SugarSync and The Tech Brief Giving Away a MacBook Air

I don't usually pimp promos, but I know that I'm not the only one who wants a MacBook Air just to slide it in and out of an envelope all day long, so I figured I could bundle up the giveaway announcement with a product review.

The Tech Brief is partnering with SugarSync in giving away a free MacBook Air, and entering the contest is pretty simple: subscribe to The Tech Brief email newsletter, and then sign up for a free trial of SugarSync, installing it on at least one computer or phone. I'm all about anything that doesn't require me to motivate myself to get off my laptop, and has the potential for a cool payoff, so I entered, and got my brand-new SugarSync account all set up and ready to go.

My trial account is the starter account, which includes up to 10GB of storage for $2.49 a month or $24.99 a year. Of course, this doesn't even begin to touch my complete storage needs so I'm just backing up my documents, which take up maybe 6GB when you count the images I use for articles. From there, you have your choice of Basic (30GB, $4.99/$49.99), Premium (60GB, $9.99, $99.99), Professional (100 GB, $14.99/$149.99), or Business (250GB, $24.99/$249.99) Plans.

The good news: SugarSync is completely idiot-proof. You tell it what you want to back up in the set-up wizard, and it tells you right there whether you are selecting too many files for your plan (with a convenient link to upgrade). If you happen to be easily distracted like I am and close your laptop mid-sync? SugarSync picks up right where it left off when you reconnect, which I wish JungleDisk would work out for me, since I am constantly forgetting I'm syncing and interrupting my back-up. I can also sync files between my phone and my laptop, which would probably be more useful if I didn't have a Bluetooth phone and laptop, since Bluetooth is faster than using SugarSync.

The bad news: SugarSync is priced way too high. When most people can figure out Amazon S3 on their own or using some nearly-idiot-proof client like Jungle Disk, SugarSync isn't offering enough additional features to warrant the price. I'm storing over 20GB of files on S3, and rarely see a monthly bill that goes over $3.00 and some-odd cents a month. SugarSync's pre-built plans also mean you may end up paying for more storage than you end up using; there's a big difference between 100GB and 250GB. With S3 and similar services, you are only paying for what you are actually using.

If you are more interested in quick set-up and completely idiot-proof back-up and syncing, then the cost of SugarSync may be just fine. For me, I'm probably going to end up sticking with S3.