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Dropbox replacement?

I ran out of 50Gb limit on dropbox and am not sure I want to go to the next level (100Gb), it is a) too expensive and b) I will overgrow it in 6 month or so c) data doesn't really need to be in the cloud but it needs to be synced up between few computers.

Is there an alternative to dropbox? I don't mind paying but something more reasonable than dropbox rates

( 19 comments | 5 points | on HN )
Re:Dropbox replacement? by dmnd on Monday December 13, 2010 @05:19PM (#2002181)
You could try AeroFS (http://www.aerofs.com) which was discussed here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1538731
Re:Dropbox replacement? by Terretta on Monday December 13, 2010 @05:36PM (#2002247)
You could, and then you could wait. The "download" button is actually a "request invite" button:

Sign Up for an AeroFS Invite

AeroFS is still in early alpha/beta. Please enter your email address below and we'll invite you as soon as we can :-)

Re:Dropbox replacement? by yurisagalov on Monday December 13, 2010 @05:38PM (#2002253)
This is mostly out of necessity, we're still squashing bugs daily and aren't really ready to accept mass user sign ups yet :)

That being said, we _are_ releasing invites on a fairly regular basis (usually coinciding with new bug fixed versions, in an effort to improve the overall user experience)

Re:Dropbox replacement? by phishphood on Monday December 13, 2010 @05:46PM (#2002279)
Hi Yuri, I did sign up for an invite. Can you please tell me whats the major reason(s) I would want to go with you not with JungleDisk which seems to be doing similar things. Is it price/value differentiation only or there is more to the story?
Re:Dropbox replacement? by yurisagalov on Monday December 13, 2010 @06:10PM (#2002335)
We're fundamentally very different from JungleDisk (unless they've been doing something we're not aware of)...

JungleDisk (like most other players in this space) requires you to upload your data to their server first, before you're able to sync it to other devices, where as using AeroFS, you're actually syncing data completely peer-to-peer (e.g. even on an isolated LAN), without a third party server, unless you want one

Re:Dropbox replacement? by Terretta on Monday December 13, 2010 @05:50PM (#2002288)
I myself, and some of my colleagues, have signed up from time to time since the thread 144 days ago, and we have yet to receive a single invite among us.
Re:Dropbox replacement? by yurisagalov on Monday December 13, 2010 @06:01PM (#2002315)
Unfortunately we hear this complaint from time to time.

We didn't really expect the level of demand that we've had at our initial announcement ~144 days ago. Nevertheless, we've been pretty hard at work, and we are looking to ramp up invitations in the near future, but for now I can only implore you to bear with us :-)

Re:Dropbox replacement? by bherms on Monday December 13, 2010 @05:06PM (#2002146)
Re:Dropbox replacement? by aaaaa1 on Monday December 13, 2010 @05:07PM (#2002148)
Re:Dropbox replacement? by __Rahul on Monday December 13, 2010 @06:32PM (#2002394)
You have not detailed your usecase/OS, but do consider Amazon S3 http://bit.ly/fM7pm5.

Dropbox storage itself is hosted on S3.

Re:Dropbox replacement? by phishphood on Monday December 13, 2010 @09:50PM (#2002916)
Requirements are quite simple: sync up a shared folder between 3 macs, 1 pc and 2 laptops. OS are: Windows XP, Vista and MacOS. Data doesn't need to be on the cloud, but the sync needs to work reliably (dropbox messed up few of the syncs in a bad way and I had to get the backups out)

Data growth is quite slow, may be ~2 Gb/week

I don't have a full time IT person, so I should be able to manage things without going into system administration, rsync scares me

I want to pay may be < $.20/Gb, dropbox is expensive at $.50/gig on their highest capacity plan.

From what I can see AeroFS would fit the bill very nicely, but they seem to be not really available at this point

Another option I am looking at right now is Microsoft Live Mesh, which has an app for a Mac. I don't have ideological reasons not to try them, so I am installing it on one of the macs to see if it works or no

Re:Dropbox replacement? by epynonymous on Monday December 13, 2010 @09:10PM (#2002838)
good point, need requirements.

i think bang for buck would be something akin to usb disk, it's arguably offsite. there are lots of software applications that can provide automation of file backup.

if you want sync, there's sugarsync and box.net, haven't used those so no feedback.

if you want online backup there's carbonite and mozy that offer unlimited accounts.

Re:Dropbox replacement? by revorad on Monday December 13, 2010 @05:05PM (#2002145)
Re:Dropbox replacement? by kumark23 on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @02:21AM (#2003438)
You might want to look at Vembu Home. It has cloud storage + external USB storage + syncing + file sharing. You pay only for cloud storage. http://home.vembu.com
Re:Dropbox replacement? by david55475 on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @02:50AM (#2003471)
You might consider SpiderOak (https://spideroak.com); their pricing appears (at a brief glance) to be about half of DropBox's.
Re:Dropbox replacement? by ntomkin on Monday December 13, 2010 @05:52PM (#2002290)
TonidoPlug ($99) + External USB Harddrive

http://www.tonidoplug.com/

Re:Dropbox replacement? by ksfq on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @12:44AM (#2003267)
I use SugarSync and it is quite good. They were a little flaky on the beginning but now they are quite fast and reliable.
Re:Dropbox replacement? by inthewoods on Monday December 13, 2010 @09:39PM (#2002895)
www.libox.com - works great, no limit.
Re:Dropbox replacement? by hasenj on Monday December 13, 2010 @10:10PM (#2002950)
Interesting. How does it work? How can it be free?

I would love to try it, but there's no Linux version.