ShareFile alternative
ShareFile secures the pipe. The document goes down it unchanged.
ShareFile moves your files. DataGuard checks what is inside them first. It keeps the record, not the file.
Encryption, MFA, expiring links, a client portal. All of it protects the delivery, not the document. DataGuard checks the document before it goes down the pipe, your reviewer clears it, and the record shows what left and who cleared it.
DataGuard keeps the record, not the file, and does not run a client portal. ShareFile publishes no readable price. Ask your rep for a current quote.
Every claim below links to ShareFile's own documentation. Checked 29 Aug 2026.
The gap
A gate picks the reader. It does not change the document.
ShareFile · secure link
The link expires. The recipient authenticates. Then they read page nine.
Sidian DataGuard · pre-flight
The line is gone from the copy that leaves. The rule it matched is on the record, and a person cleared it.
Feature by feature
What each one does to the document
| Capability | ShareFile | Sidian DataGuard |
|---|---|---|
| 01Pre-flight checksWhat happens at the moment something is about to go out. | ||
| Checks a file at the moment it goes out | ShareFile: no. No. The sender decides what to upload; the platform secures the transfer.1 | DataGuard: yes. Yes. Every share through a connected source runs the pre-flight first. |
| What the check can do about it | ShareFile: yes. Encrypt it, expire the link, require the recipient to authenticate. The delivery itself is genuinely well protected.1 | DataGuard: yes. Remove the passage. The send then completes. |
| Removes sensitive text from the outgoing copy | ShareFile: no. No. Redaction does not appear in the published feature set.1 | DataGuard: yes. Yes. The passage is gone from the file that leaves. |
| How often the detection is right | ShareFile: no. Nothing to measure. The published capabilities do not include detection.1 | DataGuard: yes. 98% on names, organisations, dates, account numbers and IDs in legal documents, tested on real ones. The rest is what the review pass is for. |
| A person approves before it leaves | ShareFile: no. The sender decides what to upload. Nothing inspects it.1 | DataGuard: yes. Every flagged item, every send. DataGuard proposes, your team decides. |
| 02Your rules, and what you can seeWhose rules apply, whether they change with the recipient, and whether anyone can see everything that left. | ||
| The rule changes with who is receiving it | ShareFile: no. No. Permissions decide who opens it, not what it says.1 | DataGuard: yes. Yes. One document, a version per recipient, each one cleared by your team. |
| One rule set across every system you use | ShareFile: no. Controls apply to files uploaded into ShareFile.1 | DataGuard: yes. One policy set, applied to every connected source. Written once. |
| One view of everything that left | ShareFile: no. Access and transfer logs for what moved through ShareFile.1 | DataGuard: yes. One view across every connected system: what left, when, and to whom. |
| Finds sensitive content in the first place | ShareFile: no. No. Published capabilities are regulatory compliance, authentication, encryption, access controls.1 | DataGuard: yes. Yes, and flags each item for a person to clear. |
| 03Sharing into AIWhat an assistant reads when it is pointed at the file. | ||
| What an AI assistant reads | ShareFile: no. No assistant appears in the published capabilities. A file shared out is the real file.1 | DataGuard: yes. A synthetic mirror. Names and numbers are swapped for stand-ins in the copy the model reads. |
| Outside AI tools your team already uses | ShareFile: no. Not addressed in the published feature set.1 | DataGuard: yes. Claude, ChatGPT and Copilot read the mirror through a shared folder link. |
| 04Proof, afterwardsWhat you can show a client, an auditor or a court, and how fast. | ||
| What the log proves | ShareFile: no. Access and transfer logs: who opened what, and when.1 | DataGuard: yes. Every item removed, the rule it matched, and the person who cleared it. |
| Getting it out for an auditor | ShareFile: no. Transfer and access reporting.1 | DataGuard: yes. One audit pack, mapped to CCPA, SOC 2 and ISO 27701 control objectives. Mapping, not certification. |
| 05Where your files liveWhich of these two is a place your documents sit. | ||
| Client portal and document requests | ShareFile: yes. Yes, and it is the strongest thing on this list. A real portal your clients log into.1 | DataGuard: no. No portal. If your team relies on it, keep ShareFile alongside. |
| Stores your files | ShareFile: no. Yes. A file is uploaded into ShareFile to be shared.1 | DataGuard: yes. No. It reads each file where it already sits, and keeps nothing afterwards but the record. |
| A second copy of the file, just to share it | ShareFile: no. Files are uploaded into ShareFile to be shared.1 | DataGuard: yes. None. Reads and writes where the file already is. |
One row goes ShareFile's way outright, and one is a tie. The outright ones are ruled in green. Where ShareFile is stronger, and what DataGuard does not do at all, are set out in full directly below.
Honestly
ShareFile and DataGuard, both directions
Where ShareFile is stronger
Reasons to keep it, and reasons a firm bought ShareFile in the first place.
- The client portal. A branded, secure space for external collaboration a client can actually use without a support call, which is a lower bar than it sounds and most tools miss it.
- Document request lists. Structured requests for intake, discovery and due diligence, so the firm stops chasing a client through email for the same three documents.
- The delivery is genuinely locked. Encryption in transit and at rest, MFA, granular permissions, link expiry, remote wipe and device management.
- Signature and workflow. E-sign, approvals and retention sitting alongside the transfer, so a simple matter can run start to finish in one place.
What DataGuard does not do
Scope, not a roadmap. If you need these, you need them from something else.
- Store your files. There is no DataGuard file system. It reads each file where it already sits and keeps the record of what it did, not the file.
- Run a client portal. ShareFile's portal and document requests have no counterpart here. If your team uses them, that is a reason to keep it alongside.
- Be the delivery pipe. Encryption in transit, recipient MFA and expiring links are the delivery layer. DataGuard changes what is in the document before it reaches that layer.
- Become your system of record. Nothing held in DataGuard is authoritative, so there is nothing to migrate in and nothing to migrate back out.
- Catch everything, every time. No detection is perfect, which is why a person clears each flagged item and why the check is a second pair of eyes rather than a replacement for the first.
Price
What it costs
ShareFile does not publish a readable price on its own pricing page; the figure is injected by a script that a static check cannot read, so this page is not going to guess one. What it can do is show its own number.
DataGuard starts at a published price on /pricing. No add-on quote, no seat minimum to reach the capabilities on this page.
DataGuard, per user / month
30-day free trial, full product, no card.
ShareFile publishes no price in readable page source as of 29 Aug 2026. Ask your ShareFile rep for a current quote to compare directly.
The stack
What changes on Monday
The source is never altered. What goes out is a separate, logged copy your team can trace to the person who cleared it. The reason a firm bought ShareFile was that sending straight from SharePoint felt unsafe. DataGuard makes that send safe where it already happens, instead of adding a second place to put the file first.
With ShareFile in the middle
Two homes for one document
- Which copy is current? The two answer differently.
- Two permission sets to keep in step, by hand.
- A second seat for the privilege of the duplicate.
With DataGuard
One source. A checkpoint on the way out.
- The source is never altered. It stays in SharePoint.
- Your permissions stay yours. Nothing to mirror.
- The outgoing copy is logged, traceable to who cleared it.
You keep
SharePoint, Drive, Outlook and Clio, and ShareFile too if your team relies on the client portal. This page is about the redaction gap, not the portal.
You drop
The habit of uploading a copy of the document into ShareFile before it can be sent, and the second permission set that goes with it.
Getting started
Connect the sources, pick the removal rules your firm already follows, and run one live matter through the pre-flight. Hours, not a migration.
Questions
The ones that come up on every call
Not from this page. ShareFile's portal and document request lists are the strongest part of the product, and this comparison is about the redaction gap, not the portal. Bring the workflows you actually use to the call and we will be straight about which ones overlap.
See it on one of your own matters.
Bring a closed matter, or ask for an NDA and bring a live one. We'll run it through the pre-flight on the call.