Fabric vs Shade: which creative file system is right for your team?

Last updated October 2026

If your team works with creative files, you need a system that keeps pace with how the work moves. Shade and Fabric both use AI to help you find and organise content, but they solve different problems at different scales. This page lays out what each tool does, who it serves best, and where the boundaries fall.

What Shade does

Shade is a creative file system built for post-production. It sits on top of your existing storage volumes, whether local drives, SANs, or cloud buckets, and indexes everything so teams can search and browse media without opening each application or folder individually. For VFX studios, animation houses, and post-production facilities with massive volumes of renders, plates, and compositions, this solves a real and persistent problem: finding the right version of the right asset across terabytes of footage.

The core value is AI-powered search across media files. Shade can recognise what is inside video and image files and surface them through natural language queries. It also tracks versions and helps teams organise files into collections and categories. The interface is built around the visual browsing patterns that editors, compositors, and colourists use daily.

Shade's scope is intentionally narrow. It does not replace your storage. It does not handle project management, and it does not extend beyond the file system layer. For a studio that already has the rest of its pipeline sorted and just needs a better way to find and organise media assets, this focus is a strength. The pricing reflects the specialised nature of the tool: at $29.75 per seat per month on annual billing, it is positioned as infrastructure for professional post-production teams with dedicated budgets for pipeline tools.

Where Shade's boundaries become apparent is at the edges of the media workflow. Notes about a project, communication with clients, task tracking, document sharing, and publishing all live elsewhere. Teams whose challenges extend beyond "finding the right file" will need additional tools layered on top.

What Fabric does

Fabric is a personal cloud and context layer that brings files, notes, docs, tasks, and connected apps into a single searchable space. Rather than indexing one category of content, Fabric connects to the tools you already use and makes everything findable through AI search that understands meaning, not just filenames and metadata.

The AI assistant draws on four model families: Gemini, Claude, Grok, and OpenAI. You choose the right model for the task. Whether you are summarising a long document, drafting a response, or analysing data across multiple sources, the assistant works with the full context of your connected workspace.

For creative teams, Fabric handles several things that would otherwise require separate tools. Annotations let you mark up files with comments and feedback directly. Notes and docs give you a writing surface that lives alongside your files rather than in a separate app. Tasks keep project work organised without switching to a dedicated project management tool. Publishing lets you share work externally with built-in analytics, so you know when a client has viewed a deliverable and how they engaged with it.

The connections layer is where Fabric's approach diverges most clearly from a tool like Shade. With over 30 integrations spanning Gmail, Linear, Slack, HubSpot, Salesforce, and more, Fabric does not just index your file system. It brings together everything your team touches: emails, messages, tickets, CRM records, and documents. AI search then works across all of it. You can search for a concept and find the relevant Slack thread, the associated file, and the email where it was discussed, all in one query.

Colour search lets you find visually similar content across your library, useful for creative teams assembling mood boards or tracking visual consistency across deliverables. Transcription handles audio and video files, making spoken content searchable as text. Agents extend the AI assistant into automated workflows that can monitor, process, and act on information as it arrives.

Pricing starts with a free tier that lets individuals try the core experience. Paid plans begin at $8 per month on annual billing or $10 per month billed monthly.

Every paid Fabric subscription funds the planting of mangrove trees in Kenya and Brazil. The programme is carried out by local community teams, with each tree GPS-tagged, photographed, and audited by Veritree, then monitored for three years. Details are on the environment page.

How to choose

The decision comes down to scope and what your team needs beyond file search.

If your team is a post-production studio with a well-established pipeline, and the primary pain point is finding and organising media assets across large storage volumes, Shade is purpose-built for that job. It speaks the language of VFX and post-production, and it concentrates entirely on the file system layer. Studios that already have their tools for notes, project management, and client communication will appreciate that Shade stays in its lane.

If your work extends beyond the file system, if you need notes, docs, tasks, publishing, AI assistance, or search that spans your email, messaging apps, and project tools alongside your files, Fabric covers that ground at a lower price point. Creative teams that also handle client communication, project coordination, and content publishing will find that Fabric replaces several tools at once rather than sitting alongside them.

Cost is also a factor worth considering. Shade's per-seat pricing at $29.75 per month adds up quickly for larger teams, and the tool requires your existing storage infrastructure to remain in place. Fabric's pricing starts at $8 per month with a free tier available, making it accessible for individuals and small teams who want to evaluate before committing. Fabric also includes its own storage, so there is no separate infrastructure to maintain.

For studios that need deep post-production pipeline integration and nothing more, Shade is the specialist. For teams whose creative work lives alongside communication, planning, documentation, and publishing, Fabric is the broader platform that keeps everything connected and searchable in one place.

Frequently asked questions

Is Fabric free?

Yes. Fabric offers a free tier that gives you access to the core experience. Paid plans start at $8 per month on annual billing or $10 per month billed monthly.

Does Shade replace existing storage?

No. Shade indexes files that live on your existing storage volumes. You still need your current storage infrastructure in place.

Can Fabric handle video and media files?

Yes. Fabric supports every major file type, including video and media. AI search works across all of them, and transcription makes audio and video content searchable as text.

How does Fabric's AI search differ from Shade's?

Shade's AI search is focused on media files stored on indexed volumes. Fabric's AI search works across every file type and extends to over 30 connected apps, so it finds content in your email, Slack messages, CRM records, and documents alongside your files.

Can I use Fabric for client-facing work?

Yes. Fabric's publishing feature lets you share files, notes, and docs externally with built-in analytics. You can see when a client views a deliverable and how they interact with it.

Does Shade offer notes or document editing?

No. Shade is focused on file indexing, search, and organisation. Notes, docs, and writing tools are outside its scope.

What AI models does Fabric use?

Fabric's AI assistant gives you access to four model families: Gemini, Claude, Grok, and OpenAI. You can choose the model that fits your task.

Is Shade suitable for teams outside post-production?

Shade is designed for VFX, post-production, and animation studios. Teams outside those fields may find the tool too narrowly focused for their needs.

What apps does Fabric connect to?

Fabric integrates with over 30 apps, including Gmail, Linear, Slack, HubSpot, and Salesforce. The full list is on the connections page.

Does Fabric plant trees?

Yes. Every paid Fabric subscription funds the planting of mangrove trees in Kenya and Brazil. The programme is run by local community teams, with each tree GPS-tagged, photographed, and audited by Veritree, then monitored for three years. Details are on the environment page.

See also

• Best video asset management tool

• Best digital asset management for agencies

• Fabric vs Iconik

• Fabric vs Frame.io

• Best creative collaboration tool

• Best cloud storage for video production