An upload page and a client portal solve different halves of the problem

Published by Droplana, one of the products compared. File Request Pro's workflows and pricing checked on its own site on September 21, 2026. The trial and screenshot below use fictional data and are not customer results.

What File Request Pro is for

It is worth being precise, because this is a focused product and the focus is its strength.

File Request Pro gives you branded upload pages and document-request workflows with request tracking and reminders. The person uploading needs no account, and the files are delivered into the Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive or SharePoint storage you already use.

For many situations that is the whole requirement. A photographer collecting raw material for one job. A firm gathering documents for a single application. Anyone whose storage is already settled and who wants a better front door onto it.

If that describes you, buy it. This page is for the case where it stops being enough.

The thing an upload page cannot do

An upload page has no memory of the person using it. Request workflows add tracking and reminders on your side, but the files still leave for your drive.

That sounds abstract until you look at what takes your time with a recurring client. It is not the upload. It is the three questions afterwards: what are you still waiting for from me, can you send that document from March again, and where do I sign this?

Intake into your drive answers none of them for the client. They have no place of their own to see what they sent, what is still outstanding and what you sent back. So the follow-up moves to email, which is where it was before.

Droplana keeps the client as the organising unit. One private portal, one address that does not change, holding their exchange with you in both directions. The checklist shows them what is still missing without you writing the email. Each file has its own comment thread, so questions live on the document rather than in an inbox. PDFs can be signed in the browser by either side, and each signature gets a public verification page recording who signed, when and from what IP.

To test that, use a fictional monthly bookkeeping client. Request a statement and receipts, let the client upload them, and ask for a clearer image in a comment on that file. Then upload the finished management report for the client to download. Next month, go back to the same portal for the new period's documents.

Real product demonstration with fictional Ledger & Oak Accounting and Maple & Vine Bistro data. The desktop portal shows two supplied items and one missing receipt. Open the full-size screenshot.

Droplana vs File Request Pro side by side

	File Request Pro	Droplana
What it is	Branded upload pages and request workflows	A private portal per client
Direction	Client to you	Both ways
Client sees their exchange	Not the model	Yes, uploads, outstanding items and files you sent
Where files land	Your Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive or SharePoint	The portal, on Hetzner in Germany
Follow-up	Request tracking and reminders	Checklist with optional due dates; inactivity nudge after 7 days, escalation to you after 14
Per-file comments and status	Not the model	Yes
In-browser PDF signing	Not the model	Yes, with a public verification page per signature
Phone camera capture	Browser upload	Take photo button, straight into the checklist item
Client account	Not needed to upload	Not needed; Strict verifies email on a new device
Branding	Branded upload pages	Logo only, free on every plan
One-person price	Lite: 39 USD/month, 30 workflow requests/month, 10 GB, 1 GB files	Solo: 19 EUR/month plus tax, unlimited clients, 50 GB, 1 GB files
Hosting	Confirm vendor region and your connected-drive settings	Hetzner in Germany; operated by an EU company in Croatia

Figures from File Request Pro pricing. Reusable upload-page submissions do not count against its workflow requests. Currencies, taxes and your cloud-storage costs differ, so this is not a savings calculation. Check filerequestpro.com for current plans.

Two honest points in its favour

Delivery into your storage. If your firm's work already lives in SharePoint or Drive, files that land there directly save a step every time. Droplana has no storage connector; you download files from the portal by hand.

Branding. A branded page is a headline feature there. Droplana's logo upload replaces our mark in the portal header, free on every plan, and paid plans get a clean subdomain without a random suffix. There is no accent colour and no custom domain, and the footer keeps a small Droplana line. Where full brand control matters, that is a gap.

What Droplana does not do

• Logo only, not full branding. Covered above.
• No storage connectors. Nothing is delivered into Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive or SharePoint, and there is no form to embed on your website.
• Not a form builder. The checklist asks for documents, not structured answers.
• Fixed reminders, not workflow. Enabled inactivity reminders nudge the client after 7 days and escalate to you after 14. Optional checklist due dates get a reminder prepared two days before and on the date, which reaches the client with their next email, later that day or the next day.
• Not general storage or an archive. Storage is capped per plan, and Free keeps each file for up to 180 days after upload. A persistent portal address does not promise permanent file retention.
• Not a qualified e-signature. Signing marks a document as signed and records the circumstances; it is not certificate-based or qualified.

Who should pick which

Pick File Request Pro if you need a front door onto storage you already run; the people uploading are one-off contacts rather than recurring clients; the page must carry your branding; or the whole job is intake and nothing travels back.

Pick Droplana if the same clients come back and you are tired of re-answering what is still outstanding; documents go to the client as well as from them; you want signing and per-file comments on the documents themselves; or you have been asked for an EU company with files hosted in Germany.

Using both is a reasonable answer: a public upload page for one-off intake from your website, and a private portal for the clients you serve every month. They sit at different points in the relationship.

For the per-client structure in daily use, see the accounting practices page, the legal page or the client portal guide.

Questions before you choose

What is the difference between File Request Pro and Droplana?

File Request Pro collects uploads through branded pages and request workflows and delivers the files into cloud storage you already use. Droplana is a client document portal: one private, persistent portal per client that holds documents in both directions, with a checklist, per-file comments, file status and in-browser PDF signing. File Request Pro is built around intake into your drive; Droplana is built around the ongoing exchange with each client.

Can clients see what they sent me, or what I sent them?

In Droplana, yes. The client's portal shows what they uploaded, what is still outstanding on their checklist and the files you sent them, with comments on each file. What stays available depends on the plan: Free keeps each file for up to 180 days after upload, and active paid plans have no plan-imposed retention limit.

Does Droplana put files into my Google Drive or SharePoint?

No. Droplana has no connector to Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive or SharePoint. Files stay in the portal, on Hetzner infrastructure in Germany, and you download them into your own storage by hand. If delivery straight into your existing drive is the requirement, File Request Pro is the better fit.

When is an upload form no longer enough?

When the same clients keep coming back and the time goes into the questions after the upload: what is still missing, can you send that document from March again, where do I sign. A portal answers those in one place per client. If your uploaders are one-off contacts and nothing goes back to them, an upload tool is enough.

Plans and limits

Paid plans include unlimited clients: Solo EUR19/month or EUR190/year, Practice EUR49/month or EUR490/year, Studio EUR99/month or EUR990/year, plus tax. Free covers 3 clients, 2 GB and files up to 100 MB. Each paid storage add-on costs EUR15/month or EUR150/year plus tax, adds 500 GB and raises the file limit to 5 GB.

On Free, each file expires 180 days after upload. Your clients and their access stay active, so you can keep sharing new files. Active paid plans have no plan-imposed retention limit. Expiry settings, deletion and cancellation rules still apply; a persistent portal address does not guarantee permanent file availability. Team sizes include you. No setup fees or automatic overage charges. Prices exclude applicable tax.

Compare plan details

Plan limits and services. Team sizes include the owner.

Included	Free	Solo	Practice	Studio
Team size	Just you	Just you	5	Unlimited
Clients	3	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Storage	2 GB	50 GB	250 GB	1 TB
Maximum file size	100 MB	1 GB	2 GB	5 GB
File retention	180 days from upload	No limit	No limit	No limit
Your Droplana address	Includes a random suffix	Your chosen name	Your chosen name	Your chosen name
Data Processing Agreement	Standard	Standard	Countersigned available	Countersigned available
Support	Email	Email	Priority	Priority
Personal setup call	Not included	Not included	Not included	Included

Need more storage?

Add 500 GB for €15/month + tax, or €150/year + tax. Each storage add-on also raises your maximum file size to 5 GB.

Available on all paid plans from your billing page. Add more than one for another 500 GB each. Your team size stays the same.

Related comparisons

Other request-based tools are compared in Droplana vs FileInvite and Droplana vs Content Snare. If you collect files through shared folders, see Droplana vs Google Drive and Dropbox.