--- title: "SmartVault Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra" description: "Is SmartVault the right File Sharing solution for you? Explore 137 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice." source_url: "https://www.capterra.com/p/82811/SmartVault/reviews/" page_type: "reviews" language: "en" publication_date: "2026-10-19" --- SmartVault 4.3 (137) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/82811/SmartVault/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated October 19th, 2026 # Reviews of SmartVault Ease of use 4.2 Customer Service 4.1 ## Pros and Cons in Reviews RR Robert R CPAAccounting, Self-employedUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “I was able to achieve the same results by using the software I had been using for years to manage documents (Filecenter) and Google Workspace, at a fraction of the cost of SmartVault.“ March 11, 2025 RR Robert R CPAAccounting, Self-employedUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “They lure new clients with their presentation, which is impressive, and use well-known tax professionals to advertise the software, but it is a big disappointment when you dive into it.“ March 11, 2025 TB Tatsiana B OwnerAccounting, Self-employedUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “It was a great experienced for what I used it for until the price went up significantly without addition of new features.“ November 21, 2024 Joe K AccountantAccounting, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “Sometimes it was a little cumbersome and a little slow, I think the flow of smartvault could've been a little more user friendly.“ January 26, 2026 HC Heather C Administrative AssistantLibraries, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “Overall, SmartVault serves its purpose with our organization, for sharing bank documents with our accountant and providing employee benefit enrollment documents to the correct managers while protecting sensitive information such as social security numbers and health records.“ February 15, 2023 RR Robert R CPAAccounting, Self-employedUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “Instead, they have a knowledge-based library on their website to answer questions, but it's not organized in an intuitive manner. After I went through the entire 7 sessions, I was lost.“ March 11, 2025 EO ELVIS O Audit ApprenticeAccounting, 51 - 200 employeesUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “SmartVault provides an intuitive interface that makes it easy for users to navigate and manage documents“ August 4, 2024 FM Freyxa M Onboarding and training SupervisorMental Health Care, 201 - 500 employeesUsed the software for: Less than 6 months. “The onboarding and implementation of the software can be really tedious and if not settled corrected can violate regulations“ June 2, 2025 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-25 of 137 available reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use Verified Reviewer Digital asset manager Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "A Little Less Smart, But Much More Vault" March 20, 2026 3.0 Overall, SmartVault is mostly the same for me, with the core tenet of file storage and transfer at the forefront. However, they seemed to have made organizational aspects a bit more muddy recently. Pros I like that I can collaborate with other professionals in a friendly, user-centered environment with little clutter or distraction. Cons Now, I feel that SmartVault may have dipped in quality, especially given that documents take longer to upload, and connectivity issues as well as organizational technicalities detract from the experience in a frustrating way. Review Source Verified Reviewer Accountant Used the software for: 1-3 years ### "All in one place" February 5, 2026 4.0 Overall, I would say that smartvault was helpful in being able to keep everything I needed for information and organization all in one place. Pros SmartVault allowed everything to be in one place and had a desktop app as well that made it convenient to open. Cons Sometimes it was a little cumbersome and a little slow, I think the flow of smartvault could've been a little more user friendly. Review Source Dylan C. marketing Used the software for: 1-3 years ### "Secure documents" October 18, 2024 5.0 A very useful platform for accessing documents that are not at hand and very secure because each document saved in the cloud will be well protected. Pros I like using SmartVault because I can access documents from anywhere I am. The protection that SmartVault provides for each document is very secure because its access controls are strict and very rigorous. All documents are in the cloud for easier access and sharing with clients regardless of where they are. In addition, they can be accessed any day and at any time. Cons I like it and there is nothing I dislike about it. It has always worked as it should and the support staff has helped me on many occasions very kindly. Review Source Dawn W. B. CEO Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Reliable and Secure" November 18, 2020 5.0 I love the integrations. I cannot say enough about their vision to continue to improve it's interface. This is a super cost effective way for me to operate my tax practice as well as the work I do with other clients. Pros I love that SmartVault can integrate with other software applications I use. The security that SmartVault brings to the table is critical to the protection of my clients data. This application fits perfectly with my suite of other applications and I can count on it remaining secure. Cons The website times out too often. Maybe I am not aware of being able to extend the time-out but that is definitely something that needs to improve. I also would like to see improvements in the mobile application. Review Source R Reviewer CEO Used the software for: 1-3 years ### "not user friendly" December 9, 2024 3.0 somewhat disappointed since it was not very easy to communicate with clients. Pros the security of the program for all users Cons it was very difficult for most of my clients, not user friendly Review Source R Reviewer CPA Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Easy and secure" November 23, 2020 5.0 SmartVault is easy to use and secure. The price point is great. Clients find it easy to use. I really like the integration with Outlook. I can easily email links to documents, which makes SmartVault even easier for clients. It is secure, and that is very important to me. Access to files anytime and anywhere is also important. Customizable folders is an added benefit. Each year I get more clients using it. I will use it as long as am in practice. I have no need to shop for anything else. Pros Security is the number one feature. SmartVault is easy to use and secure. Clients find it easy to use. Integration is Outlook works great. Cons A function to email a third party a document without them having an account would be great. Maybe it is there and I don't know how to use it. Review Source R Reviewer Owner Used the software for: Less than 1 year ### "Much to learn" November 18, 2020 4.0 I mainly use SmartVault for storing and sharing financial reports and other files that need to be safely sent to/from my clients. The user interface is professional looking and a step up from what I was using. At some point I need to take the time to meet with someone and really gain a better understanding of how some of the features work. Pros It is great for securely sharing financial reports. Cons There is a pretty big learning curve to the software. Review Source Julie K. CEO Used the software for: Less than 1 year ### "Terrible customer service - no response during implementation" February 1, 2021 3.0 Just awful. The sales guy, \[SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN\], was nice and promised such a great solution for us. However, the implementation team has completely dropped the ball and now we are stuck on January 28th not being able to send out tax organizers or engagement letters to our clients. Pros It seems like it would be a good solution, but we can't seem to get anyone to help up get our files migrated from Dropbox Business and help us work out integration with Drake Tax softward Cons No help and no ability to figure things out for ourselves. Our QuickBooks is also down due to this horrible implementation process where we can't get in touch with anyone at SmartVault. Review Source R Reviewer Managing Member Used the software for: 1-3 years ### "Customer service is terrible and getting worse" May 18, 2022 2.0 It started off well for the first year. It's gotten progressively worse with bugs and software issues. The customer service went from good the terrible. Pros Works with Intuit tax prep software and DocuSign Cons The customer service is awful. You will often be ignored. When someone looks into an issue, the tendency is to blame Windows, Outlook, or any product other than SmartVault. To date, the issue has always been with SmartVault. Review Source R Reviewer CEO Used the software for: Less than 1 year ### "Great Idea not the best implementation" December 8, 2021 3.0 It was great at the beginning but having a lot of customers to migrate was kind of a headache and not so easy to use for my liking Pros Is a good concept, nice storage capabilities Cons not so easy to implement, did not like that is kind of confusing to use Review Source Russell B. CEO Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "An OK portal, if you only want a portal" May 31, 2021 3.0 They are a competent client portal with a price on the lower end of the spectrum. However, after 6+ years the product was quite stale so I decided to switch to a more agile portal vendor who is actually spending time and money to improve and develop their product. Pros It integrates with Lacerte fairly smoothly. SV drive and SV connected desktop facilitate working with the files on my local workstation, which is a feature that many cloud based DMS solutions lack. Always having my documents available from wherever I am. Cons They did not meaningfully improve the product at all while I was using it between 2013 and 2019. The product was literally almost exactly the same when I started using it and when I stopped. Also, their iOS app is, to put it generously, pathetic - and was never updated to fix the many glaring problems with it. Chief among those is that from day one the search function in the app is completely useless, meaning that I have to scroll through many nested folders to find each file I want, every time. Review Source Tammy W. Bookkeeper Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Great product for storage and collaboration" November 17, 2020 5.0 With SmartVault I never have to worry about where my documents are for all of my clients. I know they are secure and accessible at all times no matter what computer I have access to. Pros I love SmartVault for the unlimited storage capacity and ease of use. I am easily able to collaborate and share files and sensitive documents with colleagues and clients alike with different permissions. I love being able to access my documents from any computer, anywhere, anytime. I feel like care about me as a consumer and try and be as helpful as possible. Cons Learning SmartVault was a bit difficult in the beginning but the company provides plenty of training and hundreds of videos. Review Source TD Traci D. Owner Used the software for: 1-3 years ### "Smartvault" December 16, 2024 4.0 Their online steam is great but their app lately does not allow me to use it. Pros The ease of use. Safeway to share documents. E-Signature. Cons Have to purchase two seats when I am a sole proprietor. Review Source R Reviewer Owner/CPA Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Clumsy/confusing to use, and SmartVault will screw you on the way out the door." April 7, 2022 1.0 Low end portal service that clients found difficult to use, and which we found more difficult to integrate into our business model as a document management system than we felt should be necessary. Pros I had high hopes for the platform. Clients found it difficult to use. It did provide a marginal level of flexibility for small clients/individuals. Larger clients had higher expectations than what was provided. Cons The pricing has become ridiculous in comparison to what is received. Price has doubled year to year??? Great punchline to this joke. SmartVault's cancellation policy is morally void. After getting hit with an unexpected doubling in cost year to year (after a significant increase the year before), I was informed on my renewal date that I could cancel my subscription and lose all access to the account, but SmartVault's policy was NOT to refund anything for the year subscription that they charged to my credit card, even though I would not have access to the service for the year. What a crock. SmartVault is an expensive, marginal portal service that is designed for the lower end of the market and set up to screw you on the way out. Beware. Review Source Lola D. CEO Used the software for: 1-3 years ### "SmartVault -- Not for all Accounting firms" May 13, 2024 3.0 Not very happy with the product or the "Help" Pros Professional appearance and ability to brand Cons It was difficult to setup -- I had to dedicate one employee to the setup and maintenance. Review Source R Reviewer CPA Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Great integration with our tax software" November 19, 2020 4.0 The cloud software has been great at moving our firm from the back office server environment to the cloud. Pros The features most liked about SmartVault for us has been the ease of initial installation, the integration with our Intuit ProSeries Software and how it has helped our office move to the cloud for a safe secure location for our data. Cons The folder setups for multiple clients could stand to be easier. Seems like we've been having most issues in how to set up engagement folders that are not pre-formatted. Also the price is not incredibly cheap for us, but due to integration don't have much choice. Review Source Jerry H. Firm Administrator Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Highly reccomend SmartVault" November 24, 2020 5.0 We use to use Lacerte DMS. It was a nightmare. Always having to reformat and things kept in diff folders. Data was not easily found either. With SV connected desktop software we can find any client easily. Pros We love how SmartVault is integrated with Intuit/Lacerte. It makes our lives simple, efficient, and stress-free. Cons in mid-2019 SV did an update that made uploading files more stable and faster. Since then I honestly have no complaints. We upgraded our internet speed for faster uploads and using SV is just a breeze. I did think of one issue, but I do not know if the problem is Lacerte's fault or SV? Sometimes a client may already be in SV with years of historical data, but SV will create a new folder for that client under their Lacaerte client ID? So a duplicate of sorts. I have not found a consistent pattern and never complained because it's rare and random. Review Source R Reviewer CPA Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Excellent Document Storage Integration with Lacerte Tax" June 28, 2022 5.0 I use SmartVault as my PDF printer, as well as a place to store client documents. Pros SmartVault is integrated with my Lacerte tax software - When printing from Lacerte to SmartVault, all tax returns are deposited directly into the proper client's folder. Cons I have been using SmartVault for over 5 years, and I have not yet found anything negative in my use of the portal. Review Source R Reviewer Office Manager Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Great Software for Users and Clients" May 2, 2022 5.0 Excellent. Customer support is always easy to speak with and the software is a great fit for our company. Pros Simplicity for our internal users and our clients. Easy to organize files neatly in their respective folders for a clean presentation for clients. Cons Software still needs some small tweaks, but overall, I believe the developers put their hearts into the projects. Seems like any time there is something in the software that I think needs to be addressed, the staff comes out with an update and fixes it. Review Source HM Helen M. Owner Used the software for: Less than 1 year ### "Happy Customer" November 18, 2020 5.0 Overall I am happy and glad I found them. Pros The price is affordable for a boutique firm like mine. It also puts me at ease for the security for confidential information sharing with clients. It's also easy to organize and I don't have to worry about clients who always ask for the same information over and over again. I just simply tell them to go to the portal. Cons The tech support is helpful but not as responsive as I'd like since one reason I became their customer is because I was told their tech can be my tech for my clients so I don't need to waste my time to assist my clients. Review Source Beth S. Administrator Used the software for: 1-3 years ### "Excellent Secure Storage Software" November 20, 2020 4.0 Pros I love how easy this software is to use! We first started using it when i had a chromebook, so i was even more impressed when i got a normla laptop and could use the desktop app for saving/downloading files! It gives our clients a sense of security, and it's very easy to set up a folder structure, add engagements, and invite clients to use it! Cons My number one complaint is that you cannot edit documents in Smartvault. You have to download them, edit them, and then reupload them, which makes things difficult when both us and the client need to update something Review Source R Reviewer Director of Communications Used the software for: 1-3 years ### "Proud Member of the SmartVault Fan Club" September 12, 2019 5.0 We have been very satisfied with smart fault, which allows us to organize and archive securely an enormous amount of client files to be shared. Pros Smartvault is ridiculously easy to use, and provides a ridiculous amount of storage for the price. Our organization has set up branded portals and client folders for exchanging large files, and set up and transfer of terabytes of information took only one day. It is easy to manage customer access from the administrative tool, and support is always available when we need it. Cons The tool is extremely secure, but there is one things that I have found frustrating. It is difficult to create top-down permissions for subfolders. This will only slow you down a minute or two, but it can be mildly frustrating. Review Source R Reviewer Sales Engineer Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Smartvault user" November 19, 2020 5.0 Pros This is a very easy tool to save all documents, organized and able to share with the colleagues and available always online. Cons So far I have no negative comments on the uses that I give to this application. Review Source Mark D. Owner Used the software for: Less than 1 year ### "Horrible customer service, not as advertised" November 18, 2019 2.0 Not good at all. The service did not work as it was originally described to me and then the reps would not respond to me to resolve the issue. I have seen similar comments on Facebook saying the same thing. Pros I liked that they appeal specifically to the accounting industry. Many services serve multiple different industries, but SmartVault is trying to work specifically within tax preparation. Cons I was originally told that SmartVault integrated with my tax preparation software (Proconnect), but it does not. I was also told that I would have a 30 day money-back guarantee. I tried to cancel my service and claim the refund, but they ignored all of my messages (more than 10) and continued to bill me every month! Review Source R Reviewer ADMIN Used the software for: 1-3 years ### "KEEPS WORK FLOW MOVING " August 12, 2021 5.0 SmartVault is an amazing tool & continues to help our workflow evenly. Pros It made tax season a lot easier while dealing with COVID-19 pandemic by clients being able to submit their documents to a safe & secure place. Cons I don't like that you do have to refresh clients manually rather than auto-refresh. Review Source Similar Products Featured ## Send me user reviews about this product ### Fill out the form and we'll send a list of the top-rated software based on real user reviews directly to your inbox.