If your firm has looked at secure file-sharing tools, you've almost certainly come across ShareFile. It's one of the oldest and most widely deployed names in the space, used across professional services, financial services, healthcare, and beyond. That broad footprint is exactly what makes it worth a closer look for accounting firms specifically — ShareFile wasn't built for accounting, and the way it has bolted accounting features onto a general-purpose platform is a meaningfully different starting point than a tool built for accounting firms from day one.
What ShareFile Actually Is
ShareFile is a secure file-sharing and document-collaboration platform, originally built by Citrix and acquired by Progress Software in an acquisition completed in October 2024. Progress describes it as a "SaaS-native, AI-powered, document-centric collaboration platform" serving business and professional services, financial services, industrial, and healthcare customers — in other words, a horizontal enterprise tool, not an accounting-specific product.
ShareFile is sold across four tiers: Advanced (encrypted storage and sharing with secure email integration), Premium (adds client collaboration tools, e-signature, and workflow automation), Industry Advantage (adds pre-built accounting-specific templates, bulk client onboarding, and a centralized engagement view), and Virtual Data Room (built for high-stakes document control with watermarking and audit trails, aimed more at M&A and legal use cases than day-to-day accounting work). Public trackers put Advanced at roughly $16–18/user/month, Premium around $26–29/user/month, Industry Advantage around $42–46/user/month, and Virtual Data Room around $69–77/user/month, most with a 3-to-5-user minimum — firms should confirm current figures directly with ShareFile/Progress, since third-party trackers can lag list-price changes.
The accounting-specific capability only shows up once you're on the Industry Advantage tier — the two lower tiers are the same generic file-sharing product used by law firms, healthcare providers, and manufacturers. That's the core trade-off: ShareFile can be made to fit an accounting firm's workflow, but the accounting layer is a template bolted onto a broad enterprise platform rather than the reason the product exists.
What Osuria Actually Is
Osuria is a branded digital workspace built specifically for the client-facing layer of an accounting firm's operations, year-round: secure document sharing and structured document collection, centralized client communication in place of scattered email threads, proactive and scheduled client notifications, task requests, and a client-facing experience that carries the firm's own brand rather than a third-party interface.
Osuria isn't a general-purpose file-sharing platform retrofitted for accounting — every part of it, from the onboarding flow to the notification cadence, is built around how an accounting firm actually works with clients across a full year, not just around moving files securely from one enterprise to another. Like ShareFile, Osuria doesn't publish self-serve pricing; firms request a walkthrough to get a number sized to their firm.
Side-by-Side
ShareFile | Osuria | |
|---|---|---|
Core scope | General-purpose secure file sharing and collaboration, used across many industries | Year-round client communication, document collection/sharing, proactive notifications, branded workspace — built for accounting firms specifically |
Accounting-specific features | Only on the Industry Advantage tier (~$42–46/user/mo) and above | Built in at every tier — accounting is the only market it serves |
Pricing model | Published, tiered per user, 3–5 user minimums | Not published; provided on request via a guided walkthrough |
Origin | Originally built by Citrix; now owned by Progress Software (acquired 2024) | Purpose-built for accounting firm client workspaces |
Client experience | Functional, enterprise-grade file portal; branding and workflow are generic across industries | Designed around the specific rhythm of client requests, tax season, and onboarding at an accounting firm |
Want to see how this works in practice? Explore Osuria’s client portal
Which One Actually Fits Your Firm
ShareFile earns consideration for firms that already use it elsewhere in the organization — a firm that's part of a larger professional-services group, or one with existing Progress/Citrix infrastructure, may find it easier to standardize on a tool they already have a relationship with. Its Virtual Data Room tier is also a legitimate answer for firms that occasionally need to run something like a due-diligence data room, which isn't a use case Osuria is built for.
But for the day-to-day work of running an accounting firm's client relationship — collecting documents at the start of an engagement, answering the client's question in June, sending a proactive update before a deadline — ShareFile's accounting capability is a template layered on top of a platform built for every industry at once. Firms often end up paying for the Industry Advantage tier and still doing a fair amount of manual adaptation to make a generic tool feel like it belongs to their firm.
If your firm's priority is a client experience that feels like it was actually built for accounting — not adapted to it — that's the specific gap Osuria is built to close.
See It for Yourself
The comparison above is directional, not a substitute for seeing either platform against your firm's actual client base and workflow. If your firm is evaluating file-sharing tools and wants to see what a purpose-built, branded accounting workspace looks like in practice, rather than a generic platform with an accounting add-on:
Explore the Digital Workspace or start using Osuria to see how a focused, accounting-first client workspace compares to what your firm is doing today.