Years ago advanced Internet users could not imagine their work with files and media without the so-called file hosting services. And the latter could be marked amongst the must-have tools of every self-respecting net surfer. Though, the idea of constant progress in technology is commonly recognized, which is why gradual shifts are a matter of far shorter terms than it was decades ago. In this context, file hosting services have lost their value as the only tools to exchange links and data, and, in particular, the appearance of cloud storage providers has contributed to this trend.

What is the difference?

With all the variety of online drives users have at their service to date, it is difficult enough to determine pros and cons of each, except paying attention to their logos (for instance, Mediafire’s “All your media, anywhere you go” clearly states service’s main objective of availability and access to media files). However, the only conclusion that stands to reason is that online storages offer a wider range of opportunities, and keeping files safe is not the only thing that distinguishes cloud storages from old-fashioned file sharing services.

Besides obvious differences, such as higher security level and disc space volumes, the controversy has also touched users’ thinking. And there are a couple of issues that testify to the fact.

Personal vs. public

Reasonably, cloud storages are likely to be more of personal value, in which disk space acts as a place for private files and documents. Certainly, the opportunity of making it available to others is actual so far, but it no doubt depends on owner’s preferences. In contrast, such a solution was indeed a core point for many file lockers, particularly, those providing some place for subscriber’s files with the possibility of third parties’ access without restriction. The controversy of personal and public might be claimed the basic one in the storages and hosting services’ comparison.

More options at hand

The range of cloud drives’ functions is the other issue that essentially follows from the previous. While file lockers’ activities were mostly limited to three fundamental options, uploading, sharing and downloading, the concept of online storage is genuinely broader. Storing, viewing, managing, editing, syncing and many-many more actions are granted, as user registers in the service. Thus, the understanding of way bigger capabilities and probability of more updates in future cannot but attract even those, who had not worked with file lockers at the time. Many are familiar with attributes of Google Drive and Dropbox at present, but only few know that file hosting services were pioneers in data sharing.

Speaking of sharing, the term often seems to be an integral thing for hosting apps, whereas cloud storages replace it in the manner of, for example, “granting access” or “making available”. Perhaps, this statement testifies more vividly to the fact that evolution of file lockers and their upgrade to online storages has indeed taken place in modern technology.

No wonder why many former hosting services are focused on advancing to storages to move with the times, so to say. One of the latest, who joined the company of cloud storages, was DepositFiles offering DepositStorage instruments for customers, many of whom have been devoted users for years. Specifically, all the points stated above might be applied to it. For starters, DepositStorage includes folders, which aimed to organize user’s personal media files (in albums and playlists) and it is only in his own power whether to make it visible to others. Viewing and working on files are obvious. Secondly, 25 GB of free disk space is one of the features that pick DepositStorage out of the others in addition to 10 GB max file size. And the last, but not the least, DepositFiles surely managed to rebrand from commonly known file sharing web-service to fully-featured online storage, demonstrated by its new interface.