Syncplicity is an online file backup and synchronization service. There are many players in this market such as DropBox, SugarSync, etc.
We are going to look at Syncplicity in this review. About Syncplicity:
Syncplicity is effortless synchronization, backup, and
sharing. Install it on one computer and all your important documents, photos, and music
are backed up online, complete with remote access and aversion history. Install it on additional computers and
Syncplicity will synchronize your files — your important files will be wherever you are.
Some quick features of Syncplicity
- Real-time backup – no need to schedule sync times. It just happens instantly.
- Access anytime, anywhere – Syncplicity File Explorer lets you get to your files from anywhere via the web.
- You can keep multiple computers in sync. (2 computer limit with free account)
- Secure backup – uses 128 bit SSL connection to backup your files securely
- Sharing made Simple – you can share any folder with others. You can set it to read only mode.
- Syncplicity client – lets you get to your files easily with tight integration in Windows
- Prioritizes important files to be synced first.
- Provides revision history to go back to old versions.
- Supports HTTP proxy settings so it works behind firewalls
- Associate your documents from Facebook, Google Docs, Scribd, Zoho and images from Picnik, etc.
Syncplicity vs DropBox
If you have used Dropbox – my favorite file sync service, you will find that a lot of these features are already familiar to you. Or you can read the Dropbox review here.
One key feature that makes it stand out from DropBox is that it lets you exclude certain folder from Syncing and also throttle your bandwidth usage.
Syncplicity works in Windows XP & Vista only at the moment and requires .Net Framework 3 to run. Support for Mac is supposedly coming this month but no word on Support for Linux. DropBox is supported on all three. Here is how the client looks in Windows:
Pricing
Syncplicity is in beta and is offering a FREE account for anyone signing up. The FREE account includes 2GB and 2 computers to sync for free. Also, for every friend you invite you get an extra 100MB in storage in your account upto an additional 3GB.
They also offer a paid subscription that runs $9.99/month or $99.99 for a year and it includes 40GB space and unlimited computers. You get extra 250Gb for every friend you refer upto 10GB. You can add another 50GB for another $9.99/month or $99.99/year.
My $0.02
From their blog, it looks like they went through a major infrastructure upgrade addressing some server load issues. I am going to try it out for a few weeks and compare it with Dropbox however I’ll miss the Linux sync part.
Another issue I ran into when accessing my files via the Syncplicity website, I kept getting RSL Error! This forum thread suggests it has to do with the version of Flash that could be an issue. This is how it looks in Windows:
Overall, I like how Syncplicity works and their pricing is reasonable as well. I see myself using their service, atleast the free account for now to test the waters. I’d love to hear what you think about it?
Note: This happens to be my 350th post! Just wanted to take a moment to thank all my readers for encouraging me to keep going. 😀
Syncplicity looks promising and very simple which is nice. For now though I’ve been having success just using WebDrive however you need an offsite server.
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Thanks for an interesting idea. I’d like to find a freeware that does scheduled backups, and nags you if you don’t do them. Must have a look around the freeware directories.
I think the features in Syncplicity seem to be far better than others. I have heard good things also about WebDrive and John above has kind of given positive notes also, but this one seems to be superior. Nice review.
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Can we have multiple free accounts?
I have never tried an synchronization service before. But then again I don’t have two computers that I need to synchronize 😉 But I’m getting a new laptop in the future so that type of service may be useful!
I’m going to check out your review of Dropbox!
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Congrats on reaching 350 posts buddy. This service looks nice. Will give it a go
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Online backups will eventually replace hard drive backups. For now I am going to stick with my freecom external drive as it is much cheaper. I can see this changing to solid state backups soon and then eventually switching to online.
I love the idea of online back ups, and I for one feel more secure than using traditional methods.
Syncplicity looks like a really cool thing. Thanks for sharing this info with me.
It’s a very useful thing i have 2 laptops and 2 desktops and this staff helps me a lot
Congrats on the 350th post. I’ll have to check out both Syncplicity and DropBox and see how I like them. DropBox sounds better atm with more cross platform support, but we’ll see. Thanks!
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Hi!
Good review! I’ve tried dropbox and liked it a lot. I use both Linux and Windows computers and this is, a close to optimal solution, for sync purposes. However, I’ve only got a free acount with 2 GB space and experienced very low transfer rates, always below 100 kbyte/sek. I have not found any info about limitations of bandwidth to the free account.
Anyone else how can shed light on this matter?
Thanks
/Johan
It was interesting to read about syncplicity Vs dropbox after all this time, I hope to come across more interesting articles. I still use dropbox and find it as useful and helpful as before when it was first introduced to users. Glad to have come across this site.