There’s Droplr and CloudApp for simple file sharing, Minbox for large private file sharing, and Dropbox for rather complex individual file sharing and simple folder sync. They’re all well know, and you likely use at least one of them already — and you’re likely convinced you don’t want to switch to another file sharing app.
Get ready to want to switch. The new Jumpshare is the nicest file sharing app yet, ready for both private and public file sharing, with features that no other file sharing app has. And it’s still dead-simple to use.
A Late-coming Winner
We first looked at Jumpshare last year when we reviewed its beta version, and were already impressed with its support of so many file formats and its nice folders for sharing sets of files together. The other popular simple file sharing tools had a 3-year headstart, and so many web-only file sharing services come and go that, despite our interest in the service, one couldn’t help but feel that it was fighting a loosing battle. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Jumpshare instead leapfrogged the other services, building on its incredible online file previewing to offer support for over 200 file formats, including most recently the addition of AutoCAD file support. You can share practically any file you want, and guarantee that others will be able to preview the file in their browser without downloading anything, whether it’s a document, eBook, video, or even a more obscure work document.
Then, it’s got the expected Mac app — only this Mac app is faster than any other sharing tool you’ve ever used. Drag a file (or a group of files to share together in an online folder) to the app, and it’ll immediately copy a link to your clipboard to share online while it’s uploading the files themselves in the background. In the time you’ve posted your status update or composed the email, it’ll likely have finished uploading the file — if not, your recipient will see the file upload progress from their end and the file will immediately show up in their browser when it’s finished uploading.
You could use the normal uploads for sharing files privately as well, or you can use Jumpshare’s built-in private sharing option. Just hold the alt key down while you drag a file to Jumpshare, and the files will upload while you type in the recipients’ email addresses and a quick message. The email will be sent as soon as the files have uploaded, which may happen while you’re writing the message if the files were small, since they start uploading as soon as you drag them to the app. It’s insanely simple and dumbfoundingly fast. There’s even an option in the online file preview to save files to your account — a nice Dropbox-style feature that ensures you won’t lose the shared files you receive via Jumpshare, something that’s easy to do with CloudApp and Droplr shared files.
That’s only one of the many nice features in the Jumpshare web app that take it far beyond typical simple file-sharing tools. The free accounts come with 2Gb of free storage space and a built-in email, Facebook, and Twitter sharing tool, but with the new Jumpshare Plus for $10/month, you can get even more. It includes 50Gb of file storage, an option to schedule sharing gives Jumpshare a Buffer-style scheduler to tweet or email a file on a specific time, and an option to have files/folders delete themselves automatically on a certain time. There’s also the option for custom domains, as you’d expect, and a very nice password protection option to make your files even more secure. That’s a surprisingly nice set of extra features for the paid account that make far more sense than the regular pro accounts on sharing services that mainly just let you get more storage.
Absolutely Worth Trying
It’s always easier to just use what you’re used to, and when you’ve got a one-click file sharing tool you’re already using, there’s little incentive to ever switch. You just can’t get simpler than one-click. But Jumpshare did the impossible: they made one-click sharing faster than ever, and added in smart features like background, multi-threaded uploads, private sharing, and scheduled posting that make it far more feature-full than the other sharing apps. And they did all of that without making it any more bloated or confusing to use.
Its free version is very nice — you can’t beat 2Gb of free file storage and online file preview for over 200 filetypes — and the pro version adds far more than just extra storage for your money. It’s odd declaring a new king of simple file sharing, but if I hadn’t already pre-paid for a year of Droplr Pro, I’d be switching today. The new Jumpshare is that good.
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