I've been using Zoho and Syncplicity for a few months. They are different ways of achieving a similar task - access to office based IT tasks (e.g. editing word processor, spreadsheet etc.) from anywhere, and the ability to share documents with others.
The Task
What I needed was relatively simple: To have access to and work on a variety of files from my PC and two laptops from anywhere. I wanted to be able to work even if my interenet connection was down. I wanted to be able to have local copies of the files for my own peace of mind (who knows if the company with my files on its server will go bust).
The solution for me is Syncplicity (http://bit.ly/3mFNVB). You get 2G of storage free. I've been using it for months and it is flawless, very efficient. No complaints at all (and I am a picky fella).
Syncplicity is beautiful in its simplicity (hence the name I guess) and installs very quickly. If you have one machine you get the ability to have the files and folders you select automatically copied to the Syncplicity server whenever you change them. This gives you automatic backup, and access to those files from anywhere, from any machine you install Syncplicity on (hence the value of a quick and easy install).
Syncplicity
If you have more than one machine, you can have your files copied automatically across all those machines. If you change a file on one machine, the copy on the server and on all your other machines wil be updated automatically. Syncplicity does an awesome job of this without risking losing or overwriting data accidentally - it keeps copies just in case. I have been very impressed with it, and as I say, have had no complaints.You can also share documents with other Syncplicity users. I haven't tried this, but it seems such a simple extra that I expect it will work just as well.
I heartily recommend Syncplicity if your priority is security and ease of access to your files, particularly if you want to work on different machines (e.g. PC at home and office, or PC in one place and laptop on the move). Check out Syncplicity here: http://bit.ly/3mFNVB
Zoho
Zoho works differently. It provides online versions of all your applications that work directly from your web browser. It has a lot, I mean a LOT, of applications and functionality, all available as web based applications. This is good - you could do almost anything - and complex. Their applications are intuitive and easy to learn, but you do need to learn them, and the way they manage files etc.I don't need that complexity. What I want is to have access to the Office documents I'm working on from different machines, in different locations.
You might say, ok, I'm willing to accept the learning curve because Zoho can obviously do everything I'm likely to need. That's what I thought. And application-wise it IS pretty impressive. I don't know if it would do everything I need, but I was willing to forgo some functionality for the convenience.
Zoho is very impressive in its range of applications, and their functionality seems good. So in theory you don't need ANY applications on your machines other than a web browser. You could just use their online applcations for word processing, spreadsheet, database, CRM etc etc. They also support offline working, so you don't even need an internet connection to use them. This is done using Google gears though, which for me is not a great way of doing offline working - because the data is not accessible to me except through Zoho's applications (i.e. I can't load it into Word or Excel etc and edit it using them). For more on Zoho's offline working see below.
I found two problems with Zoho: 1) To work effectively, you need a reliable internet connection, AND of course for Zoho to still exisit (i.e. not go bust or be nuked - they are based in India so that came worryingly close not too long ago). 2) You need to learn and rely on their applications (because their data export doesn't work).
Zoho's approach doesn't give me sufficient security and reliability of access to my data. It would be fine if I didn't mind not being able to access my whenever I want. Or I was willing to risk losing my data if something went disasterously wrong at Zoho. Problem 1) is a killer for me. I'd be ok with 2), if I could easily keep local copies of my files (I mainly do stuff with Word and Office), but I can't, so that's a killer too.
Using Zoho, keeping local copies is awkward, and saving to Office formats doesn't work properly. You have to do it manually, in small batches, and converting simple (very simple) documents to Word format often fails or loses the formatting. This means I am reliant on Zoho not losing the data on their server, and their service being available. Effectively I can't work on a document without an internet connection.
Zoho's Offline Working
Zoho use Google Gears to provide local working in two ways. A) by allowing their apps to run without a web connection, and B) as a plugin to Office (e.g. Word) so you can edit locally (e.g. in Word) and save directly to the server or locally in Gears format.
There are several problems with A). Firstly, it doesn't solve problem 1) or 2), and secondly you need to choose what documents you want to work on and 'move' them offline before you need them. Later you save them back to the server. This is complicated and you will forget, and so managing work over multiple machines will simply get out of hand.
The Office plugin B), also uses Gears, and is intended to allow you to use your desktop applications to edit documents loaded from and saved to the server, and for offline working in a similar way to A). But it is a poor quality hack. It suffers the same format conversion problems (i.e. saving to Word format often doesn't work), so getting my data out of it is unreliable and difficult - because your documents are saved in the Gears database not as Word files.
Worryingly I found the Zoho plugin for Word was storing my Zoho login data unencrypted in the local registry (something they fixed when I raised it). That is just too obvious and wreckless a security flaw.
Conclusion
I use Syncplicity. It is a different kind of solution to Zoho that lets me work in an almost unchanged way, but with all the important benefits of a Web based service. I don't have to re-learn the applications. I do have to have the applications installed on each machine. My data is accessible, even if my internet connection is down, and as soon as it is up, my documents get backed up online, and copies are automatically maintained for me on every PC/Laptop I use. I have a seamless automatic backup of any files I'm working on which happens the moment I save them.
In short, I edit my files locally, and have access to all of them (up to 2G for free), on multiple machines and a web server. Try Syncplicity for yourself here: http://bit.ly/3mFNVB
