9 free personal clouds offer something for everyone  

A personal cloud service lets you share photos, music and documents among all your devices easily and quickly, but the way that sharing happens depends on which cloud service you choose.

The good news is that these cloud services are normally free for a limited amount of data. Most vendors also offer premium or enterprise versions, which allow you to store more data and to share data, which is useful in a workgroup scenario, for example.

We looked at nine personal cloud services: Apple’s iCloud, Bitcasa, Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive, MediaFire, SpiderOak and Ubuntu One. While iCloud, SkyDrive and Google Drive are optimized for their respective platforms, all of the cloud services work across multiple operating systems and different browser types.

In some cases, the vendors offer a shared storage area that other people can access on their own, in others cases you would send a URL to people. Some services also include Web-based apps, such as the ability to create documents or contact lists.

There was no single cloud service that we considered a winner. All worked as advertised, all had their strengths, as well as peculiarities or annoyances.

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SkyDrive offers smooth integration with Microsoft Office apps, iCloud delivers built-in data synching and full backups for users with multiple Apple devices. Bitcasa is notable for offering unlimited space and SpiderOak is aimed at users worried about cloud security.

Box takes it one step further, offering collaboration features. Similarly, Dropbox delivers excellent version control for users collaborating on a document. GoogleDrive is aimed at users in the Google Docs/Gmail ecosystem.

MediaFire is trying to carve out a niche in streaming media. Ubuntu One still needs some work, but it’s aimed at what Canonical hopes will be a growing legion of users who are on Ubuntu desktops and Ubuntu smartphones. (Watch a slideshow version of this story.)

Here are the individual reviews:

Apple iCloud

If you have an iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch or a Mac, you have iCloud available. iCloud is also available for download for Windows 7 and 8 users, but not for Windows RT. You can access iCloud by going to the iCloud website from any device. Apple provides 5GB of storage for free, and you can upgrade if you need more, starting at $20.

ICloud provides storage for photos and documents you want to share between devices. You can share photos with others using Photo Streams. Sharing reportedly will be enhanced with iOS 7 when it’s released. Your iOS devices can also be backed up to iCloud, which is handy if you need to replace a device or do an upgrade. Those backups include all content on your device as well as all of the apps and settings.

Much of the material on your Mac or iOS device can be uploaded to iCloud automatically, so a photo taken on your iPhone will appear on your iPad or Mac in short order. Likewise, music and video content from the Apple store will show up on your Apple devices.

Apple includes several Web apps so you can get to your iCloud information from your PC and perhaps your tablet, although tests with Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10 devices demonstrated that not every mobile browser will work. You can sync iCloud with Microsoft Outlook for your e-mail, contact lists and calendar entries, but to accomplish this you are required to sign up for iCloud e-mail.

[MORE ICLOUD: Apple iCloud: How do you stay secure with this thing?]

Using iCloud from an iOS device or a Mac requires little effort since it’s already built in. Using iCloud on a Windows 7 or 8 machine requires that you download the iCloud Control Panel. Once the Control Panel is downloaded and installed, you’ll need to tell it what you want to sync, and at that point it will happen automatically.

ICloud does not have a provision for ad hoc storage of documents on Windows or Linux desktops. And you can’t share music with other people via iCloud.

Bitcasa: Infinite backup

Bitcasa presents itself as an infinitely large drive that never runs out of space. In reality, you get 10GB for free, but infinite space costs $99 a year. The Bitcasa app is available for Windows 7 and 8, and there are specific apps available for Macintosh, Android, iOS and Windows Phone and RT. The Windows RT app also works with Windows 8. However, Bitcasa says that you can get to your data on their Infinite Drive from any device with a browser. I can confirm that it worked on any mobile device I tried including a BlackBerry Z10 running QNX.

When you download the Bitcasa app, Bitcasa appears to be a folder that shows up on your desktop. In Windows, it also appears as a drive in Windows Explorer and while Windows doesn’t list the space as infinite but rather 7.99 Exabytes, that’s a close approximation. For those keeping track, an Exabyte is 1018 bytes which is the most that Windows can recognize. A spokesperson for Bitcasa told Network World that there is no limit even if your PC can’t wrap its mind around that concept.

In addition to appearing to be an immense disk drive, Bitcasa also supports syncing with other drives on your computer. This syncing happens in real time as you work, and if you’re away from an Internet connection, it’ll catch up when you connect again. You can also sync multiple devices with your Bitcasa cloud service.

Bitcasa bills itself as a way to do away with your existing backup devices, which it may be. But a fast external drive is going to be a lot faster than Bitcasa connected through the Internet. And while I found uploads to be fairly quick with no indication that Bitcasa’s service was operating any slower than my Internet connection, that’s still a lot slower than an eSATA or USB 3.0 connection.

In addition, Bitcasa will not let you sync a network drive to the cloud, although you can copy the contents of such a drive with a single mouse click. You can, however, sync an external drive such as the previously mentioned USB or eSATA drive, which means that you can back up to the external drive quickly, and then back up that drive to the cloud in the background. Bitcasa does not restrict which directory folders you choose to sync automatically, as long as they’re located on your computer.

Bitcasa’s operation is as fast as your Internet connection. You can share your content with others by creating a URL that can allow them access to a folder or a file, and it will work with all of your devices regardless of whether there’s a Bitcasa app for it. The company says that it stores three copies of everything, that all data is encrypted before it’s uploaded, and that it lets you roll back to previous versions of a file or recover a deleted file. Overall, Bitcasa is an example of a service that’s fast, effective, reasonably priced and is highly flexible.

Box: The focus is on collaboration

Box has been around as long as any of the personal cloud services, although the company normally presents itself as a corporate platform focused on collaboration. However, there’s a free personal version available that will let you store up to 5GB. The price for up to 25GB of space is $9.99 and it’s $19.99 for up to 50GB. There is also a business version of Box and an Enterprise version. Box is available for mobile devices including iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry, and you can access Box using a browser. You can download Box Sync for Windows and Macintosh computers.

The way Box Sync works is somewhat different from the way sync works with other services. While Box will sync with any folder, you have to drag the folder to a folder on your Desktop called “My Box Files,” at which point the synchronization will start. Then, when you add, delete or change a file in the folder, that change is made to the other folder. You can also set up synchronization from the folder in “My Box Files” and it will sync to your Desktop.

The real focus for Box is collaboration. Box highlights its collaboration features, and it supports access to files by multiple users. When a group of people is using Box, they can see each other’s updates, leave comments, make changes and suggested changes and the like. In addition, you can control how others get access to the files and control whether it’s through a link, a download or a shared workspace. You can also control who gets access by limiting it to just you, specific people or specific domains.

Box uploads are quite fast because Box has developed an upload accelerator which works much like a content distribution network. This basically means that you access Box through a point of presence near you, and whatever you upload is then sent to Box. This isn’t going to make your Internet connection any faster than it is already, but it does mean that you’ll escape the latency and delays that can stem from long-distance connections.

[ALSO: Box targets universities for cloud storage]

Box is not intended to be an online substitute for your backup system, it’s designed to allow you to share files with your other devices and with other people and to collaborate. Within the limits of what it’s designed to do, Box works quite well. Operation is fast, there’s an app for nearly any operating system, and sharing is easy. Box is especially nice if you’re already using it at work. While it’s not all things to all users, it’s not intended to be, but what it does it does very well.

Dropbox: Excellent version tracking

The Dropbox name is very descriptive for a cloud service. At its core, Dropbox is a place in the cloud where you drop stuff. That stuff can be pretty much anything from music to photos to documents. It’s a great way to keep files that you may want available for your mobile devices, and for files that you may want to share.

But there’s more to Dropbox than just a big storage website. Dropbox includes apps for most computers and mobile devices including Windows, Macintosh, some Linux distributions, iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Kindle Fire. There is a third-party app for Windows Phone. BlackBerry 10 devices come with Dropbox already installed, however if you go to the Dropbox website, you’ll be offered the chance to download an incompatible version that will not actually work on the device.

Dropbox includes version tracking which can be extremely useful for collaboration because it will let you see who made which changes, and it will let you roll back to an earlier version of a file if you need to. The version history covers the last 30 days of the document or other file.

Dropbox works by creating a folder on your computer that it syncs with the cloud storage. That cloud storage in turn syncs with other devices that you have running Dropbox. You can also reach your Dropbox storage through the company website.

There’s a business version of Dropbox that gives you unlimited storage, unlimited version history, and more granular control over access to resources on Dropbox. You also get an admin console that provides detailed information about the activities of each user, including what time of device they’re using and how much storage they’re using. Dropbox for Business costs $795 per year, plus $125 per user for each user over five. The basic personal version of Dropbox can be downloaded for free.

As is the case with most of these cloud services, using Dropbox is like using any other folder on your computer. You can copy files or folders into your Dropbox folder where they’ll be synced. The Dropbox folder appears to be a system folder on your device. The most current version of your files show up first, but Dropbox will present a list of previous versions, when changes took place, and who made the changes.

Google Drive: Tight integration with Google Docs

When Google Drive first launched it was your basic personal cloud storage area where you could put stuff. If you were a user of some of Google’s apps, such as Google Docs, then you could store your documents there. Depending on the platform you’re using, that may still be the case, but it’s not that way for everyone.

Now, when you download Google Drive, you also get some additional Google apps whether you want them or not, at least on some platforms. On other platforms, you don’t get those. This means that if you go to the Google Drive site you may find yourself greeted with Google Docs. You can download Google Drive on a Windows computer only as part of a package that includes Google Sheets, Google Slides and Google Docs. On other platforms such as the iPad, you can limit your download to Google Drive.

Google Drive is available for Windows and Macintosh computers, Android and iOS phones and tablets. Google Drive is also available on the Web using nearly any Web browser. In some cases using Google Drive from a Web browser can lead to a potential security problem because Drive does not log users out automatically, and as one person who borrowed my phone to perform a quick check of Gmail commented, “Logging into anything on Google logs you into everything.” As a result, I was able to continue to see his activity on Google Drive for days until I deliberately signed off from all connections.

The folder synchronization works in Google Drive in the same way it works with the other personal cloud services, although Google gives you up to 15GB of space with your free account. Google Drive is also tightly integrated with Google Docs which you can use on the Web even if you don’t have the app on your computer or mobile device. The access to Google Docs, and to Google Drive is free, although you can buy a subscription to get more storage and more advanced apps.

It’s worth noting that a number of privacy advocates as well as Google competitors have said that Google mines your information for material that it can use to send you targeted advertising. In use, Google Drive works quickly, and Google gives you a number of features including an effective search utility for your Drive contents. Google also gives you good visibility into your file activity. Uploads are fast and Google lets you preview the contents of a file without having to open it.

There’s a more expanded version of Google Drive that accompanies Google Apps for Business where you can purchase up to 16 Terabytes of storage for $1,430.

Microsoft SkyDrive: Tight integration with Office

The good news about Microsoft SkyDrive is that you probably already have it. Everyone who has a Microsoft account gets a SkyDrive account, and all you have to do to use it is to sign in to SkyDrive on the Web. What’s your Microsoft Account, you ask? If you’ve ever signed in to use nearly any Microsoft product or service ranging from a Windows Phone to an Xbox to MSN to Windows Live or Outlook.com, then you have a Microsoft Account.

Microsoft SkyDrive serves a lot of purposes for a lot of uses. It’s a file sharing site, a folder syncing site, a cloud storage site, and even a backup site for some products. If you have a Windows Phone or a Windows tablet, your photos are likely stored on SkyDrive already. Any device can use the SkyDrive Web page, but there are apps for Windows, Macintosh, Android, iOS and Windows Phone that let you automatically sync your files.

In addition, SkyDrive is tightly integrated with a number of Microsoft applications including Microsoft Office. Office 365 includes added storage space on SkyDrive. There’s also a version of SkyDrive for business called SkyDrive Pro, which works in conjunction with SharePoint and provides a cloud-based repository for business documents and for collaboration.

The basic free storage for SkyDrive is 7GB. You can buy more storage up to 100GB additional (that will cost you $50 per year). You get an additional 20GB of free storage if you install Microsoft Office 365. SkyDrive comes as a standard app on Windows Phone and Windows 8. However to use the Fetch feature, or to access SkyDrive from the Windows 8 Desktop, you must download and install the Desktop version of SkyDrive.

The Fetch feature of SkyDrive is designed to allow you to download any file on a remote computer, not just files that are synced in the SkyDrive folder. If you go to a meeting and leave your PowerPoint slides on your office computer, you can simply fetch them remotely, even if they’re not synced into the SkyDrive folder. This feature would be more useful if Windows 8 computers would support Fetch without having to install a second copy of SkyDrive. Operating Fetch turned out to be problematic during the test in that it only worked part of the time, and not at all from some computers.

I found no limitations as to the sort of file that can be stored in SkyDrive. Even large Adobe Photoshop and raw camera files loaded and previewed properly. Microsoft says that you can store and play animated GIF files using SkyDrive, however you can not stream music files.

MediaFire: Good for streaming media

MediaFire seems intended to be a cloud storage resource that supports the sharing of media files. This means, for example, that you can stream music and video files directly from the website. There are, however, limitations. Some file types aren’t supported or in some cases even recognized. In addition, large uploads appeared to be somewhat slower than with other services we tested.

On the other hand, this is the only service in this review that lets you stream audio and video files directly from the website. MediaFire also allows you to create a public drop link on your website that allows users to send files to your MediaFire storage without having to log in. And that storage is significant. The first 10GB is free and ad-supported. 100GB costs $2.49 per month, and a Terabyte is $24.99 per month.

Business users will like that MediaFire supports custom branding, so you can put your own logo on the file site, and you can incorporate the FileDrop widget on to your company Web page. The professional and business sites also allow you to upload entire folders, which is something you can’t do with the free version.

In fact, the free version of MediaFire is somewhat inconvenient to use since you must limit your uploads to individual files, although you can copy several at one time when you drag and drop them. MediaFire includes apps for Windows, Macintosh and Linux as well as for Android and iOS devices. The MediaFire Express app for Windows was still in beta during this review.

The fact that MediaFire Express was still in beta may explain some inconsistencies in how the service performed. For example, I was unable to stream MP3 music files with Microsoft Internet Explorer 10, but it worked fine with Google Chrome, but M4A music files worked with any browser. The raw image files showed their thumbnails fine, but when I clicked on them to use the preview feature, the service responded that it was an invalid file type.

Likewise, while I was able to play MP4 videos without a problem using MediaFire on any browser, but AVI videos simply wouldn’t work with anything. Whether this matters to you will depend a great deal on what you plan to use MediaFire for. But it would seem that the ability to stream video from a cloud service would be an important feature, especially on mobile devices where downloads could be slow, and storage limited.

Overall, the good news about MediaFire is that it will in fact stream some type of media, but if this capability is important to you, then you need to confirm that the media you want to stream will work with this service.

SpiderOak: Security is paramount

Privacy is SpiderOak’s hot button. According to the company, the site is so secure that even they can’t break in and see a user’s data. I was even told by a SpiderOak executive that the SpiderOak cloud service is so secure that even the NSA can’t get in. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get anyone at the NSA to confirm that.

Knowing that SpiderOak is secure is important for reasons you might not think of, that is that there’s no password recovery with SpiderOak – if you forget your password, SpiderOak will give you a hint, but that’s it. Without the password, your data is locked away forever.

SpiderOak adheres to the Zero Knowledge Privacy standard, which is based on the idea of having really secure information that’s encrypted at every stage starting with the user’s computer through transmission, and into storage.

You can get 2GB of free cloud storage from SpiderOak, somewhat less than comes from other providers. You can get 100GB for $10 a month or $100 per year. You can buy more in increments of 100GB. While SpiderOak can be used for backup, it could get pricy if you have a lot of data.

For many people the ability to store data securely in the cloud is really what they’re looking for. SpiderOak provides an app for Windows, Macintosh, Andoid and iOS. Other systems can use SpiderOak through the website, which works well enough, but has some limitations.

You cannot easily save items to the SpiderOak website, and when you upload items, it must be through the SpiderOak App. Unfortunately the SpiderOak website cannot preview files, including image and document files, as long as they’re in the SpiderOak Hive folder. However if the same files are saved to the root directory of the SpiderOak file tree, then some types –notably JPEGs – can be opened. Other types of image and document files still won’t open there.

While SpiderOak does appear to have accomplished its main goal of total privacy for its users, there are a number of limitations especially in terms of ease of use and flexibility. The downside is that if you forget your password and the hint you provided when you set it up doesn’t help, your data is gone forever and even SpiderOak can’t get your data back. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is up to you.

Ubuntu One: Aimed at existing Ubuntu users

Ubuntu One is the new cloud storage product from Canonical, the company that publishes the Ubuntu Linux distribution. As you’d expect it’s available to users of Ubuntu Linux, but there are also versions of Ubuntu One for Windows, Macintosh, Android and iOS. You can also use Ubuntu One on the Web. This service is still under development, and it shows.

Some features that are commonly available in other cloud services either don’t exist or exist only in slightly unusual ways with Ubuntu One. For example, if you simply visit your files in the cloud and click on them, there’s no preview feature, so things such as JPEGs will first launch the photo viewer on your computer. However, if you click on the “Photos” function on the website, then you get previews and the ability to run a slide show.

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Music streaming is only available if you buy the streaming app, which is optional. You also only get 5GB of storage, but you can get more by inviting everyone you know to join Ubuntu, which will get you another 20GB. If you don’t have friends, you can also purchase extra storage at $2.99 a month or $29.99 a year.

The Ubuntu One apps create a folder on your computer or mobile device with which you can sync files that you want stored in Ubuntu One. However for Windows users that’s a significant limitation in that the only files that Ubuntu One will let you sync are those that are located in your Home folder. This follows the Linux convention where users don’t normally have any accessible space anywhere outside of the Home directory. In Windows, however, the Home folder is a relatively recent development, and storage of data files elsewhere is common.

On one of the test computers, video and sound files live on a separate very high speed SAS drive to improve performance when performing editing tasks, but these files couldn’t be synced to Ubuntu One, even with a shortcut placed in the Home directory.

Files in the Ubuntu One directory on your computer or mobile device are synced automatically, and you can preview and play any of those as you would if they were in any other place on your device. Adding to the confusion, the “Add a Folder” button in the Windows app will let you navigate to a directory outside of the home folder and won’t tell you that it can’t actually add it.

Otherwise, if all you need is cloud storage, and some of the devices you plan to use are running Ubuntu’s distribution of Linux, then Ubuntu One is an obvious choice. Clearly this is the market that Ubuntu One is focused on initially.

How we tested personal clouds

We used several machines, including HP Professional Workstations running Windows 7 and Windows 8, one machine running Ubuntu Linux, and mobile devices running Android, iOS, Windows Phone 8, BlackBerry 10 and Windows 8. I used the embedded browser for mobile devices without app support for the particular cloud service.

We performed most testing using a Gigabit Ethernet network attached to Verizon FiOS residential service provisioned for 50Mbps download speeds and 25Mbps upload speeds. Actual measured speeds were usually somewhat in excess of the provisioning speeds. Wireless devices connected to the network a Ruckus Wireless mesh network operating at 600Mbps. All uploads and downloads were performed a minimum of five times.

The tests of file preview functionality included installing Microsoft’s camera raw codec that supports raw files from major vendors including Canon and Nikon. The raw files were created using a Nikon D200 with raw files in the NEF format. This codec was available to cloud services that used photo viewing applications on the test computers running Windows.

Rash is a freelance writer. He can be reached at wrash@mindspring.com.