The Next Dropbox?

Monday, September 19th, 2011 | Beta, Open Source, Tools, Utilities, WebApps

Dropbox

Has dropbox’s reign finally started to decline? We’ve all heard and/or experienced their lack of security, and it seems others have stepped up with their own versions. Some already launched, some still in open beta.
Take a look and see for yourself if any of these options can replace your dependance on dropbox:

Minus
This is an open-sourced application that is almost identical to dropbox however it initially gives you 10 gigs, the source-code is hosted on github, has an iPhone, Android and browser apps and uses encryption up the wazoo. It also allows you to share your files in a global directory or keep them private for only those who you give the url to. Ohh, did i forget to mention you can upload up to 2 gigs per file? It’s definitely a huge condenser in this match.

SugarSync
Once again similar to dropbox, it’s made to sync files across all platforms from a cloud-hosted source. This gives you a free 5 gig account to play with but unlike dropbox, it has a built-in music player for any media files uploaded. It also has apps for just about every phone OS on the market as well as automatic sync apps you can install on your desktop. Sadly it only lets you share files that are no bigger than 25megabytes at a time.

Sparkleshare
This is not just a web-hosted service, but rather an open-source, github hosted platform that allow you to host your own version of the dropbox service. Not only that but there are already builds out for just about every type of software/server/OS. Every interaction with the service is encrypted (unlike dropbox) and you can even use github as a share instead of a server.

ownCloud
This is yet another self-hosted cloud sync service, though it uses WebDAV access, slows for OpenID authentication and also can sync between multiple servers (i.e. you can literally create your own cloud). It also has functionality in place for user and group access, streaming, and is current working on the next version which will include bookmark & calendar syncing as well. Should be interesting once it’s finished.

LIBOX
This is currently already in production, its a web-hosted file sharing site with NO SIZE limitations on the media you upload to share…it also can sync to most platforms and just about every mobile device. Some what cool, check it out. Completely 100% free.

iFolder
Here’s another self-hosted version, though it lets you use multiple servers that sync creating as big of a cloud as you’d like to connect your devices to in order to sync. It also allows for users to have multiple folders, enabling different users access to different material shared, including the ability to give users disk quotas (i.e multi-level administration). It can be installed on any server with openLDAP and viewed from just about anywhere.

There are just a few of many new ways you can achieve the same type of file synchronization that dropbox has enabled us, just some with added bonuses and encryption.

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