Brief comparison: Dropbox vs BitTorrent Sync vs AeroFS vs SparkleShare
24th November 2013
Right now I’m mostly using Dropbox, and recently started BitTorrent Sync for my music collection sync between all the PCs and my backups server, as well as for sharing larger files at work (thanks to direct LAN connections, this is much faster with BTSync than with Dropbox, which has to first upload the file to Dropbox server). I’m also considering syncing a TrueCrypt container of my photos archive using BTSync. SparkleShare is potentially interesting, but given my trend to move to free code-hosting services, I do not yet see a need for it.
Below is a short summary table I’ve used to compare available solutions. Feel free to contribute to the table in the comments – I’ll update the post, then.
Dropbox | BitTorrent Sync | AeroFS | SparkleShare | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open-source | No | No | No | Yes |
| Free plans | 2 GB + 16 GB referral bonuses | Yes | Yes, up to 3 collaborators | Yes |
| All files are in a single directory | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Client supports throttling | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| Mobile app exists | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| File storage is centralized | Yes, Dropbox servers | No | No | No |
| Sharing: access levels separation | No; read-only public access with web URLs | Yes: read, read/write, expiring access | ? | ? |
| Best for | whatever | large files (video) | whatever | text files |
