Best Online Proofing · head-to-head

Approval Studio vs Filestage

A sourced, side-by-side comparison for online proofing. Filestage has the lower entry price. Every figure links to the public page it was captured from — the vendor's own wherever the vendor publishes the number, otherwise the named public source — with the date we captured it.

Filestage has the lower entry price — Approval Studio starts at $60/mo, Filestage at $0/mo. Free tier: Approval Studio No, Filestage Yes. HIPAA: Approval Studio —, Filestage —.

As of 2026-09-03 · figures link to their source below

Side by side

Approval Studio

$60/mo entry
Entry price$60/mo (Lite)
Free tierNo
HIPAA (BAA)
SOC 2
GDPR
Best forpackaging design teams

Filestage

$0/mo entry
Entry price$0/mo (Free)
Free tierYes
HIPAA (BAA)
SOC 2
GDPRYes
Best forcreative agencies

Sources — Approval Studio: approval.studio (verified 2026-09-03) · Filestage: filestage.io (verified 2026-09-03)

Key features

Approval Studio: Unlimited external reviewers on all plans (not counted as users); Adobe extension for in-app collaboration; Shopify integration for e-commerce design review; ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certified; PCI DSS for payments

Filestage: Version comparison and side-by-side compare modes; Review agents and workflow automations (Business+); ISO 27001:2022 certified encryption (AES-256); Data residency option in Germany (Enterprise)

← All online proofing compared · Open data