Having spent a year in the closed beta stage, Insync is now available to everyone. On the surface, it's similar to other cloud storage services like Dropbox, Egnyte, and Box, where a folder created in your user account is automatically synced to remote servers for simple backup and sharing. However, there are a few differences that set Insync apart from the competition.

Because Insync uses Google's storage service, there are a couple of real advantages. Google storage is far cheaper than the competition for heavy users, with the 80GB package costing $0.25/GB a year, as compared to $2 for Dropbox and $4.79 for Box when you buy the 50GB packages. On top of this, Insync also integrates with Google Docs, bringing any shared items direct to your desktop and allowing you to use your favorite editor. Sharing has another key advantage over the competition, allowing you to withdraw invitations without needing to remove or rename the file.

Some features are far less mature than the competition though. The web interface is minimalist, with no file management features outside of sharing capabilities and downloading — even deleting files from the browser isn't an option just yet. The service offers 1GB for free, and the client is available for both Mac and Windows. We've given it a try, and the setup couldn't be simpler, but we'd definitely miss the sense of community given by Dropbox's shared folders.