EDIT: Now Tonido does Personal Sync of Files as well. See http://www.tonido.com/blog/index.php/2011/09/02/announcing-tonido-personal-cloud-sync/
Everybody’s darling DropBox is an awesome service that allows you to synchronize files among different computers. But the caveat is that the free account provides measly 2 GB storage. If you are looking for a free value alternative that provides both full access to all your files as well as sync you might want to check out Tonido.
Tonido is an ultra simple personal server software that allows you to access and share your documents, photos, music through a web browser without uploading or worrying about storage limits. Share files, music, photos and calendar, download torrents and even manage your finances straight from your PC.
Here are 10 reasons why Tonido is better than Dropbox:
1. No need to sync to get access to documents on various machines. It is simpler, faster and more efficient because at any time, you only use a fraction of the stuff you have synced online. Now you can get access to it all without keeping it all synced up.
2.You can store documents where you want instead of specifying one folder.
3.This is HUGE: Storage capacity is not equal on all machines you normally use. A netbook has a small HDD, so you can’t store 350 GB of DropBox stuff. But you can still mount a remote location as a local drive and work on the netbook with no loss in functionality.
4. If you open a laptop that hasn’t synced for a while, Dropbox will sync everything taking up a lot of time.
5. Syncing means you will get conflicts when you edit the same document in multiple machines and do the sync later.
6. If you edit large photos or videos you need to wait for dropbox to finish syncing before you can shutdown that machine otherwise it is not available.
7.There are no real storage limits and you are only limited by your hard drive. Think Terabytes of storage!
8. Way cheaper – Tonido is free! If you are using the plug, it pays off for itself in a few years. (It’s just $99!)
9. No need to install client software to access your files.
10.Tonido is not only meant for file sharing. It is truly your personal digital hub that provides an array of powerful applications to stream your music, download torrents, take distributed backups and run your own personal blog.
11. We also now do Personal Cloud Synchronization. Do File synchronization safely and securely with your own server without using the public cloud. See http://www.tonido.com/blog/index.php/2011/09/02/announcing-tonido-personal-cloud-sync/
Check out Tonido. You won’t be disappointed!
June 16, 2010 at 12:39 pm
I don’t agree with #4 and #6. Dropbox uses incremental syncing, meaning it only syncs the part of the file that changes, which makes it a lot faster than you make it to be in #5.
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Also, concerning #2, Dropbox is now beta testing selective sync so that you can choose which folders to sync.
Your other reasons were very insightful though. It made me want to use Tonido again–if I can just set up port forwarding on my router
June 16, 2010 at 12:48 pm
You don’t need to do port forwarding, Tonido has built-in relaying that handles getting your data without you configuring any thing in your router.
June 16, 2010 at 2:16 pm
I think that nowadays dropbox and wuala as well are still the best approach to thinking about a backup solution. Your files with all security (well maybe dropbox a little less than wuala) in the cloud on third party storage server.
June 16, 2010 at 4:41 pm
Can you explain why? Don’t think Tonido backup in isolation. It is a true digital hub which provides apps to access and share all kinds of data: Documents, Photos, Music and much more. Backup app is just a topping.
Tonido sets a new paradigm. No other providers offer that if you ask me.
June 17, 2010 at 1:37 pm
Dropbox is a great product, but does not stand a chance against Tonido’s applications and environment. Yep, port forwarding is a thing of the past with tonido as well.
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July 6, 2011 at 1:33 pm
Uhmm! so what happens when someone breaks into your house, and steals the main computer or the TonidoPlug while you are busy viewing your stuff from somewhere on the other side of the world?
I think the other main reason people use Dropbox is to recover from such a situation (backups), unless if i misunderstood how Tonido works…
July 7, 2011 at 7:10 pm
The Truth,
I have not been able to get Tonido to run as a windows service using Launchpad, a very easy to use “run your .exe as a service” type program IE. – FireDaemon, on windows xp pro. To me, this makes the complete idea of Tonido in a windows enviroment unusuable and worthless. IE. – You log out of your computer and you now have absolutely zero access to anything. Might as well be uninstalled.
The Tonido Plug probably works like mentioned, but as far as hosting your own server in a windows enviroment, or depending on your windows computer to be logged in at all times to actually have a thought of this working correctly, well that’s obviously not their focus. Unfortunately everything you read seems to be geared towards the Tonido Plug but not read like that.
Read here – save yourself some time till they fix it. – http://www.tonido.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=2934
Looks wonderful, Want to test further, Epic Fail! Till fixed of course, then EPICALLY WHAT I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR!
PS. Actually buy the websharepro for uploading capabilites and support their efforts.