Shade.inc is a cloud-first media asset management platform with a virtual filesystem (ShadeFS), collaborative review workflows, and AI search — built for large creative teams in film and TV. FrameQuery is a local-first desktop tool that indexes your footage with AI for instant search across scenes, faces, objects, and transcripts. Choose Shade for enterprise cloud collaboration; choose FrameQuery for fast, private, affordable search on your own machine.
| Feature | FrameQuery | Shade |
|---|---|---|
| Primary focus | Video search & indexing | Cloud media management |
| Deployment | Local-first desktop app | Cloud-first (ShadeFS) |
| AI search | Scene, face, object, transcript | Face, transcript, scene |
| Pricing model | Usage-based from $9/mo | Per-seat + per-TB storage |
| Approx. cost (solo) | $9–$49/mo | ~$100–200/mo |
| Approx. cost (10 users) | $49–$199/mo | ~$800–1,250/mo |
| Format support | 50+ formats | ProRes, RED, ARRI, BRAW |
| Offline capable | ||
| Virtual filesystem | ||
| NLE export | FCPXML, EDL, LosslessCut | Direct NLE integration |
| Review & approval | Pro plan (timecoded comments) | |
| Shared indexes | Pro plan | |
| Object detection | ||
| Free tier | Yes (search only) |
Both platforms offer AI-powered search, but from very different angles. Shade's search is integrated into its cloud MAM — you can find footage by face, transcript text, and scene content across your team's shared media library. It's designed for collaborative discovery within a managed asset pipeline.
FrameQuery indexes footage across four dimensions — visual scenes, spoken words, detected faces, and identified objects. Only lightweight proxies are uploaded for AI processing and deleted immediately after. Your search index lives locally, so results come back in milliseconds with no internet needed. Search “sunset over water” or “person holding camera” and get frame-accurate results instantly.
This is where the gap is widest. Shade uses per-seat plus per-terabyte storage pricing typical of enterprise MAM platforms. For a team of 10, expect to pay roughly $10,000 to $15,000 per year. It's a serious investment justified for productions that need centralized cloud media management.
FrameQuery uses usage-based pricing: Free for search only, $9/month (Starter, 5 hours), $49/month (Pro, 50 hours with timecoded comments and shared indexes), or $199/month (Max, 300 hours). A solo editor on the Pro plan pays $588/year — roughly 4% of what a small Shade deployment costs.
Shade is built around ShadeFS, a virtual filesystem that streams media from cloud storage. This gives distributed teams a unified view of their assets without syncing terabytes locally. It's elegant for large productions spread across multiple locations.
FrameQuery takes the opposite approach: your original footage stays on your drives. Lightweight proxies are uploaded for AI processing and deleted immediately after. The resulting search index lives on your machine, and all searches complete locally without any network request. Once indexed, you have full offline capability.
Both tools handle professional formats well. Shade supports ProRes, RED, ARRI, and BRAW through its ingest pipeline. FrameQuery supports 50+ formats natively — including R3D, BRAW, ProRes, CinemaDNG, MXF, and more — without requiring transcoding. FrameQuery also exports to FCPXML, EDL, and LosslessCut markers, letting you take search results directly into Premiere, Resolve, or Final Cut.
This is Shade's core strength. Review and approval workflows, permissions, version tracking, and a shared virtual filesystem make it a full collaborative platform for creative teams. FrameQuery's Pro plan includes timecoded comments, approval workflows, and shared indexes — enough for small teams — but it's not trying to replace a full MAM system. If you have 20+ people across departments who all need to access and review the same media, Shade is purpose-built for that.
Not directly. Shade.inc is a cloud-first media asset management platform designed for large creative teams who need a virtual filesystem, collaborative review, and centralized storage. FrameQuery is a local-first desktop tool for searching inside video content using AI. If you need enterprise MAM with cloud collaboration, Shade is purpose-built for that. If you need fast, private search across your local footage library without enterprise pricing, FrameQuery is the better fit.
FrameQuery starts at $9/month (Starter) and goes up to $199/month (Max) with usage-based pricing. Shade uses per-seat plus per-TB storage pricing, which typically runs $10,000–15,000 per year for a team of 10. For individuals and small teams, FrameQuery is dramatically more affordable.
FrameQuery uploads only lightweight proxy files for AI processing — proxies are deleted immediately after, and your original footage is never uploaded. The search index lives locally on your machine, so once indexed, search works entirely offline with no internet needed. Shade's ShadeFS is a virtual filesystem that streams media from the cloud, requiring a constant internet connection. FrameQuery's approach is better for sensitive projects or when you need guaranteed offline access.
Both offer AI-powered search including face recognition and transcript search. FrameQuery adds dedicated object detection and scene-level visual search across your entire library with millisecond local results. Shade's search is tightly integrated with its cloud MAM and review workflows. The best choice depends on whether you prioritize search depth and speed (FrameQuery) or cloud-based team collaboration (Shade).