DropYourFiles

Blog · October 28, 2026

How to pick the best client review and delivery tool.

“Which link was the photos again? And the video is the other one?” Your client, three days after the shoot.

Start with your client’s phone. The right tool opens there with no account, takes a note on the second of a film or the spot on a photo, and opens the finished files when your client approves, on the link they already have. Then weigh how much of your work is film. Tools built for film usually charge for each member of your team; photo galleries usually cap video by plan.

By Vitaly Kibenko

Three kinds of tool, built for different jobs.

  • Video review tools

    Built around the cut: notes at a timecode, versions, and comments that go back into an editor. Frame.io is the best known, and its paid plans are priced for each member: $15 a month on Pro, $25 on Team.

  • Client galleries

    Built around stills: favorites, downloads, often a print store. Video comes in hours by plan. Pixieset’s Client Gallery includes 30 minutes on Basic, 1 hour on Plus, 2 hours on Pro and 5 hours on Ultimate. What video costs in each client gallery lays the rest side by side, with dates.

  • Transfers and shared folders

    Good for handing over files once. There’s nowhere for your client to leave a note or approve, so that part happens in email.

Five questions to ask before you pick.

  1. What does your client have to type?

    Your client is on a phone between meetings. Every field before the first note costs you notes. Check whether the tool wants an account, an email or a name. Client review without an account covers what to look for.

  2. Can your client point at the thing?

    A note on a film should keep its second, and a note on a photo should sit on the spot. A tool that handles one and not the other sends the rest of the notes back to email.

  3. What does approval do?

    On some tools approval is a status you read. On others it opens the downloads. When the full-size files open the moment your client approves, there’s no second link to send, and no review copy that quietly becomes the final.

  4. How is video counted?

    By hours, by storage, or both. Two hours sounds like plenty until one job carries a 40-minute interview cut and three versions of it.

  5. Who on your side pays for a login?

    Pricing by member suits a team of editors. It adds up fast in a studio where five people touch a job now and then. Count who needs a login, not who needs to see the work: your client should never need one.

What happens when your client approves.

On DropYourFiles, your client presses Approve on the link they reviewed and confirms once. The Review copy mark comes off the films and photos, and the full-size files open for download right there, one by one or all at once. On a job with photos and a film, your client can approve the photos now and the film when it’s finished.

If something changes later, reopen the project for another round. Your client keeps the same link, and the downloads close again until the next approval. How to stop a client downloading before approval goes through it step by step.

A client’s gallery after approval: folders of photos, films and files as cards, a column of notes beside them, and a Download 27 files button under the line Full-quality files are ready.
After Approve, on the same link: the photos, films and files open for download, with the notes still beside them. A sample project with invented names.

Where DropYourFiles fits, and where it doesn’t.

It’s built for the job with photos and film in it, sent to one client on one link, with your studio’s name at the top of the page on every plan.

If prints are a big part of what you sell, a gallery with a lab built in suits that side better; there’s no print store here. If you cut in Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve and want notes as markers in it today, Frame.io’s comment export lists Premiere Pro, Resolve and Media Composer as well as Final Cut Pro. Our markers go to Final Cut Pro for now, and every plan downloads notes as a spreadsheet.

Questions.

What’s the difference between a review tool and a client gallery?

A review tool is for getting notes on work in progress, mostly film. A client gallery is for showing and handing over finished photos. A job with both usually ends up on two links.

Do I need two tools if I shoot photos and video?

Not if one link carries both. On DropYourFiles the film and the photos sit on one page, and your client reviews and approves both there.

Is there a free plan?

Yes. Free holds 5 GB with 1 hour of video and needs no card. Every feature is on every plan.

Does my client need an account to leave notes?

No. Your client opens the link in any browser and types a name with the first note. There’s nothing to sign up for and no app to install.

Keep reading.

New here? See what DropYourFiles does, or compare the plans.

Sources

Try it free on your next job.

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Free up to 5 GB. No card. Your client never makes an account.