File sharing services are not as popular today as they were four years ago. It’s not that people are sharing any less. Rather, they just found easier ways to do it. Would you upload a funny video from a friend’s email to any of those services or would you search for it on Youtube and share only the link? Would you upload an MP3 file in order to share with whomever, or would you search for it online, grab the link and then share it? And finally, would you use a file-sharing app just to share a picture on Facebook when you can do it directly from your desktop to your Facebook profile? Of course, you wouldn’t!
So why would you use an file-sharing app anyway? Actually for many reasons: for larger files, for privacy, multiple files, file format support, and more.
In this post, I compare 16 file-sharing services. I took three main issues under consideration when creating the comprehensive app list below: Free, Fast, and Useful . . .
Most of the services suggested require no registration. None of them will ask you to download anything to your computer, and all of them are easy to use, and worth using. It is actually great to see services, such as Yousendit, MailBigFile, and Rapidshare, that are still relevant and are good choices, but if I had to pick one it would be Mediafire.
Don’t get confused now. This is not a list of services that let you store all your files in the cloud, organizes them, or allows you to collaborate with friends. It’s more focused on file-sharing only, in the richest capacity—well, okay, you be the judge of that.
Box.net is probably the most commonly-known site featured here. But I couldn’t keep it from the list because it’s really a good one and despite all its features, it’s actually simple to use. The light version is not so attractive though. Here’s what you get: File uploads up to 25MB/file (OK, that’s pretty lame). 5 collaboration folders, 1GB storage, mobile access, public file sharing, folder widget, and a few more options. The other plans are far richer, but for personal use, the free one is enough (except for the lame file uploads limit). One thing that bothered me is that you can’t upload a file without signing up. That’s the old fashion way, don’t you think?
Rapidshare is lacking in features & design, but if you’re looking for a one-click file host, you came to the right place. Founded in 2006, the service is the twelfth most visited homepage in the world. With Rapidshare, users can upload big files (200MB) in one step and subsequently make them available to friends and family via the download link. Premium accounts offer additional convenience, through TrafficShare that provides the option to make files available for direct downloading. The recipient of the file can access it instantaneously even if he/she is not a premium account member of RapidShare. A file can be downloaded 10 times, and will be deleted after 90 days.
I always liked drop.io and even now with much more usage than before, it is still simple to understand. No need to sign up in order to quickly send a private link with your file(s). Maximum file upload is 100MB, but there are three different packages that will give you a whole lot more. Back to the free service; you can share, collaborate, and present music, videos, documents, audio, in a private drop, through email, web, phone, fax, and more. Additionally, you’ll be able to privately chat with the people you share a file with, in real-time.
Filedropper aims to give the most basic file hosting service that enables you to share stuff quickly. Therefore, there’s nothing complicated here, just upload the file, and share it. Simple as that. Filedropper says you can upload up to 5GB per file, which looks a bit odd to me – after all, who needs that (unless you are transferring HD videos, I guess)? Very similar to Filedropper, is FileSavr, which offers you the same package completely, with a slight change: uploads up to 10GB per file…
I actually marked this one as a favorite: Wikisend – an elegant and simple interface that helps you share files quickly. Share files with your friends using email, social networks, your blog, forums and so on. You can also protect the file with a password and choose the range of the file’s lifetime up to 90 days (max)
You can use Driveway even without registration and send up to 500MB max for each upload. Signing up for a free account offers several advantages: A registered user can upload up to 2 GB of data to the Driveway account. Additionally, you can upload, manage and create widgets for files and folders and search for files/folders within your account.
With the free plan of Send6, you can send files up to 100MB size, which you can store in your 250MB free space. Send6 also has a free plug-in for Outlook that allows you to send large files directly from your Desktop. Please note that you don’t need to register to send files to friends. Sharing is done via email only.
Zshare is mainly used to share files that are too big to be sent via e-mail. With Zshare you can host files, images, videos, audio and flash in the same place, and as long as they remain active they can be downloaded limitlessly. Zshare lets you upload files up to 1GB, and if you register for the service (still free), you’ll be able to share them privately. Premium members get faster downloads (like most of the services here) and the ability to upload up to 2GB per each upload. Multiple files are allowed in both free and premium lines.
Overall, 2large2email has a nice and comfortable email-like interface for sharing large files. How large? 100MB in the free plan. However, if you’re looking for something good and free, 2larg2email is not your answer. The service won’t give you any additional features but password protection, and your files can be downloaded up to 7 times, will be saved for only 7 days, and will expire after that. For more features, you’ll have to pay, or move and chose another service. BTW, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t pay for premium services, but if there are other services for personal use, that offer you more for less, you may want to check them out first.
For busy people, Senduit is the best choice there is! It’s a one-page platform that generates a private link from the file you upload (100MB Max) for easy sharing. You can send the link via email through Senduit’s page directly, or copy-paste the link to any other communication channel (IM, Social networks, etc.). You get to choose when the link will expire—from 30 min. to 1 week.
I couldn’t find the exact amount that you can upload per file to Flyupload, but the service looks great. Flyupload allows you to store, access, share and backup your digital documents, photographs, and music easily with complete privacy online. Registered users get extra features like 2GB space of files, Multi-uploads with an upload progress bar. You can also upload large files via FTP or create folders and keep track of files and Images. Additionally, Flyupload lets you share files from your database, to your Twitter account with a side tool called: Flyontwit.
If I had to choose one service only from this list, Mediafire would be it. The service has a good looking UI, with some great usability. It lets you share files even when you’re not logged in and gives you a set of tools to complete this experience. For individual use, you can freely share files up to 100MB with unlimited uploads, unlimited downloads, unlimited bandwidth, and unlimited storage. This is why you might choose Mediafire over 2large2email, for example. When signing up, Mediafire enables you to organize your files in folders, search and view your files, and email/share/embed with others. It’s the best service that you can get for free.
I was surprised to see that underneath the new layout of DivShare is the same great service from three years ago. And, even more surprised to discover some files I had stored 3 years ago in the service are still there! DivShare is a file management service that not only lets you share files, but also saves them for later (for an unlimited period of time). The maximum size per file is 200MB and you have 5GB space for free to start. After the upload, you’ll be able to embed your videos, audio and slide shows on any web site or profile. Diveshare has an iPhone and Facebook applications, a Wordpress plug-in and an open API, if you want to build something yourself.
Back when I tried MailBigFile in 2005, I thought this was a great service that offered a convenient solution to sending larger files. I still think it’s a good service. You don’t need to sign up, but if you choose to this is the best pro account for your dollar. Even though, you can use the service for free and as long as you want to send up to 200MB per file via email (but with no additional features). MailBigFile has the best price for a pro account – $15/year with an impressive list of features.
Last but not least is good old Yousendit, which has never plummeted in its presence online. A reliable and secure service since 2004 that offers the ability to send free 100MB files with a maximum number of 100 downloads allowed per file. You use it just like an email, choose a recipient, send it directly to a person’s inbox, and you get a notification when your file is downloaded.
Sharing files, large or small, should be a simple act, in my opinion—not something that should require a major effort or thought process on your behalf or make you create a complicated profile/account to use it. The options I listed here will help you explore the diverse file-sharing opportunities currently available. Whether you need to send a file privately or publicly, small or big, temporary or permanent, the options are all in this list, you just need to find the best match for your needs.
(Folder graphic by Photoxpress)
you missed dropbox which is awesome for sharing
u are right !
Box is good, Mediafire is better.
Rapidshare is terrible because of the data limits that are way too small.
And FileDroppr is questionable, service looks good but a bit back they were offering premium lifetime accounts and there was some questionable concerns over the entire process which is why I wouldn’t recommend them.
Mediafire and ZShare are great, Mediafire shows a serious intent to help people share with no real hard limits on usage or having to enter in captcha, etc. It’s very good, while ZShare is similar and has decent speeds.
They also missed Mozy (see site in homepage).
Mozy saved me out of a pickle few times. There free service is like 2gb which is small but you can get more by paying or the trial offer which gives unlimited space for like 3-6 months.
It’s really good I recommend trying it -the free account is all you’ll probably need, give it a go and try it out – it’s available for Mac and Windows. Just sign up for an account and backup your important files – it never expires, so you can always back up your files elsewhere and have multiple backups. This way you’ll always have it somewhere reliable in the event you need it or other backups fail.
Rapidshare and most others expire after x amounts of inactivity, so that’s why you can’t really compare the two.
no joke!
SugarSync – both folder and file sharing, and Web-based editing.
Dropbox is a great service indeed, but I specifically said, this is a list with no download requirements.
I still think it’s good to point out dropbox. It’s certainly the best service I’ve used.
You don’t need to download dropbox to use it. You can solely use the web interface to upload, share, create folders, etc. You just failed to research that.
you can create public links for sharing… one of their most important features
divShare allows you to create public links, in fact that’s it’s strength, or one of them anyway.
divShare also allows you to keep your files around. Which is nice, especially when you have published that file in your blog. They are really good for blogs. Do wish they would add some sync functions tho be nice to have one place for all of my files to be and not have to move around between sites.
Great article and good job on finding all of the players.
Wake up and Smell the Coffee…
Yah but the thing is compared to getdropbox these other services don’t even come close. There is no competition…dropbox rocks…it is something a lot of us will likely use for life.
Big fan of DropBox. And I don’t see why downloading the app should be a problem.
he also missed SKYDRIVE from microsoft, a company more trustful than anyone of these noname startups
http://skydrive.live.com/
25 gigs
how did you manage to call author of this article http://www.crun...son/orli-yakuel a “he”?
+1
Yeah, Orli includes Box but leaves out SkyDrive?.
That makes no sense at all.
dropbox blows any of these guys out of the water
http://www.getdropbox.com
If you’re looking for secure file transfer with tracking and delivery confirmations, please check out Armoro (http://www.armoro.com).
common – what about dropbox
Well maybe it’s not all that common?
I’m quite dissapointed to see http://quickbigfile.com on that list. It’s been around for around 6 months now, and allows upto 2.5GB hosted on Amazon S3 servers. It also has password protection, emailing on recipt, and signup isn’t required.
How could Dropbox not be included in this list?
I have been using its paid service for more than a year and it is ultra reliable.
Dropbox is also one of the few services that has decent cross-platform support.
Sendspace.com is a great tool and a very easy to use interface. I also like the simple custom file drop features of the pro version. One of the best!
You forgot http://www.filesovermiles.com/ requiring NO sign up, and UNLIMITED file size for sharing, as it sets up a direct p2p network between you and anyone you share the unique URL with.
When you’re done sharing the file, simply close the browser and you’re done.
disclaimer: not affiliated, just think it’s awesome and deserves a mention on this roundup
You should also check out Machsend:
http://machsend.com
Machsend uses Yahoo! BrowserPlus to do P2P file transfers directly from within your browser.
You can do unlimited transfers (and it doesn’t use Flash, so file sizes are unlimited, unlike filesovermiles.com)
Ken, I’m very glad you like our FilesOverMiles service!
Alex, I think the main advantage of FilesOverMiles over Machsend is that FilesOverMiles requires no software to be installed. Machsend requires installation of a browser plugin.
Here is a vote for QuickBigFile. I think it’s important to take note of how the other end of the system works. Uploading is only a small part. Rapidshare is obviously hideous to download from, Quickbigfile and indeed Box are much better for downloads
.
You should file life to that chart i.e. forever, 14 days, 30 days of inactivity, etc.
Also Adrive is another great service.
MediaFire actually has support for password-protected files. After uploading a file with-or-without account, go to “My Files”, find the file, click “Edit File Info” and then “Password protect this file”.
Oporto: Filesovermiles sounds like OneSwarm, the open source project developed at the University of Washington.
From Wikipedia:
“Although backwards compatible with BitTorrent, it also includes new features designed to protect user privacy when sharing data among friends through creating a distributed darknet, so-called friend-to-friend sharing. Features include search, permissions, and a web UI with streaming, realtime transcoding, and remote access. To provide privacy, OneSwarm uses source-address rewriting with multi-path and multi-source downloading. OneSwarm is based upon the Azureus BitTorrent client.”
http://en.wikip...g/wiki/Oneswarm
Why involve a 3rd party when you don’t have to?
FilesOverMiles is web-based, requiring NO software to be installed
i don’t think that is what they meant f~ckface…
I agree with the Mediafire choice (although I’ve only used 4 or 5 of the others). The interface is intuitive, and uploads are /fast/: I was getting 24+ megabits per second the last time I used it. That’s pretty snappy.
I’m amazed you didn’t mention Dropbox. It’s the best: http://herdrick...om/viva-dropbox
We use http://www.sendalong.com and it works like a charm.
I hear YSI now has sorting of files. Maybe they could send out an email announcing another feature they should have made 2 years ago.
She forgot Dropbox (which IMO is among the best out there right now)!
I agree..getdropbox is one of the best services ever made.
Rapidshare is one of the worst possible upload services. You barely get more then 30-40kBps and after downloading a file you need to wait for 1 hour. I prefer megaupload, since I get 500kBps-1mBps. You can download right after having the last file downloaded.
When we are at it, there is this great program: jdownloader, which manages all those downloads for you.
I also use Megaupload. Comes included with Megavideo premium access.
and megaerotic lol
No Dropbox?!
thank… sharing.. great info
SugarSync, which is also amazing.
You forgot dropbox. Makes me wonder how much credibility should I give to this post given that forgot one of the main competitors
Actually SugarSync rocks much better than GetDropBox.
Use it myself.
Wake up and Smell the Coffee…
Great article- and, as I’ve said previously, ’simple’ will always win out. Who can be bothered to go through a sign up/registration process anymore, unless it is absolutely vital.
….just looked at Senduit. Now THAT’S wha I’m talking about!
I meant ‘what’ not ‘wha’.
Review is fine,
What we wanna know is how these companies makes money and manage to survive?
Is it these ads which seems no one clicks on?
It will nice to know for example what RapidShare is doing financially..
Umm … I’m sorry, but where is Megaupload? The best and fastest file sharing service out there? Thank you.
i dont understand how someone could possibly forget dropbox in such a list. Even the free account is all i need for file sharing, its brilliant!
SkyDrive from Microsoft.
You should check out Content Circles which is a peer-to-peer content management software-as-a-service for sharing, collaborating, tracking and managing files across firewalls. Content Circles takes the peer-to-peer approach to provide maximum security and in theory can support any file size (it has been tested for files up to 7.5GB size).
Check out Content Circles at http://www.contentcircles.com.
Great list! Here are 18 Top Free Twitter Content Sharing Services Based on Compete Analytics that complement your article
Enjoy! http://bit.ly/EeIYJ
I would like to add http://www.binfire.com to the list. Binfire provide unlimited storage space at no cost! A Java applet (called File Manager) let’s users upload multiple files and folders. The app supports intuitive file sharing methods for your contact list plus advance collaboration tools (file lock, Group Folder Permissions & File version history). In the new version currently under test, the user will be able to upload multiple files from the application in addition to java applet r! The site is free!
I tried using Zshare for multiple files, I find it annoying that i need to browse and choose each file seperately and can’t upload them together from my computer.
THanks. I am looking for free space.
I use ziddu now .
great!!! thx for sharing, orli
One has to admit professionalism and perseverance pays in the long run http://www.thessayist.com is an excellent aide for your academic needs.
Here’s a good read : http://bit.ly/w4JeK
The contents were very good. But there are some more services, in which I find HotFile, FileFactory, iFile, GettyFile, etc. also kind of similar to these. And some of them are fast and secure too.
+1 for ifile.it
been around since forever and still free
Dorpbox require that you DL and install their app. The list clearly lists web based sharing options. Read the post dammit ; )
I got a free 250GB plan with Filedropper – cover my needs pretty good. They had a campaign a while back – all you had to do was promise to do something ‘green’. I promised to never subscribe to a paper based paper/magazine/journal ever again.
250GB!
egnyte is a small business provider of file-sharing and backup services: http://www.egnyte.com/
you forgot pipebytes.com
These are for sharing
What are the good services for saving/backing up files?
how about iDisk?
I’m a fan of rapidshare, very fast and great support
Interesting compilation. Will take note of these. http://AppUseful.com
Dropbox Spaces can increase.
You forgot Skydrive from Microsoft! http://skydrive.live.com
A lot of people have tried to make money providing this utility (going all the way back to dawn of the web) and I think pretty much everyone has failed (some spectacular failures, actually). Box.net may be the first one to actually turn it into a successful business, and it’s because of (1) the active functionality they built-in; and (2) the fact that they focus on provide *paid* subscriptions to the *enterprise market* – they really don’t focus on the consumer market (as the author noted).
Consumers just aren’t willing to pay for this, which makes it really hard to monetize (social media, in fact, is sort of an attempt to monetize digital file management and sharing).
Dropbox not listed. Like writing a post on ‘16 smartphones’ and not listing iPhone.
for video embedding, i just tried out
mediafire: problems with viewing uploaded files
zshare: embedded player crashes
Where is Megaupload?
multi-upload, 1Gb, nice speed, …
I forgot about megaupload…ever since they dropped the limitation of how many files you can download at a time, it s a viable file sharing source again.
We use Share Send pretty regularly: http://sharesend.com/
Good for tweeting files and what not.
For simplicity and unlimited file size P2P, it’s hard to go past Machsend.
Pando? http://www.pando.com/
BitTorrent?