Set it up once.
Connect the places your documents already land. From then on they arrive filed and understood, every date with what to do.
Everything in Family for your first 14 days, then free forever for your first 100 documents. No card to enter.
A family document folder with email-in
Thaw vs Family Folder
Families who want a cheap, private shared folder with an email-in address and expiry alerts, without much structure.
Family Folder is a well-priced shared folder for a family: twelve pre-made sub-folders, per-folder roles, a private forwarding address, and AI summaries with expiry alerts at 30, 14 and 3 days. It does that well. Thaw goes further: works each document out, links it to the people and things it concerns, turns dates into obligations with solutions, and checks what is missing. Details are from Family Folder's public pages as of September 2026.
Side by side
| Thaw | Family Folder | |
|---|---|---|
| How documents get in | Connected once to email, a scanner, a Google Drive or Dropbox folder, Gmail, and your phone; documents arrive on their own from then on. Forward or drop in anything yourself, and bring the pile you have through an Evernote, paperless-ngx or folder import. | Upload from the web or the iPhone app, and a private address at in.familyfolder.com. |
| What it understands | Every document is worked out once: category, type, title, the facts on it, the people & things it concerns, every date. Anything uncertain is flagged for a look. | AI summary, key dates and action items per document. Filing is into the twelve folders, by you. |
| Dates and deadlines | Every renewal, expiry, due date and notice period becomes an item with what happens if missed and what to do, from the document itself. Resolved by the next document. | Expiry alerts 30, 14 and 3 days ahead for passports, insurance and vehicle tests. |
| People & things | Every document linked to the person, vehicle, property or pet it concerns, each with a page. | Folders. A person is a folder if you make one. |
| What is missing | Knows what a person, vehicle, property, pet or business should have on file; lists what is missing, lapsed, expired or duplicated, worst first, with where to get it. | None. |
| Sharing | Members and roles per family or business. | Owner, Contributor and Viewer per folder; up to 10 members on the top plan. Family only. |
| Security | A key per document, locked by a key per account, locked by a master key in a separate key service. Identifying numbers sealed, and blanked from the search index. A log that only grows. Deleting destroys the key. | Private by default, auto sign-out after 30 minutes, full export. No published key model. |
| Price | Free for the first 100 documents sorted; Personal $79 a year, Family $119. | Free for 3 members and 2 GB; Household $49.99 a year (6 members, 20 GB); Family $69.99 (10 members, 100 GB); $219 one-time for life. |
Stay with Family Folder if
- You want a shared folder and alerts, and that is all.
- Price is the deciding factor.
- You like the lifetime plan.
Move to Thaw if
- You want the documents understood, not summarized.
- You want the checkup and Up next.
- You have a business too.
Moving over
Export from Family Folder (everything is exportable) and drop the folder on the import page. Folder names ride along as hints.
Emaila rule you set once3 this week
Google Drivethe Family folder, watched2 this week
Scannersends straight to Thaw1 this week
Phonethe camera, for what only exists on paper
This week: 6 arrived, 6 filed, none touched by hand.