In January, ReadWriteWeb brought you an exclusive look at SugarSync, the long awaited file syncing utility from Sharpcast, our 2006 Most Promising Web LittleCo. SugarSync is a software program that syncs files across multiple systems — i.e., desktop, web, and mobile — allowing users to access backed up data from whatever device they happen to be connecting with. Sharpcast officially launched SugarSync yesterday.
SugarSync is a platform for what the company refers to as “real-time sync and backup of your data across all of your computers, the web and your phone.” What that means that is SugarSync monitors the files on your devices and then automatically syncs to a central server. So your files are always accessible from anywhere across all of your various web connected gadgets.
The service, which offers a free 45 day trial, costs $49.99/year for 10GB of storage with plans running up to $249.99/year. The company is running a special 50% off the first year promotion, but 200 ReadWriteWeb readers can have the promotional price extended to two years by clicking this link.
SugarSync provides both a PC and Mac client, as well as mobile clients for the Blackberry and Windows Mobile and a browser-based application.
How Does It Perform?
SugarSync is the product of nearly four years of work by the crew at Sharpcast, and the result is quite nice. It’s an easy to use system that can free your data from a single, physical location. It has some nice features, such as the ability to share photos with friends, or the ability to lock certain versions of files online so that even if they’re updated locally you still have a backup of the original. It also has some things we wish it did better, such as automatic file versioning, which is absent in this release.
In January, we said that Sharpcast reminded us of Feedburner, “in that it wants to become the leading platform for a new type of media service that only came into being in the Internet age.” In Feedburner’s case that service was RSS, whereas for Sharpcast that technology is file syncing.
Unlike Feedburner, though, SugarSync is entering a slightly more crowded space. They face competition from BeInSync, Windows Live FolderShare, and the currently in beta Y Combinator startup Dropbox. Even so, SugarSync comes to the table with a very nice product that is super easy to use and quite polished (it should be after 4 years!), so we still expect that our earlier prediction that it could be a future acquisition target to hold true.
Have you tried SugarSync? What about any of its competitors? Which do you like better? Let us know in the comments below.
Note: An earlier version of this article erroneously stated that SugarSync costs $49.99 per month for the 10GB package. That is incorrect. $49.99 is the yearly price at that storage level.
