Losing precious files and personal photos is always a possibility, but as the digital age has evolved, more and more techniques have developed to help prevent the loss of important data. Thanks to one of the most innovative of these technologies, we no longer have to worry about backing up data on multiple devices, and can instead upload them to the ‘cloud,’ a space of storage that is available for you to use and will be managed and protected by a cloud company.
There are many cloud service providers out there, and as surprising as it may be, some of these service providers offer cheap alternatives to storing it physically yourself, and some even offer a fairly decent amount of free storage.
There are a lot of reasons you may want to make use of cloud storage, and this comparison hopes to clear things up between the multitudes of cloud service providers out there and help you find the best cloud storage provider for you.
Dropbox
Dropbox is a cloud service provider that offers a plain and simple design. It perhaps has one of the most barebones websites out there, but it works well. Dropbox also makes it super easy to sign up and make use of free storage space without worrying about recurring payments kicking in, and there are plenty of ways to increase your free storage cap.
Ease of Use
Dropbox lacks enough utilities to make usage hard, and instead has simple uploading options for various different types of files. You can make new folders to keep everything neat and the UI feel feels very natural to anybody that is already used to browsing folders on both Windows and Mac.
You can also easily share folders and files with other Dropbox accounts, allowing you to share certain content or information with friends and family, and you can also create links to certain files which can then be shared to and viewed by anybody.
I find it a bit strange that you can’t just choose to send a link of a file without manually creating a link for it, and if you like to upload photos to other websites, you’ll have to download it first and then upload it again. This can become very frustrating for anybody who likes to regularly take photos with one device and then upload photos to Facebook or personal websites on another device.
Reliability
Sometimes Dropbox feels just a little too simple, and the search function and filter can feel a little bulky or unusable. The plain background, simple text and square tile links make the website feel extremely simple once again, and if you have a lot of files uploaded to your profile and can’t remember the name of it, it takes a very long time to find.
The website is very rarely down, but you’ll get the occasional time where the website seems to get overloaded with usage.
Mobile app
I absolutely love the mobile app- the simple infrastructure has been moved over to mobile, and this time the UI feels smooth and at home on a mobile device. It’s super easy to view and upload files, and you can browse and search for files just like you could on the website or computer software.
One of the greatest things about the Dropbox app is the ability to automatically upload photos as you take them- You can take a photo with your phones camera, and as soon as it is taken, Dropbox will upload it to the cloud. This can be annoying if you take one too many photos or you’ve got a child photographer in the house who uses the phone’s camera all too often, but being able to have the photos available to you on any device the instant you take it from your phone can be incredibly convenient.
Pricing and Free Storage
Storage space costs, and that’s why cloud service providers will charge you for using their storage. However, Dropbox do a great job at partnering with companies and offering deals so that you can get as much free Dropbox space as possible. For example, you can like their social profiles to get a few hundred extra MB, and you can also refer Dropbox and receive 500MB per referral. On top of this, some devices will offer you free storage. I was happy to find out that my HTC One had an extra 25GB free storage space available to me when I downloaded the mobile app.
If you’re someone who needs a lot of storage space, Dropbox offers a yearly 100GB storage for $99, and the price goes up $100 for every extra 100GB after that. These prices are pretty similar to other cloud service providers, but thanks to the extra free content you can get your hands on, I think Dropbox could be considered the ‘best value package.’
Mozy
Mozy is an early player in the cloud hosting market. They’ve been around since 2005 and have constantly improved their services since then. They are the cloud service provider you’ll want to go to if you need 100% reliability and need to make sure your files are easily stored and ready to restore and backup if needed.
Ease of Use
When Mozy first started, it wasn’t the easiest service to use. There were a lot of features to make use of, but the overall site design made it difficult for newcomers to the service to fit in without getting lost or confused about what to click on. Since then, Mozy has managed to turn their power heavy cluttered web page into a beautifully displayed website that is easy to navigate and easy to use.
Reliability
Thanks to Mozy being in the game since 2005, they’ve had plenty of time to build an infrastructure that not only works 24/7 with any faults being a very rare occurrence, but they’ve also managed fast upload and download speeds from their servers.
Their customer service is quite well based and their packages have been split into different categories to allow you to get what you need out of their cloud hosting service.
Mobile app
Mozy has taken a different approach to their mobile app. You can easily access, upload and download your files that you’ve interacted with on other devices fairly easily which is nice, but Mozy has also ensured that your files are secure and nobody can breach into the app and view your files. Thanks to encryption tools built into the app, Mozy is probably the best choice for those worried about their own privacy. The app also has built in attachment features for emails and the photo viewing section of the app is top notch.
Pricing and Free Storage
Like mentioned before, Mozy is split into different cloud storage packages, with each package tending to different needs. These packages include Mozyhome, Mozypro, and MozyEnterprise. For the average consumer, Mozyhome is perfectly fine, whilst Mozypro and MozyEnterprise cater for small to large businesses and offer plentiful features for improved support and dedicated servers and domains.
The Mozyhome package costs $5.99/month ($60/year) for 50GB for use on one computer, and costs $9.99/month ($120/year) for 125GB for use on three computers. These two packages offer prices in between Dropbox’s cheapest deal, but if you need more specifics, you can add extra computers for $2/month per computer and $2/month per extra 20GB.
For free users, you can bag yourself 2GB for free without giving any payment details. This will give you enough for 300 photos or 340 MP3 files according to the website.
Sugarsync
Sugarsync specializes in a different kind of cloud hosting. Instead of offering storage 
space, Sugarsync offers cloud syncing and backup. This means you’ll be able to back up your files and if in the case of a hard drive error, or an accidental mistake that leaves you with no files, you can then back them up and put them back onto your hard drive.
Ease of Use
Sugarsync is pretty easy to use- it recently had a UI makeover and now has a few new features to ensure it runs as smooth and crisply as possible. As a Sugarsync user, you’ll be able to easily drag and drop files you’d like to backup, and just like the other cloud hosting services we’ve looked at, it offers a fairly simple folder system similar to both systems used on Windows and Mac.
The new UI is more mobile-based though. Including simple block colors, logos and icons, it’s easy to see that Sugarsync has recently synced up with the mobile world to fit in. That doesn’t mean the desktop software doesn’t work well though, and the simple design makes it fairly easy to navigate.
Reliability
One of the great things to love about Sugarsync is all the work it does in the background. If you ask it to, you can get it to back up a file every time you make a change to it, and it’s also incredibly easy to make it so that it backs up any new files that are created or added.
I’ve not noticed any reliability problems with Sugarsync- the software and service seems to run pretty smoothly, and customer support isn’t too difficult to get a hold of, although I must admit Mozy has the best customer support out of the three cloud services we’ve looked at.
Mobile app
Sugarsync’s mobile app feels very similar to the desktop software. This means it’s incredibly easy for newcomers to the service to jump onto the desktop and then straight to mobile with no confusion. This global design makes the experience incredibly seamless. Sugarsync has thrown in a lot of features into the mobile app though, so if you’re more for the barebones experience, you may find that the Sugarsync mobile app has a learning curve larger than you may have hoped for.
Pricing and Free Storage
We’re seeing a very similar pricing model for all cloud hosting services now. Sugarsync offers 60GB for $7.50/month, or $75 for a full year, and $9.99/month or $99 a year for 100GB. If you need a large chunk of space, you can get the larger 250GB package for $24.99/month or $250 per year.
You can grab a free 5GB storage to check the service out, and also request a free trial for any of the packages up above.
Summary
All the above cloud hosting services are fairly similar in terms of pricing, although Dropbox manages to allow you to grab more free storage if you work for it. Mozy offers a stronger, more secure experience with a better customer service, suitable for those who’d like to be more careful with their storage and could do with help along the way.
Sugarsync on the other hand offers a very complete backup service that allows you ensure all of your files are safe and ready to back up at any time.
As you can see, each service has its own benefits, and it’s really down to personal needs and preference on what cloud hosting service you choose.