If your organization includes multiple employees or volunteers, you probably need to share files with others on a regular basis. Maybe you’re looking for feedback on a flyer or brochure. Maybe you need to collaborate with others on a video before publishing it on YouTube or Vimeo. While you can send a variety of files as email attachments, there are several limitations to this method. First, your files may simply be too large. Second, email communication is not a secure method for sending sensitive information. Finally, if you’re sending a document that you’d like multiple people to edit, it’s impossible to keep all edits in a single document when sending an attachment to multiple people. If you’ve experienced any of these challenges, you may be in need of a file sharing platform in the cloud, which will allow your employees and volunteers to collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, videos, photos, and more. Below, we’ve created a short list of free cloud-based file sharing services to share files with your team.
1. Google Drive
Each free Google Drive account allows you to store up to 15GB of data. (Note: If you are already a gmail user, this data limit includes the space taken up by your emails and attachments.) One of the benefits of Google Drive is the fact that you can view files even if you don’t have the software installed on your computer. For example, you can preview Adobe files like .psd and .ai formats without having Photoshop or Illustrator installed on your system. Additionally, you can collaborate on documents and spreadsheets and view changes made by other users in real time. If two people are working on a document at once, both of their changes will be saved simultaneously, and you can chat with other users who are viewing the document at the same time. You can also share files with specific email addresses or through the use of a publicly accessible link. You can also create files right within your Google Drive account. The only downside of these types of files is the fact that documents and spreadsheets native to Google Drive need to be exported in order to be viewed in programs like Word or Excel.
2. Dropbox
Dropbox provides users with 2GB of free storage, however, you can also accrue additional free space by recommending Dropbox to others. Each time you send the Dropbox invitation to another person and that person installs the app on their device, you will automatically receive an additional 250MB of free space. Like Google Drive, you can control your sharing settings by inviting specific users to a file, or you can create a public link to share the file with anyone who receives the link. However, one setback to Dropbox is the fact that you cannot collaborate on documents or spreadsheets with different users making changes simultaneously. Each time the document is saved, it will be updated. However, if two users have the document open at the same time, it will create a “conflicted copy” instead of merging the changes into a single file.
3. Bitcasa
Bitcasa provides users of their free service with 5GB of storage. You can upload all file types, however, like Dropbox, you cannot have multiple people editing a document at the same time. Bitcasa differs from Dropbox in that the primary means of sharing files is with the use of a public link. However, you can add an extra layer of protection by requiring a password to be entered in order for the recipient to retrieve the files.
Each of the above file sharing services also offers a mobile app so you can access your files on the go. Visit the links above to learn more, and let us know about your favorite cloud-based file sharing platforms in the comments below!