completely.
A 1.5 GB video file
Drive: Counts against your storage. Slow uploads. Permissions reset weirdly. Droplana: Upload, share link, move on.
When a cloud drive is still fine
Be honest with yourself about the use case.
Cloud drives are still right for: long-term archival storage, files you and your team work on collaboratively, anything that needs to integrate deeply with Docs/Sheets/Office, and your own personal stuff.
Droplana is for the client-facing layer. A lot of users keep Drive or Dropbox as their working storage and use Droplana as the polished surface clients actually see.
You don't have to migrate anything. Just stop sending Drive links.
How it works (3 steps)
- Add a client. Each client gets their own isolated portal.
- Upload files and add per-file comments. From your dashboard. They land in the client's portal.
- Send the link. No account, no signup, no confusion on their end.
Check our simple pricing (or start free)
Free
€0
- 1 client
- 5 GB storage
- 100 MB max file size
- Max 1 year file retention
- No team members
- Custom slug with random suffix
Pro
€10/mo+ tax
- Unlimited clients
- 100 GB storage
- 1 GB max file
- Unlimited file retention
- 3 team members included
- Fully custom slug
Need more? Add the Team addon (€20/mo) or Storage addon (€25/mo). Add or remove any time.
No per-client fees.
Security, encryption, isolation, and data export are the same on every plan.
Tax calculated by Creem at checkout.
Check who are we building Droplana for
Freelancers
Stop juggling email threads and Dropbox folders. Give every client their own portal in seconds — no client accounts, no lost files, no follow-up emails.
Legal
Give each client their own private document portal. EU-hosted in Germany, DPA available. Engagement letters, signed contracts, court filings — all in one clean place. No client login required.
Agencies
Every client gets their own private portal. No shared drives, no Slack chaos. Droplana scales with your agency.