Droplr drops free accounts: some alternatives
Droplr is a cloud-based service that allows you to share files and screenshots with other users for free or with additional features and less restrictions as a premium user
As a free user of the service, you have access to 1 Gigabyte of cloud storage that you can fill with files. Pro users on the other hand receive 100 Gigabytes of storage, an ad-free environment, and several other features such as the ability to share larger files (free were limited to 25 MB in size), make links private, use custom domains, or access statistics.
The two Droplr co-founders Josh and Levi announced yesterday that the decision was made to change that starting next week.
The free account option will be removed from the service, and all existing free account owners will automatically join a 30-day free trial. When that period ends, users are asked to subscribe to one of the two new account plans Droplr Lite or Droplr Pro.
Failure to do so will lock the account, which means that new files cannot be uploaded to it anymore. All existing files will remain accessible on the other hand, and all links will also continue to work just like before.
It is not clear yet how the pricing will change for the two new account plans, as that has not been announced yet. The only information in relation to the plans is that existing Droplr users will get a 30% lifetime discount on any plan they may choose.
Note: You can still sign up for a free account at the time of writing. While it may not be beneficial for the sake of having an account, it may come in handy if you want to sign-up for one of the new plans that are introduced next week, as it is likely that you will also benefit from the 30% off lifetime offer.
Droplr Alternatives
You do not have to look far for alternatives. Popular cloud hosting solutions like Dropbox, SkyDrive or Google Drive allow you to upload and share files with other users.
While you may not get the same level of comfort depending on the service that you select, they do offer more or less the same level of functionality.
If you are using Dropbox for example, it is usually a matter of seconds before files that you upload can be shared with others.
If you are looking for something that concentrates on screenshot sharing almost exclusively, you may find the following services useful:
- CloudApp, Mac OS X only to share files on the Internet. There are third-party Windows clients available, such as FluffyApp.
- Lightshot, a screen capture tool for Windows that is connected to an online service for sharing images.
- ScreenCloud, a program for Linux, Windows and Mac OSX to share screenshots easily on the Internet.
- Scrup for Max OS X only, to grab a screenshot and use it in other programs.
- ShareX, a program for Windows that does not connect to its own cloud hosting service, but to 25 image hosting services instead.
- Tinygrab, for Windows and Mac OS X to share screenshots with friends or clients.
via Caschy
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Who’s using Droplr anyway? Superior max-storage-wise are most of the alternatives mentioned. If the decision by the owners of Droplr persists, then back up your files, Droplr users, as that service may have higher chances of being mostly forgotten from the Internet.
Droplr is as bad as Rapidshare in terms of pricing and storage limits on free and paid accounts. I went with MediaFire (mediafire.com). Freebie accounts start at 10G which then upgrade to 50G after 60 days. We can add an additional 35G for free by installing their desktop and mobile application as well as invite friends (1-32 friends for 1G-32G) all for free. And their pricing per months starts at $4.99 which upgrades you to 100G storage plus whatever bonus you applied to your account and it removes any ads. Max file size is upgraded to 20G from the freebie account which limits us at 200M. Even on the freebie account and I use ADBlock Plus in my browsers I’ve never seen an ad. Since last year they’ve been having a 50% off pricing so the first upgrade becomes $2.49/m. Their business plans start at 1Tb storage with a yearly fee under the current promotion of less than $100/yr. And on top of all that the reason why I love using Mediafire is there is never a captcha or wait period to download/upload files. And we can even share upload whole directories and make them into drop boxes for other users. Within the last year they added the ability to play stored MP3, and AVI/MP4 files online without the need to download them. They have a photo gallery option to view images online in small, medium, large and original format. They have a few points on their Upgrade pages they claim are true but are not. I’m told they are pending but they’ve been saying that since they opened in 2006. They claim freebie accounts are not permanent and files will be deleted over time. I’ve had files saved there since 2006 and they have not been deleted yet. Also if you start as a freebie account and wait for the timer to lapse to upgrade your account to the next free level then purchase an upgrade afterwards we get what free storage we had while in freebie mode plus what the upgrade level contains for well over 150G for way cheaper than Droplr claims is their first level and pricing. But if you signup and instantly purchase an upgrade all you’ll get is what you purchased in terms of storage. I told my sister about them and she requires 500G+ and without waiting for the 60 day timer she purchased the business plan and only has 1Tb + possible 35G. I have currently 78G for free and if I purchase an upgrade at the first level I’ll get 178G total (max possibility of 185G) for $4.99/m or $2.49/m if the sale is still on.
Argh… hate this… I click edit to edit something I missed, and if I take longer than the period I took to edit the post it removes all formatting (removed all the line spacing so it looks like I typed in one long sentence). ARGH!!!! The donation option should remove or double that count down timer.
Have modified the comment edit time to 10 minutes.
I’ve never used droplr but I’ve found dropbox the easiest and most efficient way to share files with my friends/colleagues. For sharing images I use the application ‘Greenshot’ which can be set up to automatically upload to imgur.com and copies the link to your clipboard. For example: http://i.imgur.com/phn3qUQ.png took 2 secs to create and paste. It also has its own ‘microsoft paint’ style app you can you to quickly crop/edit before uploading.