Amazon Cloud Drive vs. Microsoft SkyDrive vs. Google Docs vs. Box.net

Last week, Amazon launched the new online file storage service Amazon Cloud Drive. And taking into account reputation of Amazon, as the online storage market leader, this event, of course, deserves our attention. Let's consider the advantages and disadvantages of this service compared to key competitors. The main parameters - are shown in the table (below). It's turns out that the main advantage of Amazon Cloud Drive - if free 5GB account  with maximum file size of 2GB. However, its main drawback negates this advantage: you can not share this large file with anyone. Amazon Cloud Drive doesn't allow to share files publicly or protected by password. I.e. the only way of using this service - is a private storage for backup or enhancing your productivity.



However, taking into account the fact that Amazon Cloud Drive also doesn't provide online editors (like Google Docs or SkyDrive), nor a universal file viewer and a version control system (like Box.net), nor the mobile access, nor desktop synchronization - the competitiveness of this service is questionable. Although, it is quite simple and convenient tool.

Note also that the high free limits of Amazon Cloud Drive don't mean that it's paid resources are cheap. For example, the cost of 1TB in Amazon Cloud Drive - is $1000 per month, and in Google Docs, for comparison - $ 256/month.

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