In the days before what is now known as the cloud, there were free & paid sites that offered options for storing your files online. Sites like MediaFire were once the popular resource that people went to to help them share large files online. While MediaFire has its limitations, it was at one point one of the few sites out there that allowed you to share literally any file. Even though download speeds in free versions were less than optimal, it worked. However, with the recent release of cloud sites like Dropbox, SugarSync, and SkyDrive, hosting your files online has become much more efficient.
But are the new technologies that the cloud has to offer really worth it? The great thing about cloud storage versus sites like MediaFire is that Dropbox, SugarSync, and SkyDrive were all built with the consumer of the product in mind. While this doesn’t pay off with their free versions, they get the attention when it comes to those who need to upload, download, or edit files on the fly from nearly any online resource. The only time a user would actually need to pay for these services was if they needed something larger for file storage since MediaFire has an upload limit of 50GB. Additionally, the cloud services don’t have limitations on who can access them or even download speeds. MediaFire free links often expire after a certain amount of time, and download speeds are severely limited in free versions.
Price point is certainly something to take into consideration when trying out MediaFire versus other cloud storage sites. MediaFire is going to cost you about 50% more than the higher-end technology that comes with the cloud. The ability for cloud storage to run more efficiently offers it the opportunity to be less expensive. Furthermore, cloud sites have literally no advertising surrounding their platform, as their goal is to make money from those needing more storage space for their files. MediaFire not only charges users who want faster and multiple downloads but serves up dozens of ads throughout their site, which at some point can seem spammy.
Finally, new cloud technology is much further along than MediaFire. Since MediaFire technology is meant to serve for only downloading and uploading, it’s not very mobile-friendly. Dropbox, SugarSync and SkyDrive were all built with the thought process that the service needs to allow users to edit basic files from anywhere, including their mobile technology, which puts it ahead of the game against MediaFire. Cloud service is expected to continue to rise in popularity, while MediaFire could face certain death in the next several years.
