Store and share files like a pro with Fluxiom

These days we’re spoiled for choice when it comes to online file storage/sharing solutions. There’s something to suit every user’s needs, from a photographer sharing an occasional image online (CloudApp) to the design studio sending across large files to their printing facility (YouSendIt), to the startup company road warrior who needs all his files in sync wherever he goes (Dropbox). It’s great that we have so many options but it’s also overwhelming at times.

Fluxiom aims to be the choice for professionals who need to store large files of a variety of types, be able to find and organize them easily, and quickly share them. It also allows users to receive files securely and makes sure they’re all in order. Is it right for you? Let’s take a peek and find out.

Overview

Fluxiom has been around for a few years now but has been updated over time to meet users’ changing needs. The first thing you’ll notice about Fluxiom is that it works mainly as a webapp and is far more suited as a file sharing solution than an online backup tool. With its detailed thumbnail view, desktop-like file handling experience and professional sharing options, it’s great for users who need to show their work to clients and collaborate with co-workers. They offer top-notch storage for your data in high-end data centers with redundant and off-site backups so your files are in good hands. Plus, uploads and downloads are quite fast.

The app relies greatly on tags – you’ll need to tag your files in order to filter and share them. Other features include a dropbox to securely receive files, RSS feeds and multiple users on some plans.

Getting started

You can choose from five different plans when you sign up, including a 100 MB free-for-life plan. The plans differ in capacity (10 GB – 1 TB). Basic, Pro and Infinity plans allow you to create as many users as you like, while the 10 GB Solo plan is good for one user only. Registration is painless and you can try a free 30-day trial of any of the plans on offer.

You can upload files of any size and file type. Uploading on the webapp restricts you to one file at a time. If you want to upload more than one file you’ll have to zip them all up and then upload the zip file – which isn’t very user-friendly. As an alternative, the site offers simple desktop uploader software for Mac and PC, which allow quick and easy drag-and-drop upload of multiple files. These allow you to add and queue files for upload. The Mac app looks fine but the Windows app UI could use a bit of polish.

Getting your flux on

The fun begins once your files (called assets) are uploaded. The webapp will show thumbnails of each asset with their extensions so you know what each of them is at a glance. There’s a bar at the bottom for actions and a bar at the top for accessing the app’s sections, file search, and file filters (by type, status or tag). This interface is similar to a desktop file manager – move the slider to change the size of thumbnails, Ctrl/Cmd+Click or Shift+Click to select multiple assets.

Besides thumbnails, you can also preview over 100 file types including Microsoft Office, Adobe CS, and video file types; image previews even feature EXIF data. However, there are some limitations here which are rather strange: You can’t preview MP3 files; with Word (DOCX), Powerpoint (PPTX) and PDFs, you can preview only the first page/slide.

The main strength of Fluxiom is to allow you to recognize, organize, find and share your files. The first thing you should do with your assets is tag them. The tags system feels a bit like Gmail‘s Labels feature. The menu bar on top features all your tags as filter buttons – clicking on any of them brings up the assets with that tag while hiding the rest.

Adding tags is a bit cumbersome – you’ve to first switch to the Manage Tabs screen by clicking the button on the right in the top menubar, then add tags, switch back to the Assets view, select assets and then assign the tag to them. One would expect this basic process to be easier. Furthermore, this process is mandatory if you want to share files.

Sharing is achieved by creating Stages, which are mini-sites where you can share multiple files with friends, family or clients. To create a stage, you’ll need to have all the assets you want on it tagged with the same tag (e.g. website files june 2011). This means you can’t put assets with completely separate tags (e.g. website images and website layouts) on the same stage – you’ll have to add a common tag to all assets you intend to put on a stage. Again, not as simple or intuitive as I’d have liked. If you still choose to use stages, though, you’ll find a nice touch in that they are automatically updated when you add files to that tag. You can invite users (Fluxiom will send out an email) when you create a stage, and even add more users anytime later, or revoke their access whenever you need to.

Fluxiom also provides you with a dropbox where people to whom you give the link can upload files you can review and accept. This works well enough. There’s also customizable branding, wherein you can change the logo, account name and gradient above the top menubar for when visitors view your stages. Lastly, there’s a good search engine that can also search within files.

Conclusion

Fluxiom has some strengths as an online storage/sharing app but feels way too clunky for me to consider using seriously. I appreciate the approach they’ve taken to cater to professional users but it should have been easier to use and far more flexible. Mandatory tagging, single-tag stage sharing and single-page document previews feel archaic. I also found myself having to think through steps just to carry out simple functions like tagging.

There are several great alternatives out there: Huddle, while more focused on collaboration, keeps file sharing professional while making it easy to get things done; Box offers many of the same features with a simpler, friendlier interface. Even though I appreciate some of its features, I wouldn’t be thrilled about having to use Fluxiom. There’s a great app in there somewhere but at present, it’s in hiding. If you’d still like to check it out, take the free plan or the 30-day free trial for a spin.