Cloud storage has become a revolutionary technology in the current digital era. Most of us use cloud storage for the purpose of storing our important data to keep it safe from any type of accidental deletion or formatting of hard disks. There are various cloud storage options that are available to the users. When it comes to mounting cloud storage on a particular desktop, it seems to be an interesting and a great idea. However, it does have some inherent limitations which are built in. There are various concerns regarding mounting cloud storage. One of them is Bandwidth which is a primary concern. It is due to the fact that even if the consumers have the speediest internet connections, it isn’t enough to transfer high volume data, in gigabytes, as fast as attaching an external hard drive to the Mac. There are various available options when it comes to mounting cloud storage. One of such premium application is CloudMounter which is worth mentioning and trying in case you really rely on cloud storage.
In the recent years, a lot has changed in the CloudMounter which is a top of the line product of Eltima Software. For starters, it has an ingenious and interesting menu bar utility which is free to download as well as use. However, it requires access to an account on Google Drive, Dropbox, or Microsoft OneDrive. This utility is quite beneficial for the users who don’t want to spend money.
In case the users need access to different cloud accounts or services such as FTP/SFTP, Amazon S3, Box, or WebDAV, they have to pay an additional fee. However, this is quite an essential addition to the CloundMounter as it allows the user to take advantage of different cloud services. One can download CloudMounter easily from the Mac App store which has some inherent limitations which are mentioned above. However, one can pay $9.99 for every three months or simply pay $29.99 annually in order to get unlimited connections. It is quite a great deal especially in case if you are particularly old school type who wish to buy the software once and own it forever or at least when the inevitable version 4.0 comes into the market. It is better to skip the Mac App Store and go straight to the Eltima software website in order to buy a perpetual license for merely $49.99. Eltima also provides a fully functional trial version for 15 days for those who wish to try the software before they decide to purchase it.
CloudMounter has various distinct features which makes it quite attractive to the users. It has unique as well as colourful volume icons along with easy and straightforward menu bar access which makes it a joy to utilize with your favourite and preferred cloud storage services. The installation of this software is quite simple and easier for the beginners too. Once the installation of this software is done, and the user has logged into one of the accounts which were previously mentioned, the user’s remote storage presents itself as a volume with quite an impressive and colourful icon on the user’s desktop. It can be easily be used to simply drag and drop files similar to local hard drives. This makes it quite easier for ClountMounter user to transfer data to the cloud storage. However, the transfer speed depends completely on the internet connection speed of the users. During the testing phase, we have found that smaller files actually behave more reliably in comparison to the larger ones.
There were few bugs as well as a restriction to the overall functionality of the software. Eltima has done a stupendous job in squashing all types of initial bugs as well as enhanced the functionality with the subsequent releases of the software. It now displays different status icons in the Finder in such a way that the user can easily view which files are in the upload or download queue or had errors during the file transfer. However, it is worth noting that the error icon didn’t occur when we tested the software which is a promising sign.
Another salient and distinct feature of this software is that the status icons make it easier for the user to simply see at a glance which are the files that are still transferring in the Finder windows.
The Version 3.2 introduces the most awaited feature which is Mounted cloud volumes that appear automatically in the Finger sidebar just like regular drives without any requirement to be added manually. It is worth considering that this particular feature was introduced by the rival software of CloudMounter, the ExapnDrive which did it a few years earlier. We are glad that Eltima has embraced the Finder. However, CloundMounter is a way better application for this particular aspect.
In case of ExpanDrive, it retains the upper hand especially in terms of diversity-Amazon Cloud Drive which is continually absent from the storage lineup of CloudMounter as are ownCloud and SMB/CIFS, also supported in the ExpanDrive of all the older path cloud services like hubiC and DreamObjects. However, there is the inherent ability of ClountMounter to choose a custom location for the storage of cache files which makes it a worthy competitor. There are certainly important issues which need to be addressed. When it comes to adding new accounts, it can be quite cumbersome, and there isn’t any Amazon Cloud Drive or SMB support.
Conclusion
Cloud storage has been used by the users for quite some time, and it is becoming a norm for the consumers to use different cloud services. They have multiple cloud storage accounts on different services. So when it comes to mounting cloud storage, the process can be quite tedious. There is various software which allows mounting cloud storage which is available in the market. Among these software, Eltima’s CloudMounter is a premium software. It allows the user to simply use multiple cloud accounts with ease. It has attractive pricing plans. It has drag and drop interface which eases the file transfer. Even though it took some versions to achieve the best features and functionalities, CloudMounter can now be considered to a worthy competitor of other software such as ExpanDrive when it comes to reliability as well as functionality.