Steve Smith talks about Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive, the free space, the features, and what you can do for 10 dollars.
Episode #5-23 released on February 26, 2015
I decided to have a little fun this week, and being a person who writes a lot of episodes, articles, and edit many videos, I do occasionally need to transfer some documents and files from one place to another, however, I don't have time for USB, so I use cloud drives. I have a set budget, ten dollars per month for this. I decided to see what I could get from a few well-known companies for ten dollars.
The rules are easy, companies people can easily identify, most amount of space for around 10 dollars, less if possible. Easily accessible from a variety of platforms, including Windows or Mac. Easiest methods of payment, and easily cancelled without issue. A bonus is most features for same amount.
Dropbox is the most commonly thought of solution to cloud storage, and for good reason. You get 2 gigabytes of free storage, and install it on virtually all mobile and desktop platforms, many third party applications can use it. It loads like a drive or folder in your computer, and best of all, you can store anything in it.
Now, the issue is, most power users need more than 2 Gigabytes of space. If you are willing to spend about 10 dollars a month, you can upgrade to Dropbox Pro, which gives you a Terabyte of space, the ability to remote whip your files, and some advanced sharing options.
Onedrive, formerly Skydrive, is Microsoft's cloud drive solution, which is available on Windows machines, iOS, Android, Microsoft Mobile solutions, and has 15 Gigabytes of space, 13 more than Dropbox, for free. You can, also, store files, edit them with any program you want, and use as you will. On a computer, you, also, have the option, to store only in the cloud. While, this is not a good idea, it is a good thing to hear for the hard disk space restricted.
15 Gigabytes is a lot of space, but then again, like me, you might want more. If you need an extra 100 Gigabytes, you can expect to pay about 2 dollars. If you 200 Gigabytes more space, you will pay about 4 dollars more. If you want a whole Terabyte, it will cost you about 7 dollars, but includes Office 365, which gives you a single user. If you just opt for the 10 dollar plan for Office 365, you get access for up to 10 devices, or 5 users. Each user gets a Terabyte of space each. The primary user gets a 100 minutes of Skype time, each other user gets 60 minutes.
Google Drive is well known, and used by a lot of people, offering for free, 15 Gigabytes of space, for your own personal use, and you can use the Google Documents suite to edit files, as well. Easily accessible on all desktop platforms, Android devices, iOS devices, and Microsoft mobile devices, mostly by third party applications, but tablets running a full Windows 8.1 OS can just install the Windows version of the application.
Now, like before, you might want more space, so if you need an extra 100 Gigabytes, it will cost you an extra 2 dollars a month. Need a Terabyte, that's 10 dollars. Want more? 10 Terabytes will cost 100 dollars, 20 Terabytes will cost you 200 dollars and 30 Terabytes will cost you 300 dollars a month.
What does this mean for you? Well, what do you need, space, features, or accessibility?
All this cloud storage solutions have a free option, with Dropbox offering the lowest amount of free space. All these cloud storage solutions can be installed on virtually all platforms. All solutions allow you to use any editor within Windows or Mac to edit your files, and some limited functionality on mobile platforms. Google Drive and OneDrive have access to word processors, but OneDrive requires you to take the 7 dollar or greater option to take advantage of it without limitations. All solutions allow us to get a Terabyte of space, with Google Drive offering up to 30 times that. However, best of all is, each service allows us to pay the same amount to get the same amount of space, so for 10 dollars, what do you need?
You know of any other solutions that offer the same, or better than Dropbox, OneDrive, or Google Drive, comment down below, or e-mail me the details.
Host : Steve Smith | Music : Jonny Lee Hart | Editor : Steve Smith | Producer : Zed Axis Productions