Recently guys from PSDtoWP.net did a roundup of what is the best cloud storage service for large file sharing. We read through all the answers there and decided to squeeze the juice for our readers. Enjoy!
Dropbox (44% votes)
Ubiquitous Dropbox is a recognized winner by overall ratings who got early to the market.
Most people tried to use Dropbox as their first storage service. Moreover, it is still unforgivable as the first date (who might be the worst one comparing to others, yet still the most memorable). Most people either use Dropbox or are familiar with it. The service will not give you more than two free GB, which is too little nowadays, but easy to extend up to 1TB with Pro account.
- Quick, fast and easy to share files and folders over all devices and platforms.
- Worldwide known and people do not have to wonder what the link is before they click on it (both pro for and con – for spreading malware and viruses).
- Reasonable price $9.99 per month to have what feels like unlimited storage.
- Stable sync and absence of downtime issues makes it.
- Extendable via so-called cross-platform drop-ins and Dropbox API features.
Google drive (13% votes)
Full-featured online storage space and integrated Google Docs office features in the way.
Google always follows the trends and transforms the way people think and act. Dropbox success and market takeover could not left any chance for the internet giant for standing apart and doing nothing but developing its own cloud service. With its unique office web apps and full Gmail and Google+ Photos integration and 15 free GB Google Drive can be a really reason to unfaithful to Dropbox.
- All the benefits of Dropbox with the same pricing options ($9.99 for 1 TB).
- One account good for all services a person can wish for (e-mail, online storage, apps, documents and more) with no need to keep in mind hundreds of passwords.
- Gmail integration with easy large files attaching from Google Drive.
- Bulletproof security options via two-way authentication.
- Easy collaboration process and team work with online docs, spreadsheets and presentations with no files overwritten.
OneDrive (6% votes)
Being the bronze winner is better than being out-of-market Microsoft solution.
‘How can we get ‘em, it is too late?’ – ‘Give them free 13 GB more than Dropbox does; those greedy people will buy that!’ – That was probably the elevator speech of Microsoft OneDrive team. If you are a Windows user, most likely you got used to having around your Microsoft ID which one day became yet another cloud storage with built-in Xbox, Windows 8 and Windows Phone synchronization of system settings, visual customizations, themes, app settings and even Internet Explorer tabs, history and passwords.
- Microsoft alternative to Google Drive with MS Office Web Apps view and edit features.
- Google Drive alike online collaboration and teamwork with full office documents support.
- Full featured integration with all Microsoft platforms and services.
- Both Personal and Business accounts with different features and purposes.
- Office 365 subscription gives free unlimited OneDrive storage
- Fast technical support as for all Microsoft products.
Amazon S3 (4% votes)
B2B oriented fastest cloud storage with tons of developers’ features.
You are not satisfied with rigid pricing plans and need something bigger than just online storage? Probably Amazon S3 is what you need. The service provides not only web access to the storage but through more advanced interfaces like REST, SOAP, and BitTorrent as well. According to Amazon, S3’s design aims to provide scalability, high availability, and low latency at commodity costs.
- Reliable fast and easy-to-use cloud storage with 5 free GB for storage and 15 GB for traffic.
- Flexible access control list (ACL) settings to grant access to stored objects.
- Pay-as-you-use model to be customized to your needs and modified over time.
- Hosting websites with both index.html and error pages support, yet no dynamic programming languages features.
- According to Amazon, S3 guarantees 99.999999999% durability and 99.99% availability of objects over a given year. Do not forget to double check the number of nines before proving it is wrong.
Others
You might think there are only four services and the rest is scorched earth, it is not the case. However, if you need something stable, productive and long-term you should look at those above closer. Mostly all services provide the same basic functionality for the similar price with little distinguishing features. Although some of the features can gain you over regarding your typical use cases and software and platform habits.
So, what service do you prefer?