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Internet Web App

5 Cloud Storage providers that Offer More Free Storage than Dropbox

Dropbox has become so popular lately, it has probably become one of the top choices, if not the top choice, when people look for free cloud storage. The file-hosting service gives you 2GB of free storage space upon signup, with the potential to boost storage to up to 5GB, if you perform some actions like enabling Camera Upload, connecting your Facebook account, and inviting other users to sign up, too. If you’re not exactly excited to do all these just to bump up your free storage space in the cloud, there are alternatives worth checking out.

Mediafire

Mediafire has been a solid player in the cloud storage business, even before Dropbox came along. The service is worthy of mention, since it gives users a whopping 50GB free storage with limits of 200MB per file upload.  Paid plans include Pro, with 250 GB of storage and a 4-GB file-size limit, and Business, which comes with 1000 GB of storage and a 10-GB file-size limit.

If you’re looking for a straightforward online backup service and a collaboration service rolled into one, Mediafire is one of your best bets.  Aside from giving you huge free storage, Mediafire lets you arrange files into an unlimited number of public or shared folders, set passwords, and share links. Not to be left out by other file-hosting services offering “collaboration in the cloud,” Mediafire now also lets users collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Mediafire is available for Linux, Windows, and Mac. Mobile apps are presently in development.

4shared

4shared is just like any other file hosting service, letting you create backups in the cloud, access files from smartphones and tablets, and share files with others. It gives you 10GB of free storage (plus 5GB more if you verify your email account) with maximum file sizes of 2048 MB.  4shared also allows other users to subscribe to your feed and lets you sync files across all your devices.
4shared is not the go-to collaboration platform, but it’s one of the most popular ones for music sharing. Once uploaded, music files can be listened to online before download.  One of its best feature is the web-based 4shared music app, which is also available for Android. The app lets you share music publicly and stream any music on your smartphone or on the web.   After downloading the desktop app, simply upload music to your online locker. You may now directly access your files even if you’re offline. But the best part is that 4shared populates with other tracks from other 4shared users. Tap the song you want to listen to and stream to your heart’s content or, if you’re using your mobile device, until your battery runs out. If you want to store huge files of audio and music, better upgrade to Premium, which gives you 100GB of storage with 5GB file size limit.

Box

One of Dropbox’ major competitors, Box is another file-hosting service that’s great for personal or business use. Box gives you 5GB of free storage and the ability to organize files into folders and access them on any device. Collaboration is obviously a major feature of this cloud service, since it also lets you securely share file and folder links and sends real-time notifications once your files have been accessed or edited.   To give you increased productivity, Box integrates with Salesforce, Google Apps, RingCentral, and other productivity tools.

Google Drive

Available for PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Android, Google Drive is one of the best choice if you want to make your files accessible anywhere.  Aside from 5GB of free storage, Drive lets you create and edit documents, presentations, and spreadsheets.  If you’re a hardcore Google user, you’ll be pleased to know that Drive disposes of bulky email attachments by letting you send links directly to Gmail. It also makes photos you store instantly available in Google+.  As expected from the search engine giant, Drive helps you find files faster by letting you search and filter by file type, owner, and more. Like Box, Drive also integrates with a host of third-party apps.

Windows SkyDrive

If you’re a Windows fan, then this may be the cloud storage for you. You don’t have to be eagle-eyed to spot that SkyDrive offers 7GB of free storage, more than the entry-level offerings of major players Dropbox, Google Drive, or Box. Batch uploads are easy on SkyDrive and it’s also pretty easy to create documents from within your SkyDrive browser and share them with select recipients or more publicly on your social networks. Unfortuantely, SkyDrive hasn’t released an Android app as of the moment, but you can use the Microsoft OneNote app for Android or Browser for Skydrive if you want to access your files.  If you have a Windows phone or even an iPhone or iPad, then Skydrive is worthy of consideration.

Though these are alternatives to Dropbox with more storage space, some of these lacks some impeccable features that Dropbox offers with certain limitation. So while you select your cloud storage provider do proper research before you zero in on any one. Don’t look at just the tons of storage but other aspects must be evaluated. And when you are looking for business purpose, we recommend to go for a paid plan.

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Internet Web App

7 best free Online Storage service

The Internet has clearly played a vital role in our life. Now our workplace is no longer limited to Office cubicle or our sweet home but has become a mobile office.  In some situations we also access different systems from time to time. In such cases we need our files and documents to be readily available to us whenever we wish.This is when an online storage or Cloud Storage comes as a rescue. Online Storage service helps us in accessing our files and folders from any computer over the Internet. They make it possible by syncing our files and documents from computers to a cloud storage. So with an Internet connection we can access the latest updated file from any where in the world. With a boom in cloud computing many Online Storage service providers have come up. We need to have a clear evaluation of those services before we sign up with them.

In this article we will have a brief overview of 5 of the best free Online Storage service currently available. Please make a note that we are not considering about the file hosting service like file serve or rapidshare, which are different than our topic of discussion. We have shortlisted the service providers based upon criteria like:

– Storage capacity

– Ease of use

– Speed of sync/upload/download

– Features of the service

– SugarSync

SugarSync is my first choice when it comes to Online Storage as it offers almost all functionalities that I need in a good Online Storage service. Sugar Sync is an online cloud storage service which gives option to backup, share and sync your files between any number of computers. IT also facilitates the access to files through mobile devices like iPhone and Android based phone. Some of the features of SugarSync includes:

1. The free plan provides a whopping 5GB space plus additional 500 MB space for each referral and 250MB space for completing the steps in getting started.

2. Provides Windows & MAC client (SugarSync manager) so you can use the Online drive as if it is a normal hard drive in your PC.

3. There is no limit to the number of PCs that can be synced.

4. Offers seamless collaboration among team members so you can share different files with different members.

5. Photos synced with SugarSync are automatically organized into photo albums.

6. The music files synced with SugarSync can be played over the internet using the SugarSync music player.

If you have iPhone or iPod Touch, you must download the free SugarSync App, it is amazing and I am quite satisfied with it.

You can Signup for SugarSync and enjoy 5GB of free Online storage.

-Box.net

Box.net is another pretty good Online Storage service provider which offers some of the quite impressive specs. It has a pretty good user interface and offers syncing files to their cloud storage. Box.net clearly distinguish between free users and paid users and there by limit the features to free users. Some of the features of Box.net are:

– The free plan provides 5GB of storage with 25MB file size limit.

– Offers direct we blink to share files and folders.

– Unlike the SugarSync the desktop client is available only for business and enterprise users.

– The folders can be designated as a public webpage with a  vanity URL.

– It also provides mobile access through iPhone and Android apps or through a mobile site.

– Provides 256 bit encryption for business users.

– Dropbox

Dropbox is the simplest of the above two in terms of look as well as functionalities but offers a wide variety of features when you install the dropbox client. It offers other features like sync, backup, mobile access and desktop client for easier access. The free version of Dropbox only offers 2GB space and additional 250MB space for each referral when they signup and install dropbox client.The file upload size of Dropbox is just 300MB. All files stored on Dropbox enjoys the security of 256 bit SSL encryption.

– Windows Live Skydrive

Windows Live Skydrive is also one of my preferred Online Storage service provided by Microsoft. The primary reasons for popularity of SkyDrive are the 25GB free Online Storage and the ability to work with Microsoft Office document online without installing Microsoft Office. It also Provides Photoalbum, Access control based sharing so you have the power to decide who sees what. Another USP of SkyDrive is the SkyDrive synced storage available through Windows Live Mesh, which enables syncing of Photos and videos between your computer and SkyDrive. With so many features Windows Live SkyDrive online storage service is also a must have recommendation from us.

– Amazon Cloud Drive

Amazon Cloud Drive is the newest offering from Amazon and has been launched just a couple of days ago. It gives 5GB of free Online Storage to store your important files, documents, photos and music securely in the cloud. As of now there is no desktop or mobile client for syncing files, so need to upload the files manually. However it supports file upload size of 2GB which a great advantage. I seriously hope that Amazon will come up with a desktop client for file synchronization and also a mobile client for access to files on the go. This will make Amazon Cloud drive as one of the most preferred Online Storage solution.

If you are located in United States and wish to upgrade the Amazon Cloud Storage space to 20GB, you can do so by spending just $1. The normal price for 20GB space is $20 per year, however if you buy a mp3 song from Amazon music store, Amazon will upgrade the free user limit to 20GB. Amazon music store is only available to US customers. Thanks Amit from Digital Inspiration for the tip.

– FlipDrive

The FlipDrive has quite impressive functionalities however it has limited features for free users. It offers only 1GB storage for free users and the cheapest plan starts at $4.95 per year. It synchronizes and  backup your files, folders, photos, music, contacts and calendars. With so many features we definitely need some additional space for free users. Moreover they do not have any referral program by which we can increase the storage limit for free account. This also does not have a desktop client available at this moment. So the sync process is purely manual.

-Adrive

The only reason we put Adrive in the list is because of the amount of disk space it offers. Adrive offers 50GB of free online storage. Apart from the massive amount of storage nothing looks impressive for ADrive. It does not have mobile access or a desktop client for syncing but supports both file and folder upload through browser using Java applet. Ads appears in the user interface and the UI looks very clutter. Overall if you wish to store a lot of junk items Adrive can be your preferred choice of service.

These online storage services not only make our files available to us whenever and wherever we need those, but they also give us an extra layer of protection by keeping a backup copy of our most important files. I usually use Online Storage for syncing files between my work and home PC and keep a backup copy of my most important documents and photos so that I will never lose them even if my hard drive or the backup DVD is gone. Please let us know which Online Storage service you are using and for what purpose you primarily use.