Global Relay Alternative
The modern alternative to Global Relay.
FINRA-compliant archiving for RIAs and broker-dealers — without the premium price tag, sales-driven contracts, or enterprise overhead. Published pricing, 5-minute setup, and intelligent alerts that surface only what needs review.
- Listed in the FINRA Compliance Vendor Directory
- SEC 17a-4 Compliant
- Advisers Act 204-2 Ready
- 23+ Platforms
Why firms choose Sharp Archive over Global Relay
Global Relay is a strong, established archiving platform. But the experience firms describe — especially the pricing and the buying process — comes down to three recurring frustrations.
Priced for enterprise budgets
Global Relay is excellent for tier-one banks and global broker-dealers with deep budgets. For everyone else, you're paying for capabilities you don't need and overhead you didn't ask for.
Sales-driven, not self-serve
Want a Global Relay quote? Schedule a call. Want to add a channel? Schedule a call. Want pricing transparency? You'll need to be a customer first.
Lock-in as a strategy
Global Relay's contract structure makes leaving expensive — multi-year terms, data-extraction fees, and a deliberately opaque export process.
Intelligent Monitoring
Get alerted to what matters — not to everything.
Teams switching from other archivers tell us the same thing: their old system flags everything, so reviewers spend their days clearing noise — and the alert that actually matters gets buried with the rest.
Sharp Archive scans each message as it's archived — across all 23+ channels — and checks it against the compliance rules that apply to your firm. Every message gets a risk score, and only higher-risk items surface for review. Your team looks at what's actually a concern, not the whole archive.
Scan on capture
Every message, comment, and post is analyzed the moment it's archived — across email, social, SMS, and every connected channel.
Score against your rules
Each message is checked against FINRA, SEC, and agency rules and assigned a risk score, with the specific problematic language highlighted.
Surface only what's flagged
When a message crosses the risk threshold, your team is notified — so review time goes to genuine concerns, not false alarms.
Sharp Archive vs Global Relay
| Feature | Global Relay | Sharp Archive |
|---|---|---|
| Listed in FINRA Compliance Vendor Directory | ✓ | ✓ |
| SEC 17a-4 compliant storage | ✓ | ✓ |
| Email, social & SMS archiving | ✓ | ✓ |
| Investment Advisers Act 204-2 support | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pricing published on website | ✗ | ✓ |
| Self-serve signup | ✗ | ✓ |
| Free data export, anytime | ✗ | ✓ |
| Intelligent risk-scored alerts | ✗ | ✓ |
| Setup time | Weeks | 5 minutes |
| Price-match guarantee (10% below any quote) | ✗ | ✓ |
| Help bridging existing contract (free until it expires*) | ✗ | ✓ |
*If you are within 6 months of your current vendor's renewal, we cover Sharp Archive at no cost until your contract ends.
Two ways we make switching easy
We'll beat any Global Relay quote by 10%
Get a quote from Global Relay — or any competitor — and send it to us. We come in 10% below it for your full term. Any quote, no fine print.
Send Us a QuoteStuck in a Global Relay contract?
If your Global Relay contract has 6 months or less remaining, we run Sharp Archive in parallel — free — until your existing contract expires.
See If You QualifyWhat you get with Sharp Archive
Built for RIAs, broker-dealers, and wealth managers.
FINRA-listed vendor
Listed in the official FINRA Compliance Vendor Directory — the same directory Global Relay is in.
Advisers Act ready
Full support for Investment Advisers Act Rule 204-2, including RIA recordkeeping requirements.
23+ platforms captured
Email, social, SMS, WhatsApp, Slack, RingCentral, and more — including the off-channel platforms behind $2B+ in recent SEC fines.
Predictable pricing
Flat, published pricing. No per-user creep, no surprise overages, no annual escalators.
Your data, always
No extraction fees, no proprietary formats. Export your full archive anytime.
Supervision that works
Built for FINRA 3110/3120/3130 review — flag, comment, escalate, and document in one place.
Common questions about switching from Global Relay
How long does the migration from Global Relay take?
Connecting your live channels takes about 5 minutes, and archiving starts the same day. Historical data import timelines depend on volume — we scope it with you before you commit, at no cost to start.
Is Sharp Archive really comparable to Global Relay?
For archiving and supervision, yes — SEC 17a-4 storage, Advisers Act 204-2 support, FINRA 3110/3120/3130 review, and capture across 23+ channels. The difference is the price tag, the buying process, and whether your data is held hostage on the way out.
What about the Investment Advisers Act 204-2 requirements?
Fully covered. Sharp Archive captures and preserves the books-and-records communications RIAs are required to retain under Rule 204-2, in tamper-evident, searchable form.
How does the 10% price match work?
Send us your Global Relay quote. We come in 10% below it for your full term — same FINRA compliance, modern platform, transparent pricing. Any quote, no fine print.
Will my examiners recognize Sharp Archive?
Yes. We're listed in the FINRA Compliance Vendor Directory — the same directory the major incumbents are in. Search "Sharp Archive" on finra.org to confirm.
Can you help with the off-channel communications problem?
Yes. The $2B+ in recent SEC and FINRA fines came largely from missing off-channel messages — WhatsApp, iMessage, personal text. Sharp Archive captures those channels natively, in the same archive as your email, so the gap is closed.
Modern compliance, honest pricing.
Book a 15-minute demo. Bring your current Global Relay quote. We'll show you what compliance archiving should cost in 2026.
Listed in the FINRA Compliance Vendor Directory · SEC 17a-4 Compliant · Advisers Act 204-2 Ready · 23+ Platforms