9 Next Generation Collaboration Apps for Sharing Images & Documents
Collis Ta'eedIn the last few years we’ve seen an explosion in new awesome tools for freelancers including project management apps, invoicing apps, time management apps and to-do lists. One type of app that I think is particularly awesome is the collaboration app. These services allow you to upload images, documents and in some cases videos and flash, and then you, your client and anyone else working on the project can discuss and annotate the work.
When it comes to sharing concepts, particularly for freelancers working over the web, this is literally a revolution in feedback. There are 9 apps listed below, half are extremely feature packed with a few slimmer (cheaper) options and one coming soon app.
Backboard
getbackboard.com
Get feedback on documents (Word, Excel), Powerpoint, images (including Photoshop PSD files), webpages and free-form text. Backboard also features multiple versions of a project, email integration - just send an email with the file for review attached, desktop upload and SSL encryption.
Plans ranging from Free for one non-commercial account (unlimited "backboards") to $49 p/month
ConceptShare
conceptshare.com
Feedback for images (including PSD files), vector files like EPS and PDF, video files, a raft of document types from Powerpoint to Word, and of course live web pages.
Add notes and discussion to points on the item being shared, a feature to print a summary - including the notes, a desktop uploader, custom branding for freelancers who care about their image and a customizeable interface.
There are free trials, otherwise it’s $24 - $99 p/month.
ProofHQ
proofhq.com
Like ConceptShare and Backboard, ProofHQ has the ability to annotate a variety of document types - PDFs, PSDs, JPGs, Word, Powerpoint - and webpages. It also includes email integration, version control and the ability to create workspaces. And like ConceptShare you can customize the look and feel to give it some branding.
Free trials are available, otherwise it’s $29 - $99 p/month
Proof-It-Online
proofitonline.com
Proof-It-Online has some good features - annotate not just static files but video, flash and animation. But it’s way more expensive that the previous three options ($39 p/month up to a whopping $750 p/month) and looking a lot older and less up to date.
Cozimo
cozimo.com
Cozimo is another solid looking solution with the ability to do not just the static docs but like ConceptShare to add notes to video as well. Also features SSL Security, custom branding on all but the cheapest plan, unlimited folders and a healthy dose of storage (provided you pay - otherwise it’s 10mb not really enough to do more than documents).
Priced from $29 p/month to $149 p/month with a free trial option
Review Basics
reviewbasics.com
Review Basics processes all the usual suspects - documents, powerpoint, images - and does video as well. Notably however you can’t provide feedback on PSD files - though I suppose you can just make a JPG out of them pretty easily.
Currently the system seems to be in pretty early stage because it’s completely free with a paid plan coming later. I couldn’t find many other limitation details, so you’d have to try signing up to find out about number of projects etc.
Free (for now)
Fine Tuna
finetuna.com
Fine Tuna is a MUCH simpler product than those listed above and is only for adding notes to a single image. You then send it off to an email address and can go back and forth.
There’s a firefox extension and it’s quite a usable product from my brief play with it, but obviously it’s like a matchbox car compared to a real car when stacked up against the products above. You can’t do webpages, documents, videos, animations, there’s no security etc.
Free (forever!)
Fleck
fleck.com
Fleck is similar to Fine Tuna in that it’s not really in the same category as the top apps. Unlike Fine Tuna, Fleck is for webpages. You grab a web page and add notes, then share. You can create accounts, though it appears to be totally free.
Free
VyooPoint (coming soon)
vyoopoint.com
Vyoopoint is actually not available yet, but looks like it’s going to be promising. It includes the ability to annotate Flash files, integration with Basecamp and a few other interesting features. You can sign up to be notified on launch.
Your Experiences?
Have you used one of these apps before? Let us know in the comments how you find them!
Adrian | Rubiqube
October 9th, 2008
I use ConceptShare a lot, mostly for signing off various mockups! When you are part of a team that is spread all across the globe, it’s no that easy to get feedback on a design proposal.
With CS, I can quickly upload a JPEG, the decision makers are notified and they jump on CS and comment. Then I implement the changes and upload a new concept, and so on… until the design is just right!
It basically allows us to have a meeting without having to actually meet.
maria
October 9th, 2008
I use ConceptShare, too. It’s great for mutli-page documents like brochures and catalogs. Clients can go in and point out exactly where type needs to be changed and I can even draw up rough layouts for new pages right on Conceptshare. I love the instant notification when I’ve uploaded a new layout or received a new comment. It’s just like Adrian says, you get the meeting without actually having to meet.
Brandon Cox
October 9th, 2008
I’ve installed a vanilla forum on a site or two and it makes for great tracking of to-dos. We’ve also used Google docs as whiteboards for collaboration’s sake. I know those aren’t in the spirit of this apps post, but sometimes less is actually more. I’ve tried a couple of the ones mentioned and though my eyes get wide at the features, my clients or collaborators are sometimes just annoyed at having one more thing to do.
max /// AgencyZebra
October 9th, 2008
thanks Collis for this article
You’ve convinced me to start using one of those apps.
cheers
Max
Dan
October 9th, 2008
I’ve used backboard and I like it, but its so much faster to e-mail people images. I can see it becoming more useful when I need to share with many people, but still I’m inclined towards forums or group e-mail.
Not checked out any of the others yet.
Roshan
October 10th, 2008
I don’t use public sharing apps for hosting images & documents very frequently. We have activecollab on our server and we prefer to use it for our projects.
We suggest our clients to use our system only to share document and image files with us. Its more private and safer.
Well its my personal opinion.
Roshan
Freelance Developer
http://www.instantshift.com
B. Seward
October 10th, 2008
I’d like to be able to provide clients with a white-labeled sharing/feedback experience, mostly for site designs. Collis and fellow commenters: can you suggest something open-source or otherwise installable on a personal server? Cheers.
Rom1
October 10th, 2008
Great ressources !
I also know box.net. There is a free version.
Thank you for this article !
new media design
October 10th, 2008
There are some really interesting sites, will properly look at them all a little bit too much to take in first thing but really great thanks
Alan O'Rourke
October 10th, 2008
Thanks for the Finetuna mention. Its a deliberate choice of ours not to do all the bells and whistles of those other great products. Our goal is to be the TinyURL of design feedback. Just enough to get your point across. Quick and disposable so it can help while not getting in your way.
You mention it does not do web pages however with the FFextension it does allow taking screen grabs of web pages and sending them to Finetuna.
kem
October 10th, 2008
hey, you forgot http://www.getsignoff.com/
Still in beta but very promising!
Dainis Graveris
October 10th, 2008
Nice sites, I didn’t know about..:)
Adam Cohen
October 10th, 2008
This is a great list of resources, many of which I hadn’t heard of before. One more I’d suggest is http://drop.io - it allows up to 100MB per “drop” along with adding comments via phone, email and upload - and you can password protect the files. I’ve found it very useful for collaborating on large presentations and files. Some of the ones in this list look great to try too.
Thanks,
Adam
Roshan
October 10th, 2008
B. Seward, try ProjectPier or phprojekt.
Roshan
Rene
October 10th, 2008
Cool to know those options Colis. I wanted to know that actualy.
…but I still wonder what’s better, really, between those apps (wich co$t) and regular emails, or forum, or simple doc share, or maybe even a blog that once simplified lets you upload a post with images and videos, then collab and clients can comment below it - as we allknow.
I think you missed the one every one knows, from Basecamp family, lol
But I would really like to read more on the visitors answer - what do you guys use ?
Joe Hana
October 10th, 2008
For a while we´re using now a combination of activeCollab and ConceptShare. While we use aC for our Project planning, Whiteboards, etc, we use ConceptShare to talk about specific Designs.
As Adrian said - it allows meeting, without having a meeting.
Maude
October 10th, 2008
These Apps looks great ! Thanks !
But did you know DropBox (www.getdropbox.com) ? Thats a useful apps to share files easily. I use it often to share files with my clients, my friends and my family.
DropBox is also Free and and be use on both Mac an Pc =)
kotlik
October 10th, 2008
I have the same question: Do you know some open-source or paid php application which I can install on my server (or on my hosting)? Some app like ConceptShare or Backboard…
Rene
October 10th, 2008
…as seen on Nettuts, open source option !
http://nettuts.com/misc/organize-your-team-with-collabtive/
Looks like a great option too.
Tim
October 10th, 2008
An iphone development company’s blog had a post about a free application they used with their designer in order to help with the routing process called Skitch. You’ll need to scroll a bit to see the post but it seemed like an affordable yet less fulll featured option for this sort of thing.
http://www.taptaptap.com/blog/
http://www.skitch.com/
Kimber Lockhart
October 10th, 2008
@Dan: Here at Backboard, we recognize it’s often easy to just fire off an email to your team with your files. We made it possible to copy create@getbackboard.com on an email to your team, and we’ll create a Backboard from your email attachment–the best of both worlds.
Those of you interested in apps to install on your own server, I encourage you to take a look at the security many of these apps offer. It’s certainly more secure than email, and we spend a very large amount of time thinking about keeping documents safe and private–it is one of our major priorities at Backboard.
jonathan
October 10th, 2008
It’s funny because I’ve tried a heap of these things and never found one just quite right - I was looking for an AFFORDABLE solution to hosting my clients files - separate accounts - notes for concepts etc and so I just got with my programmer and we are just finishing things up - it allows me to create client and user accounts / projects - upload all file types and add notes - clients can view online or download and add reply notes - plus we can create albums and slide shows from images using lightbox - and best of all I host it - it’s central for everything and my clients love it so far.
Moral of the story, you can probably build a tailored solution for less than 6 months at one of these online services…
Dennis Tang
October 11th, 2008
Wouldn’t activeCollab also work for this as you can just upload mockups? I guess it’s not too geared for mockups specifically and what not but it would still suffice if you had it correct?
Dave Baznik
October 13th, 2008
We are sharing files in Wrike. Pretty convenient, by the way. I send my file to the system via email and everybody on the team can immidiately veiw/edit/comment on it.
Bog Imp
October 23rd, 2008
i prefer use ImagePut http://www.vidroid.com/imageput/ for sharing my images on free hostings.
Bog Imp
October 23rd, 2008
also i forget say that ImagePut http://www.vidroid.com/imageput/ i use for generate web albums based on flash or pure css like highslide.
Paul Boag
October 24th, 2008
Hey Kem, thanks for mentioning http://getsignoff.com. Its not out of beta.