Slant community chat on Discourse| 18 Recommended Products | Recommendations | Platforms | Versioning | Word processing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 Syncthing· · · | 14 | 0 | – | – | – |
| #2 Google Drive· · · | 11 | 5 | Windows; OSX; Linux | Yes | Yes |
| #3 rsync· · · | 9 | 0 | – | – | – |
| #4 DropBox· · · | 6 | 3 | Windows, Linux, OSX, Android, iOS, Windows Phone | Yes | – |
| #5 NextCloud· · · | 2 | 0 | Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Windows Phone | Yes | Yes |
| #6 BitTorrent Sync· · · | 9 | 5 | – | – | – |
Pro Free and open-source
Licensed under MIT.
Pro Cross-platform
Available for Linux, OS X and Windows and web.
Con In beta
Although mostly stable, such stability is not guaranteed, and support is only community driven. Caution advised.
Pro 15GB free
This space is shared across Drive, Gmail & Picasa.
Pro File sharing & collaborative editing
Google account holders and non-holders can be set to access and/or collaborate on files.
Con You're dependant on an external service
All data has to pass through Google's servers to sync, meaning you're reliant on a third party. If their servers go down, so does you're ability to sync. If their server's have a glitch, you don't have the option to fix it.
Pro Fast and bandwidth efficient
Only the changed parts of files are synced. For instance, if a long log file increases by just a few lines of text, a small diff will be sent to and saved in the archive. Rsync also compresses data in transit.
Pro Pre-installed on OSX and most Linux distributions
Many *nix systems bundle rsync so there's nothing to install. All you need to do is open up the terminal and start using rsync.
Con No official GUI
To use rsync, you have to know your way around the command line.
Pro Allows selective sync
Selective Sync is a feature of the Dropbox desktop application that allows you to select only the folders you want to be synced to your computer.
Pro Free (extra) storage space
Dropbox personal accounts start out free, with 2GB of space, but users can get extra space by recommending the site to friends, or taking part in events like "Dropquest", where users can win extra space by solving puzzles.
Con You're dependant on an external service
All data has to pass through Dropbox's servers to sync, meaning you're reliant on a third party. If their servers go down, so does you're ability to sync. If their server's have a glitch, you don't have the option to fix it.
Pro No service cost, storage limits, perfomance limits or privacy concerns
Since BitTorrent Sync uses P2P technology and does not require an external server from a third party, the only limitation if what is available to the user.
Pro Clients on most platforms available
BitTorrent Sync is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Windows Phone and BSD.
Con Proprietary
Being proprietary, it's harder to audit.
Con Has some risky attack vectors
The only really good thing it has is that data is self-hosted (i.e. hosted on a server running on your machine with data that are on your machine). If user opens a malicious website that website may create users to access your data ("When registering, http traffic for creating new user on...
Pro Combines cloud syncing, storage service and backup client
Thus you have a single service for all of the things instead of having to use multiple clients or services.
Con Proprietary
Because the software is proprietary, there's no way to review the security practices or really know how the software operates under the hood. As such it can be considered as not safe for sensitive information.
Con Sharing is unintuitve
The way that sharing is done is a bit backwards as you have to select "new" in the options to then go through a few boxes of selections to then finally pick what file to share.
Pro Client-side encryption
Encryption is performed before content gets uploaded to the cloud.
Pro Cross-platform
With clients for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Blackberry.
Con Proprietary
Because the software is proprietary, there's no way to review the security practices or really know how the software operates under the hood. As such it can be considered as not safe for sensitive information.
Pro Free and open source
Seafile community edition is licensed under GPLv2 with source code available on GitHub.
Pro Client-side encryption
All files are transferred with AES 128 bit encryption.
Con Requires maintenance
You have to manually keep the server and clients up to date.
Pro Microsoft Office integration
It integrates with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc as if you were using OneDrive locally.
Pro Automatic photo uploads from phone
When Android, iOS and Windows Phone users shoot a photo with their phone it is automatically uploaded to OneDrive via app.
Con You're dependant on an external service
All data has to pass through Google's servers to sync, meaning you're reliant on a third party. If their servers go down, so does you're ability to sync. If their server's have a glitch, you don't have the option to fix it.
Pro You have full control with your data
Only chose a provider or host it on your soho-server.
Con Not plug and play as Dropbox etc
You may need some help installing it on your web space, though some providers offer free install server.
Pro Supports mobile, web and desktop
Files sync on all devices.
Know any negative aspects of this option?
Pro Extendable via plugins
There are plug-ins for applications that allow interactions with Box.
Pro Encrypted locally before sending (using GnuPG)
Data is encrypted locally before being sent, and kept encrypted by a key that is never stored on the remote machine. So you might even store your data on a public space, people would still need your key or brute force it.
Pro Bandwidth and space efficient
Duplicity uses the rsync algorithm so only the changed parts of files are sent to the archive when doing an incremental backup. For instance, if a long log file increases by just a few lines of text, a small diff will be sent to and saved in the archive. Other backup programs may save a complete co...
Pro Client-side encryption
Wuala encrypts the data on your computer before it is uploaded.
Con Proprietary
Because the software is proprietary, there's no way to review the security practices or really know how the software operates under the hood. As such it can be considered as not safe for sensitive information.
Pro Cheap
It costs $5/mo and offers 200GB of storage.
Con Proprietary
Because the software is proprietary, there's no way to review the security practices or really know how the software operates under the hood. As such it can be considered as not safe for sensitive information.
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