By popular demand I am posting a thorough speed test comparison between the most common personal cloud services. In this post I’ll show you some speed tests of vs vs Box vs SkyDrive vs .
The previous post Dropbox vs Google Drive is still the article that attracts more visits to this blog so I thought of completing that analysis with some tests on the remaining services that I didn’t consider in that old article.
As in the other post I am writing this notice:
I acknowledge that this testing methodology is far from being scientific.
My setup and test methods might have affected the results and other people might get different values even opposite from what I am sharing in this post.
The results posted on this blog are for personal use only and do not constitute a definitive proof on what service is faster.
More tests, using different scenarios, different networks, and a systematic way to time events are needed to calculate average times, variance values and to draw some more informative conclusions.
In summary, the results you see in this post are of academic value or put in in another way, take the results for what they are.
I’ve tried to run the tests on different days, when the home network was not being used by any other computer and by making sure that no other application was uploading data.
To complete my notice, bear in mind that this post is not meant to show what service is better. In order to choose the service that works best for you, you should take into account different factors:
- The integration of that service with other software you are using
- If the service fits with your workflow
- Costs
- What ecosystem you prefer to work in.
Methodology and configuration
I have simply installed the desktop applications for Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive, Box and Amazon Cloud Drive on my MacBook Air and started uploading/downloading these files:
- mp3 file, 8.1MB
- zip file, 5.5MB
- One folder containing multiple levels of subfolders, 2.1MB
My test methodology simply involved carrying out a Copy Item and Paste Item operation of the test file stored on the Desktop to the destination application folder, while measuring the time using a stopwatch.
The errors that you invariably introduce when you execute tests in this way can be so big that I wisely decided not to consider fractions of a second in my measurements. All data is rounded to the nearest second.
To avoid that other software might influence the upload speeds, before running my tests I quit other browsers, email program, RSS reader, stopped Time Machine etc.
The configuration I ran my tests with is:
– MacBook Air 13″ mid–2012, i7, 8GB RAM, 512GB HDD
– OS X 10.8.3
– 30Mbit/sec down, 5Mbit/sec up broadband
Test results with single files
When uploading either an mp3 file or a zip file, you get similar results. Dropbox, suffers most during the first upload but then it becomes the fastest application if you upload that file multiple times.
The reason for this behaviour is because of the technology used by Dropbox. Dropbox splits the file in small chunks, it then calculates the hash for that chunk and upload it only if the corresponding hash doesn’t exist yet on Dropbox servers. This process is the basis for Dropbox’s fantastic upload speeds.
The interesting fact is that this technology is applied only when using the desktop app. If you upload a file to Dropbox using the web interface, you cannot avail of this feature.
The following graph shows the results uploading and downloading an mp3 file:
What it is not clear to me is why Dropbox, that uses Amazon S3 as back-end, consistently gets better results than Amazon’s solution.
The only answer I could find is that Dropbox uses some sort of cache-service between users and Amazon servers that helps speed up uploads. Still, I have problems explaining this behaviour given the scale of Amazon data centres.
This graph gives you an idea of the effect of Dropbox technology when you upload a file multiple times:
The results I measured when uploading/downloading a zip file are summarized in this graph:
SkyDrive has shown disappointing results in all tests involving uploading files from the desktop app. I hope that the recent improvements to the desktop app for Windows are going to be ported to Mac as well.
Test results with a folder/subfolder structure
The reason I decided to run a test uploading a folder with multiple levels of subfolders is because during the previous tests I noticed a peculiar behaviour with Google Drive.
In that case Google’s solution had serious problems uploading complex structures of folders that included multiple levels of sub-folders. I still don’t know what the problem was but given the fairly high number of trackbacks from , it was obvious that I was not the only user experiencing that behaviour.
Good news is, Google seems to have solved that problem. In my tests I did not experience any issues when uploading a complex folder/sub-folder structure. The upload is now smooth.
These are the results:
With the exception of Dropbox, SkyDrive consistently showed better results than the other services when it came to upload complex folder-subfolder structures. This is an interesting change with the results seen with single files.
Additional notes
While running my tests I jotted down some thoughts that I’d like to share with you:
- Dropbox was fast when uploading a file multiple times because of the technology being used. The average speeds reached were quite high but I wonder how many times you happen to upload a file multiple times. To put it in another way, I wonder if that test case made any sense at all. I think the big advantage of this technology is the fact that changes are uploaded almost instantly because only the file chunk that is changed gets uploaded to Dropbox.
- During my tests, Google Drive app for Mac showed problems with file syncing. A few times, I noticed that deleting a file from the web interface did not trigger a corresponding delete command on the Finder.
- Both Google Drive and SkyDrive apps started syncing files added to their respective folders with a considerable delay. In my tests it usually took between 9 and 12 seconds for Google Drive and SkyDrive to realize that I had copied a file in the sync folder and actually start the sync process. Most likely the delay is due to the longer polling time with which the sync engine checks if there are new files in the sync folder. Raising the polling time likely helps to keep the consumption of system resources to a minimum without affecting the sync results.
- SkyDrive web interface proved to be quite unreliable. After completing a few upload tests, my files did not display in the UI until being refreshed.
- Amazon cloud drive web UI still uses Flash. This is annoying.
- I liked the integration of Google Cloud Drive with OS X Notifications
- Box.net web interface was a pain to use. It is not user friendly at all and it reminds me a lot of your typical enterprise type software without any time spent on the usability of the UI.
- On Box defence, I liked the reliable synchronization.
Conclusions
If speed is an important factor for you, before you settle with any of these services, I suggest you repeat some of the tests I ran, to assess whether you get similar results. If you do so, I’d be happy to hear from you.
Also, consider what you’ll be doing with that cloud sync service. Do you live in a Google world? Well, in that case you can’t go wrong with Google Drive. Compared to my previous post it has shown a vast improvement and I would seriously consider it if I kept my docs in the Google cloud.
You can reach an opposite conclusion if you use Microsoft Office a lot. In this case SkyDrive has its advantages.
But the service that impressed me most is Amazon Cloud Drive. Beside some annoyances like the use of Flash in the web UI, the service shows that Amazon has the capability, resources and knowledge to dominate in the cloud space, even for personal use.
The desktop software feels solid and even though the results I measured are not the best among the other contenders, I liked the general feeling of reliability that the solution showed.
The recent addition of Cloud Drive app for iPhone, a specific app used to upload pictures to Amazon cloud is a reminder that Amazon is serious about the cloud for the rest of us.
[Update on October 28, 2014: I’ve posted a follow up on this post that includes iCloud Drive, SpiderOak and Synclplicity.]
Why aren’t all cloud storage providers using the same block level algorithms as Dropbox?
Good point. Patented maybe?
I had sync-problems with Skydrive on my mac because of special characters in filenames. I never had this with dropbox.
I am a PhD student and use NVivo software which collates and allows analysis of my research poroject. I use different work stations and have have had sync conflicts with dropbox I accept some at the begiining may have been down to me but after over two years of using dropbox I am a little suspicious of its reliability. I am now trying Box, as it seems more secure (if not a lot slower).
Thanks for the comment Desmond.
This is interesting indeed. I wonder if this is a similar scenario that convinced OmniGroup to come up with their own sync engine rather than integrating with Dropbox.
Please keep me updated on the results with Box.
Pietro
Will do. Thanks.
It would be very interesting to see “Copy” included in this comparison. Would you consider trying that service and posting a comparison as well?
Thanks for the comment. It could be a good idea, let’s put it in the list of tests I could carry out. It’s not a promise though
This is actually a good test scenario. I have been testing the likes of all of the services for some time now. I was using dropbox, but feel the same way as above that there are time ( plenty ) where you get sync issues and it is just a pain to sort out. Dropbox wants to help, but falls short. Using BOX now, pro service, and well it is slower, but according to them they are hipaa and ferpa compliant ( I am still waiting for the compliance dept to get back to me on this, they sorta went around the question and did not answer it properly)
I am unsure why it is so hard to find a service that is FAST, gets my files online and downloaded to my pc at home from the office before I get home after work so I can finish what I was doing, reliable, secure and compliant )
I have office and collaboration tools. I just wish these companies would focus specifically on the important parts:
Speed
Reliability
Sync
Compliance – Hipaa / Ferpa
Security
I know I can get: Sookasa enables HIPAA and FERPA compliance for Dropbox with transparent on-device encryption, but I don’t want to be running two separate programs to accomplish this.
One place to do it all.. Seems so simple but yet seems so hard to find.
Good work on the scenarios… Nice job!
Thanks for the detailed comment about your experience. Good overview of Box’s compliance certifications, I wasn’t aware of them.
Interesting article. What I’m really interested right now is download time. I’ve just got a new MBP, I have 140GB in my Dropbox, at peak speed over my 150Mbit line I’d expect it to sync all my stuff in a few hours. However, its been on constantly for 3 days now and still has 220,000 files still to go.
Thanks for leaving a comment Rob. It seems to me that something is not working correctly there. Have you contacted Dropbox support yet?
In the past syncing a large amount of files was also an issue for me when I was doing it for 3 machines and a phone. I also believe that there is a limit to how many files dropbox can do. 300K. You might want to look into that.
Per DB: Please note, however, that Dropbox’s performance may start to decline when you store above 300,000 files. At that point you may observe some slowness. We’re always working to optimize Dropbox to better handle accounts with unusually large numbers of files, so be sure to download the latest version of the desktop app.
I also found that when I had duplicate errors or files that were corrupt it would get stuck from time to time with that many. Any issues being detected? are there any red files on your drive? That is a lot of files to be looking at. I would contact them and see if they see anything you don’t.
Uploading the same file over and over again doesn’t really test block level uploading. If you want to test that you should upload the file, change the mp3 id, and see how much is uploaded. DropBox doesn’t permanently delete the file, it just marks it deleted, so when you upload it again is just undeletes it. it would have been a much more useful test to se how it behaves when small parts are changed, than how it behaves when you just make a copy of the whole file.
Thanks for the comment Lars. You’re right, that’s why I added a section on Dropbox technology. It would make sense to carry out the tests you suggested in a follow up most.
In practice, my experience is that dropbox speed is an order of magnitude faster especially when I change a directory structure, when compared with google, especially on the machine I’m not currently working. In addition, when I do this with google, not only does it take hours sometimes for my second machine to sync up (compared with minutes for dropbox), on windows, the trash folder is filled with several a large amount of data. If I was to guess, I suspect dropbox is able to reorganize directory structures of unchanged files, while google appears to be deleting and resyncing moved files.
Dropbox also syncs faster – if I’m working with a file on one machine, the updated file is available much sooner on the second machine compared to google drive. Google drive can take minutes for the simple text edit to sync up, while Dropbox is relatively quick; normally less than one minute. Perhaps this is because dropbox allows me to use an unlimited up/down rate and has LAN sync. None of these are options in google.
Please consider syncplicity also while comparing cloud services. Syncplicity rather is much and much faster in uploading as well as downloading for the first time and subsequent times of same file/folder or different files/folders. I tried to upload +250mb data (mixed one that included .exe files, ms word, videos, photos etc.). While keeping other cloud services paused, I allowed syncplicity to upload data at its own without interrupting in its bandwidth by others; and similarly I gave a chance to other two most famous service providers by pausing syncing by others. Syncplicity uploaded this much data in 3 minutes and other two took 30 minutes and 40 minutes. Syncplicity is damn fast that its counterparts in uploading as well as downloading. Test it yourself. They are now providing 10gb of free space that is more than sufficient for your day to day needs. I am impressed by the syncplicity and thinked a while that why peoples are mad for other services which are below average in performance that syncplicity.
I would like to see a test that compares a video being streamed from the different services. I tried a little myself and found that the convensional services like Dropbox, google drive, Copy, Mega and Box were not fast enough. According to my little one-time test, Flickr seemed to be the only one fast enough so you could stream a video file without buffering-pauses. But Flickr does not store regular files
That’s a good idea. I suppose you were thinking about streaming on an iOS device, weren’t you? I only have direct experience with Dropbox. Its streaming capabilities are very good from what I’ve experienced.
I really have tested nearly all of them. No service is faster and syncs also big files in seconds (after it is uploaded) if you save them twice or more, than dropbox … . Really. It’s not the cheapest, but it’s by far the fastest … .
I had a customer with 3TB on Dropbox it took 3 months to upload over Virgin fibre (do the maths) and after simply renaming a folder it took another month to sync again. Dropbox is seriously flawed when you have a lot of files. Unlimited Cloud storage is a nice concept but in reality totally impracticable.
Thanks for your comment.
3TB seems like a huge amount of data for Dropbox. Even though the company is promoting it for business, Dropbox’s weak point is that it started as a consumer service.
For that amount of data, I’d suggest some other cloud solutions that target the enterprise market.
Cloud storage is a reality, even for data sets larger than 3TB, but Dropbox was not developed for that amount of data IMHO.