Technology Kills The life and times of Ben McClure

Dropbox vs SugarSync

Let me start by saying I am a long-time and major fan of Dropbox. Initially I didn't get why it was so great, but then I started using it more and now I can't get by without it. I think of it as my own personal cloud for all my stuff.

But that means you have to change the settings of every single application whose data files you want to keep synced so that it stores them in the Dropbox folder. What about applications which don't allow you to change their data file location? Creating symbolic links in Windows (easiest in Windows Vista or Windows 7) is one way, but you'll quickly find you need to move the real files into your Dropbox folder and link them to their original location. This is backwards and doesn't seem like a very great idea.

So a few of my applications are synced with Dropbox (Trillian logs, Website-Watcher data, MyLife Organized data, etc) and the rest are somewhere else--usually in my Application Data folder. The situation was not ideal.

Enter SugarSync--I found it while reading a comparison article in which Dropbox was named the clear winner. I wanted to see for myself, however, so yesterday I gave it a try.

Just hours after investigating SugarSync, I became a Premium member and upgraded to 30 GB and I cannot imagine going back to Dropbox.

There are several reasons for this:

• Out of the box, with almost no configuration, it does exactly what Dropbox does (admittedly, with a few extra dialogs than Dropbox has). You can move everything from My Dropbox into the Magic Briefcase folder and you're all set.
• You can sync any folders you want from any of your registered computers with SygarSync, and you can choose which other computers should get that data and where it should be stored.
• You have a Web Archive--basically online storage that is not automatically synced down to your computers, but is available anytime.
• There is a mobile app for Android (and iPhone, Blackberry, etc) which gives you online access to your files as well as syncs your mobile camera pictures to your account (which are then made available on all of your computers).

It's stunning what difference the ability to sync any folders makes. Here are some of the things I'm doing with SygarSync now:

• Sync all of my PC game profiles and saves. It works like SteamCloud but for literally any game.
• Sync my Benubird library so I have my organized documents available anywhere Benubird is installed.
• Created a new sync directory called Apps in which I installed the PortableApps.com platform and have been filling it up with portable apps. Now most of the apps I use (and likewise their data files) are synced between my PCs and available from the simple PortableApps.com menu system.
• Sync my pictures, videos, and other media files without having to move them somewhere else first and lose Windows' integration with those files.

There is a lot more I haven't discovered yet--but I have uploaded over 16 GB of synced data in the past 24 hours and I am simply amazed at how well it is all working.

From what I understand, they have a fairly agile development cycle and are making frequent fixes and additions, and generally get new features up faster than Dropbox.

I have no less love for Dropbox, but that love is overshadowed by my new infatuation with SugarSync. To the cloud!