- What Makes the Best EFSS Services?
- Best EFSS Overall
- 1. pCloud for Business
- 2. Box Business
- 3. Sync.com for Teams
- 4. Egnyte Connect
- 5. Zoho WorkDrive
Best Enterprise File Sync and Share (EFSS) Providers in 2023: Take Control of Your Business’s Data
Cloudwards.net presents its roundup of best EFSS providers. From pCloud to Box to Dropbox, here are the six best file share and sync services for SMB owners today. Stick with us as we explain the pros and cons of each option.
Welcome to the Cloudwards.net best enterprise file sync and share (EFSS) roundup. This guide is intended to help small business owners find the best online storage service for their businesses. We spent several weeks testing some of the biggest names in the field, in addition to giving our due diligence to some of the lesser-known options.
We broke down and ranked each service based on key collaboration features, including sync, file sharing, user management and work productivity integrations. Then, with all that information in place, we tallied the strengths and weaknesses, debated back and forth, talked with a few business owners and made our selection for best EFSS service overall: pCloud Business.
Key Takeaways:
- The best EFSS provider on the market is pCloud Business, but Box Business, Sync.com for Teams, Egnyte Connect are all viable options.
- Huddle is the perfect tool for collaborating on documents, but it falls short when it comes to general EFSS features.
- Zoho WorkDrive is the best value option, with plans starting at just $2 per user per month.
Because not every business owner’s needs are the same, though, we’ll also reveal the results of our top EFSS picks for various other categories — including the best value, best for file sharing, best for file syncing, best for productivity, best for user management and best for security — to help you make the right decision for your team.
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06/24/2022
Updated to increase Sync.com’s Teams Standard price to $6 per user per month, as well as the annual and monthly Unlimited plan.
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11/14/2022
Updated the ranking of the services based on current reviews.
EFSS stands for “enterprise file sync and share,” which tells you everything you need to know. EFSS solutions handle syncing and sharing files across your business. That usually comes with upsides, including user management and heightened security.
Every business is a little different, but pCloud Business offers the best balance of features, price and security. Other suitable options include Sync for Teams and Dropbox Business.
Most EFSS solutions are secure. Targeted at enterprises, most EFSS services use the latest in encryption to protect files. Many offer zero-knowledge encryption, too, protecting you from the service itself.
Google Drive, part of Google Workspace, could provide a good free — or affordable — EFSS solution for enterprise, but it doesn’t quite stack up to our other providers in our “best value” list.
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What Makes the Best EFSS Services?
Instead of simply listing the best enterprise file sync and share (EFSS) services, we’ve split this guide into different categories. Worry not — we still have a ranking right here for the best services overall.
However, we also have several other sections depending on what’s most important to your business. Here are the 10 services we’ll be covering:
- pCloud for Business
- Box Business
- Sync.com for Teams
- Egnyte Connect
- Zoho WorkDrive
- Microsoft OneDrive for Business
- Dropbox
- Huddle
- Citrix FileShare
- Tresorit
Although we have separate sections for different purposes, all of the best EFSS providers share some common themes. Most importantly, they’re built for teams. Even if an EFSS service doesn’t do anything particularly impressive, it needs to nail multi-user management and collaboration.
Shortly behind that is security. We talk about security in our personal cloud storage reviews, too, but it’s especially important for businesses. More isn’t always better, though. For example, services like Tresorit, despite being very secure, aren’t as easy to use as Box Business (and not nearly as feature-rich).
For businesses, security is a balancing act. It’s important to use the absolute best security possible while still allowing your business to function and stay productive. So although a service like Box Business may not, technically, be as secure as Sync.com, it’s still secure overall, and trades some advanced security features for better usability.
Integrations are important, too. From collaborating on documents in real time with a Microsoft Office integration to sending a contract to DocuSign to linking a file in Slack, EFSS services live and die based on their integrations. A good file sync and share solution should provide all of the basic tools businesses need to stay productive, as well as quick ways to access them.
Then, there are the important, but not as important, categories. For pricing, we consider the overall value of the service rather than the price itself. That way, a cheap service isn’t good just because it’s cheap, and an expensive service isn’t automatically bad just because it’s expensive.
Ease of use is very important overall, but not for the purposes of this guide. Indeed, some of our picks are easier to use than others. However, all of them provide at least a baseline of usability that’s acceptable for most businesses, so you shouldn’t need to worry about that too much.
Support is a little difficult. Most EFSS services offer different tiers of support based on the plan you purchase. Because of that, we recommend reading the individual review of whatever provider you’re interested in to gauge support.
Best EFSS Overall
Before getting to any of our targeted sections, let’s look at the best overall EFSS providers. The five options below will work for just about any business. All of them balance user management, security, integrations, pricing and ease of use, setting a baseline for comparison to other providers.
Note that the above services aren’t the only options available. We’ll be covering more throughout this guide. These five just combine all of the features we like to see, functioning as a short list for nearly all businesses.
1. pCloud for Business
pCloud for Business is the best enterprise file share and sync service because it’s all about flexibility. That shows in two key features: pCloud Drive and pCloud Crypto. Drive provides a network drive for your computer, allowing you to offload files to the cloud while still having access to them on your local machine.
Crypto is a private key management option, and unlike Box, it’s free. pCloud normally uses server-side encryption, protecting data in transit with an SSL/TLS layer before encrypting it fully at pCloud’s servers. Crypto allows you to encrypt your data locally before sending it to pCloud.
One of pCloud’s key features is user management. Unlike most EFSS solutions, pCloud doesn’t offer user roles. Instead, you can choose what each user in your account has access to, giving you much more control over your business. pCloud also offers file requests for external collaborators, earning it a spot in our best cloud storage for sharing guide.
Pricing is a strong point for pCloud. There aren’t any tiers to worry about; rather, pCloud offers 1TB of storage for three to 99 users for $10 per user per month. Plus, it even comes with a 30-day free trial, as you can see in our pCloud for Business review.
- 1 TB storage per user 3+ users pCloud Encryption Teams & Access control Secure file sharing 180 days file versioning
- 1TB
- Everything in "Business" Unlimited storage Priority support
- Unlimited GB
2. Box Business
Box Business is one of the most feature-rich services we’ve tested, which is a feat, considering how easy to use and secure it is. It earned the rare perfect score in our Box Business review for usability, which perfectly segments the user and admin areas. Box is intuitive, yes, but beyond that, it’s also highly functional.
A big reason why Box is so impressive is its massive list of external app integrations. In addition to first-party apps — such as Box Notes — Box offers Google Workspace and Office 365 integrations. These integrations are native, too, meaning you create and edit documents with either service without ever leaving Box.
Security is great, too, though Box doesn’t offer a zero-knowledge security model. By default, Box manages your encryption keys. However, unlike similar services, Box offers a private key management option for an extra fee.
For how much Box offers, the price is remarkably modest. There isn’t a free plan, but there are multiple tiers of service. We’d recommend Business or Business Plus most. Both come with unlimited storage for a minimum of three users, only differing when it comes to enterprise app integrations and external collaborators.
- Single user
- 10GB
- Single user
- 100GB
- Price per user, minimum of three users
- 100GB
- Users: No limit
- Unlimited GB
- Users: No limit
- Unlimited GB
- Users: No limit
- Unlimited GB
3. Sync.com for Teams
Sync.com is our favorite cloud storage service for personal use, and it has a solid business offering, too. Like the personal service, Sync.com for Teams ranks among the best zero-knowledge cloud storage, providing true end-to-end protection with client-side encryption.
As you can see in our Sync.com for Teams review, none of that security makes the service more difficult to use. Sync.com maintains a clear, intuitive user interface that’s functional and easy to use.
However, Sync.com really stands out with pricing. There isn’t a free plan, but that hardly matters. The Standard plan is one of the cheapest options we’ve seen, clocking in at only $6 per user per month with 1TB of storage. The other plans are even more generous with storage space, all while keeping the price low.
Most businesses will want the Unlimited plan. It costs $15 per user per month, billed annually, or $18 per user per month if you want to pay monthly. It’s three times the price, but you get unlimited storage.
- Price per user. Users: 2+
- 1TB
- Price per user. Users: 2+
- Unlimited GB
- Users: 2+
- Unlimited GB
4. Egnyte Connect
Egnyte Connect comes next on our list, and a big reason why is native support for Microsoft Office and Google Workspace. Rarely do you find both together, along with integrations for Trello, OneLogin and more.
Security isn’t as tight as we’d like, though still solid. Egnyte uses AES-256 — read our description of encryption for more — and passes data over an encrypted TLS layer. Encryption happens server-side, but you can encrypt your data beforehand with software like Cryptomator.
Sharing files across your business is a breeze with Egnyte, which is the main reason we recommend it so highly. Egnyte provides private and collaborative storage space, as well as a network drive, ensuring that whatever’s stored in your account doesn’t take up space on your computer. Additionally, it allows you to fully sync local storage for easily sharing business files with, for example, remote workers.
Egnyte’s pricing isn’t the cheapest around, but far from the most expensive. There isn’t a free plan, unfortunately. For most users, the mid-tier Business plan is the best option, offering 1TB of shared storage plus 10GB per employee for $20 per user per month.
- 1-10 users max.
- 1TB
- Price per user; Secure collaboration; Privilege management; Ransomware protection
- 1TB
- Everything in Business; 3rd-party source support; Content lifecycle management; Threat detection
- 1TB
- Everything in Enterprise Lite; Privacy & compliance; Advanced ransomware protection & recovery; Content safeguards
- 1TB
5. Zoho WorkDrive
Although we recommend reading our individual reviews for any services you’re interested in, our Zoho WorkDrive review is almost required reading. Zoho simply offers too many apps to list here, all of which integrate with WorkDrive. The integrations only grow with Zoho Flow, allowing you to automate tasks with a Zapier-like tool. Zoho really is a treasure trove of features.
WorkDrive works with Google Workspace and Microsoft Office, but with Zoho’s Office Suite, you don’t need them. For the most part, the office tools match Microsoft and Google’s offerings. However, Zoho builds upon that model with a Grammarly-like editing tool called Zia, masked editing and in-app integration with digital signing tools.
Some of those features show in the admin panel, where administrators can enforce a password policy, blocklist IP addresses, remote wipe devices and more. Security is excellent, too, with Zoho offering full-disk encryption in its Indian and Australian data centers.
The price is right, too — even cheaper than Sync.com. You can have the most inexpensive plan (which includes 1TB of storage) for as little as $2 per user per month. Your storage scales with your team size, too. The posted storage is for up to 10 users. After that, you get more storage with more users (for example, 15 users on the Team plan would include 4.5TB of storage).
- One user
- 5GB
- Users: 3+
- 1TB
- Users: 3+
- 5TB
Best Value EFSS Picks
Cutting costs are always a big concern for SMB owners trying to stay in the black. While important, don’t let that goal fool you into jumping into a service with a low sticker price. With many budget-friendly EFSS tools, you get what you pay for.
The three selections below each offer a combination of low pricing and good features, making them ideal solutions for businesses on the hunt for a solid, inexpensive cloud storage solution.
1. Zoho WorkDrive
- One user
- 5GB
- Users: 3+
- 1TB
- Users: 3+
- 5TB
With plans starting at only $2 per user per month, Zoho WorkDrive is easily the cheapest EFSS service you can buy. At that price, we’d expect limited storage and even more limited features, but WorkDrive manages the impossible. It’s as cheap as enterprise file sync and share solutions get, but it never feels that way.
Although the $2 plan is the one that stands out, WorkDrive’s more expensive plans are actually more impressive. Because the storage space scales with the number of seats you have, you’ll rarely — if ever — worry about running out of space with WorkDrive.
2. Sync.com for Teams
- Price per user. Users: 2+
- 1TB
- Price per user. Users: 2+
- Unlimited GB
- Users: 2+
- Unlimited GB
Although Zoho WorkDrive is cheaper, Sync.com for Teams is one of the most inexpensive EFSS solutions available. For $6 per user per month, you get 1TB of storage, but you can scale that up to the Unlimited plan, which is only three times as expensive but comes with unlimited storage space.
We like to see scaling that favors the consumer (a rare event in our industry). Given Sync.com’s features, security and ease of use, the price is remarkable.
3. Microsoft OneDrive for Business
- Price per user, 1TB storage, User count: 1 – 99+
- Price per user, Unlimited storage, User count: 1 – 99+
- Price per user, 1TB storage, User count: 1 – 99+
- Price per user, 1TB storage, User count: 1 – 99+
Coming in third place is Microsoft OneDrive for Business. It costs $5 per user for 1TB of storage each. Plus, unlike most vendors, Microsoft doesn’t force you to sign up a minimum number of users. Better yet, if you sign up five or more users, Microsoft bumps you up to unlimited storage.
You can see all the plan offerings in our OneDrive Business review.
In addition to this plan, Microsoft has several more available, making it also the most flexible EFSS tool we tested in terms of scalability. Some plans even let you download full versions of Office 365. The cheapest of such options is Office 365 Business, which costs just $8.25 per user per month and gives them 1TB of storage each.
Best EFSS for File Sharing
File sharing is a feature designed to easily share content with other users without having to deal with emailing large file attachments or removable media. Sharing files can be risky business when you’re working with sensitive intellectual property, and good EFSS tools incorporate file-sharing settings to keep your business interests safe.
While some of these features might seem like no-brainers, most cloud storage solutions miss out on one or several of them. For example, Microsoft OneDrive for Business doesn’t let you set a link password and gives you no way to audit all of the links you’ve created in one view.
1. Egnyte Connect
Egnyte Connect checks off all the boxes and then some when it comes to file sharing. You can share any folder by adding users at the individual or group level or simply by creating a link pointing to that folder. You can also create links for individual files, which can be emailed or distributed manually.
Business users retain control over their links with options like link passwords, expiry dates and notifications for whenever that link is used. You can also restrict link access based on whether the individual is one of your licensed account holders and restrict whether or not those with your link can download the file or just preview it.
The Egnyte approach to content sharing is more thoughtful and well designed than any other that we’ve used, making an easy top pick in this category.
2. Dropbox Business
Dropbox Business is similar to Egnyte Connect in that it lets you create shared folders and includes great settings options for file links (read our Egnyte vs Dropbox piece). These options include password protection and expiry dates, plus the ability to restrict link access based on whether or not the individual is a member of your team, as you can see in our Dropbox Business review.
Really the only shortcoming is that Dropbox Business doesn’t give you a notification option for link sharing or let you prevent file downloads. The platform does, however, provide some nice reporting capabilities for shared folders and links.
3. Box Business
Box Business includes both password and expiry settings for links to give you some control over your content. However, the service falls short by not including a way to easily audit what links have been created. That’s the primary reason we ranked Box Business a bit behind Egnyte Connect and Dropbox Business.
In order to see what links have been created with Box, you have to scan your folders for a link icon beside file names. As a means of auditing links, this approach is both time consuming and error prone.
It’s more secure to set up shared folders with Box for your team and just access content that way. Still, the inclusion of a password option is more than you get with most other tools, including big names like eFolder Anchor, Citrix ShareFile and IBM Connections.
Best EFSS for File Syncing
Most cloud storage platforms today follow the sync model developed by Dropbox founder Drew Houston, which is to provide a desktop sync folder that stores content both on your device hard drive and in the cloud. However, while many mimic the model, few pull it off as well as Dropbox.
The main reason why is block-level sync, one of Dropbox’s standout features. Another great sync feature that we’ve started seeing more frequently is selective sync. Selective sync lets you turn off sync for content so that it’s only stored in the cloud and not on your device. We like this feature for business users because of the trend toward ultraslim laptops with small solid-state drives (SSDs).
1. Dropbox Business
Dropbox invented sync and continues to lead the way. While initial file uploads and downloads with Dropbox might not torch the competition, the same can’t be said about changes made to existing files, thanks to its block-level approach.
We also love Dropbox’s approach to selective sync, which shows through the Smart Sync feature. With most EFSS platforms, when you turn sync off for a folder, you can no longer see it inside your sync folder. With Dropbox, you can see them and still access them. The only downside is that because that content isn’t stored on your hard drive, it isn’t available offline.
2. Egnyte Connect
Egnyte Connect is the only other EFSS platform we found during our analysis that incorporates block-level sync for all file types. In our testing, it performed just as well as Dropbox Business, reducing file uploads for massive files from a few minutes on initial uploads to a few seconds when changes were made.
Egnyte also supports selective sync, but when you turn it off for a given folder, you no longer see that folder in your sync folder. You either have to go to the Egnyte browser interface to see it, or you can install Egnyte Drive, which acts like a network drive in your file system. Egnyte falls short of Dropbox when it comes max file size, with a cap of 10GB.
You can throttle upload and download sync speeds with Egnyte, or you can set a sync schedule if you’d rather not keep sync running perpetually. However, for business collaborations, we wouldn’t recommend doing so, since you’re liable to get crossed wires somewhere.
3. Microsoft OneDrive for Business
Like Egnyte Connect and Dropbox, OneDrive supports block-level sync, allowing you to upload only the changes to files in your account, rather than reupload the entire file. It may have arrived late, but OneDrive supports block-level sync now.
Sync with OneDrive for Business is supported for files up to 10GB, the same as Egnyte. Selective sync is an option, too, which you can manage by right-clicking on the OneDrive icon on your taskbar and selecting “settings.”
Like our top two sync options, OneDrive also lets you manually adjust how much bandwidth gets used for file uploads and downloads in case it’s causing problems with other tasks.
Best EFSS for Productivity
EFSS solutions are mainly for storing and syncing your files. However, as services like Box Business show, they can serve as a hub for all of your business operations. Integrations are the main reason why, but some services stand above the pack for other reasons.
The three tools below emphasize productivity above all else. Some, such as our first pick, struggle in other areas. However, those downsides are easy to overlook if your business is focused on getting things out the door as fast as possible.
1. Huddle
Huddle isn’t really an EFSS service, though it can play the role of one. A more apt description for Huddle is a “collaboration tool.” It uses the framework of storing your files in the cloud. However, storing them in the cloud is only to enable real-time collaboration (read our Huddle review to see that in action).
That’s where Huddle shines. It’s an expensive service, and compared to many other options on this list, lacking features. However, if your business relies on multiple users accessing documents and moving them around quickly, there isn’t another option as good as Huddle.
2. Box Business
Box Business impresses with integrations with Office Online, Office 365 and Google Docs. Many EFSS tools work with Microsoft but very few work with Google Docs, let alone both Microsoft and Google Docs.
Box also has its own notes app, which is called Box Notes, along with several other first-party productivity tools. Additionally, it has a searchable library of third-party integration options to boost your productivity.
3. Zoho WorkDrive
Zoho WorkDrive comes with a long list of integrations, but we’re recommending it here on the strengths of the Zoho Office suite, as well as Zoho Flow. The Office suite is excellent, matching and often exceeding the offerings from Microsoft and Google. The apps may not look as pretty, but they get the job done better.
Zoho Flow is very impressive, too. Zapier is an indispensable tool for many businesses, and with Flow, you can have that same functionality connected to your cloud storage. Zoho may not innovate in the same ways that other services do, but the end value is hard to deny.
Best EFSS for User Management
Strong user management capabilities let you control what users can and can’t do. Typically, you’ll see options to give users either edit or view-only permissions on files. Better tools offer more powerful role customization. Other attributes we like to see are the abilities to create and manage groups and run reports on user usage and activity.
Pick a tool with good user management controls if you’re working with particularly sensitive intellectual property. The most common causes of data breaches are negligent and malicious employees. Good oversight and restrictive capabilities limit that risk.
1. Citrix ShareFile
When it comes to role customization, Citrix ShareFile really goes above and beyond the competition. From within the admin console, you can drill down on user permissions to enable or disable capabilities like the ability to create root-level folders, access reporting tools and use personal storage space.
ShareFile also lets you set up shared and personal address books, groups and team folders. Finally, you can generate a broad range of reports with ShareFile to monitor activity. Report options include running reports for specific users or groups and selecting various actions like logins, downloads and deletions.
2. Box Business
Box Business is a close second to ShareFile with regard to user management. We like that you can control how much storage individual users can make use of. You can also set general user permissions that restrict their ability to delete, edit and upload files. There are also options to cut off sync capabilities and restrict users from sharing content externally.
More advanced access permissions are managed at the folder level, where seven different types of access level can be granted. While some of the best user management features are reserved for Box Enterprise customers, there are plenty of controls to help SMB owners keep a tight rein on their content, too.
3. Egnyte Connect
On any Egnyte subscription level, you can create standard users, advanced users and admins. Admins can manage folders and groups by adding users and setting permissions. Advanced users can sync and share content, view users and invite standard users to access content. Standard users are limited users who are restricted to web UI access.
Egnyte gives you access to good — but not ShareFile good — reporting capabilities to monitor your account usage. From the reports center, you can access a general dashboard, plus tabs for file server size, folder size, link summary, sync status, lock summary and user permissions. There’s also an “audit report” option to run detailed reports regarding things like file usage and logins.
Most Secure EFSS
From ransomware to phishing schemes, businesses are usually the target of cybercrime. Although a good antivirus and clear employee processes can help mitigate that risk, it’s still vitally important to protect files you have stored in the cloud.
Our three picks in this section excel with zero-knowledge security models and the absolute best in encryption. You may trade features for the privilege. However, when security is of the utmost importance, these services deliver in a way few others can match.
1. Sync.com for Teams
Sync.com for Teams uses a zero-knowledge security model — and at a rate that beats the competition. It’s one of the most secure services around, employing AES-256 to protect data at rest, as well as an SSL/TLS layer for data in transit (likely also using AES-256).
Additionally, Sync.com supports two-factor authentication through the best 2FA apps, such as Google Authenticator. It also supports single sign-on services like OneLogin, as well as email-based account recovery.
2. pCloud Business
pCloud Business also offers a zero-knowledge security model. Unlike our other two picks for most secure EFSS, pCloud invited hackers to try to break the system, offering up $100,000. In our “talk with the boss” series, pCloud CEO Tunio Zafer also pointed out that pCloud’s code is public, allowing anyone to see what’s going on behind the curtain.
pCloud supports two-factor authentication with a variety of apps, as well as SSO services. We can’t discount pCloud’s user management options here, either, allowing admins to fully customize what each user has access to.
3. Tresorit
Tresorit is a good service, but there are others that beat it — if only slightly — in many categories. For cloud security, though, Tresorit is one of the better EFSS solutions on the market.
As we noted in our Tresorit review, the service is secure by design. By employing a zero-knowledge security model and encrypting your data locally on your device, Tresorit protects you from external and internal threats. It respects privacy, too, which is seldom seen in the EFSS market.
Final Thoughts
There are a lot of options for enterprise file sync and share (EFSS), and unfortunately, there isn’t a single provider that wins the race. pCloud Business, Box Business and Sync.com for Teams are all excellent, and it’s hard to go wrong with any of them.
Many of the other options, such as Egnyte Connect, Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive, are great, too, depending on what your business needs.
That’s what it comes down to: what your business needs. So, what EFSS provider works best for your business? Why did you choose it? Let us know in the comments below and, as always, thanks for reading.
