OpenDrive VS. Bitcasa
Choosing the right Cloud Storage Solution for your business is very important, especially when you are looking for the most a service has to offer for your cloud-based needs, all at an affordable price.
Today, we will be introducing a feature of our blog in which we compare another Cloud Storage Provider with OpenDrive in six (6) key categories: Flexibility, Productivity, Security, Reliability, Support and Affordability.
Flexibility
OpenDrive offers an abundance of capabilies such as to sync, back up, store, share and host your files, as well as collaborate with colleagues and even brand your custom portal with your company’s logo, color scheme and mapped domain. They provide apps for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android, as well as WebDAV access through third party clients, which allows you to map OpenDrive as a mountable drive on Windows, Mac and even Linux systems.
Bitcasa does Automatic File Mirroring, giving you little control over the process in a hands-off approach to getting your data on the cloud. You can share files through links and through social media. They support Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. They are working on a Linux client that will only be available to upper level customers.
Winner: OpenDrive
Productivity
OpenDrive includes a vast list of file versioning, online document editing, collaboration supporting all file sizes and types, and much more. There are too many to list here.
Bitcasa offers FileVersioning, Sharing and Collaboration of Files, but it is unclear if they allow unlimited file sizes or types.
Winner: OpenDrive
Security
OpenDrive ensures your data protection by offering security on multiple levels. This includes 128 bit SSL connections through the website and all apps, 256 bit AES encryption through the desktop apps, zero knowledge encryption through their Secure Files folder and even file password protection.
Bitcasa utilizes a secure SSL connection when logging into their site, as well as Convergent Encryption, which is hash key-based and is considered mostly safe with some risk associated with it, as it is more vulnerable than a private key method.
Winner: OpenDrive
Reliability
OpenDrive operates from a secure N+1 data center at the heart of the Silicon Valley. They own their own servers where your data is kept and are fully responsible for their maintenance and reliability, with no middle people involved.
Bitcasa uses Amazon servers, which are worldwide, but are decentralized and subject to terms and conditions outside of their control. This can cause a huge problem with data retrieval, disaster recovery delays, government intervention and general privacy, as you will never know who is accessing your files and when.
Winner: OpenDrive
Support
OpenDrive has a ticket based support desk, forum, knowledge base, a support email address, a publicly displayed toll free telephone number, a callback form on their website, and thoroughly detailed user guides on all of their apps. Their first response times are very fast, averaging 6-8 hours when the industry standard is 20 and most big providers are at 24-48 or even longer.
Bitcasa also has a support desk, forum, knowledge base and a support email address but no phone number publicly displayed at this time. They have tutorial videos available to walk you through their functions. Their first response times through their support desk are closer to the 20 hour industry standard.
Winner: OpenDrive
Affordability
OpenDrive offers 4 affordable tiers of plans. Their Basic plan, which offers 5GB of storage, is free for life. They also offer Personal and Business Unlimited plans, as well as Custom plans, all ranging between $5 and $29.95 per month. Extended rates are also available, at $50-$299 per year, providing 2 months free. In addition, they offer price matching and non-profit discounts, as well as a trial on any plan with no payment required up front.
Bitcasa has a free account that provides 20GB of storage, but recently increased the price for their Infinite plan to $99 per month ($999 per year), which covers normal personal use only. They have limited plans that are more reasonable, ranging from $10-$49 per month ($99-$499 per year) for up to 1TB of storage. These options also do not cover business plans, which are not currently available.
Winner: OpenDrive
Verdict
In all areas, OpenDrive is the winner. Come take a drive with OpenDrive today.
