Lumiqa vs Filestage: creative review & approval
Filestage is a focused, well-built review and approval platform. It does one thing — get content reviewed and approved by stakeholders — and does it cleanly across video, images, PDFs, audio and websites. For agencies whose primary pain is "we send drafts and feedback gets lost in email", Filestage is a real upgrade.
Where Filestage is intentionally narrow is everywhere outside review. It is not a content calendar, not an editor queue, not a brand asset library, not a project board. It also has a flat-team pricing model that is friendly for medium agencies and enterprise compliance features (audit logs, SSO) that are valuable when working with regulated clients.
Lumiqa overlaps with Filestage on the review side: timecode comments, drawings, threaded replies, public share links and approval workflow. Where Lumiqa goes further is upstream and downstream — it covers the brief, the content board, the editor queue, the calendar and the brand assets. Filestage approaches a project once a draft exists. Lumiqa walks with the project from idea to delivery.
If you only need approvals on assets that already came out of an editor, Filestage is excellent and arguably more polished on the audit/compliance side. If you also need to plan, brief and queue work — and don't want to bolt on a second tool — Lumiqa fits better.
Quick verdict
Choose Filestage if approval is your only real bottleneck, you work with regulated clients (pharma, finance) needing audit trails and SSO, or your team already uses something else for production planning.
Choose Lumiqa if you want one tool that covers brief, queue, review and delivery — instead of pairing Filestage with Notion + Trello + Drive.
Feature-by-feature comparison
| Feature | Lumiqa | Filestage |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free 1ws/2 seats. Starter €29 (5 seats). Pro €79 (15 seats). Agency €179 (40 seats). | $109–199/mo flat for the team across Basic/Professional. Higher tiers (Enterprise) custom-priced. |
| Video review with timestamps | Native — frame-accurate timecode comments, drawings, threaded replies, public share links. | Native — strong frame-accurate review for video, also reviews images, PDFs, audio, websites. |
| Content calendar | Editorial calendar built-in. Drag-to-reschedule, brand filter, status tags. | No content calendar. Filestage is review-focused. |
| Editor queue | Personal queue per editor, sorted by deadline. Native. | Not a project management tool. No editor queue. |
| Multi-brand workspaces | Native multi-workspace. Up to 10 brands on Agency plan. Per-brand permissions. | Folders/projects per client. Multi-brand structured workspaces: limited. |
| Public share links | Magic links per project, password optional, no client login. | Yes — review steps shareable with reviewers without account creation. |
| Approval workflow | Built-in approval states tied to the production board. | Strong — sequential or parallel approval steps, audit log, e-sign-off, compliance-grade. |
| Built for creative production | Yes — designed end-to-end for editors, agencies and studios. | Built for review and approval specifically. Production happens in other tools. |
| Free trial | 14-day trial, no credit card. Free tier forever. | Free trial available. Free tier limited. |
When to choose each tool
When to choose Lumiqa
- You want production planning + review in one tool
- You manage multiple client brands with separate calendars and assets
- Your editors need a daily queue, not just a final-review sign-off
- Smaller team and Filestage's flat pricing is overkill
- You want a content calendar without bolting on Notion
When Filestage is the better choice
- You work with regulated clients needing audit trails, SSO, compliance
- Approval is your only real bottleneck and you have planning solved
- You review more than just video — PDFs, images, audio, websites at scale
- Larger team where Filestage's flat pricing is cheaper than per-seat
- You need parallel/sequential review steps with sign-off granularity
The honest takeaway
Filestage is a polished, focused tool. If review is your single biggest issue and you work in a high-compliance industry, it earns its price. Most creative agencies, however, also struggle with planning, queueing and asset management — and pairing Filestage with three other tools turns into a fragmented stack. Lumiqa exists for that case.
Try Lumiqa free for 14 days. If review is the only thing you need solved, Filestage is also worth trying side by side.
More reading: Lumiqa homepage · Production workflow blog