Anyone who has managed a creative team's media library knows the pain: terabytes of footage scattered across drives, cloud folders, and someone's laptop, with no fast way to find the one clip you need. Shade (shade.inc) is built to fix exactly that. It is an AI-powered media asset management platform, effectively an intelligent cloud NAS, that consolidates storage, search, review, and archiving into one system of record for video and creative teams.
Two features make it more than a fancy folder: neural search that finds footage by face, spoken words, or a scene described in plain English, and ShadeFS, a streaming layer that lets editors work against the cloud library without downloading files first. Fresh off a $14 million raise and a busy 2026 that included launching ShadeFS and showing the full platform at NAB in Las Vegas, it is a young but well-funded product. This review covers how the search and streaming actually work, the formats it handles, what it costs, how it compares to the alternatives, and who should use it.
Bottom line: A genuinely time-saving asset manager for video-heavy teams. The AI search and cloud streaming are the real draw, and the Growth price is reasonable for what it does.
Best for: Creative, post-production, agency, and brand video teams drowning in footage.
Price: Growth $20/seat/mo (annual) with 500GB/seat; Enterprise custom (typical contract $10k to $15k/yr).
Rating:
Our rating breakdown
Scores are our own editorial assessment, weighted toward value and ease of use. See how we review.
What Shade actually does
Shade is a system of record for media. Instead of assets living in a mix of local drives, generic cloud storage, and email attachments, they sit in one indexed library the whole team can search, preview, review, and archive. It connects cloud storage with local NAS systems, so it fits hybrid setups rather than forcing everything into the cloud at once. The three things that separate it from a shared drive are AI search, ShadeFS streaming, and native handling of professional media formats, each covered below.
AI neural search
The headline feature is AI search. Shade processes footage on ingest and generates metadata automatically, so you can find a specific soundbite, a person's face, or a scene, for example "drone shot of the coastline at sunset," through a natural-language query instead of scrubbing timelines. There is no manual tagging step, which is usually where asset management breaks down because nobody keeps it up. For a team with a large back catalog, this can turn an hour of hunting into a ten-second search, and that time saving alone can justify the tool.
ShadeFS and cloud editing
The second standout is ShadeFS, which launched in January 2026. It mounts your cloud library on the desktop like a traditional drive and streams large files, including footage over 50GB, straight into an editing timeline without downloading them first. Editors in Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, or Final Cut can drag assets directly from the library into a project. That removes the "download the 40GB file first" tax that slows every remote video workflow, which is the single biggest practical win for distributed post-production teams.
Formats and integrations
Shade handles more than 500 file types, including professional video codecs like BRAW from Blackmagic and R3D from RED, ProRes, 4K and 8K footage, audio formats, RAW photos, and 3D assets. That breadth is wider than most general-purpose DAMs and is exactly what a real post-production pipeline needs. Preview, drag-and-drop into editing apps, and review-and-approval workflows are built in, so the library becomes a working part of the edit rather than just a storage bucket.
Who is behind Shade
Shade is a young, venture-backed company that has moved quickly. It closed a $14 million funding round, completed SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, and HIPAA certifications in 2025, launched ShadeFS and its neural search engine in January 2026, and showcased the full platform at NAB Las Vegas in 2026. It reported reaching around $300,000 in monthly revenue in the first half of the year. For a category historically dominated by heavy legacy systems, that is a fast climb, though it also means the company is still early, so weigh the roadmap and longevity accordingly.
Shade pricing in 2026
| Plan | Best for | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Growth | Small and mid creative teams | $20/seat/mo (annual) | 500GB active storage/seat, unlimited AI indexing, unlimited drives |
| Enterprise | Larger teams and organizations | Custom | 1TB/seat, unlimited seats, SSO/SAML, SCIM, dedicated account manager |
Growth is $20 per seat a month on annual billing, or $25 monthly, which is fair for what you get. Enterprise is custom, and Shade reports a typical contract around $10,000 to $15,000 a year for a 10-user, 25TB setup, so heavier storage needs move you up quickly. The per-seat storage caps are the main thing to model: a few editors working with 8K footage will chew through 500GB fast, which is what pushes teams toward Enterprise.
Security and compliance
Security is stronger than you might expect from a company this young. Shade holds SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001, and it is HIPAA compliant, which is rare in this category and opens up creative work in healthcare and other regulated settings. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and Enterprise adds SSO/SAML and SCIM for identity management. That posture is usually enough to clear brand and enterprise procurement reviews.
Pros
- AI search by face, transcript, or scene saves real time
- ShadeFS cloud streaming eliminates local-download waits
- Handles 500+ formats, including BRAW, R3D, ProRes, and 8K
- One system for storage, review, metadata, and archiving
- Reasonable Growth pricing at $20/seat/mo
- Strong security: SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, HIPAA
Cons
- Per-seat storage caps push heavier users to Enterprise
- Optimized for video, so overkill for light or static-image needs
- Young company, with roadmap and longevity still unproven
- Migrating an existing library takes real effort
- Enterprise pricing is custom and undisclosed
Shade vs the alternatives
Shade sits between review tools, cloud storage, and traditional DAM or MAM systems. Here is how the main options compare for a video team.
| Tool | Type | Best for | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shade | AI cloud NAS and DAM | Video teams wanting AI search plus cloud editing | Young, video-first, 500+ formats |
| Frame.io | Review and collaboration | Teams centered on review, approval, and Adobe | Lighter on storage and library search |
| Iconik | Cloud media asset management | Large media orgs needing hybrid MAM | More setup and enterprise-oriented |
| Dropbox / Google Drive | General cloud storage | Light or mixed asset needs | No media AI search or timeline streaming |
| Bynder | Brand asset management | Marketing teams and static brand assets | Weaker on raw video workflows |
Who should use Shade, and who shouldn't
Use it if you run a video-heavy creative team, whether an agency, brand studio, post house, or sports or media organization, and you are losing time to scattered footage and slow file transfers. Shade's search and streaming are a real upgrade over a shared drive or generic cloud storage, and the format coverage means it fits a professional pipeline rather than fighting it.
Look elsewhere if your assets are light or mostly static images, where a general DAM or even good cloud storage is enough, or if you need a decades-proven vendor for a mission-critical archive, where Shade's youth is a fair concern. Confirm the roadmap fits your workflow before committing a large library, since migration takes effort. For teams weighing the broader category, our roundup of the best digital asset management software puts Shade in context.
How we evaluated Shade
This Shade review is based on its current capabilities and pricing tiers, together with the consensus from verified customer reviews on independent platforms such as G2, Capterra, and Trustpilot, cross-referenced with real-world pricing data where it is available. We revisit it whenever Shade updates its plans or ships significant changes, so the pricing and verdict reflect what you would actually get today. Last reviewed on July 2, 2026 by Greg Birman, who has reviewed more than 60 SaaS and software tools for NetWorth Explained. For the full process, see our methodology.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Shade?
Shade is an AI-powered media asset management platform, effectively an intelligent cloud NAS, for creative and video teams. It consolidates storage, AI search, file streaming, review and approval, automated metadata, and archiving into one system of record. Its standout features are neural search, which finds footage by face, transcript, or plain-English scene description, and ShadeFS, which lets editors work against the cloud library without local downloads.
How much does Shade cost?
Shade's Growth plan is $20 per seat per month billed annually, or $25 billed monthly, and includes 500GB of active storage per seat with unlimited AI indexing. Enterprise pricing is custom and adds 1TB per seat, SSO/SAML, SCIM, and a dedicated account manager. Shade reports typical enterprise contracts around $10,000 to $15,000 per year for a 10-user, 25TB setup.
What is ShadeFS?
ShadeFS, launched in January 2026, mounts your Shade library on the desktop like a normal drive and streams large files, including footage over 50GB, straight into an editing timeline without downloading them first. Editors in Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, or Final Cut can drag assets directly from the cloud library into a project, which removes the usual wait to download big files before editing.
How does Shade's AI search work?
Shade indexes footage on ingest and generates metadata automatically, so you can search in plain English by scene, by a person's face, or by spoken words in the audio. There is no manual tagging step, which is the part of asset management that usually falls apart, and the result is that finding a specific clip in a large library takes seconds instead of an hour.
What file types does Shade support?
Shade handles more than 500 file types, including professional video codecs such as BRAW from Blackmagic and R3D from RED, ProRes, 4K and 8K footage, common audio formats, RAW photos, and 3D assets. That range is wider than most general-purpose DAMs and is built for real post-production pipelines.
Is Shade secure?
Yes. Shade is SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certified and HIPAA compliant, with encryption in transit and at rest, which covers the security and privacy requirements most enterprise and brand procurement teams look for. Enterprise plans also add SSO/SAML and SCIM for identity management.
Shade vs Frame.io: which is better?
Frame.io is strongest as a review-and-approval layer, especially inside the Adobe ecosystem, while Shade is a fuller asset manager with AI search, deep format support, and ShadeFS cloud editing. Teams that mainly need feedback and approvals often prefer Frame.io; teams drowning in raw footage that need to find and edit it quickly tend to prefer Shade.
Who is Shade for?
Shade is built for video-heavy creative teams, including agencies, brand and in-house studios, post-production houses, and sports or media organizations, that manage large libraries of footage and need fast search and cloud-based editing. It is less suited to teams whose assets are light or mostly static images.
