back to article Bittorrent wants to sink Dropbox with Sync 2.0

Bittorrent is taking Sync out of beta with an alpha version of Sync 2.0. (Look, it's not Vulture South's fault. That's what the outfit says, right here.) The premium version it's announced – US$39.99 a year – claims unlimited-size file storage, and is pitching the strong crypto and distributed storage as offering better …

  1. Peter 26
    Unhappy

    So damn expensive

    This sounds fantastic, I'd love to try it out. But $39.99 a month? There's no frikkin way I am paying that.

    I understand if you're using it for work then $39.99 is nothing, but can't they give us some sort of decent tiering on these services? I've probably pay $59.99 a year for it just for my own personal\family use. But at the current cost they are getting nothing from me. I'll just carry on using the Free 22Gb from DropBox.

    1. Charles 9

      Re: So damn expensive

      The article notes it's $39.99 a year, which at least to me is a rate that makes me consider it for low-priority bulk storage (IOW, stuff I wouldn't mind too much losing if it blows up). As for security concerns, those could be addressed prior to storage (yes, people can peep into cloud contents, but what good is that if you encrypt the stuff prior to uploading).

  2. Google

    BT's cloud?

    Shame there's no mention of how the product works and if it's in any way related to the original Bittorent protocol.

    Article: "The premium version it's announced – US$39.99 a month – claims unlimited-size file storage" yet according to wiki there is no cloud, only your devices:

    "The user's data is stored on the user's local device instead of in a 'cloud', therefore requiring at least two user devices, or "nodes," to be online in order to synchronize files between them", and

    "There is no limit on the amount of data that can be synced, other than the available free space on each device"

    Either something has changed and they're now another cloud storage provider or they're charging you for storage on your own devices.

    My guess is the former.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_Sync

    1. goldcd

      Indeed

      AFAIK it's an app you install on your devices, and it uses your resources.. not quite sure what I'm getting for my yearly payment over a premium bit of the same software.

      Still, I use it today (it's free) and it works quite nicely. Install on PC and choose a share dir, get it to generate a QR code and take a snap from your phone, point it to a folder there and boom - two folders in sync.

      It's currently pretty-lightweight, but does seem to work pretty well.

  3. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    From the blog...

    "Sync Pro provides additional functionality necessary to help you get the job done. Capabilities like having access to very large folders, controlling ownership and permissions for shared folders, and keeping information automatically consistent across your desktop and mobile devices will now be possible."

    Any sync program which doesn't already do that is just something which screws up your files. I take it we have to pay for the pro version because if we don't it would be a shame if anything happened to our documents?

  4. DamonR

    Reg makes small typo - shock and horror ensues.

    It's $39.99 a year, not a month, according to Bittorrent's own blog.

    Still, sounds like a chunk for yet another sync service without the key feature you'd want in the first place - cloud backup.

    Reminds me of those ads you used to get in the back of the Sunday supplements for analogue TV set top ariels that looked a bit like satellite dishes, with the wonderfully disingenuous feature of: "No Monthly Satellite Subscription Charges (because you're not receiving satellite TV)".

  5. jb99

    I've been using the "beta" for a while and it works pretty well for me.

    I do have a little NAS box though with it installed on so I can make shares from that to desktop machines, phones etc.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hidden Files :(

    I tried it a while ago to share/backup my photos, it created a bunch of files under it's own directory SyncArchive etc.

    I didn't see an option to keep these out of the directory where the files are, I don't want this crap littering my NAS

    Back to rsync.

  7. batfastad

    Open

    I really like BT Sync. It works really well for syncing 50GB design files around a team of 10 remote workers, with a backup server also receiving all the data. I also use it for syncing personal stuff between a few different devices.

    But I am also wary of the fact that it's not open source. I'd chip in to a kickstarter for a completely open source equivalent. Don't have the time to do anything about it myself though.

    1. Tezfair
      Thumb Up

      Re: Open

      I tried a similiar set up but ours kept crashing or losing files. In the end they went over to Owncloud.

      I would be interested to hear from you to know if the remote machines are left on 24/7 as mine were laptops and were turned off a lot which made me wonder if this was the problem.

      Now it's gone 'non commercial use only' I had to look elsewhere

  8. G R Goslin

    Linux?

    Anything in there for us Linux users? Mine has not shifted from the rather stark setup since shortly after the startup.

  9. Sheep!

    I took the plunge and purchased Office 365. Now I pay £7.99 a month for 1Tb (soon to be unlimited by all accounts) of cloud storage and at that price it feels like I'm getting Office 365 thrown in for free. Where is the incentive to use Dropbox, Google, Sync or any of the others who don't appear to be able to provide a cloud storage offering anywhere near that good and get the Offfice suite thrown in for good measure?

  10. Robert Grant

    Very expensive

    Considering they don't actually store your stuff. I do want a return of the MS Live Mesh-style syncing, where my devices' folders sync etc, but if I'm paying then I basically want to be buying cloud storage for my encrypted-on-the-client files.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon