Hive offers free, unlimited cloud storage space to share your media, photos and files with friends.

Upload, Download, Stream and Share

Hive is a cloud storage service that has a couple key distinguishing factors that make it the clear victor amongst its competitors: its free, and space is unlimited. Users of Dropbox will be familiar with the concept. The site allows users to upload a combination of music, photos and other file types to a designated online storage space. You can upload content, stream it directly via the site’s web app, share it with your friends, and download as many files as you’d like. The web app, which is also accessible via mobile devices, is well-organized and customizable. It’s a bit more cluttered than Dropbox, but that only seems to indicate that it offers more features.

The More Friends in Your Hive, the Cheaper it Gets

There’s a big social component to Hive, with a list of friends prominently displayed in the rightmost column of the web app, similar to the Facebook chat box. The emphasis is on sharing your content, which could be especially useful for a creative team working on a project or a small business. Again, everything’s free and unlimited, but you have to deal with ads unless you opt for the premium service. The pricing structure is atypical of online cloud storage services, but the uniqueness is an attractive factor. If you want to sign up for the premium service, but you have less than 10 friends on Hive, that’ll cost you $9/month. The more friends you have, the cheaper Hive gets. If you have more than 100 friends on Hive, the premium version of the service is free. The premium version removes ads and has uncapped download and streaming speeds. Hive is currently in Beta, but seems poised to transform the cloud storage space.