Specifications

17
maximumpc.com JUL 2011
MAXIMUMPC
DROPBOX
Free,
50GB for $10/month,
www.dropbox.com
SUGARSYNC
Free,
30GB for $5/month,
500GB for $30/month,
www.sugarsync.com
Round 5:
File Protection
Accidentally delete a fi le you
wish you’d kept? Made a big,
sloppy change you’d like to
undo? Both services have you
covered. The difference is in
how much data is stored and
for how long.
SugarSync stores the last
fi ve versions of any fi le regard-
less of date modifi ed. Dropbox
stores the last month’s worth
of revisions to all your data.
Which approach is best? That
depends on whether you’d
rather have the ability to re-
vert to a fi le that’s more than
a month old or a version that’s
more than fi ve revisions in the
past. We prefer the former,
especially for frequently modi-
fi ed fi les.
Winner: Dropbox
Round 6: Price
Because both Dropbox and
SugarSync are freemium ser-
vices, the price war is waged on
how much storage you get for
free, how many price tiers the
company offers, and how much
storage you get for the money.
Dropbox offers only three
pricing options: a 2GB free ac-
count, which can be upgraded
to as much as 8GB if you spam
enough of your friends about the
service, and a 50GB pro account
for $10 per month. The company
offers two free months of ser-
vice if you pay annually.
SugarSync offers 5GB gra-
tis, as well as free upgrades for
roping in your pals. Premium
accounts start at $5 per month
for 30GB and ratchet up to $40
monthly for a whopping 500GB.
SugarSync offers twice as many
price/capacity tiers as Dropbox,
and gives you more storage for
the dollar at every tier.
Winner: SugarSync
And the
Winner Is…
In four out of six rounds, SugarSync triumphs easily over
the more popular Dropbox. It’s got broader mobile support,
cooler multimedia syncing, better sharing controls, and it
gives you more gigs for the buck (or even for free). If you
don’t need more than 2GB, and you’re already entrenched in
a free Dropbox account, don’t sweat it. But if you’re thinking
of going premium for more capacity, SugarSync is the over-
whelmingly superior option.