Mega Review

Mega known for its previous name “MegaUpload”, they have been a big player in the online cloud industry for some time. Originally a great network to simply store and share files it has since expanded into a bit more. The service they provide offers high quality protection and encryption on data whilst this is alos backed with great storage options. They even offer 50 GB of free storage to users, this fact already beats many of the paid plans out there.

Price Plans

The free plan from the start offers users 50 GB of free storage to utilize which is an incredibly large amount, the beauty of their service is the fact they offer so much storage for free yet if their service does not meet your requirements it still has not cost you a thing. From there you can scale up to 4TB of data and 96TB of bandwidth, this starts at merely a cost of $10 monthly and is scaling. Heres a detailed descritption od the plans they offer:

• Plan 1 is around $10 USD per month for 500GB of storage and 1TB of Bandwidth
• Plan 2 is around $20 USD per month for 2TB of storage and 4TB Bandwidth
• Plan 3 is around $30 USD per month for 4TB of storage and 8TB of Bandwidth

The service they provide comes with plans that are scalable; this means that it is safe to say there is likely to be a plan that they provide that suits your requirements, this is without the fact that a lot of users only likely to need 50 GB and that comes completely free.

Features

Simplicity is Mega’s biggest feature, and is one of the biggest positives it has going for it. You can simply drag and drop files for upload without even having an account, they have an incredibly easy to use interface. Whether it’s for pictures, videos, or random documents you can easily upload them safely to Mega’s database. You can use this feature for yourself or a friend or even the world. Their 100% privacy policy also in itself is a big feature, they encrypt everything transferred through their site down to not even saving any of your account data on the servers.

Security

Security and privacy are top priorities with this simple upload service. Mega really goes above and beyond at protecting not just your data but you as an individual. The service they provide never stores two copies of your data on its servers and encrypts any to all transactions done on the site. They even offer private sharing options so that you can share with specific people or groups if need be. They also offer end to end encryption whilst still allowing for your files to be shared and stored in an incredibly simple click and drag process. Above all their privacy policy and regards to you and your data is bar none and worth the read on its own, their security setting are one their biggest selling point as they really go above and beyond to protect your data.

Speed

MEGA does a good job of providing fast file transfer speeds. In addition, they don’t impose any unreasonable and irritating bandwidth restrictions or monthly data transfer caps. I tested their service by uploading a 135MB video file, and the operation completed within 19 minutes, which seems to be on par with the faster competitors. However, please be aware that I am using an Internet connection with 5Mbps download bandwidth and 1 Mbps upload. It isn’t uncommon for some users today to have as much as 5 or even 10 Mbps upload bandwidth, which would drastically reduce the amount of time needed to upload a file.

Data Backup Capabilities

Mega allows for any files to be uploaded to its service. Everything I tested regardless of whether you have an account or not; was able to be uploaded to their servers, these included files such as photos, .zip files, and countless amounts of video formats.

Data Restore Capabilities

Now as far as restoration goes Mega isn’t really focused on full scale restoration for your files. To be honest with you it’s more of sharing service than a backup solution. However if you have one of their plans and store files on their server you can of course easily re-download them at your convenience. You can even stream files like videos or photos via the mobile apps that they offer. Their Mega Sync client also allows for syncing between multiple devices/computers, this makes the restoration of your files incredibly simple and easy to do.

Support

On the support side of things they do have a great help center where you can get answers to common questions and issues. To be honest with you though one limitation of the service they provide is the fact that they don’t offer much interactive ways to get help such as live chat, phone, etc. You are pretty much limited to community based questions and an e-mail address; this means that although the community based questions can be insightful, if you have any problems and you require instant help you are unlikely to get it.

Conclusion

Mega really redefines the cloud storage space for a couple of reasons. Security and privacy is of primary concern with the service they provide and high encryption levels ensure this. They believe in 0 interaction with your data and that government etc. aren’t entitled to it at all. This means that as far as security goes, they offer one of the best and most secure services in the cloud based industry. Mega’s culture however is more based on file sharing and uploading compared to backing up. They don’t offer specific software to automate backup’s and only offer a manual file syncing solution. There plans are great and offer storage options unlike most backup services out there but it’s definitely tailored towards a specific user and there requirements. However at an initial 50 GB, the free plan they provide has so much storage that the service they provide is definitely worth trying.

Pros:

• Great encryption with private keys
• Completely web based interface
• Free 50GB storage plan
• Fantastic file transfer/upload metrics such as data transfer rate and ETA

Cons:

• The collaboration features could use some work
• The file sharing features aren’t as advanced as we’d like
• There isn’t a native syncing client

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