How to start a file sharing business under your own brand
Six steps to start a file sharing business under your own brand, plus the Reseller and Agency terms to check.
You can start a file sharing business without building software. Tarkle's reseller plans let you run a file sharing service under your own brand, with your own domain and your own prices, on Tarkle's software and infrastructure. This guide walks through the six steps in order, with the questions to ask a platform before you sign. It is written for web hosts, MSPs, freelancers and agencies who want to sell file sharing as their own service.
Nothing here promises income. Whether the business works depends on your market, your price and how many customers you win.
Step 1: Decide who you are selling to
Before you compare platforms, write one sentence: "I sell file sharing to ___ so they can ___." Hosting customers who need somewhere to send large files, small firms that want a branded way to receive documents from their own clients, or a design niche that needs delivery and review links are all workable answers. A narrow answer makes every later step easier, from the price to the support questions you will get.
Ask three people in your target group what they use today and what annoys them. Their answers become your product description.
Step 2: Choose a platform to start a file sharing business on
You have three routes: build it, run open source software yourself, or resell a hosted platform. Building and self-hosting give you control, but you carry the servers, security, updates and uptime. Reselling a hosted platform means the provider runs the software and infrastructure, and you run the business: brand, price, sales and first-line support.
Tarkle's reseller terms say you may not describe the platform as technology built entirely by you, or deny that a technology provider is involved when a customer asks during a security, procurement or legal review. If you want file sharing on servers you run yourself, compare that route separately with the platforms that offer it.
Step 3: Check what the platform lets you control
This is the part most buyers skip. Before you pay, ask each platform these questions and get the answers in writing:
Branding: Do customers see your name, logo and colours on sign-in, share pages, file requests and emails? Is there any place your customers can still see the vendor's name?
Domain: Can every link and the sign-in page run on your own domain? Can emails come from your domain?
Billing control: Do you set your own plans and prices, and who collects the money? Does the vendor take a share or a transaction fee?
Support: Who answers a customer's question, and who fixes a technical fault? What are the response targets, and do they cover the first reply or the fix?
Territory and limits: Where may you sell, how many customer workspaces and how much storage are included, and what does extra cost?
Exit: If you cancel, or the vendor stops the product, what happens to your customers' files and your domain? What notice do you get?
Put the same six questions in a table and score each platform. A platform that answers "ask sales" to the exit question is telling you something.
Step 4: Brand it and set your prices
Branding has three layers: the visual identity, the address and the email. On a reseller plan, the surfaces your customers see carry your brand and do not show Tarkle's name or logo. Those surfaces include workspaces, share pages, file requests, portals, brand pages, event pages and notification emails. The one exception is a single required attribution in Tarkle's legal pages. Reseller and Reseller Pro include custom domains.
Then price. Work out your own costs first: the platform plan, payment fees, your time for support and any tax. Then look at what customers in your niche already pay for storage and transfers. On the Reseller and Reseller Pro plans you set your own customer plans and prices with Stripe. Tarkle takes no revenue share, transaction fee or commission on payments between you and your customers, and Tarkle does not process those payments. Any payment processor you connect is governed by your agreement with that processor.
Keep the first price list short. One or two plans, sized by storage, are easier to explain and to support than a menu of six.
Step 5: Plan your workspaces and storage
On a reseller plan, each customer gets a workspace, and all the workspaces draw from one shared storage pool. Reseller includes 50 customer workspaces and a 6 TB pool. Reseller Pro includes 100 customer workspaces and 15 TB. Each customer workspace must be given at least 50 GB from the pool, and you decide how the rest of the pool is spread across your workspaces. A small plan and a large plan can share the same pool.
When the pool or the workspace allowance reaches 100%, new workspaces or uploads may be blocked until you free up space or buy a pack. Reaching a limit does not delete, lock or remove existing files. Extra storage and workspaces are sold as monthly packs at the rates on the pricing page, and each pack needs your approval before it is charged.
Do not sell every gigabyte you have. Keep part of the pool free for growth, so that new workspaces and uploads are not blocked when the pool fills.
Step 6: Onboard and support your customers
Customers can reach you two ways. You can invite them by hand and create their workspace yourself, or let them register on your branded sign-up. Reseller and Reseller Pro both include self-registration and manual provisioning. Manual provisioning suits a small first group: you talk to each customer, pick the plan and decide how much storage each one gets. Self-registration suits a host or MSP with a steady stream of sign-ups.
Support is split by question. You answer questions about pricing, plans, invoices, payments, cancellations and refunds. Technical product issues go to Tarkle, which replies under your brand on your support domain. Tarkle provides technical email support on both reseller plans, and the first substantive reply is targeted within one business day. Reseller Pro also includes technical live chat during business hours. The one-business-day target covers the first reply, not resolution.
You also have duties to your customers. Tell them how files are retained and deleted, and that access may end if your Tarkle subscription ends.
Reseller or Agency: which plan fits whom
The two plans serve different jobs. Choose by asking who pays the bill you send.
Plan | Monthly | Yearly | Workspaces | Storage | Setup fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Agency | $59 a month | $49 a month, $588 a year | 20 workspaces for clients | 6 TB cloud storage | No setup fee |
Reseller | $99 a month | $89 a month, $1,068 a year | 50 customer workspaces | 6 TB pooled storage | $99, once, monthly billing only |
Reseller Pro | $189 a month | $179 a month, $2,148 a year | 100 customer workspaces | 15 TB pooled storage | $189, once, monthly billing only |
The setup fee applies to the monthly Reseller and Reseller Pro plans only. It is charged once, on the first invoice, and equals the first month's price. Yearly billing has no setup fee. Unless your order says otherwise, a setup fee is non-refundable once onboarding work has started. Check the pricing page for the live numbers before you decide.
Agency is for running Tarkle for your own clients. It includes everything in Pro, 20 workspaces for clients, 6 TB of cloud storage, a 100% white-label platform and a client provisioning portal. Each client gets a branded workspace.
Reseller is for selling file sharing as a product under your own name. It includes one authorized sales territory, a built-in referral program, your own plans and prices with Stripe, and self-registration and manual provisioning.
Reseller Pro includes everything in Reseller, plus up to three authorized sales territories and a built-in affiliate program.
A freelancer or small agency that bills clients for a service should look at Agency first. A web host, MSP or IT reseller with its own customer base, price list and sign-up flow should look at Reseller. The reseller platform page describes that route. For more on the two plans, read the Reseller vs Agency plan article.
Common mistakes
Choosing a platform on price alone and never asking about exit.
Selling before you have read the platform's terms, then promising customers things the vendor does not document.
Ignoring territory: reseller plans cover approved sales territories, and selling outside them needs Tarkle's written approval.
Setting a price before you know your payment fees, tax and support time.
Launching with six plans and no one to answer questions.
What to remember about Tarkle
Tarkle's Reseller and Reseller Pro plans let you run file sharing under your own brand, with your own customer plans and prices set with Stripe, and Tarkle takes no revenue share on what your customers pay. Before you sign, read the reseller terms for the storage minimum, the support routing and the sales territories. The Free plan includes custom domain and branding. Start for free.