Phenquestions
Amazon's Cloud Drive has been a contender in the cloud storage and file synchronizing vertical for some time now. Today, Amazon announced the launch of two new plans that simplify Cloud Drive significantly for all users.
Unlimited Photos gives 5 Gigabyte of general storage space and unlimited photo storage to Cloud Drive users for $11.99 per year. This is the same deal that Amazon Prime members get for free.
Unlimited Everything on the other hand is a new top of the line plan that gives you unlimited storage for all kinds of files for $59.99.
Amazon is not the first company to launch unlimited online file storage offers. Microsoft for instance gives Office 365 subscribers unlimited OneDrive storage with their subscriptions.
Both plans, the only plans left by the way, are offered as 3-month free trials for users who want to test them before they pay for them.
Nothing changes for Amazon Prime users by the way as unlimited photo storage -- basically the unlimited photos plan -- remains available to them free of charge.
Prime members can upgrade to the Unlimited Everything plan at any time but will have to pay $59.99 for it just like anyone else.
The offer looks good on paper but the interesting question is how this compares to the offerings of other cloud storage providers such as Dropbox, Microsoft or Google.
Microsoft OneDrive
15 Gigabyte of storage free, unlimited storage with a Office 365 subscription for $69.99 per year when bought directly from Microsoft for a 1 PC license. Discounted options are usually available on third-party sites. On Amazon for instance, you get Microsoft Office 365 Personal for $89.98 which is the five user/system license that retails for $99.99 usually.
Google Drive
Google does not offer unlimited storage yet. Users get 15 Gigabyte of free storage space with their account which they can increase to up to 30 Terabytes. A 1 Terabyte plan is available for $9.99 per month or $119.88 per year.
Dropbox
Dropbox users get 2 Gigabyte of storage space for free. A Pro account is available that adds new features to the account and increases the storage space to 1 Terabyte for $9.99 per month or $119.88 per year.
As far as price per Gigabyte is concerned, Amazon's new unlimited everything plan offers more storage for the Dollar as any other service.
While that is one important metric, there are others to consider. For instance, which additional features come with the plan, which devices are supported and how good is the synchronization client?
Probably the biggest issue right now is how Amazon's Cloud client works, at least on desktop systems. The only option you get to sync files with the cloud is to drop folders into the interface. That's less practicable as using a root folder which the majority of other cloud storage services use for that operation.
In addition to that, it lacks viewers for many file types. It is for instance not possible to read documents online let alone edit them.
This does not have to be a problem depending on how you plan to use the storage. If all you want is to move tons of files to the cloud then this may very well work for you.
Now You: Are you using Cloud Storage services? If so which and why?
