What are the best personal file-syncing solutions?

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Here’s the Deal

22 Options Considered

Best personal file-syncing solutions	Price	Platforms	Versioning
84 Syncthing	-	-	-
-- rsync	-	-	-
-- NextCloud	-	Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Windows Phone	Yes
76 Google Drive	-	Windows; OSX; Linux; Android; iOS	Yes
-- Sync	freemium	-	-

rsync

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Top 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. See More

Top Con

No official GUI

To use rsync, you have to know your way around the command line. See More

Top 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. See More

Top Pro

Works over SSH

SSH support allows sending files securely over the network by encrypting all communcation. See More

Top Pro

Free and open source

Licensed under GNU. See More

Google Drive

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Top Pro

File sharing & collaborative editing

Google account holders and non-holders can be set to access and/or collaborate on files. See More

Top 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. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows; OSX; Linux; Android; iOS

Word processing:Yes

Presentations:Yes

Top Pro

Mobile integration

You can work from any device, especially mobile. See More

Top Con

Proprietary

Top Pro

15GB free

This space is shared across Drive, Gmail & Picasa. See More

Top Con

They own your uploaded date completly

Top Pro

Built-in office suite

Includes tools for writing, presentations and spreadsheets. See More

Top Pro

Most trustworthy solution

As it is provided by Google. See More

Top Pro

Cheap

$10 per 1TB (i.e. $ 0.01 per GB), for up to 30 TB. Note: That's the same cost currently as Google Cloud Storage (which itself has very similar feature set). See More

Top Pro

Extended functionality via apps

Third party Drive applications running in Chrome can add functionality such as image/video editing, project management, flowchart creation, etc. See More

Top Pro

Save files to drive directly from Gmail

Drive lets you save any file from your email. See More

SpiderOak

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Top 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. See More

Top 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. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows; Linux; OSX; Android; iOS

Top 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. See More

DropBox

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Top Pro

Cross-platform desktop and mobile

Dropbox is available on iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows, Max and Linux. See More

Top 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. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, OSX, Android, iOS, Windows Phone

Offline access:Yes

Top Pro

Beatiful Interface

Has a very good, neat and clean interface. See More

Top Con

Shared files will count agaist the space limitation at both parties

If your friend shares a 500 MB video file with you, the file will count against the space limitation at both ends. Therefore, you will quickly run out of space if you have more than a few people collaborating and sharing files together. See More

Top 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. See More

Top Con

Proprietary

Top 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. See More

Top Con

Condoleezza Rice is in the board of directors

Top Pro

Adjustable bandwidth use

Top Pro

Has an API/works nicely with other apps

Many mobile apps can and do use Dropbox for storage. This means not just that your files are accessible on the go, but that those apps automatically get live syncing with your desktop and the web. See More

Top Pro

Add-ons

There are official and third-party Dropbox add-ons that extend the functionality of the service and add ease of use features. See More

Tresorit

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Top Pro

Client-side encryption

Encryption is performed before content gets uploaded to the cloud. See More

Top Con

No Telephone Support

Specs

Platforms:Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Windows Phone

Offline access:Yes

Top Pro

Cross-platform

With clients for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Blackberry. See More

Top 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. See More

Top Pro

Free storage space (get additional space through bonuses)

5 GB, up to 16 GB with bonuses. See More

Top Con

Significantly more expensive than just about everything else

FreeFileSync

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Top Pro

Completely Free

Top Con

Memory hog

It runs a little slow on computers who don't have much RAM available. See More

Top Pro

It supports realtime sync

It can be configured to constantly monitor two folders for changes and sync them instantly when a change is detected. See More

Top Con

Limited built in history

The program only remembers the latest set of folders you synced, so you have to save your syncs or create batch files. See More

Top Pro

It lets you program batch scripts

You can program your own jobs for execution as a script. See More

Top Con

A little intimidating for novices

If you never ran a file syncing software, this can be a little tricky to configure as your first one. See More

Top Pro

Portable version available

Top Con

No backup encryption

Top Pro

It supports case sensitive synchronization

For Unix-like systems. See More

Top Con

It doesn't run on older Linux systems

It's dependencies don't allow it to run on older systems. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

It runs on Windows, Linux and MacOS. See More

Top Con

It doesn't support syncing to the cloud.

Top Pro

It supports long file paths

It can copy files and folders with more than 260 characters in their paths. See More

Top Pro

It can copy locked files

It supports Volume Shadow Copy Service, meaning that it can copy files even if they are in use or otherwise locked. See More

Top Pro

It supports versioning

Versioning is keeping multiple instances of the modifications of your files. See More

Top Pro

It can sync both local disks and network shares

Top Pro

It supports multiple protocols

It will work with MTP, FTP, SFTP, FTPS, and more. See More

duplicity

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Top 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. See More

Top Con

You have to invest a few minutes in setup time

Top 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 copy of the file. See More

Top Pro

Versioning and incremental backup

You can retrieve older versions or files you recently deleted locally even after having updated your backup. See More

Top Pro

Free and open-source

Licensed under GNU GPL v2. See More

Top Pro

Works with scp/ssh, ftp, rsync, Amazon S3...

Duplicity does not make many demands on its archive server. As long as files can be saved to, read from, listed, and deleted from a location, that location can be used as a duplicity backend. Besides increasing choice for the user, it can make a server more secure, as clients only require minimal access. See More

Top Pro

Has a Dockerized image

Docker allows to run programs on any Linux without having to really install them, and allows to manage versions so it runs exactly the same on different machines. See More

BitTorrent Sync

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Top 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. See More

Top Con

Proprietary

Being proprietary, it's harder to audit. See More

Top Pro

Clients on most platforms available

BitTorrent Sync is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Windows Phone and BSD. See More

Top 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 loopback http://127.0.0.1:8888") GetSync.com server receives many (all?) hashes in cleartext when sharing the directory. See More

Top Pro

Self hosted

If user opens a malicious website that website may create users to access your data ("When registering, http traffic for creating new user on loopback http://127.0.0.1:8888"). Being self hosted one does not need to open a site to get to their files. See More

Top Con

Pro version for a fee

Selective Sync only available in Pro version. Business use is not allowed with free and Pro versions. See More

Top Con

One peer of your network always has to be online to propagate changes to the other peers

Top Con

Android app drains battery fast

HipChat

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Specs

Platforms:Web iOS Android OSX Windows Linux

Hosting options:Hosted & self-hosted

Service integrations:Yes

Screensharing:Yes

Mega

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Specs

Platforms:Windows; Android; iOS; Mac OS X; Chrome OS; Linux

Differential:Yes

Microsoft OneDrive

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Top 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. See More

Top 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. See More

Specs

Offline access:Yes

Password protected link sharing:Yes

Presentations:Yes

Top Con

Proprietary

Top Pro

Microsoft Office integration

It integrates with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc as if you were using OneDrive locally. See More

Top Con

Strictest code of conduct

Terms of Service forbid any kind of nudity, or that incites, advocates, or expresses pornography or racism among other things. See More

Top Pro

Collaboration via Office 365

If you use Office 365 with OneDrive, you can share a file to edit collaboratively in real time. See More

Top Pro

No setup for Windows 8/8.1

If you use Windows 8 or 8.1, OneDrive is already built in your system and can be accessed via file explorer. See More

SyncMate

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Alex Taylor's Experience

SyncMate allows syncing data on Mac with almost any device or online account. You can sync data on Mac with Android and iOS devices, Google, Dropbox and iCloud accounts, other Mac computers, mounted and MTP devices, Microsoft services (Outlook and Office accounts). SyncMate syncs contacts, calendar events, media, playlists, folders and allows mounting devices and accounts as Mac disks. See More

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