File synchronization market is picking up really fast with the introduction of two products which have really stirred up the internet. Those days are gone when we used Microsoft Briefcase to ensure that all the files are in sync between two computers (generally office and home). Now we have SugarSync and Dropbox or may be few other file synchronization services, which make our lives way simpler than what it used to be.
I was pretty impressed with SugarSync when I first reviewed it however then I saw Dropbox which equally impressed me. However there are few things which put one ahead of the other. Let’s see those points and find out that which product is a better choice at this point of time. I’m stressing on current time because both the software/services are in beta and we never know that which one will start offering better services in near future.
Let’s find out that which service is a better choice at this time…
Supported platforms : Both the services have taken care of Windows and Mac users however both have failed to satisfy Linux users. However SugarSync is one step ahead of Dropbox as it currently supports windows based mobile phones & blackberry too (it makes more sense to support blackberry from the day 1 as file synchronization is much required for business persons and blackberry is quite popular amongst them), thus giving you a better reach to your important documents.
User Interface
: I was pretty impressed with SugarSync’s interface however Dropbox has done an excellent job as far the interface is concerned, Reason is simple, they don’t have an interface at all! They’ve beautifully integrated itself in the Finder (for mac) and thus gives you a feeling that you are accessing a local folder only and behind the scenes it synchronizes the folders.
Features : SugarSync wins this quite easily. Most of the features which are in the coming soon section of DropBox are already present in the current feature set of SugarSync. DropBox is currently offering free account of 2 Gb and doesn’t give option of upgrading but on the other hand SugarSync is giving the option of upgrading up to 250 Gb of space.
Memory usage : In this Dropbox wins the competition. Dropbox is integrated in Finder and runs in background so, it doesn’t use much of system memory and currently is standing at 20 Mb only however SugarSync is currently showing 35 Mb usage of system memory. Although that doesn’t make huge difference for those who’ve got higher amount of RAM in the computer but for those who are still using less amount of RAM, they would definitely love to save some RAM.
Overall rating and reviews :
As far as features are concerned SugarSync wins this battle convincingly however, I really loved the idea of incorporating the uploader directly in the Windows Explorer or Finder and I believe that SugarSync should take a similar approach and that’ll surely make life simple for it’s users.
Have you tried SugarSync or DropBox ? If yes, then which one did you like the most ?
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Nirmal
April 16th, 2008 at 5:05 pm #
Nice comparative study, I liked Dropbox in the first usage itself.
babboxy
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:10 am #
no way I could compare… dropbox seems to make its beta very exclusive, i’ve tried sugarsync, so I guess they’ll get my 250$/y
InKiev
July 24th, 2008 at 7:57 pm #
I already have a Dropbox account, and the Linux support is nearly to be done, the performance is great, and the most important feature, Dropbox is free (at the moment) and SugarSync is commercial, the trial is just for 10 days and after it you must pay monthly.
That’s why . . . the winner is DROPBOX!
babboxy
July 26th, 2008 at 8:11 pm #
got dropbox finally, I like both and i’ll decide which one to buy as soon as there’s a public release.
gfroodb
August 1st, 2008 at 8:37 pm #
Apart from the name, SugarSync wins. I agree with babboxy that the silly Dropbox “invitation” system makes it exclusive (and, if you read the blogs, – rather childish). Also the storage is small at present. To InKiev, the SugarSync free trial is now 45 days, and it gives 10GB. But both are tremendously exciting – the next Google ?
kmkl
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:27 pm #
Love the fact that DropBox is integrated with Finder, and I can place a stack on my Dock for easy drag and drop.
I love the price too; DropBox is free with 2GB during the beta, and 1 GB during Release.
I wonder if SugarSync allows public sharing of files, and shared folders (I really don’t know), but I do know that DropBox does!.
I do have to ponder at this though: would more competition in the (free) file syncing industry be good? or would 2 or 3 be perfect?
Deep
December 8th, 2008 at 10:07 am #
I've tied both and Dropbox is way better. Uses less memory and doesn't seem to replicate files everytime I move them around in my folders. And it really slows down my new laptop with plenty of RAM. But SugarSync is cheaper, only $2 for up to 10 gig.
John Whitaker
January 7th, 2009 at 5:21 am #
I've tried both and Dropbox is much better for me than Sugarsync for a couple of key reasons. First, it has perfect Linux support (I guess it didn't when the article was written, but it does now). Not sure why the fact that business people use blackberries means that they would want all their files on them. In fact, I use one and can't think of a single good reason to want regular documents on it more than I do on my other desktop computer, which runs Linux. To me, being able to replicate my work documents on both my desktop computers, one with windows the other with Linux, makes a lot more sense. In fact, this feature was the deciding point for me. The other reason is that dropbox allows you to very easily make files public, and you can e-mail around a URL to those public documents. For business people who share documents all the time, especially very large ones that can't be e-mailed, this is a huge advantage.
Tim R
March 13th, 2009 at 10:31 pm #
Well, it's sugarsynch for me, for one simple reason, it works with iphone and blackberry. Its just as functional as dropbox, they are both good but sugarsynch it is for the pda support.
Philippe H
July 24th, 2009 at 7:49 am #
They are both great products, each in their specific area, I'm using both.
For collaboration with others:
Dropbox wins and really beats SugarSync.
Tou have the entire team's files locally, whether you're offline or online, with SugarSync you must be online and have the possibility to access the web to get access to shared folders. Sugarsync said this about my feature request: "I am hesitant to promise you a date because our roadmap is very dynamic based on user input.", but no indication on when.
For synchronizing your personal files:
Sugarsync wins and beats Dropbox in most use cases.
Given that you want to synchronize more than one folder you should use SugarSync. If you can have everything to synchronize in one folder, Dropbox will have you covered. If you want to keep a backup of and synchronize your Music, Documents, Document Archive and other stuff between your computers and don't want to be restricted to what the software offers (read DropBox), use SugarSync. DropBox said this about my feature request: "We are working on giving Dropbox the ability to watch any folder", but no indication on when.
If you need to have both personal file synchronization and collaboration, you probably need both for the moment, I hope to be able to only have one tool for both needs as it would simplify things, let's hope for that.
Cheers!
Harald
July 27th, 2009 at 3:27 pm #
I haven't tried sugarsync, but it does not support linux, wich dropbox do.
AmirMC
September 4th, 2009 at 12:31 am #
Philippe H, Thanks for your comment. It's helped me understand where it's best to use each one.
Greg Davis » Dropbox over Sugarsync
September 10th, 2009 at 4:44 pm #
[...] More links: Sugarsync vs Dropbox: The Battle Of The Cloud Storage Titans SugarSync Vs DropBox : File synchronization war is on! [...]
Matt L
September 20th, 2009 at 6:29 pm #
Yes you can. Just make a symlink to th folder you want to backup in your dropbox folder.
Marcus Hamaker
September 21st, 2009 at 1:51 pm #
My issue is that Sugarsync does not have a free account. I don't need more than the 2GB that Dropbox offers for free so it's a no-brainer for me. I suppose that the Sync to Blackberry is enticing though :)
Serge
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:04 pm #
One important things for me is the possibility to install my own server on my own network. Dropbox say they think of it, not sugarsync…
@quality_equip
October 5th, 2009 at 11:29 pm #
Just used dropbox for the first time and it is exactly what i need. It synchs in realtime between 2 PC's and a laptop. The added benefits of being able to publish a file to the web and sharing folders with specific people is great. I'll still use the NAS box to backup less than critical files, but Dropbox will now be used for mission critical files.
@heyclay
October 14th, 2009 at 4:30 am #
I just got a blackberry today so i will be looking into this as soon as sugarsync opens up from the scheduled maintenance. Thanks for the post.
dikoy
January 16th, 2010 at 6:56 am #
can nexus one open MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint and PDF?
Sven
May 28th, 2010 at 6:15 pm #
Now available: A Dropbox Client for WIndows Mobile 6 / 6.5! http://www.ruttensoft.com