A new cloud-based file-syncing venture is building on the Google Docs platform, challenging the venerable Dropbox service in the process.
Insync opened to the public Friday, after 15 months in beta development. The service lets users save, share, and sync local document files between computer hard drives; to do so, it utilizes Google Docs’s cloud. Insync, which has team members in Manila and Singapore, is taking specific aim at Dropbox, pointing out that Google’s $50-a-year fee for 200GB of storage is much cheaper than Dropbox’s $240 annual cost for 100GB. (Insync’s bargain status might be reduced soon, however: CEO Terence Pua said his company will unveil premium pay features that will allow the company to profit from the service.)
The Insync website is a bit inscrutable, offering few details about how the service works—causing some users to question the security of documents that pass through the company’s hands. Insync says it doesn’t save users’ passwords, and that the only data it preserves is the token—which links the service to Google Docs—which can be revoked by the customer at any time.
Unlike Dropbox, Insync doesn’t offer an iOS app—though you can use the service on your iPad in conjunction with Google Docs’s tablet-compatible site on Safari. Mac users who install the free Insync program must be running Mac OS X Leopard, Snow Leopard, or Lion.