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Google Drive vs. Dropbox, SkyDrive, SugarSync, andothers: a cloud sync storage face-offDoes Drive stand a chance against sync and backup veterans?By Ellis Hamburg er on April 24, 2012 03:50 pm @hamburger

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Google's very own "Loch Ness monster," also known as Google Drive, has f inallylaunched. It 's the new f ace of Google Documents, and it 's also Google's of t- rumoredDropbox-killer. It enters a scene crowded with competitors besides Dropbox that let yousync multiple f olders, collaborate with f riends, and stream data to your mobile device —so how does Drive f are?

We'll take a look at the top apps that let you sync f iles between all of your devicesautomatically, share f iles using password protection, pick which f olders you want tosync, and do anything else you might want to do with a syncing app. While ourevaluations of each app aren't f ull-on reviews, they are encapsulations of where eachapp excels and what makes each unique. Ref er to the chart at the bottom of the pagef or f ull breakdowns of each application.

Google Drive

Top

GoogleDrive

Dropbox

SugarSync

Insync

Cubby

iCloud

SkyDrive

Mozy St ash

Spide rOak

Live Kive

Wuala

Box

Syncplicit y

He ad t ohe ad

Line r not e s

Comme nt s

CLOSE

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While Google Drive isn't much more than a Docs rebranding that syncs to a f older on your computer, it has a f ew keyf eatures that make it worth checking out. First, Drive can open up to 30 kinds of f iles right inside your browser.Dropbox and a f ew others open f iles inside a "web gallery," but Drive opens Photoshop f iles — even if you don't havePhotoshop on your computer. To this extent, Drive creates a QuickLook-esque experience inside your web browserthat makes it much easier to thumb through f iles. Drive also includes an option to turn on OCR text scanning, whichmeans that when you upload images to Drive, Google will scan the images f or text and make them searchable (similarto Evernote Premium).

In terms of everyday use, Drive of f ers the same drag-and-drop syncing as Dropbox, and lets you pick which f oldersinside Drive you want to sync f rom within the desktop app. Also like Dropbox, you cannot pick other f olders on yourcomputer to sync to Drive. In this way, Drive's real strengths lie on the web and with the f eatures we previouslymentioned. It 'll also tie right in to Google+, Gmail, Android, and other Google services that will let you drop- in orupload f iles (almost like you might with attachments inside Sparrow f or Mac, which can instantly upload attachmentsto CloudApp). Additionally, Drive f eatures a built- in document editor on par with Microsof t 's online Of f ice suite that'spart of SkyDrive. You can't yet use Drive with multiple Google accounts, which is a pain, but we'd expect that f eaturein due time.

Drive launches on the web, f or Mac, Windows, and Android devices today, with iOS support on the way "in the comingweeks." The Android app (which replaces Google Docs) won't stream your content, however, unlike some competitorslike Dropbox and SugarSync. For a f ull hands-on of Google Drive, click here. Drive comes with 5GB of storage f ree,with generous upgrade options like $2.49/month f or 25GB of extra storage and $4.99/month f or 100GB of storage.Pricing: 25GB f or $2.49/month; 100GB f or $4.99/month; 200GB f or $9.99/month; more options f rom Google.

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Dropbox

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Dropbox is the go-to solution f or syncing f iles across multiple devices f or a reason. It 's a no-brainer to use, allowsgroups to share f iles with a couple clicks, and of f ers f ew settings f or you to mess up. Perhaps the app's greateststrength is the API it 's built on, which hundreds of developers have used to create apps that utilize Dropbox. It 's rightup there with Evernote as the most developer- f riendly storage/syncing platf orms that apps can leverage to help youaccess your data everywhere. But, Dropbox does have some drawbacks: It of f ers just 2GB of storage f or f ree, andf orces you to keep everything you need synced inside of just one f older (though you can pick which f olders you wantsynced within your Dropbox). Extra storage is also very expensive — Dropbox of f ers 100GB of storage f or$19.99/month, while Drive of f ers the same amount of storage f or $4.99/month. Additionally, it would be pretty f utile totry to use Dropbox as a complete backup tool because it would mean that you've have to store everything you wantto back up inside your Dropbox f older. Dropbox is ultra-reliable and plugged in to all your f avorite apps, but doesn'tof f er a ton of options. Pricing: 50GB f or $9.99/month ($99.99/year); 100GB f or $19.99/month ($199.99/year).

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SugarSync

SugarSync is perhaps the most well-known alternative to Dropbox, and even comes pre- loaded on all new Lenovocomputers and some smartphones (like devices f rom Sof tBank). SugarSync's claim to f ame is that it 's on just aboutevery platf orm, gets updated f requently, and lets you micro-manage what you want to sync. For example, SugarSynclets you pick f olders all over your computer to sync, then lets you choose whether you want each f older synced to allof your devices, or to just specif ic devices. Additionally, SugarSync lets you add password protection to f iles andf olders when sharing them publicly, which not all competitors can't brag about. The company's app f or iPhone andiPad is also decent (though it 's pretty ugly, like the desktop app), and even allows you to stream a whole album ofsongs in a row f rom the cloud, unlike Dropbox. Lastly, SugarSync gives you 5GB f or f ree to join. Pricing: 30GB f or

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$4.99/month ($49.99/year); 60GB f or $9.99/month ($99.99/year); 100GB f or $14.99/month ($149.99/year).

Insync

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Insync's motto is "8x cheaper than Dropbox," while providing many of the same f eatures and capabilit ies. Af ter theDrive launch today, this isn't the case any longer, but Insync is still just as cheap as Drive. Insync uses the f reestorage you already have as a part of your Google Docs (now Drive) account, which means that f or each Googleaccount you have, you get 5GB of f ree storage. If you want to upgrade, Google's prices are much cheaper than theAmazon AWS prices Dropbox charges f or storage upgrades. So anyway, Insync works really well as a Dropboxsubstitute, syncing without a hitch to your Google Drive account. Each account gets its own f older on your computer,but you can't sync any other f olders on your computer unless they are inside an Insync f older.

The f irst t ime you open the app, you won't even see an application screen. Instead, you're popped into a Googlepermissions screen online, an indication of how closely Insync is t ied with Google. Once you init iate a sync, all of theGoogle Docs crap you've ever opened will get downloaded to your computer. One cool f eature is that unlike Drive,Insync will automatically convert your f iles into f ormats (like .doc) that you can read on your computer. Drive syncsDocs to your computer as web shortcuts. In f act, you might want to use Insync solely as a f ile manager f or yourGoogle Docs f iles since it lets you drag-and-drop things around between f olders (labels in Google Docs). Move f ileswithin these f olders and the next t ime you check Google Docs, the f ile will have switched labels. In the end, Insync isa great solution f or syncing f iles to and f rom your Google Docs account, but doesn't let you sync much else. Also,the company's mobile apps are in private beta, which means you can't use them just yet. Pricing: 25GB f or$2.49/month; 100GB f or $4.99/month; 200GB f or $9.99/month; more options f rom Google.

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LogMeIn Cubby

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Cubby, a brand new product f rom remote desktop pros LogMeIn, is a hybrid of SugarSync and Dropbox. Cubbyoperates a lot like Dropbox, but lets you pick f olders around your computer to sync like with SugarSync. Besides that,Cubby doesn't of f er much in terms of options and customization f or syncing to the cloud, but does of f er more f orusers trying to sync f iles between two desktop computers that are always on. For this kind of scenario, Cubby of f ers"unlimited peer- to-peer syncing" between computers, assuming both computers stay turned on. If you make changesto a f ile on one, it will instantly sync to the other. Cubby is ult imately crippled by the f act that it doesn't yet of f er apublic API f or developers, so it can't plug in to any other apps you use. Yet, it shows a ton of potential because ofhow f ast and modern its desktop and web interf ace are. Pricing: in beta, n/a.

Apple iCloud PDFmyURL.com

iCloud isn't much of a Dropbox competitor, but if all you need synced between your devices are text documents, itcan be a pretty seamless solution. Various apps such as Pages and iA Writer have iCloud sync capabilit ies, savingyour work af ter every keystroke and instantly sending changes to Apple's servers. Once you open up iA Writer orPages on another Apple device or Mac with OS X Lion, you'll already be working with the most recent version of yourdocument. Additionally, Lion saves versions of your documents locally using Time Machine so you can return to olderversions of your document, but only on your machine. While iCloud is a very rudimentary document-syncing solution,it might also be the simplest one to use. And if you need to stream music or videos you've purchased f rom the cloud,you can do that, too. Pricing: additional 10GB f or $20/year; additional 20GB f or $40/year; additional 50GB f or$100/year.

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SkyDrive

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SkyDrive is Microsof t 's syncing solution, and in our testing, it works very smoothly. SkyDrive starts things of f right byof f ering 7GB of f ree storage, which is best in class. If you move quickly (and have used SkyDrive bef ore), you canquickly nab 25GB of total f ree storage space. SkyDrive really excels at syncing documents created using OneNoteand other Microsof t Of f ice products like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. SkyDrive creates an experience akin to iCloud,but f or Microsof t products — except you can also edit documents in groups like you can with Box or Dropbox. Andlike with Drive (and Google Docs), you can edit (and create) documents f or f ree within your browser.

SkyDrive also lets you share public links, view-only private links, and view/edit private links, which is nice to have.Unf ortunately, there's no sharing yet f rom the Mac app and you can't download items f or of f line viewing on all mobileplatf orms. But as a whole, In the end, SkyDrive makes f or an extremely well- rounded entry — especially if you f orgotto sync something with it. If your home PC is turned on, you can still access all your f iles using SkyDrive's "Fetch"f eature. Pricing: addit ional 20GB for $10/year; addit ional 50GB for $25/year; additonal 100GB for $50/year.

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Mozy Stash

Mozy Stash is modeled af ter Dropbox, which is a good thing, but this also means it doesn't of f er any f eatures thatmake it worth using over the industry leader. But, if you're already a Mozy customer, Stash works. You have onef older that the desktop client (which lives in your menu bar) constantly monitors. If you make changes, these changesare synced to other computers hooked up to Mozy, and to Mozy's mobile apps. But since there's no public API, Stashdoesn't hook up to any other apps so you can use it f or storage. And while you can access your f iles through a webapp, the interf ace is exceedingly rudimentary and doesn't even allow you to view f iles without downloading them.Pricing: 50GB f or $5.99/month (one computer); 125GB f or $9.99/month (three computers).

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SpiderOak

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Whereas SugarSync puts sync f irst and then backup, SpiderOak puts backing up your computer at top priority. Onceyou pick f olders to back up, you can choose one to sync to multiple computers. Except in order to do so, you'll needto designate which f olders should correspond with each other on each computer. For example, you need to tell theapp that "Folder A" on your laptop (which you've already backed up using SpiderOak) should sync with "Folder B" onyour desktop (which you've already backed up using SpiderOak). This means that you can't even f inish the setupprocess until you have access to your other computer again so you can create a sync f older and back it up. Pricing:100GB f or $10/month ($100/year); additional 100GB increments at same price.

AVG LiveKive PDFmyURL.com

If AVG's LiveKive app looks f amiliar, it 's because it is. AVG licensed an entire suite of syncing and backup sof twaref rom SpiderOak and has rebranded it as its own. This means the sluggish and cumbersome experience is here too,while the mobile app is decent, as we stated about SpiderOak. So what's the draw? AVG's upgrade structure is lessexpensive than SpiderOak's by a long shot. AVG gives you unlimited storage f or $79.99/year, while SpiderOak givesyou 100GB f or the same price. Also, the Mac version of the app has mysteriously disappeared, so your only desktopoption is Windows, f or now. Price: 25GB f or $49.99/year; 50GB f or $59.99/year; "unlimited" (500GB, throttled af terthat) f or $79.99/year.

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Wuala by LaCie

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Wuala is built by storage veterans LaCie, so they take privacy really seriously. In f act, you can't even access your f ilesthrough Wuala's website because the company's worried about transmitt ing data through your browser. Instead, ituses a Java web-app alongside desktop and mobile apps so all encryption takes place on your device. Wualaf eatures a very f leshed out desktop client that lets you share f iles publicly or privately with just a couple clicks. WhileWuala doesn't manage sync f olders across computers as well as SugarSync does, it 's best in class in terms ofof f ering a great experience on the desktop f or syncing or backing up f iles. Another nice touch is that you can switchof f "continuous" sync and switch to backup intervals if you'd like to. Pricing: 20GB f or 29€/year; 50GB for 69 €/year;

100GB for 119€/year.

Box PDFmyURL.com

Aside f rom Dropbox, Box might be the most integrated service since its API is so popular with productivity apps likeQuickOf f ice. In this way, it 's easy to integrate Box storage into your workf low — and with sync (of f ered f ree, but onlyto business customers at this point), it becomes even more powerf ul. There's detailed version-tracking, a f eed ofevery sync and change you've made to a document, elaborate sharing f eatures, and f requently updated and polishedapps f or just about every platf orm. Box Sync isn't yet available f or consumers, but we'd keep our eyes peeled. ItsGoogle Docs integration combined with tons of collaboration f eatures and sync f or consumers would make it a veryf ormidable competitor. But still, like Dropbox, you can only sync with one f older on your computer. Pricing: f orpersonal account, which does not include Box Sync: 25GB f or $9.99/month; 50GB f or $19.99/month.

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Syncplicity

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Syncplicity has gone undercover in the desktop sync scene, in part because it 's primarily meant f or business users.But, it has some interesting f eatures f or consumers that make it worth checking out like Google Docs integration anda news f eed of activity (like in Box). First of f , you can sync f olders f rom anywhere on your computer, but there reallyaren't any settings to change besides this one — on the desktop, or on the web. Syncplicity t ies in to Google Docs todownload and sync your data, but it doesn't work as well as with Insync or Drive. One bonus that Syncplicity of f ers(like Insync) is that you can actually edit documents stored in your Drive and browse versions in the Syncplicity mobileapp. A couple things we don't like: the desktop app doesn't have any pref erences to change, you can't preview f iles inthe ultra-sluggish web browser view, and you can't add more than two devices to your sync under the company's f reetier. In the end, Syncplicity isn't the most well- rounded experience (and isn't pretty, either), but it is a decent app.Pricing: 50GB f or $15/month.

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Head to head

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Liner notes

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At the end of the day, Google Drive is exactly what Google f ans have been looking f or: a place to store all of yourGoogle stuf f . It syncs to your computer ef f ortlessly, but Dropbox already does that. So where does it beat Dropbox?Since Drive replaces and builds on Google Docs, it 's essentially a f ull- f eatured cloud document edit ing and storagesuite. Dropbox is still the champ at syncing since it 's so reliable and on so many platf orms, but if you're looking f orthe best way to collaborate with others using online documents, Drive is the way to go. If you're looking f or the abilityto sync and also backup multiple f olders around your computer, SugarSync is head and shoulders above the rest.

No one sync solution is perf ect, so we attempted to give a f air shot to every mainstream app we've heard of andcould f ind online. So, we wanted to provide explanations f or why two mainstream options were not included in our list.First, JungleDisk was not included primarily because there is no f ree way to use the service, and we've comparedservices that you can use f ree of charge (like Google Drive). The least expensive option is $3/month, which includes5GB of storage — a lot compared to other services we looked at. Additionally, most of the apps we checked outof f er mobile apps that have been updated recently, while JungleDisk's iOS app has not been updated since August2010, almost two years ago.

Another option we skipped is AeroFS, a very cool new company that lets you "sync" f iles between computers as longas both computers are turned on. LogMeIn's Cubby provides a similar f eature, but also includes tradit ional "sync tothe cloud" capabilit ies, a baseline f eature f or our comparison. Thus, AeroFS, which cannot sync your f iles to "thecloud," was not included.

A third detail we want to mention has to do with the criteria we used to judge these apps. We didn't provide each appwith a Verge Score, but did measure them in terms of criteria we came up with, which we submitted to each sync app'sparent company. Data f rom our charts is a combination of points we deduced f rom using the apps and points wegathered f rom responses to the criteria we submitted to each company.

Also, a few clarif ications:

Multiple f older sync: the ability to sync multiple f olders outside of your primary sync f older. For example, SugarSyncallows you to pick f olders around your computer to sync, while Dropbox does not.

Download to mobile: "pin" f iles to mobile f or of f line use on all mobile platf orms

Password-protected f iles: whether links you send out to others can be password-protected or not. Clearly all of

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these services of f er password protection f or accessing all of your f iles.

Bandwidth-throttling: this is a negative attribute, and corresponds to companies that admitted to throttling bandwidthwhen you upload large amounts of f iles.

Finally, special thanks to our Product Database Manager William Savona f or def tly constructing these beautif ulcomparison charts.

PREVIOUS ST ORYGoog le Docs now redirects to Goog le Drive

NEXT ST ORYApple sells 35 million iPhones, posts $11.6

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