Dropbox, SkyDrive or Google Drive?
Microsoft unleashed a desktop sync app for SkyDrive. Today, Google followed by finally launching Google Drive — after a series of early appearances hinted that it was going to be arriving very, very soon. So now that the dust has settled, how do the two new services stack up with the current king of cloud storage and sync, Dropbox? Let’s take a look.
Free Storage
In terms of disk space in the cloud, SkyDrive offers you the most bang for your non-buck. While there are other ways to bump up your Dropbox storage without paying, all new SkyDrive users get the full 7GB from the get-go. Better still, if you’re an existing SkyDrive user and you install the new app you’ll get a whopping 25GB at no charge.
Additional Storage
Worried those base storage amounts won’t cut the mustard? Not to fear. All three services offer paid upgrades. Once again, SkyDrive offers the best deal — with an additional 100GB of space coming in at $10 less than it would run you on Google Drive. Dropbox might need to re-examine their pricing at this point, since they’re by far the most expensive platform now.
It’s worth noting that upgrading to any paid account with Google Drive will automatically bump your Gmail storage to 25GB.
Selective Sync
Microsoft said they wanted to keep the SkyDrive app as straightforward and easy to use as possible. Unfortunately, that means there’s no option to choose which folders you want to synchronize — everything in your SkyDrive folder is fair game. Both Dropbox and Google Drive give you control over which files you want to sync on your connected systems.
Platform Support
Both Microsoft and Google released apps for their own mobile platforms while simultaneously snubbing each other’s. All three services offer iOS, Windows, and Mac apps, but Dropbox is the one to use if you run a Linux system or own a BlackBerry smartphone.
Ecosystem
If you work with Microsoft Office files on a regular basis and need 100% compatibility, SkyDrive might be the best choice due to its tight connection with the Office Web Apps. For Google Docs or OpenOffice users, however, either Google Drive or SkyDrive will fit the bill. Dropbox, of course, is just a storage, sharing, and sync platform — but you can still work with your files in the cloud thanks to support from web apps like Zoho.
3rd party app integration is one area where Dropbox really shines. It’s been much more widely adopted by developers than SkyDrive. Even though it should be a simple task for devs to tweak apps that support Google Docs storage to support Google Drive, Dropbox will probably maintain their lead in this area at least for a little while. We’ll see what happens in the coming months.
Summing Up
So, which service is the one to choose? There’s no one-size fits all solution when it comes to cloud storage and sync apps, but fortunately there are plenty of good options out there. With Microsoft and Google entering the fray, there’s one thing that you can bank on: your app of choice is only going to get better (and probably cheaper) thanks to all the extra competition.
(Source: geek.com)
