FileShareFreak [mirror]: RapidShare Killers: A Review of the Hottest New Filehosters

April 05, 2010 by sharky

Whether it be on release blogs, warez forums, or anywhere else on the ‘net - it’s unanimous that RapidShare links are everywhere. Few can deny that RS continues to reign as king of the filehosters - but there’s some serious new competition aiming to dethrone this behemoth 1-click hoster. According to Alexa: just 12 months ago RapidShare was poised at the #10 spot among most-visited websites; RS has now slipped to #31 and continues to slide. Small potatoes? Not in the business of filehosters it isn’t, where mad dollars are at stake. One thing that is certain - you can bet that the RS team is sweating over these new startups below that are vying for a piece of the filehosting pie.

RapidShare’s decline in popularity doesn’t indicate a slowdown in the overall growth of filehosters - in fact, DDL trends are quite the contrary. The collection below is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all filehosters available; it’s merely a sample of just some of the newer ones out there.

http://hotfile.com

Alexa Ranking: 90
SiteReport Rank: 85
Visits Per Day: 6,287,169
Free Users: (downloading & uploading) — 400 MB max filesize
Registered Users: same as above
Premium Access: $9 for 1 month
Download Speed (as free user): 130 - 150 KB/s (on average)
PROs — PayPal & CC payment options.
CONs — Captcha and 60 second wait-times (for free users).

http://freakshare.net

Alexa Ranking: 526
SiteReport Rank: 550
Visits Per Day: 1,202,308
Free Users: (downloading & uploading) — 450 MB max filesize
Registered Users: same as above
Premium Access: 9.99€ (Euro) for 1 month
Download Speed (as free user): 100 - 115 KB/s (on average)
PROs — No captcha. Extensive list of payment options.
CONs — 10-minute delay between new downloads (for free users). Expensive premium access when compared to other filehosters.

http://sharingmatrix.com

Alexa Ranking: 1,422
SiteReport Rank: 1,583
Visits Per Day: 530,346
Free Users: (downloading — 400 MB max filesize); (uploading — 1 GB filesize limit)
Registered Users: (downloading & uploading) — 2 GB max filesize
Premium Access: $9.99 for 1 month
Download Speed (as free user): 180 - 230 KB/s (on average)
PROs — Above-average download speeds for free users (despite their own claim that DL rates won’t exceed 100 KB/s, we easily doubled this).
CONs — Hard to read captcha. Popup adverts. 400 MB filesize download limit for non-premium users.

http://x7.to

Alexa Ranking: 2,106
SiteReport Rank: 2,261
Visits Per Day: 393,958
Free Users: (downloading & uploading) — 5 GB max filesize
Registered Users: same as above
Premium Access: 10€ (Euro) for 30 days
Download Speed (as free user): 40 - 60 KB/s (on average)
PROs — No captcha. Very quick upload speeds for free users. Offers High-Def streaming for premium account holders.
CONs — Slow download speeds (for free users).

http://oron.com

Alexa Ranking: 2,937
SiteReport Rank: 2,706
Visits Per Day: 287,508
Free Users: (downloading — 1024 MB max filesize; 100 MB transfer limit per hour); (uploading — 200 MB filesize limit)
Registered Users: (downloading — 1024 MB max filesize; 100 MB transfer limit per 45 minutes); (uploading — 400 MB filesize limit)
Premium Access: $9.95 for 30 days
Download Speed (as free user): 100 - 125 KB/s (on average)
PROs — Registered members receive up to 250 GB online storage.
CONs — Non-premium users are limited to just 100 MB of bandwidth per hour (or 45 minutes, if registered). In theory, a 200 MB file would supposedly pause downloading halfway through, in order to wait for the next hour’s cycle to begin - although in our tests we didn’t experience this.

http://shareflare.net

Alexa Ranking: 3,248
SiteReport Rank: 1,800
Visits Per Day: 413,442
Free Users: (downloading — no filesize limitations); (uploading — 2 GB filesize limit)
Registered Users: same as above
Premium Access: 5€ (Euro) for 30 days
Download Speed (as free user): 45 - 55 KB/s (on average)
PROs — Multiple (simultaneous) file uploading. Support for resuming downloads.
CONs — Tricky navigation when downloading files - a "SMS" option is open by default; free users need to click the small "Free" option and enter a captcha code. At the time of testing, download speeds (for free account) were below average (~50 KB/s). Popup / popunder advert pages are not blocked by AdBlock Plus.

http://www.extabit.com

Alexa Ranking: 3,431
SiteReport Rank: 4,442
Visits Per Day: 153,496
Free Users: (downloading — 2 GB filesize, download speed is capped at 75 KB/s); (uploading — 2 GB filesize limit)
Registered Users: (uploading — 10 GB filesize limit)
Premium Access: $12.99 for 30 days
Download Speed (as free user): 35 - 60 KB/s (on average)
PROs — Unlike most filehosters, Extabit has a search feature to browse files stored on their servers.
CONs — Slow - they’re not kidding when they say that free users are ’speed capped’ at 75 KB/s. To avoid this frustration, premium access seems to be the only solution.

http://ugotfile.com

Alexa Ranking: 4,534
SiteReport Rank: 4,507
Visits Per Day: 166,802
Free Users: (downloading & Uploading) — 5 GB max filesize
Registered Users: Same as above
Premium Access: $9.99 for 30 days
Download Speed (as free user): 300 - 500 KB/s (on average)
PROs — Fast downloading for non-premium users.
CONs — Hard to read captcha upon downloading. Only accepts credit cards (no PayPal) for purchasing premium accounts; although affiliates do require PayPal to receive payouts.

http://www.superfastfile.com

Alexa Ranking: 18,485
SiteReport Rank: 19,988
Visits Per Day: 52,274
Free Users: (downloading — 1,500 MB daily bandwidth); (uploading — 5 GB filesize limit)
Registered Users: (downloading — 3,000 MB daily bandwidth); (uploading — 5 GB filesize limit)
Premium Access: $1.99 for 30 days (includes 20 GB daily bandwidth)
Download Speed (as free user): 110 - 135 KB/s (on average)
PROs — Easy to read captcha. One of the cheapest ‘premium’ filehosters we’ve ever come across.
CONs — Links aren’t easy to find.

http://save.am

Alexa Ranking: 27,957
SiteReport Rank: 13,336
Visits Per Day: 71,758
Free Users: (downloading — 450 MB filesize limit); (uploading — 250 MB filesize limit)
Registered Users: (downloading — 450 MB filesize limit); (uploading — 450 MB filesize limit)
Premium Access: $6.99 for 30 days
Download Speed (as free user): 50 - 65 KB/s (on average)
PROs — No captcha. Registered members are able to download at higher rates than anonymous downloaders (90 - 120 KB/s).
CONs — Slowish DL speeds for free (anonymous) downloads.

http://cramit.in

Alexa Ranking: 54,597
SiteReport Rank: 24,453
Visits Per Day: 38,018
Free Users: (downloading — 10 GB max filesize); (uploading — 10 GB max filesize limit)
Registered Users: Same as above
Premium Access: $4.99 for 30 days
Download Speed (as free user): 97 - 105 KB/s (on average)
PROs — Very affordable premium access. Generous 10 GB filesize limits for both free & premium users. Unlimited storage space for registered (free) users. Cramit.in offers free apps such as a download manager and a desktop uploader.
CONs — Only accepts PayPal (to purchase premium); affiliates must also possess a PayPal account.

http://file-bit.net

Alexa Ranking: 123,329
SiteReport Rank: 63,136
Visits Per Day: 14,732
Free Users: (downloading — 2 GB max filesize); (uploading — 2 GB max filesize limit). Free users are capped at 9 GB download bandwidth per 3 days.
Registered Users: (downloading — same as above); (uploading — 3 GB max filesize limit)
Premium Access: $6.99 for 30 days
Download Speed (as free user): 30 - 50 KB/s (on average)
PROs — Registered (free) users receive 200 GB storage.
CONs — Deathly slow - not an appropriate filehoster for free users who download large files.

http://www.fileserve.com

Alexa Ranking: 195,400
SiteReport Rank: 69,399
Visits Per Day: 10,692
Free Users: (downloading — at least 1 GB filesize); (uploading — 1 GB max filesize limit).
Registered Users: same as above
Premium Access: $9.99 for 30 days
Download Speed (as free user): 60 - 80 KB/s (on average)
PROs — No captcha. Registered members receive 200 GB storage.
CONs — If there’s one site where it pays to become a free registered member, it’s FileServe. Download speeds will improve dramatically upon signing up (from 60-80 KB/s to 200-330 KB/s).

http://lizshare.net

Alexa Ranking: 479,685
SiteReport Rank: 379,157
Visits Per Day: 2,234
Free Users: (downloading & uploading — 2 GB max filesize)
Registered Users: (uploading — 3 GB max filesize limit)
Premium Access: $13 for 31 days
Download Speed (as free user): 450 - 550 KB/s (on average)
PROs — Great speeds for free downloads! Bandwidth is unmetered.
CONs — Lizshare DDLs are hard to find.

http://www.movieshare.in

Alexa Ranking: 728,214
SiteReport Rank: 288,836
Visits Per Day: 3,279
Free Users: (downloading — 700 MB per day allowance); (uploading — 1 GB max filesize limit)
Registered Users: (downloading — 1000 MB per day allowance); (uploading — 2 GB max filesize limit)
Premium Access: $5 for 30 days (20 GB per day / 12 GB filesize limit)
Download Speed (as free user): 650 - 750 KB/s (on average, see image below)
PROs — It’s always a good sign when a new filehoster’s links start appearing in RlsLog comments. In our tests, DL speeds were amazingly zippy; perhaps this can be attributed to the server(s) not yet being inundated with too many downloaders.
CONs — Beware of the money-grabbing flvdirect.com page that launches when you click their "Free User" link.

Other Filehosters…

• A more robust list of filehosters can be seen here.

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RapidShare Killers: A Review of the Hottest New Filehosters