Cloud storage for agencies: five checks beyond storage size
Five checks for agencies choosing cloud storage: client workspaces, team access, links, upload limits and recovery.
Choosing cloud storage for agencies is rarely about the number of terabytes. Once you serve more than a handful of clients, the questions that matter are whether each client has a separate space, who on your team can see what, how clients receive and send files, how much storage each client gets, and how long a deleted file can still be brought back. This article gives you those five checks, in the order agencies usually get stuck on them.
Why agencies buy cloud storage and then get stuck
Here is how it often goes. Someone opens a shared drive, makes a folder per client, and it works for the first handful of projects. The trouble starts once the client list grows: a freelancer still has access to a client who left, a client emails a long video because your link asked them to sign in, and nobody can say who deleted the brand folder last month.
None of those problems is about running out of space. They come from how the storage is organized around clients. If you want the broader difference between a drive and a sharing tool first, read file sharing vs cloud storage, then come back to this list.
Before you compare any tool, write down your last three client mishaps in one line each. Score every tool against those lines, not against its feature page.
Check 1: Is every client in a separate space?
The first choice is one shared drive with a folder per client, or a separate space per client. A shared drive is fast to set up, but every folder lives under the same sharing rules, the same branding and the same storage pool. One wrong sharing setting on a parent folder and a client sees a sibling.
A separate space per client changes that. On Tarkle, the Agency plan lets you create a branded workspace for each client. The plan includes 20 client workspaces and 6 TB of cloud storage. Every client workspace draws from that shared 6 TB pool, and you can give one workspace a storage limit so that a single client cannot use the whole pool.
On Agency you can also set up white label. You add your logo, name, favicon and accent colour in Organization settings and turn on White label, and the Powered by Tarkle line becomes Powered by your agency name. Some client portal emails may still say "Powered by Tarkle".
Folders are not workspaces, so ask any drive you are considering whether you can give each client a different logo, address and sign-in page. If the answer is no, you are running every client through one set of rules.
Check 2: Who can see what?
Separation between clients is half of it. The other half is separation inside your team. A designer who works on one account should not browse every other account, and a contractor should not be able to share files on your behalf.
Look for roles with real differences. Tarkle has Owner, Admin, Member and Viewer roles. Owners and Admins see everything, including files members upload. A Member sees their own files plus anything shared with them. A Viewer is read-only: they see only what was shared with them, and they can view and download it.
For clients, Tarkle's Organizations group your contacts by company, and each organization page lists the transfers sent to it. Organizations are available on Pro plans, and Agency includes everything in Pro.
Run a leaver test every quarter. Remove a test team member and check which clients they could still reach. If you cannot answer in two minutes, the setup is too tangled.
Check 3: Can clients receive files without an account?
Clients will not create an account to download a logo pack. If your tool forces it, they will ask you to email the files, and you are back to attachments. On Tarkle, a shared link needs no account to download. You can protect a link with a password, and set an expiry date on it. Check that any tool you test does the same.
For clients who work with you every week, a sign-in page is more useful than a stack of links. A client portal gives each client one branded place where they see only what you shared with them and send files back. Clients sign in with their email address, with no password to remember. Each contact needs portal access turned on for them before they can sign in. The client portal is available on Pro, and Agency includes everything in Pro.
A plain link and a branded place per client on your own domain are two different jobs. On Agency, your clients log in and manage their files and team on your own domain. Check that the tool you pick does both, because the second one is where many agencies outgrow a drive.
Check 4: Can you set a storage limit per client?
Receiving files is where storage quietly fills. One client sends raw footage for a project that was meant to take a few PDFs, and the shared pool shrinks for everyone else.
Look for three kinds of limit. The first is how much storage each team or client gets. On Tarkle you can split your storage between teams and decide how much each client can upload. The second is the allowance of each contact who uploads through the client portal, which is 5 GB by default. The third is a cap on a single request: with request deadlines and limits you set a deadline on a file request and the most a visitor can upload at once.
Per-file limits are a separate matter. Free supports uploads and transfers up to 1 GB each, and Pro and Agency support files up to 200 GB, which matters if you deliver video. A per-file limit does not protect you from one client filling your storage, so check both.
Open every file request with a deadline. A request with no end date collects files for months and nobody remembers why it is still open.
Check 5: How long can you recover a deleted file?
Every agency has a story about a folder deleted by mistake. What matters is how long the recovery window stays open and who can empty the bin.
On Tarkle, deleted items wait in a recovery bin for 30 days on Free and 90 days on Pro, and Agency includes everything in Pro. Owners and Admins can empty the Bin or delete items for good. If a client sends a corrected file and you replace the wrong one, file versions let you upload a new version, see the history and go back to an earlier one. File versioning is part of Pro, and Agency includes everything in Pro.
Ask any vendor for the exact number of days, and ask whether it differs by plan. A window you did not check is a window you will find out about at the worst moment. A recovery bin is not a backup, so keep your own copy of anything you cannot lose.
What cloud storage for agencies needs that a drive may not give
A general cloud drive is built so one team can keep its own files in order. The client-facing side is where to test it hardest. Ask whether it gives you a separate branded space per client, a portal your clients sign in to with their email, a limit on what each client uploads, and links a client can open without an account.
Tarkle covers each of those points on Pro or Agency, with the limits in the checks above. Client workspaces are on Agency only, so a team that wants one shared space for its own staff does not need them. Free covers sharing and requests with one workspace and a 1 GB limit per file. To see what Free, Pro and Agency include, read the plans and pricing.
Set this up today
List your active clients and decide which ones need their own space and portal.
Remove access for anyone who no longer works on each account.
Replace email attachments with a link or a file request that has a deadline.
Decide how much storage each client gets, and write the number down.
Check the recovery window on your plan and tell your team how to restore a file.
What to remember about Tarkle
Tarkle's Agency plan gives you 20 client workspaces on a shared 6 TB pool, and White label puts your own name and logo on the platform your clients see. The client portal is available on Pro and Agency, and Tarkle is free to use forever. You can start for free or compare the plans on pricing.
