Best File Sharing Software of 2026

File sharing is integral to many of the workflows found in modern digital offices. It's almost impossible to imagine how modern businesses would operate without sharing digital files.

Thankfully, there's no shortage of file sharing tools and applications. However, because there are so many options available, businesses often struggle to choose among them. Options for security, collaboration and mobility differ greatly between the many types of file sharing tools, and businesses need to weigh a wide range of variables during the selection process.

This Buyer's Guide will help you better juggle and more accurately weigh your priorities when selecting file sharing software. It covers:

What Is File Sharing Software?

Common Features of File Sharing Software

What Type of Buyer Are You?

Key Considerations

What Is File Sharing Software?

The term “file sharing software" actually encompasses many different platforms, applications and add-ons. There's a huge range of products that can be considered file sharing software, but the range of products that will meet your company's specific file-sharing needs is going to be much, much smaller.

For example, Gmail and Outlook both let users share files as email attachments, but these email apps would only meet the file-sharing needs of companies with extremely basic file-sharing requirements. For example, they don't support collaboration or content management and they don't integrate well with other business platforms, like CRM or project management software.

To help you narrow down your search, we'll look first at the common features of file sharing software. Once you have a feel for the scope of applications, we'll look at some common use cases to help you decide which most applies to your business.

Common Features of File Sharing Software

The following table illustrates the range of applications and capabilities available across the wide spectrum of file sharing offerings. Be aware that there may not always be clear lines dividing some of these applications from each other.

What Type of Buyer Are You?

Gartner's report "Top 10 Best Practices for Choosing and Deploying an Enterprise File Sync and Sharing Solution" (available to Gartner clients) outlines three general use cases for file sharing software. Keep in mind that these examples are not mutually exclusive; most companies will find that all three apply, but to varying degrees.

1. General productivity. This use case leverages the convenience of digital file sharing software to improve workflow efficiency in-office, with outside parties and on mobile devices. If this sounds most applicable to your business, then the most basic file sharing platforms will suffice. Focus your search on those that include, at a bare minimum, the first four applications in the table above.

2. Extended collaboration. This use case applies to companies that want to use file sharing software to improve their collaborative workflows, both internally and with outside organizations. If this sounds most applicable to your business, look for a platform that includes basic and extended collaboration apps, like versioning, commenting and task assignments.

3. IT modernization. This use case is for companies undergoing strategic digitalization and modernization initiatives. It applies to companies that, for example want to move away from older FTP file servers to more modern cloud services to take advantage of the latter's more robust access, automation and backup and recovery capabilities. These companies often prioritize the integration capabilities of file sharing services to ensure compatibility with legacy systems.

Market Trends to Understand

In choosing among the many file sharing solutions, you should pay attention to the level of control each offers. This level of control should be examined on two fronts: control over the operation of the platform—the “control plane"—and control over the data and the files themselves.

Different levels of control offered by file sharing platforms. Source: Gartner

Small and midsize businesses with basic file sharing needs and small IT departments typically do best with fully cloud-based solutions. While some of these platforms offer APIs for customizing parts of the control plane, they're generally designed to be used out of the box with minimal configuration.

At the other end of the spectrum, on-premise solutions offer much more flexibility for more complex integrations. These companies may want to create a file-sharing service that blends seamlessly with an existing application. They may have stricter data privacy concerns, or are implementing real-time analytical tools. For such businesses, on-premise solutions may be a better fit, so long as the company has the IT staff needed to implement and support these customizations and systems.