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 plus an assistant
Thaw vs Google Drive with Gemini
People who already keep a "Documents" folder in Drive and can ask Gemini about it.
A Drive folder plus Gemini can answer "what is my deductible" over a pile of PDFs, and that is real. What it cannot do is notice that the pile is missing this year's registration, that the lease needs notice by a date, or that three of the files are the same bill. Drive keeps the files and stops there.
Side by side
| Thaw | Google Drive | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Upload, the Drive app, or a scan from the mobile app. Drive can also be Thaw's inbox: a scanner delivers to one folder, and Thaw watches that folder and files every new scan. |
| Filing | 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 names you choose. Gemini can summarize a file; it does not file it. |
| Answers | Grounded in your documents, with the page cited, and it says when nothing on file answers. | Gemini answers over selected files or a folder; citations vary. |
| Dates and deadlines | 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. | None from documents. Calendar is separate. |
| What is missing | 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. |
| Security posture | 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. | Google-managed encryption; content indexed and available to Google's features per your settings. |
| Price | Free tier, then from $8 a month. | Often already paid for through Google One or Workspace. |
Stay with Google Drive if
- You only need storage and an occasional question.
- Your documents are few and you know where they are.
Move to Thaw if
- You want the checkup and Up next, not a folder.
- You keep paper for a household or business with real deadlines.
Moving over
Keep the Drive folder. Point Thaw at it, as an import of what is there and a watch on what lands next, and let both live: the folder stays where the scanner puts things, and Thaw works out what each one is.
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.