Set it up once.
Connect the places your documents already land. From then on they arrive filed and understood, every date with what to do.
Everything in Family for your first 14 days, then free forever for your first 100 documents. No card to enter.
Cloud storage
Thaw vs Dropbox
People whose scanner already saves to Dropbox and whose "filing" is a folder called Documents.
Dropbox is where a lot of scanned paper already lands, which makes it a good inbox for Thaw rather than a competitor. On its own it stores and syncs; it does not understand, link, remind or check.
Side by side
| Thaw | Dropbox | |
|---|---|---|
| How documents get in | Connected once to email, a scanner, a Google Drive or Dropbox folder, Gmail, and your phone; documents arrive on their own from then on. Forward or drop in anything yourself, and bring the pile you have through an Evernote, paperless-ngx or folder import. | Desktop sync, mobile scan (Dropbox Scan), ScanSnap Cloud delivery. |
| Filing and understanding | Every document is worked out once: category, type, title, the facts on it, the people & things it concerns, every date. Anything uncertain is flagged for a look. | Folders and file names. Full-text search on paid plans. |
| Dates, checkup | Every renewal, expiry, due date and notice period becomes an item with what happens if missed and what to do, from the document itself. Resolved by the next document. Knows what a person, vehicle, property, pet or business should have on file; lists what is missing, lapsed, expired or duplicated, worst first, with where to get it. | None. |
| Ownership | Originals in a folder tree named the way Thaw names them, plus every fact as CSV and JSON, and a continuous mirror to your own Dropbox or Drive folder. | Your files, synced everywhere. Simple and durable. |
| Security | A key per document, locked by a key per account, locked by a master key in a separate key service. Identifying numbers sealed, and blanked from the search index. A log that only grows. Deleting destroys the key. | Provider-managed encryption; no per-user key model for standard accounts. |
Stay with Dropbox if
- You only need the files to be somewhere safe and synced.
Move to Thaw if
- You want the documents understood and the dates handled.
- Someone else in the household needs to find things without knowing your folder scheme.
Moving over
Nothing to migrate. Keep the Dropbox folder as the scanner target. Thaw watches it and files what lands.
Emaila rule you set once3 this week
Google Drivethe Family folder, watched2 this week
Scannersends straight to Thaw1 this week
Phonethe camera, for what only exists on paper
This week: 6 arrived, 6 filed, none touched by hand.