Frame.io vs Hightail Comparison 2026
Both cover media storage & review. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
Where a client gives notes on the timecode
Send big files and collect notes on them
At a glance
- Hightail starts cheaper, at $12.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Frame.io | Hightail | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $15 | From $12 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Not stated |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Yes | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | None | None |
| Runs on | Not stated |
Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
Frame.io
Where a client gives notes on the timecode
Frame.io keeps the video and the notes on it together, so a comment lands at 01:12 instead of in an email saying somewhere around the middle. Versions stack, which means a client can see v4 without losing the thing they liked in v3. Two gigabytes free is one project, and storage is what you end up paying for.
Our note
The notes pay for themselves the first time a client says the middle bit rather than 01:12. Storage is the real cost, so archive finished work somewhere cheaper instead of buying the next tier.
Only on this side
- Covers video editing
Hightail
Send big files and collect notes on them
Hightail sends files far past what email allows and then keeps the feedback attached to the thing being reviewed, so comments on a cut land on the frame rather than in a thread somewhere. The free tier caps uploads at a hundred megabytes, which is a document rather than a video. Paying takes that to twenty-five gigabytes with storage uncapped. Teams are priced per user, so a solo editor sending to clients pays once rather than per seat.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.