Google Drive, SkyDrive, Dropbox, SugarSync, Box, etc. The consumer online storage space is roaring ahead, which is of course good for consumers, but which one is the best?

Google Drive, SkyDrive, and Dropbox – the big three

It seems these three have all been in the news lately. Google Drive was Google’s much anticipated cloud storage application, Dropbox is everyone’s favorite, and SkyDrive just announced a new version and a huge storage bump (for existing users). Google Drive, SkyDrive, and Dropbox are of course the big three but there ARE others, and some offer advantages that even the three big dogs don’t have. Lucky for us Ars Technica collected details on the seven most popular cloud storage provides and put it all in handy comparison chart!

Google Drive, Dropbox, SugarSync, et al pricing

Ars compared seven services: Microsoft SkyDrive, Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox, SugarSync, Box, and Spideroak. In the chart below you can see how much free space is offered, maximum file size, and how much paid storage costs per GB. Off on their site there is also an easy to read chart that shows which services have apps on what platforms. In other words… does SkyDrive offer an Android app or will Google Drive work on Windows Phone?

Click for full size (via Ars)

Ars summarizes their findings like this:

OveraIl, Box earns the title of least expensive paid storage service, though its lowest paid tier is the same size as SkyDrive’s first free one, if you’re grandfathered into that free 25GB. Many of the services put the great Dropbox to shame in terms of free storage and cost, though Dropbox’s legacy have afforded it highly refined desktop and mobile apps for customers to use. If you need a Linux client and lots of flexibility, SugarSync, SpiderOak, and Dropbox come out on top; if you’re a budding Windows Phone user, SkyDrive is the only service that will let you access your cloud-stored files.

I recommend checking out the full article at Ars.

Do you use Google Drive, SkyDrive, Dropbox?!? What’s your pick Paul?

For the record, I use all of these services. Dropbox or Skydrive for quickly sharing something with a friend or if I want to “host” something and not have it under my domain name. I’ve only just begun playing with Google Drive, and so far… I’m underwhelmed; but Google just released Google Drive so I’ll give it some more time and re-evaluate it.

The one I RELY on for offsite backup of critical data: SugarSync. No it doesn’t have the most free storage or the cheapest price per GB. However, it IS the only service that syncs with any folder on your computer. Unlike the other services that force you into creating its own space on your hard drive, SugarSync lets you assign whatever directories you want and has no size limits (this means I can push up big TrueCrypt files… yes, I encrypt BEFORE it goes to the cloud). With SugarSync you can have your My documents (in it’s normal place), your pictures – perhaps on your D drive, or any other location you want. Yes, you could do something similar with symlinks and whatnot but I could never recommend that to my mother (she’d be like “sym-what?”) and I really don’t want to mess with it. I use SugarSync because I set it up and it silently does it’s thing.

SugarSync is the one I rely on.