File Sharing on The Fly

excellent
key review info
application features
  • File sharing
  • (5 more, see all...)

There is no point in stressing the importance of file sharing in today's digital world. Internet is all about sharing and, when it comes to sharing data, there are plenty of software alternatives for everyone.

Droplr is a web-based solution for backing-up / sharing just about any type of file. The idea is simple: you can upload screenshots, notes and local files to the cloud, and then the app will generate a unique URL for each uploaded file.

Just like many other services of its kind, the free account offers 1 GB of free storage space and is made available for Windows and iPhone as well. We've tested Droplr with a fully functional account that comes with 100 GB of space and extra features for 4.99$ (€3.83) a month.

As far as the resource consumption is concerned, it occupied 11 MB of our Mac's hard drive and the Real Memory usage read about 27 MB.

The Looks

Because the Mac OS X client is menu bar based, there isn't much to talk about regarding the looks. However, we liked the fact that, when uploading something, the menu icon displays a visual timer until the upload has finished.

The menu bar item includes the available actions and the latest 'drops' (uploads), which can be previewed by hovering your mouse cursor over them.

Furthermore, the Compose Note window (one of the two standalone windows besides the preferences) features a simple text area, a menu for selecting the text style and an upload button.

Although it looks modest, the Compose Note window integrates the familiar system-wide OS X contextual menu, which is quite powerful. It will allow you to personalize the text and change its orientation in no time.

The Works

Working with Droplr is amazingly simple. As mentioned before, the app will only provide a few options: upload local files / folders, capture screenshots and compose a note. You can also use the plug-in actions that are specific to several applications.

Keep in mind that Droplr is not like other back-up services that create a syncable local folder. Your data is stored only on Droplr's servers. Although this might seem unfavorable, you will learn to appreciate it because Droplr makes it incredibly easy to share files when you're in a hurry.

File sharing was the most flexible action in our tests, as there are four ways to do it: by dragging and dropping files onto the menu bar item, by clicking on the "Share File" option, through a custom global hotkey, or via the Services right-click menu option.

Moreover, if you've selected the Finder / Desktop, you can click on the "Upload Finder selection" option or press a global hotkey to upload files.

The data upload speed was quite fast: our files were transferred with up to 2.5 MB per second. This means that an archive of 500 MB was copied in less than two minutes, which is faster than what we expected.

Furthermore, Droplr surprised us in a good way when we’ve tried to upload a selection of files and folders – it automatically archived them before sending them to the cloud.

However, even though it's a great feature, archiving a bunch of files with a total size of 500 MB took quite a long time – about two minutes. There was no visual clue of what the application was doing, except for a "Preparing Upload …" note in its status bar menu.

After comparing its performance with the built-in OS X Archive Utility, we came to the conclusion that Droplr is twice as slow when archiving data. Therefore, we think that using Archive Utility to pack files before uploading them to the cloud would be a very good idea in order to improve the app's overall speed.

The Finder support is made possible thanks to the integration of plug-ins. As of now, Droplr offers integration with seven other apps and a total of three browsers are supported: Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome.

Whenever one of the browsers is selected, you'll see an option to copy the URL of the current tab in Droplr's menu. Luckily, we've managed to upload all kinds of URLs without any problems.

After an upload has finished, a popup notification will automatically be displayed in the upper right corner of your desktop (you can click on it to copy the URL to your clipboard).

In the free version, the URLs are kind of short (e.g. http://d.pr/x4LF), but you can add another series of letters and numbers (e.g. http://d.pr/x4LF/example123) or use your own custom domain if you want to protect them even further. This way, other people will not be able to guess the URLs for the files you've shared using Droplr. Of course, this extra layer of security is for Pro users only.

Capturing a screenshot is also a basic operation. After clicking on the “Capture Screenshot” in the status bar or hitting the designated global hotkey, a crosshair cursor helps you capture a portion of your screen. Soon after you've finished taking the screenshot, it will automatically be uploaded to Droplr.

In addition, the application offers no room for customization, unlike the Windows version. However, you can configure the global hotkeys from its Preferences window and toggle a 'start at login' option. We've set our own global hotkeys to each action and they've worked flawlessly.


The Good

The application is as handy as it is easy to use. Working with Droplr seemed like a child's play and the efficiency that you get from it is truly at the top of its game.

By simply pressing a global hotkey, we were able to upload files, take a screenshot or compose a note. The best part is that after your data is uploaded, you'll instantly get a shareable URL for each file.

Moreover, the upload speed was fast (2.5 MB/s) and multiple files and folders are automatically zipped before being uploaded.

The Bad

Although the popular idea 'the simpler, the better' seems to govern the design of Droplr, the app felt a little too minimalistic in terms of functionality. First of all, it could use proxy support since the Windows version already provides this feature.

Secondly, it might need a feature that would allow you to access the URLs of all your drops without visiting your browser. Also, using a faster compression engine for packing multiple files before uploading would come in rather handy.

The Truth

The utility does an amazing job when it comes to sharing files of any size on the fly. It manages to combine extraordinary simplicity with powerful sharing capabilities.

Droplr is not meant to be your go-to backup solution for everyday needs, but rather the lightning-fast tool that you can rely on whenever you need to share data across the web.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action:

Review image
Review image
Review image
Review image
Review image
Review image
user interface 5
features 4
ease of use 5
pricing / value 5


final rating 5
Editor's review
excellent
 
NEXT REVIEW: Decibel