More and more people are using online storage to share images, videos, and documents, and for backing up their data. We at Hetzner know you probably want to do the same, and so we developed two products you can use. But they have some important differences. This overview is meant to help you better understand the products so you pick the one that is right for you.
Overview
| Storage Box | Storage Share | |
|---|---|---|
| Use cases | Backup, shared files | Images, documents, videos |
| Shared systems | ||
| RAID-based system | ||
| Backup | ||
| Protocols | FTP, SFTP, SMB, Rsync, Borg, WebDAV | WebDAV |
| Web interface | ||
| Additional functions (App store) | ||
| Collaborative work / Groupware | ||
| File sharing | ||
| SSH login | port 22: interactive access not possible / port 23: interactive access possible | |
| Additional users | ||
| User backend | ||
| Local mount | ||
| Up- and Downgrade |
Storage Box
Storage Boxes are designed for you to use to back up your files. Large files are not a problem at all. Storage Boxes support protocols like FTP, SMB, and Rsync. There is no web interface. You can use them as a stand alone Storage Box product like an external drive. Another option is to order them bound to a specific server. Every Server Auction server and all servers of the EX/AX/PX/DX/SX lines come with a server-bound Storage Box BX10 with 100 GB for free. (You just need to order them on Robot by going to the correct dedicated root server and clicking on "Storage Box".)
You can access your Storage Box with a username and password or by using a stored SSH key. You can manually create snapshots of your Storage Box, or automatically create snapshots based on a set schedule.
Using Robot, you can add other users to your Storage Box. Their access is limited to a sub-directory of your Storage Box. Sub-accounts use the storage space of the main account. (If you are the main user of the Storage Box, they use your storage.) The main user has complete access to all directories on all sub-accounts.
You can get more detailed information in the general article about Storage Box.
Storage Share
Storage Share is a filesharing service based on Nextcloud. It's more user-friendly for the average user because of the graphical user interface. It is easy to access it via the web browser or the Nextcloud client and to drag and drop files so you can upload or download them. You can easily pick and choose apps from Nextcloud's store to install on your Storage Share and add more functions to it.
As the administrator for your Storage Share, you can create additional user accounts and groups, and you can assign each user a quota of server space.
Using the Nextcloud client, you can also automatically synchronize your files. That way, if a user makes any changes to files on a local level, or if they delete or add files, these changes will automatically be applied on your Storage Share. In addition, a backup will be made of your Storage Share several times a day, which you can use to restore your Storage Share. Users can share files and folders with other users and with user groups. In addition, share links allow users to share files and folders with people without accounts. Users can make these share links password-protected or put a time limit on them to prevent unauthorized access.
You can get more detailed information in the general article about Storage Share.
Additional information
The Hetzner servers that host both products are protected by a RAID, which can tolerate several failed disks. In addition, the Storage Share instances are saved in a cluster network, making a complete failure extremely unlikely.