Cloud storage decision
SendToDrive
A single developer can build the core file-collection-to-Drive workflow, but reproducing the vendor polish, team workspace features, and hosted reliability/billing is non-trivial.
Visit website↗$4.16/mo
$50/yr
Read off the official pricing page.
$100one-off70 h to build
$20/mo6 h/mo upkeep
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 7 seats.
Open-source builds that already do this
Every project below is open source and already does this job today. Fork one, self-host it, or take the parts you need - the build prompt further down assumes an empty file, and this is the shortcut past that. Licences differ; check the one on each card before you ship. All SendToDrive alternatives, with the arithmetic →
What a replacement has to do
- Create an upload page, share a link or QR code, accept file uploads from anyone, and save submitted files into a Google Drive folder with optional form fields.
What it still won’t have
- Polished hosted UI and design editor/templates
- Workspace/team features with role-based seats and internal review workflow
- Built-in subscription billing, merchant-of-record handling and payment flows
- Operational reliability, monitoring, and scale handled by the vendor (SLA/uptime and abuse protection)
What remains hard
- Product polish and ongoing maintenance
First-year cost
Keep paying
Paying is—cheaper in year one.
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 7 seats.
Money you would actually spend
Time you would spend
—
What you would spend
What we assumed
The verdict above measures whether you could build it. This one is only about money.
Runnable build prompt
Build a minimal self-hosted SendToDrive clone using Node.js (Express) + React, Postgres for metadata, and a single VPS (DigitalOcean) for hosting. Core features in scope: Google OAuth and Drive API integration (stream uploads into a specified Drive folder), single public upload page with drag-and-drop and folder upload support, server-side streaming of uploads to Google Drive without persisting large files, per-upload subfolder creation and smart folder routing based on form answers, upload confirmation email and a webhook endpoint, and basic admin UI to create/manage upload pages and view submissions. Out of scope: payments/billing, team workspaces, multi-tenant billing, and enterprise audit/compliance. Include input validation, error handling for Drive API failures, retries for interrupted uploads, unit tests for API routes, and an integration test that uploads a file and verifies it appears in a configured Drive folder.
How we checked
How the score was reached
- Partly verdict base52
- An open-source build was found+5
- 5 cited sources+3
- Price verified on pricing page+3
- Evidence score63
The base comes from the verdict. Everything under it is a check that either happened or did not, and each one is a fact frozen in this record rather than a judgement made at render time - so the same evidence always produces the same number.
How scoring works →Cited sources · 5
Every page the run actually retrieved.
- official productSendToDrive — Receive Files Directly to Your Google Drive
- official pricingSendToDrive Pricing
- official docsSendToDrive Docs
- open sourcecloudreve — Self-hosted file management
- open sourceFile Browser
Integrity checks
What held up, and what did not.
