Cloud Storage Compared - Part 1

  Here is a fantastic tool to compare cloud storages offers from the myriad of providers around the world: https://comparisontabl.es/cloud-storage/

 In addition to the very useful information in this online spreadsheet, I encourage you to test for yourself as each provider has unique functions, or lack of thereof, that will only reveal themself through testing. Note that I'm on Apple Mac Silicon, what applies to me doesn't necessarily apply to your situation, so test away! Most if not all providers offer free trials.

WEB SEARCH

 For example did you know that the iCloud Drive web app doesn't have a search function? I didn't either, and it's a big annoyance. It's also linked to your AppleID which is another huge gotcha. What gives Apple?

OFFLINE / ONLINE (FREE LOCAL SPACE)

 How about the ability to free storage space on your device by storing files in the cloud only, but still listing the offline files on your devices, visually signaling the difference between offline and online? Some do it (iCloud, Internxt), some don't (Mega.)

(*) pCloud mounts a virtual drive that's always offline and downloads files as needed (if you want to edit them.) When you save the edited file back to the virtual drive, it gets transferred to the cloud. pCloud virtual drive takes a minimal amount space on your computer.

MULTIPLE WORKSPACES & SELECTIVE SYNC

 (**) Drime nor FolderFort have Selective Sync, but they have multiple workspaces, which work like semi exclusive root level folder. You're either in one workspace or another. Search for example will only look into the current workspace, which might be seen as a limitation. That said, you are able move files and folders between workspaces. Drime also has Vault which is a separate space with fully encrypted files, however Vault doesn't get synced.

 Drime sync on macOS desktop is currently broken. At this point I'm waiting for them to issue a new version. So far they've been busy shipping updates for Windows, no love for macOS.

 Mega, kDrive, DropBox, Jottacloud and pCloud have Selective Sync, where you are able to select which files and folders get synced to your device, and not sync other files that you only care to have in the cloud. Of course you can change that selection at any time, which makes it quite a powerful functionality.

That's also useful when your cloud storage gets large. This way you can only sync a current files folder for example and not sync all the rest of your arborescence and clutter your local space.

 (***) Google Drive has a selective sync of sort via Backup, which is separate from GoogleDrive per se, and allows users to select which folder from their computer gets backed-up and synced. Since these folders are not present on other devices synced via the same GoogleDrive, I don't consider GoogleDrive to have selective sync.

BLOCK LEVEL SYNC

 Only Dropbox, OneDrive and pCloud have block level sync, or delta sync.

Provider	Web Search	Local storage offline/online	Multiple Workspace	Selective Sync	Block Level sync
iCloud	No	Yes	No	No	No
OneDrive	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
Mega	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
GoogleDrive	Yes	Yes	No	No (***)	No
Internxt	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
kDrive	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
DropBox	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Drime	Yes	No	Yes	No (**)	No
JottaCloud	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
pCloud	Yes	Yes (*)	No	Yes	Yes
FolderFort	Yes	N/A	Yes	No (**)	No

M

MAC SPECIFIC NOTE

 Drime on macOS syncs and displays every ".DS_Store" file (normally invisible), which is a real pain. Another thing they have to fix with their macOS desktop app.

 More discoveries in subsequent posts.