Tech note – Comparing the speed of cloud storage solutions
There are many “cloud storage” solutions out there, and I’m using a few of them. I decided to do a simple speed test consisting of uploading and syncing a folder containing one 186.4 MB .mv4 file.
I did several tests of each service to see if the results were consistent, and they appeared to be. My home network is Sony Nuro fiber optic with a theoretical bandwidth of 2 Gbps download and 1 Gbps upload, though in practice I never get that throughput. But it is safe to say I do get at least 100 Mbps over wifi from my MacBook Pro.
Also, note these tests may vary depending on your location relative to the cloud storage centers.
Currently, I’m not actually paying for any cloud storage service; I have been using the free version of each of each. But as my cloud storage needs grow I’m trying to decide which I might invest in more and actually pay to use!
I’m still grandfathered in with a free 50 user Google account for my company, so even my Google services are currently free.
The amount of storage I have with each of the cloud storage services I tested is:
DropBox – 11.25 GB. Their basic free account is 2 GB, but there have been various promos over the years which added space for me. DropBox was the fastest in my tests. They also recently dramatically lowered their prices and are charging $10/month for 1 TB of cloud storage. DropBox is the what I use most office for cloud storage and file sharing.
Box – 50 GB. They are conceptually similar to DropBox. Their basic free plan includes 10 GB, but I signed up during a special promo period. I have not really made much use of their service to date.
GoogleDrive – 15 GB. Their basic free account is 15 GB for everybody. They are also charging $10/month for 1 TB of storage and there is a lower cost $2/month plan for 100 GB of storage. My hesitancy about upgrading is I’m not sure if I can upgrade just one user in my free account or whether it means losing all the other free users in my package. In other words does it become all paid or stay free at the current storage level? It’s a bit confusing if you have multiple accounts, which many people do. I tend not to use GoogleDrive for “storing and sharing files” like I do with DropBox. I mostly use Google for email and for collaborative document creation and sharing.
Microsoft OneDrive – 30 GB. Their basic free plan is 15 GB for everybody, but there was a special recently where if you sync images you got an extra free 15 GB. See more about their pricing and services below.
SpiderOak – 9 GB. Their basic free plan is 2 or 4 GB (they say 2 GB but it really seems to be 4 GB), and I got some extra referral bonus space.
I didn’t include Apple iCloud in my test because I am not sure how cross-platform compatible it is yet. But the free amount I have is 5 GB and for just $1/month you can increase that to 20 GB of space. Apple is playing catch-up in this service area since DropBox became so popular.
Now back to Microsoft for the moment…
As far as paid plans go, Microsoft’s OneDrive is intriguing because it is bundled with Office 365. For just $7/month (personal user – but they don’t care if you use it for business purposes or not) you get 1 TB of cloud storage + the completely current desktop version of Office + the iPad version of Office + the online version of Office + 60 minutes of international Skype calls per month.
You have to admit seems like a good deal, and it saves on buying the Office suite. But I’m worried because OneDrive clocked in as one of the slowest for syncing files.
My results of syncing the above-mentioned folder containing the movie file were as follows:
DropBox 7 seconds – the fastest by far. Also the movie played via the web almost instantly, which is great for sharing.
Box 46 seconds.
GoogleDrive 47 seconds.
Microsoft OneDrive 2 minutes 12 seconds – disappointingly slow. Also, the movie would not play via the web.
SpiderOak 2 at minutes 38 seconds was the slowest. This is a relatively new service I saw recommended by Eric Snowden, and read some articles about, and was interested in it because of reportedly good privacy policies.
This isn’t a review of all the features of each service. The one I’m most familiar with is DropBox, and most everybody I know has DropBox so it’s easy to exchange files with them.
In my multiple tests just now I saw how each time I deleted the folder from DropBox, an archive was kept of each deleted version, and it was easy to restore. There are lots of user-friendly DropBox features, and it is available for just about any computer system and mobile device, which is why it is usually the “go to cloud service” for most of my sharing.
GoogleDrive is next in familiarity, and many people I work with like using it. Plus they have a competitive set of Office-like online apps for collaborative document creation and sharing. So it’s not just storage – it’s a work environment.
Microsoft OneDrive and Office 365 have come late to the game of online document creation and sharing. However the Office suite is ubiquitous, and the fact you can easily switch between the online version at Office.com and your desktop version is attractive, and you can collaborate and share, as with GoogleDrive. Plus you get the desktop versions of Office with it, so it seems like an economical way to have Office online and offline, plus loads of cloud storage at a great price. But it just seems so slow for file syncing, which is what worries me.
I am less familiar with Box, but was impressed that the syncing speed was as fast as GoogleDrive.
If Microsoft OneDrive was anywhere near as fast as DropBox – or even GoogleDrive – I would leap on it, because there is so much bundled in. But the speed, and the fact that my uploaded movie won’t play, worries me. So I suspect if I got an Office 365 subscription I would not make great use of the OneDrive storage area.
Bonus fact: Apple’s iCloud has a nice new feature if you use Apple Mail in OS X 10.10 (Yosemite). You can email an attachment up to 5 GB in size to anybody. The file is stored in iCloud and if the recipient’s email account doesn’t allow the receipt of large files they will automatically receive a link instead to download the file from iCloud. Sounds clever.
I played with iCloud a little over the weekend and found it undercooked. Still pretty janky, but I’m glad Apple is moving that way. I like Dropbox, as it seems to be the most compatible with apps out there, but they are so stingy with the free drive space.
Don’t forget when evaluating services to check their individual file size limit. To me that’s the hidden catch to some of the services. Sometimes it depends on what type of account you have. For instance, I think Box.com has a 250 MB per file limit for the free personal account. That’s ok for Word docs but might not work for media files.
Yes, the individual file limits are important.
For Microsoft OneDrive it’s 10 GB now. That’s the same as DropBox. I wonder how large Word documents and Excel spreadsheets can be.
I believe you are correct about the 250 MB limit for Box for free accounts. GoogleDrive allows files up to 5 TB (!) in size. But for documents and presentations they are limited to 50 MB in size, and for spreadsheets to 100 MB.
I’m thinking the upload speeds between DropBox and OneDrive aren’t really that different. I think the test I did used a cached version on DropBox to make it seem faster. However, OneDrive can’t do that same trick, even if it was a trick.
I just did another test between the two with a different 23 MB movie file and in both services it took 26 seconds to upload.
However, the shared movie link will play on DropBox and won’t play on OneDrive.
OneDrive link:
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=6FCED1075AE93819!805&authkey=!AHS7tEoWIeLVTpI&ithint=video%2cmpg
DropBox link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6g24xfjouvlb3f2/STbloopers.mpg?dl=0