SpiderOak vs. DropBox

This is a follow-up to my last post.

For this article I decided to compare two popular cloud storage mediums, SpiderOak and DropBox.

Showing the interfaces of each isn’t necessary due to the fact they’re both ridiculously easy to use. What’s more important is understand what you get and more importantly what you don’t get with each service.

Things that are the same

• Both offer free versions that give you 2GB of online storage.
• Both require a resident program to be running in order for them to work (in Windows, a little icon in the taskbar).
• Both backup
• Both sync
• Both have relatively the same speed in terms of upload time when backing up/syncing files
• Both will run in Windows, OS X or Linux
• Both have mobile platform options

Things that are different

• SpiderOak offers more space for less cash. $9.99 gets you 50GB on DropBox. SpiderOak gives you 100GB for the same price. SpiderOak’s pricing philosophy is also more accommodating. For every 100GB you use, they charge 10$ extra a month or $100 extra annually – your choice. This means you pay for what you need, while DropBox’s pricing philosophy is flat.
• SpiderOak allows you to backup/sync anything. With DropBox you must use a specific Dropbox folder, assigned by the software on install under My Documents. You can specify a different folder location if you wish, but the point is that anything to be backed up must go there. SpiderOak on the other hand allows any folder to be selected for backup/sync and there is no “must-go-here” requirement. In the software, the section where you can select any folder you want is under the Backup tab, then clicking the Advanced button. The Sync section of SpiderOak also works similarly.
• More things can be done in the client with SpiderOak. There are some instances where you have to go to the DropBox site in order to do certain things – such as sharing. More things can be done on a client level with SpiderOak so you don’t have to keep going back to the browser over and over.

Which is better?

Technically, SpiderOak is better because of two reasons – the pricing philosophy and the ability to backup anything you want without having to drag it to a specific folder first.

This does not mean however DropBox is bad. If you intend on staying within the 2GB limit for storage and appreciate the “one-for-all” location of the way DropBox works, it’s a sound option and works wonderfully.

If you’ve been entertaining the idea of trying cloud storage, I suggest trying both. And yes you can run the both at the same time with no issues for testing purposes if you wish.