Client portal vs file sharing: how to choose for your agency
Five questions tell you whether a link is enough or a client portal is worth it for your agency.
A link is enough when you hand a client a finished set of files once and never think about it again. A portal is worth setting up when the same clients keep coming back and need to find what you sent months ago. The client portal vs file sharing choice comes down to five questions about how your clients actually behave, and you can start with links and add a portal later without throwing anything away.
Most articles on this topic are lists of portal tools. They assume you need one. This guide asks the earlier question: would a link do?
Client portal vs file sharing in one paragraph
File sharing by link is one transfer: you pick files, get a link, send it, and the client downloads. A client portal is a place: the client signs in and finds everything you shared with them, in one spot, under your branding. A link is about a delivery. A portal is about the relationship around many deliveries.
In Tarkle, a public link needs no account to download. The client portal is the signed-in place on top of it. It is included on Pro, and Agency includes everything in Pro. Free covers sharing by link, file requests and client feedback, so you can start with links at no cost.
Five questions that decide it
Answer these for your typical client, not your busiest one.
Is it a one-off delivery? One project, one hand-over, no next job planned.
Do they come back? Retainers, monthly campaigns, a new project every quarter.
Will files pile up over months? Dozens of transfers to the same client, not three.
Will the client need to find old files? "Can you resend the logo pack from March?" is the sign.
Do they need to sign off work? Rounds of feedback and approval before anything is final.
If you answered yes to none or one of these, you are in link territory. Three or more yes answers point to a portal. Two is a judgment call, and the start-with-links approach further down suits it well.
When a link is enough
A link is enough for a wedding gallery handed over once, a final video sent to a client you will not work with again, a contract pack for someone who just needs it today, or a press kit sent to a journalist.
What makes a link work is that nothing is asked of the recipient. With Tarkle you share files by link, and a public link needs no account to download. If the files are sensitive, add password protection, which requires a password before anyone can open a transfer, or an expiry date, after which the link stops working. If plans change, you can switch a link off in one click.
A link also costs you less to run. There is no one to invite, no access to switch off when a project ends, and no second place for clients to remember.
Send the link by email from Share instead of only copying it. Tarkle saves each person you send a transfer to by email as a contact, if they are not one yet. That keeps the door open for a portal later.
When a portal is worth it
A portal earns its place when the pain is not sending files but finding them again. Think of a client who has received forty transfers from you over a year. Each one is an email somewhere in their inbox, with an expiry date that may have passed.
In a portal the client signs in at your address, with your logo and colours, and sees what you shared with them. They can search for a file, download it, and upload files back into a folder of their own. That answers questions 2, 3 and 4 above.
Signing in is light. A contact enters their email on the portal's sign-in page and types the 6-digit code that Tarkle emails to them. There is no password to set up. The code is valid for 10 minutes, so if it has run out they enter their email again for a new one. Only a contact with portal access can sign in.
If several people work for the same client, group them into an organization. Items shared with the organization as a whole show to every member.
Be honest about the limits too. In the portal a client can download and upload, but cannot rename, move, delete or share files. Items sent through a view-only transfer show up, but cannot be downloaded. Expired transfers do not show up there either, so a portal does not replace a clear expiry policy on your side.
What about approvals?
Approvals are the one case where neither a plain link nor a portal is the whole answer. Client feedback turns a PDF or a set of images into a review board with one link. The reviewer enters a name and email once, pins comments on the file, and finishes with Approve this work or Request changes. Client feedback is included on Free.
A board shared with a contact who has portal access also appears under Feedback in their portal, with a status for each board. So a review can stay on its own link for a one-off job, and a client who comes back often finds their boards in the portal.
Many clients: one workspace each
When you have a long list of clients, the question changes from link or portal to how do I keep clients apart. An Agency organization can give each client a workspace of their own. The Create a workspace for a client dialog asks for the client's email and can take a storage amount for that client, and the Assign limit control sets a storage ceiling and a reservation for it. Agency includes 6 TB of cloud storage shared across its workspaces, and 20 workspaces for your clients. With White label switched on, your clients log in on your own branded platform.
That is a bigger step. It makes sense when clients have their own team members and files of their own, not when you send a handful of deliveries a year.
List your clients in a spreadsheet with one column: how many transfers they received in the last six months. Clients with more than a few are your portal candidates. The rest stay on links.
Start with links, add a portal later
You do not have to decide on day one. This order tells you what your clients need before you pay for a portal.
Send every delivery as a branded link by email. Use Share, then send by email, and each new recipient is saved as a contact in your workspace.
Watch for repeats. Transfer status shows whether a transfer was delivered, viewed or downloaded. The clients who keep receiving files, or keep asking you to resend, are your portal candidates.
Turn on Portal access for those clients. Open the contact, switch on Portal access, and Tarkle emails them an invite with a link to your portal's sign-in page. Transfers sent to them show in Shared while they have not expired.
Group the people of one company. If several people need the same files, put them in one organization.
Move to a workspace per client only if you need it. That is the Agency step, for clients who need their own space.
Portal access needs a Pro or Agency organization, so step 3 is where a paid plan comes in.
Common mistakes
Setting up a portal for a client you will deliver to once. They will not sign in again.
Using one shared link for several clients, so each can see the others' files.
Forgetting that a transfer past its expiry date also drops out of the portal.
Inviting clients without telling them that the sign-in code arrives by email.
Treating a password as protection when you send it in the same email as the link.
Your next step
Pick your three busiest clients and run them through the five questions. If a link is enough, send the next delivery as a branded link and leave it there. Two of them may need a portal: start for free with no credit card required. Then send their deliveries by email and turn on Portal access once you are on Pro. For a related workflow, see how to share files with clients without Google Drive.
What to remember about Tarkle
Tarkle covers both jobs: a branded link that recipients open without an account, and a client portal on Pro and Agency where clients sign in with an emailed code to find what you shared. The Free plan covers sharing by link, file requests and client feedback, so you can start with links and add a portal when a client needs one. Start for free, or see pricing for Pro and Agency.
