
Crate. Web-based file sharing done incredibly easy. - sahillavingia
http://thenextweb.com/apps/2011/02/04/crate-web-based-file-sharing-done-incredibly-easy/
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corin_
The files are hosted on AWS S3 (despite the fact that their domain is
"cdn.lts.cr", they're not using CloudFront), so assuming a cost of $0.14/GB
(too lazy to calculate it including S3's various pricing ranges that come into
play when more data is being stored), and completely ignoring facts such as
cost of hosting the site, and the time factor of creating and managing the
site...

Also assuming that _all_ free users use _all_ of their 200mb, and _all_ pro
users use _all_ of their 10gb...

They need a free-to-pro conversation rate of 0.37% to break even on the S3
costs, i.e. one pro account for every 271 free accounts.

Alternatively assuming that all users will use 50% of their 200mb or 10gb,
then that's a conversation rate of 0.17%, or one pro account for every 593
free accounts.

My guess is that, if we ignore people who try it out and then decide not to
use the service, chances are that, of the people who stick around (i.e. the
people who will actually store more than one test file), quite a decent number
will move to the pro account. So yeah, I can see how they are making a profit,
seems like it could turn into a nice (and really easy maintenance) little cash
cow.

On a seperate topic, would be amazing if someone created an open source
version of this as a front-end for S3 - though I'm far too lazy to do it
myself.

edit: I see the creators are reading this thread, so here's a direct query.
Any chance you'd create an account for maybe a few dollars a month (less than
pro) that you provide no storage for, and that gets hooked up to an S3 (or
S3+CloudFront) account of the user's chosing?

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jasonkester
Sweet. I've been waiting for somebody to make a service that let me upload
files to the cloud.

Especially since it's Simple.

Now if only somebody would come out with a service to shorten all these links
I have laying around I'll be set.

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vokoda
haha my thoughts exactly

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iamgoat

      Oh, and Crate is already profitable. No worries about losing your stuff because the business tanks.
    

That's helpful, but not a guarantee.

The site seems a little too bare to trust with my credit card, though the free
version sounds really great. It seems like it's missing something. Like a
weekend project that still has some details to flesh out.

~~~
sahillavingia
What could we add to change your mind?

~~~
CamT
I'd like to be able to change my password. Am I missing something?

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corin_
<http://letscrate.com/settings> lets me do that (linked to from
<http://letscrate.com/home>)

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mediamaker
It's like a box you can drop stuff in

~~~
bradmccarty
If only someone had thought of that before, eh?

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quizbiz
I was introduced to <http://min.us> and have been hooked.

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bradmccarty
Minus is more than photos? Honest question. I knew it was a crazy nice photo
sharing app but other file types?

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quizbiz
anything. try it. haha

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moeffju
This brought back fond memories of drop.io. There was "ridiculously easy *
sharing". Crate does look a nice replacement, Although they offer far less
storage and features, it seems like a viable answer to many people's problems.
However, the same feature set is covered by Dropbox' Public Folder, or am I
missing something?

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reedF211
How is this any different from dropbox or tons of other file hosting sites out
there?

~~~
erikpukinskis
You have to download dropbox.

~~~
_delirium
You don't _have_ to, though it's geared towards that. You can use it entirely
through the web interface if you want, manually uploading and downloading
files.

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handzhiev
And how is drag n drop easier than having an upload button? I don't want to
open explorer, find my file there, resize the window and drag with the mouse.
Clicking on "upload" button and locating my file is much easier.

~~~
ams6110
scp at the command line is easier still, especially if you define an alias in
your .ssh/config file. Do any of the "cloud" file storage services support
scp/sftp access?

~~~
vglass
mftexpress offers support for ftps and sftp as well as web based file
transfers over https. <http://www.jscape.com/services/mftexpress/>

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bdclimber14
In 3 bullets, why should I switch from Dropbox?

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barmstrong
Does anyone know what technique they're using to get the drag and drop uploads
working in Webkit?

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deweller
From the Pastie above, it looks like they are using this:

[http://developer.apple.com/library/safari/#documentation/app...](http://developer.apple.com/library/safari/#documentation/appleapplications/Conceptual/SafariJSProgTopics/Tasks/DragAndDrop.html)

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nhangen
Will take a lot to get me to make the switch from Dropbox. I also use Cloud
app (<http://getcloudapp.com>) and like it.

~~~
bradmccarty
My sole issue with CloudApp is that linked files are embedded on a page. I
freaking hate that.

~~~
colinyoung
Same. So frustrating. Maybe I'll try to hack together a similar dropzone for
Min.us or Crate.

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Rygu
I prefer <http://ge.tt/>. Short URL, simple layout, no sign up needed, lots of
bandwidth and storage, no BS.

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rb2k_
Remembers me of drop.io (sadly not arround anymore)

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argimenes
Don't you mean: 'incredibly easily'?

