There’s no shortage of online storage and file syncing services these days, which is great — but can make picking just one to use confusing, especially if you need to pay for more space. Luckily Ars Technica has collected details on the most popular services in handy comparison charts.
Editor’s note: Prices in the table are in US dollars.
For seven services — Microsoft SkyDrive, Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox, SugarSync, Box and Spideroak — you can see at a glance how much free space is offered, max file size and how much paid storage costs per GB. There’s also a colourful app availability chart if you want to know which services have apps for Windows Phone (only SkyDrive) or Linux (only Dropbox and Spideroak).
The chart doesn’t reflect the 25GB of free space you get on SkyDrive if you’re an existing Windows Live user or how you can get more Dropbox space by uploading photos, but these are the base numbers for new users. Note that Box also just offers storage space rather than syncing.
[imgclear] Here’s the full pricing chart.
In the article, Ars Technica lists some pros and cons of each service and concludes:
OveraIl, Box earns the title of least expensive paid storage service, though its lowest paid tier is the same size as SkyDrive’s first free one, if you’re grandfathered into that free 25GB. Many of the services put the great Dropbox to shame in terms of free storage and cost, though Dropbox’s legacy have afforded it highly refined desktop and mobile apps for customers to use. If you need a Linux client and lots of flexibility, SugarSync, SpiderOak and Dropbox come out on top; if you’re a budding Windows Phone user, SkyDrive is the only service that will let you access your cloud-stored files.
For more detailed comparisons, see our Lifehacker Faceoff of Dropbox vs Google Drive and Dropbox vs Alternatives post which includes SpiderOak and SugarSync, as well as Live Mesh and Wuala.
Cloud storage: a pricing and feature guide for consumers [Ars Technica]
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.