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Why Sharetru?
Platform
Here are just a few reasons:
For multiple simultaneous connections, you simply can’t afford to provide the bandwidth to match Sharetru without spending thousands of dollars per month.
Sharetru's servers are accessible through redundant connections to the Internet, whereas your own server would likely have a single point of failure.
Putting a server on your own network potentially opens your entire network up to security issues, hacker attacks, etc.
Sharetru's servers are dedicated file transfer systems that are tuned for high-performance file transfer, whereas an in-house server would likely be multi-purpose.
There are significant costs associated with managing your own server, including the ISP cost for a dedicated Internet circuit, software licensing and maintenance, security and OS maintenance, and the necessity to devote hardware and personnel to manage that server.
File transfer and file-sharing sites generally take up lots of bandwidth, so if your single internet connection is bogged down with file transfers, your transfer rates may suffer. Your other use of your internet connection (for browsing and e-mail) would also suffer from this bottleneck.
We only limit the number of connections to avoid abuse of our Acceptable Use Policy. The following limits allow customers on shared servers more than enough connections to automate high-volume activity, without consuming 100% of system resources.
Allowed connections:
| Plan Name / Type | Connections Per User | Connections Per Remote IP Address | Total Concurrent Connections Allowed |
| Growth | 10 | 10 | 25 |
| All other Shared Infrastructure Plans | 25 | 25 | 75 |
| All Dedicated Infrastructure Plans | 25 | Software Limit Removed | Software Limit Removed |
If your account is on a Shared Infrastructure Plan and exceeds this limit, we will propose that you move to a Dedicated (single-tenant) Server. Dedicated Servers are initially configured to allow UNLIMITED simultaneous connections. In the event your account continues to cause CPU or RAM spikes to 100%, some connection attempts may still be denied. Should that occur, we will recommend upgrading the CPU and/or RAM and will quote accordingly.
At Sharetru, we provide you with unlimited bandwidth transfer monthly at no extra charge, recognizing that our customers heavily utilize this resource, making it our primary operational expense. While many FTP sites frequently refresh their data storage – some daily or even multiple times a day – remember, every file transfer essentially happens twice: once for uploading and once for downloading, directly impacting our operational costs. Unlike services that rely on more affordable storage solutions or cheap cloud object storage, we pride ourselves on using high-performance drives. Our RAID arrays are designed to replicate every byte across several drives, ensuring maximum reliability and facilitating swift recovery from any drive failures. Lastly, every file you store on our FTP site gets backed up, with a minimum of 30 days of backup retained. This means we're essentially storing several times more than what you see on the FTP server itself.
Sharetru is in the business of providing fast and secure file transfers, with “temporary” storage (although we do have some clients who use us as secure repository). Our service is designed for rapid turnover of files and we absorb all bandwidth costs associated with potentially heavy usage. We use storage quotas and limits to measure our customers against one another so we can maximize the performance on all servers for the equal benefit of all customers. It is up to you whether you delete files soon after they are delivered to the intended party or whether you leave files on the FTP server long-term. File Retention Controls available on most plans can aid you in managing your space to a minimum with auto-deleting of files by age.
Every day, we save a copy of your site. If you accidentally erase something, don't worry! We have many saved versions, so we can easily fin. Please see more information regarding our storage practices in the question titled "Hard drives are cheap. Why is your storage expensive?"
Absolutely! Upgrading users and storage on Sharetru is a straightforward process. If you find yourself needing additional storage or more user accounts, all you have to do is open a support ticket informing us of your requirements. Our team will promptly respond with a few clarifying questions to ensure we're tailoring the upgrade to best suit your needs and position you for success. Once we've gathered the necessary details and received your approval, the changes are typically implemented on the very same day. We're here to make sure your experience is seamless and efficient every step of the way.
All Sharetru plans have a level of branding available to administrators. Please see our webpage about creating Brand Harmony to learn more. All branding functionalities are not available for all plans.
Using the latest advanced routing protocols, Sharetru's network allows your data to travel over the optimal path to reach its destination. Instead of making your data wander around, we find the best and fastest route for it. Think of it like having VIP passes to the internet's major highways, thanks to our connections with the big players out there. What does this mean for you? A super-speedy, sturdy, and safe connection from your place to your customers'. And trust us, we're always on the lookout for the next big thing to make sure we keep giving you the fastest and most reliable service possible!
That depends entirely on the speed of your Internet connection. With a good connection, a 10MB file should take less than a minute to download. But, keep in mind that most broadband providers (ISPs) limit your upload bandwidth significantly, so uploads may take longer than downloads.
Regardless of their respective ISP speed and quality, your Sharetru site will be able to handle many simultaneous connections from high-speed users and keep up with them all!
Sharetru servers come without any file size restrictions. This means you can upload as large a file as you want, with the only constraint being the remaining space on your chosen plan's storage capacity. That said, a heads-up: sometimes, it's the browsers that play the spoiler. Some of them might have their own file size limitations, so you might want to check that out before you start your a large HTTPS upload. If it is a large file, we recommend using SFTP instead.
No. Think of your storage limit like a hard drive on one of your local machines. You cannot go over 100%. You should be aware when your limit is reached. For example, if someone tries to upload a file that would put you over the limit, an error message will be received indicating the "over quota" state. You can also set up email notifications to let you know when you are nearing your limit. Storage can be quickly increased by contacting Sharetru support and making a request. We'll provide you with your options in the ticket.
Often, 'transfer' and 'bandwidth' are terms that get used interchangeably, even by us on our pricing page because it's the industry standard. To be precise, 'transfer' refers to bandwidth usage, or the amount of data your FTP site uploads and downloads monthly. While some providers might cap this or charge extra once you exceed a certain limit, and others claim to offer “unlimited” usage but might penalize excessive consumption, Sharetru genuinely offers unlimited monthly bandwidth transfer. On the other hand, 'bandwidth' denotes the speed of this transfer, think of it as the “size of the pipe” or its maximum flow rate. At Sharetru, each site can tap into a robust 1 Gigabit of bandwidth at our gateway firewall, and all our internal ethernet connections match this speed.
Managed File Transfer as a Service (MFTaaS), like Sharetru, is a cloud-based solution designed to oversee, facilitate, and secure the transmission of data files between different organizations or systems. Unlike traditional file transfer methods, MFTaaS offers enhanced security, tracking, and auditing capabilities. This service ensures that data is transmitted efficiently, securely, and in compliance with regulatory standards, eliminating the common vulnerabilities associated with basic file transfer protocols. Essentially, MFTaaS takes the complexity and risk out of moving large or sensitive files, while offering the scalability and convenience of cloud-based solutions.
Yes. We send out automatic email alerts to the site administrators whenever your site hits 90% of its storage limit. This alert should prompt you to take action before you run out of space. Then, we send an additional email when you've reached 100%. You might just need to log in and delete some old files or you might want to consider an upgrade.
With plans supporting Email Notifications, you can configure this alert and a multitude of other email alerts, including additional disk storage alerts or notifications triggered by activity such as uploads or downloads (granular, by Workspace or by User).
At Sharetru, we prioritize seamless communication with our support team by offering an online ticketing system, a comprehensive knowledge base, and a corporate contact number available to you and all your end users. Instead of outsourcing our technical support abroad just to claim round-the-clock availability, our proficient team is on-hand during work hours that effectively span all U.S. time zones. Should there be any after-hours emergencies, like verified server outages, we've got you covered with a messaging system linked to our toll-free number, ensuring a senior support technician can assist you anytime, any day of the year.
No. This violates our Acceptable Use Policy concerning mass distribution of files. Anonymous FTP is an unauthenticated access over an unencrypted protocol (FTP). This is not a secure way to transfer files under any circumstances, therefore the Anonymous FTP function on your Sharetru site is disabled.
Yes, Sharetru is open to negotiating our terms of service, but there are specific criteria to be met. We offer this flexibility exclusively to our clients on the Enterprise plan. Additionally, any negotiation of the terms requires a commitment to a minimum 3-year contract, which must be paid on an annual basis. We believe in fostering strong partnerships with our Enterprise clients and are willing to discuss terms that align with both our objectives and yours, ensuring a mutually beneficial relationship.
Absolutely! Customers on both our Performance and Enterprise plans have the option to use their own custom domain name. However, it's important to note that this feature is not available on our entry-level Growth plan. If having a custom domain is essential for your operations, we recommend considering either the Performance or Enterprise plans to enjoy this added flexibility.
Yes, we do offer a 14-day free trial for both our Growth and Performance plans, which you can access directly through our checkout form. However, it's worth noting that our Enterprise plans operate on a dedicated virtual machine and require a custom build, so we don't provide a free trial for this specific plan. If you're keen on exploring our Enterprise offering but wish to test our platform first, we suggest starting with a trial on our Performance plan. Once your free trial period concludes, the trial site will automatically transition into a live, paid subscription. We've designed it this way because many of our customers often realize early on that Sharetru is the perfect fit for them, and this seamless transition allows them to retain all configurations made during the trial.
Yes. You will receive an email PDF invoice at least 15 days before your monthly renewal. Annual renewals are invoiced 30 days before the renewal date (payment due date). You will also receive a payment confirmation email when a payment is captured.
You may log in to our secure online billing system and view or print full-page invoices, review billing history, update your credit card, and more.
If you move to a more expensive offering, our billing system will automatically prorate the charges for the current month (at the time of your upgrade request) and your renewal date will remain the same day of the month. The same is true when upgrading annual prepaid accounts.
There is nothing preventing you from using the service for only a month or two, but we will require you to contact us to cancel the service 30 days before the renewal date. Otherwise, all plans are automatically renewed.
Sharetru does not refund or pro-rate any final charges upon termination. When you cancel, you will be given the option of keeping the site live until the final day of your last payment cycle. If you prefer, you can have the site deleted immediately.
Certainly! You have the flexibility to upgrade from our Standard Security Platform to the Advanced Security and Compliance Platform whenever you're ready fat the prorated cost of you current term. However, it's important to note that this upgrade requires a planned migration, as the two platforms operate in completely different environments. Our technical support team will work closely with you to schedule and execute the migration, ensuring a smooth transition. Rest assured, you won't lose any users, settings, folders, or files during the process. The only change you'll experience is a new IP address, which is a result of the migration.
Sharetru mandates the use of credit cards for all monthly accounts, with automatic renewals set up each month. It's essential to maintain a valid credit card in our secure online billing system continuously so you don't have a disruption of service. However, for those opting to prepay on an annual basis, committing to a 12-month term, we also accommodate payments through company purchase orders via check, wire transfers, or ACH.
With our monthly service plans (shortest commitment), you are only committing to one month at a time. However, all subscriptions will be automatically renewed until we receive notice of cancellation. Failure to pay an invoice or to keep an updated credit card on file for automated payments does not void or non-renew your account. See our Terms of Service to learn more.
As of this writing, there is not a setup fee for any of our plans.
No. All Sharetru charges are processed in U.S. dollars (USD). Your credit card bank will receive charges in dollars and convert them to other international currencies at prevailing conversion rates.
In terms of data sharing, Sharetru maintains a stringent non-disclosure position with respect to Dun and Bradstreet (D&B). If information regarding risk scores is present, it is solely due to a lack of exclusive/provided data on us. Their practice is to penalize companies for not providing information to them. We're not in the business of freely providing our information for inclusion on their platform, and any data Dun and Bradstreet may have were procured from publicly accessible sources.
Rest assured, our commitment is to guard the confidential nature of our financial data intently. This means not entrusting our uniquely proprietary details to third-party firms such as D&B or engaging in practices that support a "pay to play" model. Trust and integrity are foundational to our operations, so ensuring the privacy and safety of our data is a top priority at Sharetru.
At Sharetru, we prioritize the security and integrity of your data. We are proud to affirm that all our data is exclusively hosted in U.S. datacenters. Furthermore, on our Advanced Security and Compliance Platform, even our disaster recovery datacenter is located within the U.S. To bolster our commitment to data security, since our inception, every single employee at Sharetru has been a U.S. citizen. This ensures a consistent understanding and adherence to U.S. data protection standards. You can rest assured knowing that with Sharetru, your data remains on American soil, managed by a team deeply rooted in the values and regulations of the U.S.
Linux. There is no possibility of obtaining direct operating system access (such as an SSH2 console) from any public IP address. All system administration of your users and folders is done over HTTPS.
Sharetru provides several tools to assist companies in ITAR compliance. You'll find many of the functionalities to support you listed on our ITAR Compliance page. The only controls placed on Sharetru from an ITAR perspective is that the data is housed only in a U.S. datacenter, and that our employees, and those that have access to the data, are U.S. persons / citizens. Sharetru has met this requirement from Day 1.
We're committed to ensuring the highest standards of security and compliance for our customers. To that end, our Advanced Security and Compliance Platform employes Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) that are both FedRAMP moderate authorized. We understand the critical importance of this authorization, especially for clients navigating the stringent requirements of sharing CUI. Recognizing this, we've initiated the process of obtaining FedRAMP moderate authorization for our Software as a Service (SaaS) layer as well. Additionally, we've developed a System Security Plan (SSP) for FedRAMP moderate equivalency, further solidifying our dedication to helping you meet and exceed the rigorous standards set by DFARS 242.204-7012 and NIST 800-53.
At Sharetru, we prioritize the security and integrity of your data. We are proud to affirm that all our data is exclusively hosted in U.S. datacenters. Furthermore, on our Advanced Security and Compliance Platform, even our disaster recovery datacenter is located within the U.S. To bolster our commitment to data security, since our inception, every single employee at Sharetru has been a U.S. citizen. This ensures a consistent understanding and adherence to U.S. data protection standards. You can rest assured knowing that with Sharetru, your data remains on American soil, managed by a team deeply rooted in the values and regulations of the U.S.
While we recognize the significance of Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) in the context of HIPAA compliance, Sharetru will only sign a BAA that is provided by us. This is because our BAA has our terms of service as the foundational agreement. It's worth noting that our BAA was meticulously crafted by some of the leading HIPAA attorneys in the industry, who played instrumental roles in drafting the HIPAA HITECH rules. As such, we have utmost confidence in its structure and its capability to safeguard your electronic protected health information (ePHI). We believe our BAA offers both clarity and robust protection, ensuring compliance while prioritizing the security of your data.
Sharetru's platform is FIPS 140-2 complaint from end-to-end. We use benchmark AES 256 encryption at rest, and TLS 1.2 encryption in-transit. You can request the FIPS 140-2 certificate number from our technical support team by opening a ticket.
While we understand the importance of security questionnaires in assessing vendor compliance and security measures, Sharetru typically completes these questionnaires only in rare circumstances. Specifically, if a customer is on our Enterprise plan, we may consider fulfilling such a request. However, our preferred method of demonstrating our unwavering commitment to security is by providing our SOC 2 Type II certification. This certification is a testament to our rigorous security practices and standards, and we believe it offers a comprehensive overview of our dedication to safeguarding your data.
Yes, we're pleased to inform you that Sharetru is SOC 2 Type II certified across all layers of our services: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS) on our Advanced Security and Compliance Platform. This certification underscores our unwavering commitment to maintaining the highest standards of security and operational excellence for our clients. If you're in the discovery phase and considering Sharetru for your needs, we'd be more than happy to share our SOC 2 Type II report with you. It's a testament to our dedication to transparency and trustworthiness in all our operations.
When it comes to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Data Processing Agreement (DPA), Sharetru will only sign a DPA that we provide. The reason for this is that our DPA is built upon our terms of service, ensuring a consistent and comprehensive understanding of our commitments and responsibilities. Furthermore, it's important to highlight that our DPA doesn't just cater to GDPR. It encompasses many other data privacy frameworks, offering a broad spectrum of protection and compliance. We've taken meticulous steps to ensure our DPA aligns with various global standards, providing you with a robust and holistic approach to data privacy.
An active user on Sharetru is defined as any individual who possesses a username and password, allowing them to log in (authenticate) to our platform. It's essential to note that if a user is suspended for any reason, they are not considered active. We prioritize transparency and fairness in our user count, so rest assured that suspended users will not be counted against your user quota. This approach ensures you get the most value out of your plan while maintaining clarity on user limits.
Your users are not forced to purchase or install any FTP client software.
Sharetru provides a WebApp as part of the hosted FTP service. However, should your users prefer to use a third-party FTP client software tool, they will find that your FTP site from Sharetru is fully compatible with almost all of them. More information on compatibility and recommendations can be found here.
You can have multiple site administrators with separate logins.
You may also delegate sub-site administration to others. We call sub-site administrators Team Managers. They can create and manages users and workspaces, but only within their respective Team. Each Team Manager can only administer one team and has no visibility into other teams' users or folders.
If you would like more information on our roles please contact support if you're a current customer, or sales if you're gathering information and trying to figure out what's the best platform for your organization.
Any user can be limited to a single private workspace or can be assigned granular access permissions to more than one workspace. It's up to that user's administrator, or that user's team manager to define their access. Their visibility will be limited to those workspaces to which they have been granted access.
Only if you want them to. Our Control Panel lets you organize your files in primary folders called "Workspaces."
Workspaces can be one of two types:
Private Workspaces
Shared Workspaces
If you want every user to have a Private Workspace where they are the only users that have access, no problem. If you also want to create some shared Workspaces where multiple users have access, that is not a problem either.
If you want more than one user to be logged in automatically to the same Starting Workspace (home directory), that’s easy too! Each user can only “see” and access the folders you have assigned them to.
Remote site management is integrated into the Sharetru Web App (as used for file transfer). Simply log in to your secure Sharetru URL and you can add, change, delete users, and much more.
Additionally, users can be easily managed through our API. If you would like more information on our API please contact support if you're a current customer, or sales if you're gathering information and trying to figure out what's the best platform for your organization.
There are 3 main types of users, and each user has a different level of site access:
| Role | Access and Responsibilities |
| Site Administrator | Full site access to all folders, users, and settings |
| Team Manager | Limited site access to manage folders and users for their team, but cannot access sitewide settings |
| Standard User | May only access the folders an administrator or team manager has allowed them access to, and can only take specific actions provided to them. |
Not at this time, but we expect to add this feature in the future. In the meanwhile, you can set up email notifications to trigger when a user or user uses up a specified amount of data. Additionally, there is a report on current user storage, so this data is readily accessible.
Yes, you can suspend users by several different methods:
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is the simplest way to exchange files over the Internet. The most common use for FTP is to download and upload files. There are several file transfer protocols Sharetru provides for today. Check out our transfer compatibility page to learn more.
Sharetru has an extensive library explaining the differences. Check out some of our blog posts on this subject to learn more.
A file transfer site is a place on the internet to store files for delivery to other persons. One person uploads (copies) the files from their computer to the FTP site, then the other person downloads (copies) the files from the file transfer site to their computer. Either person can then delete the files from the site if the permissions allow.
Absolutely! Sharetru is designed to seamlessly integrate with other platforms for efficient file transfers. If you're looking to move files between platforms, you can leverage FTP, SFTP scripting, FTPS, or FTPeS. The only requirement is that the application you're integrating with has a connector. It's worth noting that many of our customers handle bulk data transfers, and in such scenarios, SFTP proves to be far superior and more efficient than an API. With Sharetru, you get the flexibility and robustness needed for smooth and secure file transfers across platforms.