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How Foldr compares

Connective layer, or destination platform.

Most cloud file platforms are destinations. Box, Dropbox, Egnyte and ShareFile each give you a place to put your files, a permissions model inside their cloud, and a UI on top. They’re mature products and a sensible choice for greenfield estates.

Foldr is a different shape. Files stay where they already are: SharePoint, OneDrive, S3, SMB, Google Drive, even Box or Dropbox if that’s where you keep them. Foldr sits in front and gives you one access surface, with permissions inherited from the source on every query. Below is a fair, structural comparison of the two approaches.

Topic
Foldr
Destination platforms
Where files live
Wherever they already do. SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, Google Drive, S3, Azure Blob, SMB, Box, Dropbox. Foldr is a layer in front.
In the platform’s own cloud. Files are uploaded into it and managed from there.
Migration
None. Connect existing storage in minutes; disconnect just as fast.
Required. Files move into the platform to be governed and shared from inside it.
Permissions
Inherited from the source storage on every query. SharePoint says yes or no. AD says yes or no. Foldr asks.
Native ACLs inside the platform. Permissions are reissued there; existing source-of-truth ACLs in SharePoint, AD or S3 don’t carry across.
Identity
SAML, Microsoft Entra, Google Workspace, LDAP, Active Directory, Kerberos.
SAML, Microsoft Entra, Google Workspace. LDAP and Active Directory support varies by vendor.
AI assistant
Grace. Reads only what each user is allowed to see, on every query. No shadow indexes. Can also build and run automations on demand.
Offered as part of, or alongside, the platform. Box AI, Dropbox Dash, Egnyte content intelligence; availability, scope and pricing vary by vendor and tier.
Document capture
Captur. Intelligent extraction by default, templates for high-volume layouts. Native positional reading of text PDFs; OCR fallback for scans. MaSH routes the result.
Varies by vendor. Box Skills, ShareFile workflows, Egnyte content intelligence. Scope and depth differ.
Automation
Three surfaces, one engine. Mashup is the visual block editor; MaSH is the plain-text script checked into source control; Grace is the verbal route via the AI assistant. Switch between any of them on the same workflow. Bundle with shares and fields into a Foldr Flow file.
A visual workflow builder, and that’s usually it. Box Relay, ShareFile Workflows, Egnyte Workflows, Dropbox automations. No code surface to check into source control; no AI-built workflows.
Deploy
Self-hosted virtual appliance for your own datacentre, your own cloud account, or an air-gapped network, or fully managed SaaS in the UK and EU. Same product surface either way; move between them at any time.
SaaS-controlled for the major vendors today. Some still expose customer-managed storage zones or local caches, but the platform itself runs in the vendor’s cloud.
Pricing model
SaaS per-seat tiers, or a fixed annual licence on the appliance. Disconnect Foldr at any point and your files are still in the storage you already had; no extraction project.
SaaS per-seat tiers, often with separate per-external-user pricing for collaboration features. Leaving means a migration project; your files have to come back out.
Best fit
Estates that don’t want vendor lock-in, that need to keep files on their own storage for privacy or compliance, or that need a self-hosted option. Existing SharePoint, S3, SMB or mixed estates that don’t want to migrate.
Greenfield deployments where the storage destination is open. Teams that want a single vendor for the whole stack and are happy to put their data inside it.
Why teams pick Foldr

Four reasons a connective layer wins.

No vendor lock-in

Disconnect at any point and your files are already where they should be.

Foldr is a layer over the storage you already run. Switch it off and your SharePoint, S3, SMB and Drive estate is untouched. No migration in, no migration out, no held-hostage data.

Your data, your storage

Files never copy into our cloud just to be searched, shared or governed.

Permissions are inherited from the source on every query, so the source of truth stays the source of truth. For regulated and privacy-sensitive estates, that’s the difference between “our files in their cloud” and “our files on our storage.”

Self-host if you need to

Same product on your hardware, in your VLAN, even fully air-gapped.

The Foldr Appliance is a virtual machine you run in your own datacentre or hypervisor, with a fixed annual licence and no per-seat billing surprises. Air-gapped installs are supported. SaaS and Appliance share the same product surface; configuration travels between them via Foldr Flow.

Build automation your way

Visual, code, or verbal. Same workflow, three surfaces.

Mashup is the visual block editor. MaSH is the plain-text script you can check into source control. Grace is the verbal route via the AI assistant. Pick whichever way of thinking suits the task; switch between them on the same workflow.

When a destination platform fits better

Greenfield estate, single vendor, everything inside one stack.

Box, Dropbox, Egnyte and ShareFile each give you a mature permissions model and a deep integration ecosystem inside their own cloud. If you’re starting from a blank slate, have no existing storage to honour, and want one vendor to own the whole stack, pick the one whose feature mix fits best.

Specific comparisons

Foldr next to a particular vendor.

The structural argument is the same in every case. These pages restate it with the right column scoped to one vendor.

Bring it together. On your terms.

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