Fileflare Digital Downloads vs. BookX: An In-Depth Comparison

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Fileflare Digital Downloads vs. BookX— Appointment Booking App: At a Glance
3. Deep Dive Comparison
4. The Alternative: Unifying Commerce, Content, and Community Natively
5. Conclusion
6. FAQ

Introduction

Merchants often face the intricate challenge of expanding their Shopify stores beyond traditional physical products to include digital offerings or service-based appointments. Integrating these distinct business models seamlessly requires specialized tools. The fragmented nature of available solutions can lead to operational complexities, disjointed customer experiences, and ultimately, missed revenue opportunities.

Short answer: Fileflare Digital Downloads is expertly designed for secure, high-volume delivery of static digital files like e-books or software, while BookX— Appointment Booking App specializes in managing dynamic, time-based services and events. Each app excels within its specific domain, but merchants seeking a unified platform for digital courses and communities, directly within Shopify, may encounter limitations with these specialized tools.

This analysis provides a feature-by-feature comparison of Fileflare Digital Downloads and BookX— Appointment Booking App, offering a practical overview to help merchants make informed decisions that align with their specific business goals. The objective is to clarify the strengths and ideal applications of each, ensuring that Shopify store owners can choose the right tool for their digital commerce needs.

Fileflare Digital Downloads vs. BookX— Appointment Booking App: At a Glance

Deep Dive Comparison

Core Features and Workflows

Fileflare Digital Downloads: Specializing in Secure Digital Asset Delivery

Fileflare Digital Downloads, formerly known as Downloadable Digital Assets (DDA), is built from the ground up to ensure the seamless and secure distribution of digital files. Its primary function is to enable merchants to sell a wide array of digital products, ranging from eBooks and PDFs to software, video files, and audio tracks. A key strength lies in its ability to handle large digital downloads without imposing bandwidth or file size limits, a crucial consideration for creators of high-quality media or extensive software packages.

The app ensures a robust delivery mechanism, allowing customers to access their purchased digital products through various touchpoints: a dedicated download page on the merchant's store, directly within their customer accounts, via the checkout process, and through automated email delivery. This multi-channel access streamlines the customer experience and reduces friction.

Key features of Fileflare Digital Downloads include:

• Unlimited Capacity: Offers unlimited bandwidth, products, and orders across most plans, addressing scalability concerns for growing businesses.
• Diverse File Support: Supports any file type and size, from standard PDFs and JPEGs to complex Zip archives.
• Fraud Protection: Advanced features like PDF stamping and watermarking help protect intellectual property. IP limitations can be set on downloads to prevent unauthorized sharing.
• Tracking and Insights: Provides email tracking and download data, allowing merchants to verify customer access and mitigate potential disputes.
• Customer Account Integration: Digital downloads are accessible directly from both new and legacy Shopify customer accounts, fostering a unified user experience post-purchase.
• Video Streaming: The Premium plan offers video streaming capabilities, enabling customers to watch purchased videos directly on the store without needing to download large files.

The workflow for Fileflare Digital Downloads centers on attaching digital files to Shopify products and automating their delivery upon purchase. Merchants upload their assets, configure delivery settings, and the system handles the rest, sending secure download links. This automation is vital for businesses with high volumes of digital product sales, reducing manual effort and ensuring instant access for customers.

BookX— Appointment Booking App: Mastering Scheduling and Service Management

BookX— Appointment Booking App is engineered to simplify the complex process of scheduling and managing time-based services, appointments, and events within a Shopify store. It caters to a broad spectrum of businesses, from service providers like doctors and salon owners to educators running workshops or event organizers. The app transforms a standard Shopify store into a fully functional booking system, akin to dedicated event and appointment platforms.

Its core functionality revolves around providing flexible scheduling options and managing resources efficiently. Merchants can define hourly, full-day, or multi-day booking slots, complete with capacity limits to prevent overbooking or crowding. This granular control is essential for businesses that operate with finite resources, such as staff, rooms, or equipment.

Notable features of BookX— Appointment Booking App include:

• Flexible Scheduling: Supports hourly, full-day, and multi-day appointments, ideal for various service models, including rentals and workshops.
• Resource Management: Allows for the management of multiple team members and locations, each with unique schedules and availability.
• Capacity Control: Merchants can set specific capacities for each service or time slot, ensuring optimal resource utilization and customer experience.
• Payment Options: Facilitates payment-less appointments, offering flexibility for consultations where payment might occur offline or later.
• Booking Widget: Provides a universal booking button or widget that can be embedded on any page of the Shopify store, or even external sites, for broader reach.
• Customer Dashboard: Customers gain access to a user-friendly dashboard where they can reschedule or cancel their bookings independently, reducing administrative burden on the merchant.
• Reminders and Notifications: Automated email reminders and notifications for both customers and staff help minimize no-shows and ensure smooth operations.

The workflow for BookX— Appointment Booking App involves creating services, defining their availability, assigning staff and locations, and setting pricing. Customers then select their desired service, date, and time slot, adding it to their Shopify cart for checkout. This integration with the Shopify checkout streamlines the payment process, while the app manages the booking logistics in the background.

Customization and Branding Control

Fileflare Digital Downloads: Maintaining Brand Consistency in Delivery

Fileflare Digital Downloads emphasizes brand consistency in the delivery of digital assets. While the files themselves are hosted on secure external servers, the customer-facing experience remains within the merchant's Shopify store. This includes the download page, customer account access, and the automated download emails.

Customization options include:

• Store Domain URLs: Download links utilize the merchant's store domain name, enhancing brand trust and appearing seamless to the customer.
• Email Template Customization: Growth and Premium plans allow for customization of email templates and download button styles, aligning delivery communications with the brand's aesthetic.
• Own Sender Email: Premium plan users can integrate their own sender email, ensuring that all correspondence originates directly from the brand.

The app's focus is on ensuring that the delivery of the digital product feels like an integral part of the Shopify store experience, even if the underlying infrastructure is specialized for file hosting. This prevents customers from being redirected to generic external pages, which can dilute brand perception and cause confusion.

BookX— Appointment Booking App: Customizable Booking Interface

BookX— Appointment Booking App offers substantial control over the appearance and functionality of the booking interface. This is critical for service-based businesses where the booking experience is often the first direct interaction a customer has with the brand.

Customization aspects include:

• Booking Widget Integration: The booking widget can be placed on any page, allowing merchants to integrate scheduling directly into product pages, service descriptions, or dedicated booking pages.
• Branding-Free Experience: The free plan explicitly states "No BookX branding," ensuring that even entry-level users can maintain a white-label booking experience.
• Bespoke Customizations: The Pro plan offers "Bespoke Customizations," indicating a higher level of tailored branding and functionality support, likely through custom CSS or developer assistance.
• Multi-Language Support: Crucial for international merchants, the app supports multiple languages, making the booking process accessible to a wider audience.

BookX aims to make the booking process feel native to the Shopify store, allowing merchants to control the messaging, flow, and visual elements to match their brand identity. The ability to embed the booking functionality directly into the store's theme via a widget means customers rarely feel like they are leaving the merchant's ecosystem, even when integrating with tools like Google Calendar or Zoom.

Pricing Structure and Value

Fileflare Digital Downloads: Scalable Plans for Digital Content Volume

Fileflare Digital Downloads offers a tiered pricing structure designed to accommodate businesses of all sizes, from solo creators with a few digital products to large enterprises distributing extensive media libraries. The core value proposition across all plans is unlimited download bandwidth, products, and orders, which ensures predictable costs regardless of sales volume.

• Free to Install Plan: Provides 1GB storage, unlimited bandwidth, and automated download email delivery. It's an excellent starting point for new digital sellers or those with smaller files, allowing them to test the market without initial investment. This plan also includes bulk import for existing orders and products, simplifying migration.
• Basic Plan ($9/month): Builds on the free plan with features like access to downloads on Thank You & Order Status pages, essential PDF stamping/watermarking for protection, and the ability to update files with customer notifications. This is suitable for growing businesses prioritizing intellectual property protection.
• Growth Plan ($19/month): Significantly increases storage to 100GB. Adds features like customizable email templates, fraud-detection blocking for downloads, integration with a merchant’s own S3 storage server (for advanced users), and download email tracking. This plan caters to more established digital publishers with larger file libraries and a need for enhanced fraud prevention and analytics.
• Premium Plan ($29/month): Offers a substantial 1TB storage (with more available on request), alongside all previous features. It introduces customer account downloads (for both new and legacy Shopify accounts), integration of the merchant's own sender email, IP limitations on downloads, and critical video streaming capabilities. This plan is designed for professional publishers, educators, and content creators delivering large files, particularly video, and requiring the highest level of control and security.

The value proposition of Fileflare Digital Downloads lies in its predictable flat-rate pricing for critical features like unlimited bandwidth and orders, which shields merchants from unexpected costs as their business scales. The tiered storage options allow businesses to pay for what they need, while advanced protection features offer peace of mind for valuable digital assets.

BookX— Appointment Booking App: Service-Oriented Tiered Pricing

BookX— Appointment Booking App also employs a tiered pricing model, but its structure is tailored to the needs of service-based businesses, primarily focusing on the number of services, locations, and team members managed. All plans, even the free one, offer unlimited bookings, which is a significant value for high-volume scheduling.

• Free Plan: Provides unlimited bookings, hourly/full-day/multi-day scheduling, and crucial integrations with Google Calendar, Zoom, and Klaviyo. It includes rescheduling/cancellation options, email reminders, and multi-language support. The limitation is to 1 service, 1 location, and 1 team member. Crucially, it promises "No BookX branding (free forever)," offering a professional look even without payment. This plan is ideal for solo practitioners or small businesses with a single offering.
• Smart Plan ($9.99/month): Expands significantly on the free plan by offering unlimited services, team members, and locations. This is essential for scaling businesses with multiple offerings, staff, or physical locations. It also introduces bundle booking, allowing customers to book multiple slots in a single order, and automated workflows. The Universal Booking Button enhances flexibility. This plan provides substantial value for multi-service businesses.
• Pro Plan ($19.99/month): Includes all features of the Smart plan, adding priority support, webhooks for advanced integrations, bespoke customizations, and early access to premium features. This plan targets larger organizations or businesses with complex booking requirements that benefit from dedicated support and advanced customization capabilities.

BookX's pricing strategy offers strong value for service-based businesses, particularly the unlimited bookings across all plans. The ability to start with a free plan that includes key integrations and no branding significantly lowers the barrier to entry, while the Smart and Pro plans provide necessary scalability for growing operations with increasing complexity in their service offerings and resource management.

Integrations and “Works With” Fit

Fileflare Digital Downloads: Focused on Shopify Ecosystem and Enhanced Workflows

Fileflare Digital Downloads integrates closely with the Shopify ecosystem to ensure a cohesive experience for both merchants and customers. Its "Works With" list indicates a focus on enhancing the post-purchase and customer account experience.

Specific integrations and compatibilities include:

• Checkout: Seamlessly integrates with the Shopify checkout process for automated digital product delivery.
• Customer Accounts: Provides access to downloads directly within customer accounts, both new and legacy versions, enhancing user convenience.
• AfterSell: Compatibility suggests it works well with upsell/downsell apps post-checkout, allowing for digital product offers to be delivered automatically.
• Digital Downloads (Shopify's native app): Likely offers a more robust alternative or works in conjunction with Shopify’s basic digital downloads functionality.
• CustomerHub, Froonze Translate & Adapt, Flits Customer Accounts: These integrations indicate support for enhanced customer portals, multi-language stores, and advanced customer account features, allowing Fileflare to fit into a broader, more sophisticated Shopify setup.

The integration strategy of Fileflare Digital Downloads is about ensuring that digital asset delivery is not a standalone process but rather deeply embedded within the existing Shopify customer journey and account management systems. This minimizes friction and helps maintain data integrity within the merchant’s ecosystem.

BookX— Appointment Booking App: Bridging Shopify with Communication and Scheduling Tools

BookX— Appointment Booking App extends its functionality through integrations with popular communication, scheduling, and marketing tools. These integrations are vital for service-based businesses that rely on external platforms for meetings, calendar management, and customer outreach.

Key integrations and compatibilities include:

• Checkout: Fully integrated with the Shopify checkout, allowing customers to pay for their bookings directly through the store.
• Zoom, Google Meet: Essential for virtual appointments, these integrations enable the automatic generation of meeting links upon booking, streamlining online service delivery.
• Google Calendar: Facilitates automatic synchronization of bookings with staff and business calendars, preventing double-bookings and ensuring all stakeholders are up-to-date.
• Klaviyo: This marketing automation integration allows merchants to leverage booking data for targeted email campaigns, reminders, and follow-ups, enhancing customer engagement and retention.

The integration strategy for BookX is to connect Shopify's commerce capabilities with the external tools that service businesses depend on for operations and customer communication. By linking with platforms like Google Calendar and Zoom, BookX creates an efficient workflow for managing virtual and in-person appointments, while Klaviyo integration supports robust post-booking marketing efforts.

Customer Support and Reliability Cues

Fileflare Digital Downloads: Highly-Rated Performance and Responsive Support

With a perfect 5.0 rating from 71 reviews, Fileflare Digital Downloads demonstrates strong merchant satisfaction. High ratings for apps in a critical area like digital delivery suggest reliability and effective customer support. Merchants depend on digital downloads to be instantaneous and secure, making consistent performance paramount. The description highlights "ultrafast digital download servers," which is a key reliability cue.

Review patterns for apps with high ratings often indicate:

• Effective Problem Resolution: Prompt and helpful responses to support inquiries.
• Consistent Performance: The app performs its core function (file delivery) reliably without major bugs or downtime.
• Clear Documentation: Ease of setup and use, reducing the need for extensive support.

The developer, Massive Monkey Ltd., appears committed to a reliable solution for digital product sellers. The option for "Priority Support" in higher tiers of BookX also indicates that dedicated support is a valued feature in such applications.

BookX— Appointment Booking App: Robust Functionality and Dedicated Assistance

BookX— Appointment Booking App boasts an impressive 4.9 rating from a significant 332 reviews, indicating a widely adopted and generally well-regarded solution. A large number of high ratings suggests that the app effectively meets the complex demands of appointment scheduling across diverse business types. The number of reviews alone signals market acceptance and a mature product.

Indicators of strong support and reliability include:

• Comprehensive Features: The app's extensive feature set for various booking scenarios (multi-day, capacity, staff management) suggests a robust and well-developed platform capable of handling diverse needs.
• Automated Processes: Features like automated email reminders and seamless calendar synchronization reduce manual errors and enhance operational reliability.
• Priority Support (Pro Plan): The Pro plan specifically offers "Priority Support," indicating a commitment to providing advanced, faster assistance for complex scenarios. "Bespoke Customizations" also implies a level of dedicated developer interaction for specific merchant needs.

Logbase, the developer behind BookX, appears to have built a reputation for delivering a comprehensive and reliable booking solution. The high volume of positive feedback is a strong indicator of both the app's functionality and the responsiveness of its support team.

Performance and User Experience (Customer Login Flow)

Fileflare Digital Downloads: Streamlined Post-Purchase Access

The customer login flow for digital product access with Fileflare Digital Downloads is designed for simplicity and integration. After purchasing a digital product, customers are granted access through multiple, convenient channels:

• Download Page: A direct link usually provided on the order confirmation or thank you page.
• Customer Accounts: Logged-in customers can find their digital purchases directly within their Shopify customer account portal, eliminating the need for separate logins or external dashboards. This is a critical benefit, especially for repeat customers.
• Email Delivery: Automated emails contain secure download links, providing another reliable access point.

The emphasis is on keeping the customer "at home" within the Shopify environment. There is no separate login required for Fileflare itself; access is managed via the Shopify customer account system. This creates a highly unified experience, reducing potential friction points like forgotten passwords or navigating unfamiliar external platforms. The goal is immediate, secure access to purchased content without additional hurdles, directly contributing to customer satisfaction and reducing support inquiries related to access.

BookX— Appointment Booking App: Integrated Booking and Management

For BookX— Appointment Booking App, the customer experience is focused on intuitive booking and self-management, largely within the Shopify store context. The login flow primarily pertains to managing bookings post-purchase.

• Booking Widget on Store: Customers select services and time slots directly on the merchant's Shopify store, often without needing to log in initially for browsing.
• Shopify Checkout: The booking is added to the cart and processed through the standard Shopify checkout, leveraging the familiar payment and order flow.
• Customer Dashboard: After booking, customers can typically log into their existing Shopify customer accounts to view and manage their appointments (reschedule, cancel). This mirrors the Fileflare approach of keeping customer account management native to Shopify.

While BookX integrates with external services like Google Calendar or Zoom, the customer's interaction for booking and managing their appointments largely stays within the Shopify store and their Shopify customer account. The app strives to avoid creating a separate booking portal that would require an additional login, which could fragment the customer experience. This integration helps maintain a cohesive brand identity and streamlines the customer journey from discovery to booking to management, enhancing overall user experience.

Ideal Use Cases and Strategic Alignment

Fileflare Digital Downloads: Best for Scalable Digital Product Sales

Fileflare Digital Downloads is the clear choice for any Shopify merchant whose primary business involves selling static digital assets. This includes:

• Authors and Publishers: Selling eBooks, digital magazines, reports, and PDF guides.
• Artists and Designers: Distributing digital art, stock photos, fonts, design templates, and brush sets.
• Software Developers: Offering software downloads, game assets, plugins, and digital licenses.
• Musicians and Audio Producers: Selling music tracks, beats, sound effects, and audio samples.
• Educators selling pre-recorded content: Distributing video tutorials, masterclasses, or course materials in a downloadable format (though not full interactive courses).

The strategic alignment for Fileflare is with businesses that need a robust, fraud-protected, and scalable solution for distributing files, ensuring that intellectual property is safeguarded and customers receive their purchases reliably and instantly. Its strength lies in handling high volumes of digital product transactions without concerns about bandwidth or storage limits, offering predictable costs and a seamless customer access experience within the Shopify ecosystem.

BookX— Appointment Booking App: Essential for Service-Based and Event-Driven Businesses

BookX— Appointment Booking App is indispensable for merchants who offer time-based services, managed resources, or ticketed events. This encompasses a very different business model from digital asset sales:

• Service Providers: Salons, spas, clinics, consultants, coaches, and personal trainers who book client appointments.
• Educators and Trainers: Running workshops, classes, webinars, or private tutoring sessions where scheduling is paramount.
• Rental Businesses: Managing bookings for equipment, venues, accommodations, or vehicles over specific timeframes.
• Event Organizers: Selling tickets or managing registrations for conferences, meetups, tours, or exclusive experiences.
• Resource Management: Businesses needing to schedule staff, rooms, or equipment availability.

The strategic alignment for BookX is with businesses that require sophisticated scheduling, resource allocation, and customer communication tools to manage their service offerings effectively. It's about optimizing operational efficiency, minimizing scheduling conflicts, and providing customers with an intuitive booking experience that integrates smoothly into their Shopify store, complete with automated reminders and self-management options.

The Alternative: Unifying Commerce, Content, and Community Natively

The comparison between Fileflare Digital Downloads and BookX— Appointment Booking App highlights a common challenge for Shopify merchants: the inherent specialization of apps. While both are excellent at their respective core functions—digital file delivery and appointment booking—neither is designed to create a unified platform for comprehensive online courses or interactive communities. This often leads to platform fragmentation. Merchants frequently find themselves piecing together external solutions for their digital courses, membership sites, or community forums, resulting in customers being sent away from the brand's own website for learning or engagement.

This fragmentation creates a host of problems: separate logins that cause customer frustration and increased support tickets, disjointed branding that dilutes the customer experience, separate checkouts that hinder conversion, and fragmented customer data that prevents a holistic view of lifetime value. The ideal solution allows customers to stay "at home" on the brand's Shopify store for all interactions—shopping, learning, and community engagement.

This is where Tevello's "All-in-One Native Platform" philosophy offers a compelling alternative. Tevello integrates online courses, digital products, and community features directly within Shopify. This means merchants can offer all the key features for courses and communities without redirecting customers to external platforms. The customer journey remains on the merchant's domain, from browsing products to purchasing a course or joining a community, all through the familiar Shopify checkout. This native integration with Shopify checkout and accounts ensures a seamless, branded experience.

The benefits of this native approach are significant. By keeping customers within the Shopify ecosystem, businesses can:

• Increase Customer Lifetime Value (LTV): A unified experience makes it easier for customers to purchase both physical products and digital courses, fostering deeper engagement and repeat purchases.
• Create New Revenue Streams: Merchants can effortlessly bundle digital courses with physical products, offering comprehensive packages that enhance value and average order value. For instance, a brand selling craft supplies can also sell a digital course on how to use those supplies, leading to higher-value transactions.
• Simplify Customer Experience: With a single login (their Shopify account) for both commerce and content, customers encounter less friction. This dramatically reduces customer support inquiries related to login issues or navigating different platforms, as seen in success stories from brands using native courses.
• Maintain Brand Consistency: The entire experience, from storefront to learning portal, is fully branded and hosted on the merchant's domain, reinforcing brand identity and trust. This ensures a seamless experience that feels like part of the store.
• Consolidate Data: All customer data, purchases, and engagement metrics are centralized within Shopify, enabling more effective marketing, personalization, and customer service strategies.

For merchants who are developing their online course offerings, the ability to maintain a predictable pricing without hidden transaction fees is critical for financial planning. Tevello offers a simple, all-in-one price for unlimited courses, avoiding the per-user fees common on many external course platforms. This allows for scalability without the concern of costs increasing unexpectedly as a community grows. Brands like Klum House have seen remarkable results, having achieved a 59% returning customer rate and lifting lifetime value through hybrid product offers by integrating their courses natively. This strategy of bundling physical products with digital education not only drives engagement but also directly impacts revenue growth and customer loyalty, offering tangible examples of successful content monetization on Shopify. Evaluating the total cost of ownership involves not just subscription fees but also the operational efficiency and revenue uplift from a truly integrated platform, making securing a fixed cost structure for digital products a strategic advantage.

Conclusion

For merchants choosing between Fileflare Digital Downloads and BookX— Appointment Booking App, the decision comes down to the specific functional requirements of their digital commerce strategy. Fileflare is the specialized solution for those needing to securely deliver static digital files, offering robust fraud protection and scalable distribution for products like e-books or software. BookX, on the other hand, is the optimal choice for businesses centered around time-based services, appointments, and event management, providing flexible scheduling and integrated resource management. Both apps excel within their narrow, defined scopes, providing valuable tools for their respective niches.

However, merchants with ambitions to build comprehensive online courses, foster engaging communities, or deeply integrate digital education with physical product sales will find that specialized apps like Fileflare and BookX necessitate a fragmented approach. The strategic advantage lies in unifying these distinct elements—commerce, content, and community—within a single, native Shopify platform. This consolidation streamlines operations, enhances the customer experience, and ultimately amplifies revenue potential by keeping every customer interaction "at home." Merchants seeking to consolidate their digital offerings and avoid the pitfalls of platform fragmentation can find a more cohesive path. To build your community without leaving Shopify, start by reviewing the Shopify App Store listing merchants install from.

FAQ

What are the key differences between Fileflare Digital Downloads and BookX— Appointment Booking App?

Fileflare Digital Downloads is primarily for selling and securely delivering static digital files such as PDFs, eBooks, software, and videos. It focuses on fraud protection, unlimited bandwidth, and customer account access for downloaded content. BookX— Appointment Booking App is designed for scheduling and managing services, appointments, workshops, and events. It focuses on time slot management, staff/location availability, capacity limits, and integration with calendars/meeting tools. They serve entirely different business models.

Can Fileflare Digital Downloads be used to sell online courses?

Fileflare Digital Downloads can deliver individual digital files that might be part of a course, such as PDF workbooks or video lessons. However, it does not provide learning management system (LMS) features like lesson structures, progress tracking, quizzes, or community forums, which are essential for a comprehensive online course platform. It is a delivery mechanism, not a course builder.

Is BookX— Appointment Booking App suitable for managing subscriptions to services?

BookX— Appointment Booking App excels at one-time or recurring appointment scheduling. While it can manage time slots, it doesn't inherently manage subscription billing cycles or membership access. For robust service subscriptions with automated recurring payments, it would likely need to be paired with a dedicated Shopify subscription app. Its core strength remains the scheduling and booking of services rather than the recurring financial management of memberships.

How does a native, all-in-one platform compare to specialized external apps?

A native, all-in-one platform integrates courses, communities, and commerce directly into the Shopify store. This approach avoids the fragmentation inherent in using multiple specialized external apps (like a separate app for downloads and another for bookings, plus an external course platform). The key benefits of a native platform include a single customer login (Shopify account), consistent branding, unified checkout, consolidated customer data, and the ability to seamlessly bundle physical and digital products. This strategy aims to improve customer experience, reduce operational complexity, and enhance overall customer lifetime value compared to a patchwork of external solutions. Merchants considering such a platform should look at checking merchant feedback and app-store performance signals for validation.