Dropbox vs Zumodrive

Anyone who works in an organisation consisting of more than one person will be aware of the challenges of file sharing. A variety of solutions are available from repeatedly e-mailing documents (budget) to complex document management systems that manage versions and workflow (not-so-budget).

'Cloud' based file sharing

Most smallish organisations need something in between these extremes and don’t want to pay the earth. Enter Dropbox and Zumodrive.

Actually, there is a middle ground that is already widely used: a file server. For the non-technical readers, a file server is a computer that is always on and sits in the corner of your office ‘serving’ files to any other computers that request them. However, here are some drawbacks to using a file server:

• You might not have one set up and if you don’t you will have to buy one and go through the (potentially eye-wateringly painful) process of setting it up.
• If you are not in the office you can’t access your files easily.
• If your file server crashes you are in trouble unless you have a good back-up system in place.

Dropbox and Zumodrive are cloud based file sharing solutions that solve many of these problems and are therefore a valuable tool for small organisations.

The general idea

Once you have installed the software on one or more computer (or mobile phone, etc) the software creates an extra drive or folder on your computer. Any files that you place in this drive are automatically uploaded to an online storage area and are made available to all of the other devices you own. Your files are simultaneously stored locally on each device and safely backed-up in an online storage area. When you make a change or add a document this is automatically backed-up and reflected across all devices.

The really powerful part is that you can then share selected files or folders with other users. When you make a change, the new file is also available to everyone you have shared it with wherever they are in the world!

Dropbox vs. Zumodrive

There are a number of companies offering similar services, but Dropbox and Zumodrive are two of the biggest players. They are also the two that we at White Fuse Media have tried out. They are both good options, but we do have a preference.

Dropbox

We might as well say from the start that Dropbox is our favourite. For many users it will be the more expensive option and it lacks some of Zumodrive’s nice media features, but for everyday business file sharing it does the job very well.

In summary, Dropbox:

• Is faster than Zumodrive
• Is more stable
• Has better version control

Dropbox currently gives 2GB accounts for free and a paid 50GB account for $9.99 per month. However, an important consideration is that files shared with you by others count to your allowance so if as an organisation you exceed the 2GB limit all users will have to upgrade to the 50GB account.

Zumodrive

Zumodrive have pioneered some really great features including smart integration with iTunes for those storing and sharing music. Zumodrive also has a slightly more intuitive integration with Windows as it creates a new network drive in which you can store your files.

In summary, Zumodrive:

• Has some nice features and is cheap, but
• Is noticeably more sluggish when saving files
• Is hungry on system resources and can slow things down
• Was (for our office) quite unreliable and crashed intermittently

Like Dropbox, Zumodrive gives 2GB storage for free, but upgrading to 8GB costs only $2.99 per month. The 50GB account matches Dropbox at $9.99. However, a key difference is that currently shared files do not count towards a user’s storage limit; if 10 users each shared their 2GB account with each other they would each have a total of 20GB’s of space without paying a penny.

Shortcomings

There are certainly shortcomings to these solutions and as your organisation grows these will become apparent. To name a few: speed, bandwidth reliance, version control and file locking. However, if these solutions are new to you, we suggest you check them out. They may revolutionise your file sharing world.

If you sign up for Dropbox using the following link you will also get a bonus 250MB of storage space:

https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTYxNDAzNTc5

White Fuse Media is a website design agency based in Brent, North West London. We take a no-nonsense approach to website design and integrate our custom designed websites with a content management system called Drupal, which is open-source and allows clients to have loads of power over their website.