Weblog Wannabe

It was windy at -10°C so I decided to make a comparison of some free, file hosting services. Not that the weather has anything to do with file hosting services. I just felt like using a sub-zero temperature and the phrase ‘file hosting’ in one sentence. So here goes.

— YouSendIt.com
This service seems to be the most popular one, at least among MP3 webloggers, and it has the cleanest and friendliest user-interface, in my opinion. The file size limit for every upload is 1 GB. When your file has been succesfully uploaded, a confirmation screen will appear with a link to your uploaded file. The link to your file will also be sent to the recipient’s email address. Your file will be available for 7 days or 25 downloads, whichever occurs first.

— MegaUpload.com
This is a good example of how some websites sacrifice user-friendliness to make room for more ads. The flash ad is especially annoying. The file size limit for every upload is 250 MB. When your file has been succesfully uploaded, you’ll be brought to your file download page. The link to your uploaded file will appear on the top right corner (which I missed when I was testing it) after about 45 seconds. The link to your file will also be sent to the recipient’s email address. In addition, if you enter your email address, you will be sent the link and the delete-link to your file stored on their server. The file will be available until it is unused for 30 days, ie. no downloads in the last 30 days.

— RapidShare.de
The website design is pretty much basic (a la 1990) and not very pretty. The only user-interface you’ll ever find here is the upload form. The file size limit for every upload is 50 MB. When your file has been succesfully uploaded, scroll down to find the download link and the delete link. Obviously, since they don’t ask for any email addresses, you don’t get the links in your inbox, so be sure to save the links if you don’t want to lose them. If you’re going to do a multiple upload, you’d better save the links after every upload because you will lose them once the next file has been succesfully uploaded. The file will be available until there is no downloads in the last 30 days. I heard that files hosted by this service can only be downloaded once every hour so keep that in mind before using it.

If you know of any sites that offer similar service and that you frequently use, feel free to share it in a comment. Also let us know the reason you like it. It’s all about sharing, baby! :)