Comparison of organizations providing Storage Space on the Web
There are many companies providing free online storage. These Storage-as-a-Service providers have very similar feature set. These companies provide an easy to use online interface to upload or download files from a user’s desktop to the servers on the cloud. Typical usage of these sites is to take a backup of files and data. Other usages are hosting images, videos or large files and making them available from web sites. All these sites follow a freemium business model. They provide a basic online account that typically has limited disk storage and/or a limit on individual file size. A less restrictive storage scheme is available for paying members. This is a very competitive space with no clear leader. There are as many as 11 sites that provide free online storage, among the top 500 most popular sites. This is as per alexa traffic statistics as on Dec 2009.
Table below gives comparison of free offering of Storage-as-a-Service providers
Free Storage as a Service
Vendor
File Size
Storage Size
Waiting time
Advertising
200 MB
Unlimited
Yes
Yes
200 MB
Unlimited
nil
Yes
2 GB
200 GB
25 sec
Yes
400 MB
Unlimited
30 sec
No
500 MB
10 GB
Yes
Yes
2 GB
Unlimited
60 sec
Yes
25 MB
?
Yes
Yes
1 GB
?
20 sec
Yes
200 MB
Unlimited
Yes
Yes
10 MB
Unlimited
No
Yes
1 GB
Unlimited
Yes
Yes
There are other constraints of the free version. Some of the important ones are explained below.
Constraint of free storage as a service providers
Vendor name
Limitations
Rapidshare
Files not accessed within three months are deleted
MediaFire
No URL is provided to access the files directly from a website
Hotfiles
30 minutes waiting time between two downloads. Files not accessed within 90 days are deleted
4Shared
In the free version, files not accessed for 30 days are deleted
Uploading
Deletes files that are not downloaded after six months in the free version
Imgur
Files more than 1MB are compressed. Files not accessed within three months are deleted
Easy-share
Premium account allows users to download statistics, rename or organize your files into folders or set your file properties
Yourfilehost
Deletes files that are not downloaded in fourteen days
Depositfiles
Deletes files that are not downloaded in thirty days
Table below gives comparison of basic premium version offering of Storage-as-a-Service providers. Imgur and yourfilehost only have a free version.
Premium version of Storage providers
Vendor
File Size
Storage Size
Waiting time
Price
2 GB
Unlimited
nil
6.99 Euro
2 GB
Unlimited
nil
$6.97
Unlimited
Unlimited
nil
$9.99
400 MB
Unlimited
nil
$9
5 GB
100 GB
nil
$9.95
2 GB
Unlimited
nil
$10.95
2 GB
?
nil
No
1 GB
Unlimited
Yes
$11.95
2 GB
Unlimited
nil
$9.95
An important criteria in selecting a provider for storage space on web is the download speed. However it is difficult for thecloudtutorial to do this comparison, as the download speed is dependent on many factors. Users will need to select couple of vendors based upon information provided above, and then choose one based upon performance.
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