With giants like Box and Dropbox looking to IPO in 2014, what are some alternative SaaS cloud storage products for entrepreneurs to consider who want to work with an up-and-comer instead of a public company?
The following answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.
1. Space Monkey
Space Monkey is like Box or Dropbox, but better. It’s both a cloud storage network and a physical product. The physical product is a large external hard drive that can connect you to any type of network. This is more helpful for many reasons, but the coolest part of it all is that the product itself looks awesome.
– Logan Lenz, Endagon
2. Nimbo
Nimbo, based in New York City, is growing fast and cuts its teeth on the enterprise market segment. It is a standout in the industry because of its understanding of technology integration and its ability to compete against the big names in cloud storage.
– Robby Hill, HillSouth
3. AeroFS
AeroFS is as simple as Dropbox, but you can serve it behind your firewall. It’s ideal if you need to comply with sensitive data policies.
– Pablo Villalba, 8fit
4. SugarSync
SugarSync is a service we have tried in our office recently; we are really enjoying the experience and its features.
– Justin Bailie, FR8nex.com
5. DreamObjects
The reliable small business hosting site, DreamHost, is now offering cloud storage as a part of its services. It’s called DreamObjects. There is a low cost per gigabyte of storage, and it’s compatible with the APIs of Amazon S3 and Rackspace for those programmer types!
– Michael Quinn, Yellow Bridge Interactive
6. BitTorrent Sync
A limitation of products like Box and Dropbox is that all of your files have to upload to the cloud and then download to each of your devices. This puts extreme limits on file sizes and total data. If you need more, BitTorrent Sync uses the same technology behind torrents to sync your files with extreme speed and no limits.
– James Simpson, GoldFire Studios
7. ShareFile
ShareFile is on par with Box and the likes — it’s just less known to the public. Give it a dry run!
– Kasper Hulthin, Podio
8. Mosaic
With the more general cloud storage market commoditizing and condensing, there are increasing options for players in niche markets. Mosaic works with serious photographers to provide cloud storage custom tailored to the unique needs of a photographer.
– Gerard Murphy, Mosaic Storage Systems, Inc.
9. Streak
Store your customer relationship management in the cloud with the Y-Combinator company, Streak, and experience communication among your team built into your Gmail, Google Apps or iPhone. It’s incredibly simple and stores the most important thing in the cloud — your customers’ vital information.
– Matt Wilson, Under30Experiences
10. ownCloud
In the wake of recent security-related news, I think it’s a good time to point out that you can achieve similar convenience and features with a product such as a product such as ownCloud. It provides all of the same features as Dropbox, Google Calendar, etc., but it’s open source, and you host it yourself. It has certainly gotten a fair share of media attention lately.
– Jared Brown, Hubstaff