Web Worker Daily has done quite a bit of coverage of online sites you can use to back up and share files. I’m always looking for new and different solutions, though. Lately, I’m impressed with Drop.io, Xdrive and Box.net–each of which has some unique advantages. It’s worth taking a look into all three of them.
Recently, I did a post on Box.net’s new OneBox offering. While Box.net offers only 1GB of online storage with a free account, its free OneBox service seamlessly exposes files that you store to a slew of useful, free online applications. These include online editing with Zoho, document signing with EchoSign, CAD previewing with Autodesk Freewheel, working within the ThinkFree productivity suite, cropping photos with Picnik, and more. If you want to work with the files you store online, take a gander at this. But what if you need more storage space?
For those who want significantly more than a gigabyte of online storage at no cost, Xdrive is a good choice. With a free account, you get 5GB of online storage—more than a Gmail account gives you. If you do ever need to upgrade, you get 50GB of storage for $9.95 a month. On the fun side of this service, Xdrive Shows make for a very easy and slick solution for sharing photos with others.
If you’re really looking for an unusual solution with some unique advantages, consider Drop.io. When you upload files to Drop.io, the application creates a web site to store them in (a drop). You can assign passwords to the files you store, and you can provide a link and passwords to those you want to share files with. This adds up to the service’s biggest advantage: Nobody you share files with on drop.io needs to register in any way—including you—and you don’t even have to provide an e-mail address.
Drop.io also has easy features for letting collaborators add notes to posts, and it automatically converts most popular file formats, including video and audio formats. If you regularly share files with clients where you want a truly quick-and-dirty way for everyone to get at them, it’s worth a try. One caveat about it, though, is that beyond using passwords, you don’t get the level of security that online storage sites usually provide. It’s worth remembering that there are so many good, free online storage solutions that you don’t have to use just one.
Do you have any good tips on online storage and file sharing solutions?
Thanks for the tip, I like the idea of converting between common file formats, this gives me and clients the best of both worlds
Xdrive : Nice classy Skin. Jaw dropping online storage space for the free sign up. Comparatively faster than most of the Online storage mediums.
Corporates with abound need of storage for data may get a paid signup, But for individuals the storage space is a Mini-Mobile-Hard Drive.
Or you can host them on your own server using Files Together (www.anywhere together.com). Its free with 2 user licenses and runs on linux and windows servers. There is also a mobile version for your pda and phone.
Thanks for a useful overview – particularly of Drop.io which is newer to the space. Does anyone have a feel for how Drop.io intends to montetize its service? Both Box.net and Xdrive offer paid subscriptions for premium packages, but I couldn’t find a for-pay option at Drop.io.
If not obvious by my screen name, I’m a devotee of yet another service in the online backup and storage space called ElephantDrive. I like it a lot, but they should add a feature like Drop.io.
Hi, i am an employee at drop.io and just wanted to respond to the above comment. We are a very new service having just started our alpha a few weeks ago. We will eventually have the ability to pay for extra functionality on our site – but we will be doing it in a very different way than most other services. We are working on a bunch of updates, so for now please just stay tuned. Also, if any of you need a little more space than 100MB in the meantime, reach out to contact@drop.io and reference this post – we can’t accommodate a huge rush/everyone, but are happy to do what we can while we are in our early alpha for the next few days if you really need it
I’ve never used the other services, but I would really reccomend Box.net. I recently stopped using them (simply because I didn’t need them) but they were excellent. Customer service was outstanding. And they *DO* have a mechanism for sharing.
[...] I’m with the author in preferring Gmail Drive for its simplicity and browser-free accessibility. Of course, if you’re looking for more traditional online storage with more features, check out Web Worker Daily’s roundup of three free services. [...]
[...] servers without paying a cent. Some providers have been trying to stand out from the pack with extra features. But newcomer Openomy has a different strategy: they’ll give you a gigabyte of storage and a [...]
[...] 10th, 2008 (6:00am) Jason Harris No Comments We’ve covered drop.io in the past, but some recent updates definitely warrant a fresh look at the service. The [...]
[...] Sharing files and folders with others is a drag-and-drop process, and 500MB of storage space is more than you’ll find on many competitive services. However, if you routinely share files that you need to be very secure, I might recommend one of the more security-enhanced online storage solutions, such as Box.net’s or XDrive’s. [...]