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This is a comparison of notable file hosting services that are currently active. File hosting services are a particular kind of online file storage; however, various products that are designed for online file storage may not have features or characteristics that others designed for sharing files have.
No restriction Limit on some types of accounts Limit across all accounts Total restriction across all accounts |
| Web host | Storage size | Max. file size | Traffic or bandwidth limit | Client-side encryption [1] | Remote uploading? | Developer API? | FTP upload possible? | File versioning | Follows symlinks | Free GB (number only) | Append-only support? [2] | Lifecycle Policy support? | Misc. notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon S3 [3] | 5 GB 12-month free trial with credit-card (paid bandwidth), unlimited paid | 5 TB per file, unlimited files per bucket | Amazon S3 limits | ? | No | REST, SOAP | ? | Yes | ? | 0 | — | ||
| Backblaze B2 | 10 GB free, unlimited paid [4] | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | 10 | fileWrite allows existing files to become "hidden", which may get deleted with lifecycle rule daysFromHidingToDeleting | Yes | |
| Baidu Cloud | 2 TB (6 GB free) [5] | 4 GB free, 20 GB paid [6] | Traffic limit is not stable, after going over the traffic limit, there is a bandwidth limited to 500 KB/s then 10 KB/s after another traffic limit. | ? | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | 6 | Currently in China only | ||
| Box [7] [8] | free trial, 100 GB paid (Starter), Unlimited Business, Unlimited Enterprise [9] | 250 MB free Personal, 5 GB paid Personal, 5 GB Business, 5 GB Enterprise [9] | 10 GB/month free, 2 TB/month paid [10] | ? | 30 MB per file via IFTTT [11] | Yes [12] | Business and Enterprise customers only [13] | Some (premium) [14] | No | 10 | Does not sync Mac files such as iWork (Keynote etc.). Does not support Linux OS. 50 GB free with Sony Xperia or HP Spectre 13 | ||
| CloudMe [15] | 3 GB free, +500 MB for referrals up to 16 GB, 500 GB paid [16] | 150 MB free, Unlimited premium | None | ? | No [17] | REST, SOAP, WebDAV [18] | No [19] | Rarely (60 days) [20] | ? | 3 | Primarily focused on media files, synchronization and backup with web sharing. | ||
| Dropbox [21] | 2 GB free, +500 MB for referrals up to 18 GB; 1 TB, 2 TB, or unlimited paid [22] | 10 GB, Unlimited using client application | 20 GB/day free, 200 GB/day paid [23] | No | No | Yes | No [24] | 30 days by default, 1 year w/ add-on [25] | Yes | 2 | Synchronization, backup and websharing. Does support Linux OS 25 GB free with HTC Sense 4 & 5, 100 GB free with Samsung device | ||
| Google Drive [26] [27] | 15 GB free, [28] Paid plans with varied storage per user or per Workspace account (pooled storage) | 5 TB [29] | 750GB/day upload 5TB/day download | No | No | OAuth2 | No | Yes [30] | No | 15 | Additional space for limited time period with some devices and services. [31] [32] [33] [34] | ||
| HCL Connections Files Cloud | 1 TB paid (60-day free trial) [35] | 2 GB | None | ? | No | CMIS, REST, Atom (standard) and OAuth2 | No | Yes | ? | 5 | Subscription costs US$6/year [36] | ||
| Apple iCloud [37] | 5 GB free, 50 GB to 12 TB paid | 50 GB | 200/400/600 GB per month | ? | No | Yes | No | Partly | No | 5 | 25 GB for previous MobileMe account subscriptions [38] | ||
| Jumpshare | 2 GB free, 1 TB paid | 250 MB free, Unlimited paid | 5GB per month free, 200GB per month on paid plan | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | 2 | Real-time file sharing with built-in utilities for screenshots, screencasts, notes, and voice clips. | ||
| MediaFire [39] | 10 GB, +50 GB for referrals up to 1 TB Pro accounts; 100 TB Business accounts | 20 GB [40] | 10 TB pro plan, Business plans receive an amount of bandwidth per month equal to ten times the account’s storage space. [41] | Yes | Yes | Yes | No [42] | Yes | ? | 10 | Resuming of interrupted downloads possible. | ||
| Mega [43] | 20 GB free, additional 5 GB per achievements, [44] up to 16 TB paid | Available cloud drive space [45] | 10 GB free, Up to 96 TB per month paid. [46] | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes [47] | ? | 20 | Apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, Chrome, Firefox, Safari [48] Supports HTML5 browsers. [49] | ||
| Microsoft OneDrive [50] | 5 GB free (since 31 January 2016) [Note 1] +500 MB free for referrals up to 5 GB; 200 GB paid [53]
| 100 GB [54] | None | ? | No | Yes [55] | No [56] | Yes (Office files only) | No [57] | 5 | 25 GB free for grandfathered accounts before April 2012 [58] | ||
| Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Object Storage [59] | 10GB always free, unlimited paid | 10 TiB | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | 10 | ? | Yes | |
| SecureSafe [60] | 100MB free, up to 100GB paid [61] | ? 2GB limit for SecureSend | None | Yes | No | No | No | No [60] | ? | 0.1 | Offers Data Inheritance [62] | ||
| SugarSync [63] | 60 GB personal paid, Unlimited GB professional paid | None | 10 GB/file/day free, 250 GB file/day paid | No | No | REST [64] | ? | Yes | ? | 0 | If you hit the limit your links will be disabled for 24 hours. The bandwidth limits only apply to public links. [65] | ||
| Tarsnap [66] | No free space, unlimited paid $0.25/GiB | 16 EiB - 1 | No free bandwidth tier, unlimited paid $0.25/GiB | Yes | No | libtarsnap.a [67] | No | Client must manage archives [68] | Optional with `-H` [69] | 0 | Partial archives [70] | No | Emphasis on carefully-constructed security model. File are encrypted client-side. |
| Tencent Weiyun [71] | 2 TB (10 GB free) | 1 GB regular upload, 32 GB Power Upload plug-in | None | No | No | No | No | No | ? | 10 | In English and Chinese (free version in Chinese only) | ||
| TitanFile | No free space, unlimited paid | 100 MB free, 1 GB paid, 4 GB professional | None | Yes for paid plans [72] | No | Yes [73] | Yes For enterprise clients only | Yes [74] | ? | 0 | HIPAA-compliant, group messaging, audit logs, granular security control, embedable on website. | ||
| Tresorit [75] | 3 GB free trial, 100-1000 GB paid plans [76] | 500 MB free, 5 GB premium, 10 GB rest of paid plans [77] | None | Yes [78] | No | No | No | For paid plans only [79] | No | 3 | Files are client-side encrypted; zero-knowledge principles are used to prevent Tresorit itself from reading the files. | ||
| Wasabi | unlimited. paid only. [80] | 5 TB [81] | Should be equal to the storage amount [82] | Yes [83] | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | 0 | Yes | Yes | |
| Yandex Disk | up to 20 GB free (10 GB when registering), up to 1024 GB paid | 2 GB upload via Web or WebDAV, 50 GB upload via application | 200% of storage size per day | No | No | Yes: REST, WebDAV, SDK [84] | No | 14 days with free accounts 90 days with paid ones [85] | ? | 10 | English, Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish interfaces. Service is tightly integrated with other Yandex services. Native apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android. Client-side encryption is available with 3rd party open source clients. | ||
| Web host | Storage size | Max. file size | Traffic or bandwidth limit | Client-side encryption [1] | Remote uploading? | Developer API? | FTP upload possible? | File versioning | Follows symlinks | Free GB (number only) | Append-only support? [2] | Lifecycle Policy support? | Misc. notes |
A file-hosting service, also known as cloud-storage service, online file-storage provider, or cyberlocker, is an internet hosting service specifically designed to host user files. These services allow users to upload files that can be accessed over the internet after providing a username and password or other authentication. Typically, file hosting services allow HTTP access, and in some cases, FTP access. Other related services include content-displaying hosting services, virtual storage, and remote backup solutions.
Microsoft OneDrive is a file-hosting service operated by Microsoft. First released in August 2007, it allows registered users to store, share and sync their files. OneDrive also works as the storage backend of the web version of Microsoft 365 / Office. OneDrive offers 5 GB of storage space free of charge, with 100 GB, 1 TB, and 6 TB storage options available either separately or with Microsoft 365 subscriptions.
MediaFire is a file hosting, file synchronization, and cloud storage service based in Shenandoah, Texas, United States. Founded in June 2006 by Derek Labian and Tom Langridge, the company provides client software for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, BlackBerry 10, and web browsers. MediaFire has 43 million registered users and attracted 1.3 billion unique visitors to its domains in 2012.
This is a comparison of online backup services.
Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by the American company Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, U.S. that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and client software. Dropbox was founded in 2007 by MIT students Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi as a startup company, with initial funding from seed accelerator Y Combinator.
ExpanDrive is a network filesystem client for MacOS, Microsoft Windows and Linux that facilitates mapping of local volume to many different types of cloud storage. When a server is mounted with ExpanDrive any program can read, write, and manage remote files as if they were stored locally. This is different from most file transfer clients because it is integrated into all applications on the operating system. It also does not require a file to be downloaded to access portions of the content. ExpanDrive is commercial software, at a cost of $49.95 per license. A 7-day, unrestricted demo is available for evaluation.
Syncovery is backup and file synchronization software that allows backing up and synchronizing files to the same or different drives, to different media, or to a remote server.
Calibre is a cross-platform free and open-source suite of e-book software. Calibre supports organizing existing e-books into virtual libraries, displaying, editing, creating and converting e-books, as well as syncing e-books with a variety of e-readers. Editing books is supported for EPUB and AZW3 formats. Books in other formats like MOBI must first be converted to those formats, if they are to be edited. Calibre also has a large collection of community contributed plugins.
CloudMe is a file storage service operated by CloudMe AB that offers cloud storage, file synchronization and client software. It features a blue folder that appears on all devices with the same content, all files are synchronized between devices. The CloudMe service is offered with a freemium business model and provides encrypted SSL connection with SSL Extended Validation Certificate. CloudMe provides client software for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Google TV, Samsung Smart TV, WD TV, Windows Storage Server for NAS and web browsers.
Google Cloud Connect was a free cloud computing plug-in for Windows Microsoft Office 2003, 2007 and 2010 that can automatically store and synchronize any Microsoft Word document, PowerPoint presentation, or Excel spreadsheet to Google Docs in Google Docs or Microsoft Office formats. The Google Doc copy is automatically updated each time the Microsoft Office document is saved. Microsoft Office documents can be edited offline and synchronized later when online. Google Cloud Sync maintains previous Microsoft Office document versions and allows multiple users to collaborate, working on the same document at the same time. Google Cloud Connect was discontinued on April 30, 2013, as according to Google, all of Cloud Connect's features are available through Google Drive.
Google Drive is a file-hosting service and synchronization service developed by Google. Launched on April 24, 2012, Google Drive allows users to store files in the cloud, synchronize files across devices, and share files. In addition to a web interface, Google Drive offers apps with offline capabilities for Windows and macOS computers, and Android and iOS smartphones and tablets. Google Drive encompasses Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides, which are a part of the Google Docs Editors office suite that allows collaborative editing of documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, forms, and more. Files created and edited through the Google Docs suite are saved in Google Drive.
@MAX SyncUp is a free proprietary backup and file synchronization program developed by @MAX Software for Windows. It is targeted at individuals and small businesses. The software supports backup to locally writable folders, including attached USB devices, network drives and local directories. It also supports backup and synchronization to WebDAV servers, (S)FTP servers and the cloud storages such as Google Drive and Dropbox.
Tresorit is a cloud storage platform that offers functions for administration, storage, synchronization, and transfer of data using end-to-end encryption.
This is a timeline of online file storage and collaboration service Dropbox.
Enterprise file synchronization and sharing refers to software services that enable organizations to securely synchronize and share documents, photos, videos and files from multiple devices with employees, and external customers and partners. Organizations often adopt these technologies to prevent employees from using consumer-based file sharing apps to store, access and manage corporate data that is outside of the IT department’s control and visibility.
MSP360, formerly CloudBerry Lab, is a software and application service provider company that develops online backup, remote desktop and file management products integrated with more than 20 cloud storage providers.
DryvIQ is a software application that enables businesses to migrate on-site system files and associated data across storage and content management platforms, as well as create synchronized hybrid storage systems.
Rclone is an open source, multi threaded, command line computer program to manage or migrate content on cloud and other high latency storage. Its capabilities include sync, transfer, crypt, cache, union, compress and mount. The rclone website lists supported backends including S3 and Google Drive.
AppSheet is a no-code development platform for application software, which allows users to create mobile, tablet, and web applications. It allows using data sources like Google Drive, DropBox, Office 365, and other cloud-based spreadsheet and database platforms. AppSheet can be utilized for a broad set of business use cases including project management, customer relationship management, field inspections, and personalized reporting. AppSheet was acquired by Google in January 2020.
NordLocker is a file encryption software integrated with end-to-end encrypted cloud storage. It is available on Windows and macOS. NordLocker is developed by Nord Security, the Lithuania-based company behind the NordVPN virtual private network.
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