WebDAV services - FYI

richard.masters
I have used pCloud as my WebDAV service for Zotero storage for a few years now and have generally found the service to be very reliable.

Unfortunately the service seems to have deteriorated over recent months making storing and downloading less reliable. I have contacted them about this drop in service quality in the hope that they take action, and wait for their response.

In the meantime I gave Koofr.net a test run and have, so far, been very impressed with the speed and reliability. Their security is also better implemented in that the WebDAV service requires its own password so 'normal' login can use 2FA - a simple solution that pCloud has not got round to offering.

CAVEAT: I am a new user of Koofr so cannot speak to long term reliability and, of course, your experience may be different. In which case it would be helpful to hear about it...

I also endorse the requests on here for the Zotero WebDAV page to be maintained with more up-to-date service details. I realise that this might reduce the number of people who pay Zotero for storage (which I would very willingly do, if it were more reasonably priced) but hopefully this is not an issue.
  • dstillman
    edited September 11, 2022
    pay Zotero for storage (which I would very willingly do, if it were more reasonably priced)
    Off-topic, but just to note, this is an absurd claim. Zotero's unlimited plan is priced the same as the lowest-priced plans from Dropbox and Box, and we offer much cheaper options (e.g., $1.67/month) with less space that work for many users — and that's ignoring that Zotero Storage entirely funds development of a free, open-source tool with free data syncing and other free services. If you don't want to or aren't able to pay for Zotero Storage, that's fine — that's why WebDAV is an option — but please be honest about it.

    (The one exception is countries where the exchange rate and/or cost of living make the dollar-based prices untenable. We're aware of that and hope to address it soon.)
  • richard.masters
    Hey Dan, apologies for any unintended offence. It is natural to compare Zotero-specific storage with services that offer similar, i.e. WebDAV, and they are often much cheaper. I consider Dropbox, Box, etc to be generic storage services that can be used for a variety of purposes.

    Zotero is a superb tool with first-rate supporting services for which I genuinely would be happy to pay a subscription if offered.
  • dstillman
    Zotero is a superb tool with first-rate supporting services for which I genuinely would be happy to pay a subscription if offered.
    But we do offer it. It's called Zotero Storage. It lets you sync files in groups and access files via the web library, it works reliably, and it funds Zotero development and infrastructure costs. Unless your argument is that we should charge for things we currently offer for free to everyone, or build additional services that we don't offer for free, I'm not sure what you're saying here.

    pCloud is every bit as generic a tool as Dropbox — it offers exactly the same sort of desktop filesystem integration, and is arguably even more generic, since it also supports WebDAV, a generic file-transfer protocol. They just try to compete on price — apparently unsuccessfully, given that there's been a nonstop stream of frustrated reports of problems with it in recent months.

    If you don't like that comparison, Zotero Storage is also cheaper than the storage pricing for Mendeley, a largely abandoned, proprietary product run by a $51 billion publishing giant.

    Again, not the topic of your thread, so we don't need to dwell on this, but my point is just that you can just talk about wanting to use WebDAV without suggesting that Zotero's prices are somehow unreasonable.
  • erdoke
    edited September 13, 2022
    Most people already pay several cloud storages and would prefer to use only one or maybe two. E.g. I pay 2 TB iCloud for Apple and 500 GB for pCloud. If I could substitute any of these with Zotero Storage then I would not hesitate for a second to switch and abandon pCloud. I could similarly pull the plug on pCloud if iCloud offered a WebDAV service as there’s massive amount of space left (but the family can’t fit in the next lower size 200 GB storage anymore).
    However, Zotero is totally specific and cannot be used for anything else the others can (AFAIK). So it’s not that Zotero Storage is expensive alone/as is, but it feels too much when it would be the third one.
    I have no solution to this, just adding my (off topic) two cents.
  • tmragan
    Given how useful I find Zotero, I'm pretty happy to pay for Zotero storage. Could I carve out a portion of my dropbox storage and get a cheaper $/GB cost? Probably, I guess. But then how would the Zotero developers get paid?
  • erdoke
    @tmragan
    There’s no comparable $/GB cost as only the Unlimited plan fits my needs. (My Zotero database is well above 50 GB by now. I could substitute pCloud with e.g. a 200-250 GB plan for about 30-40 EUR/USD, but there is nothing similar.)
  • johnsmithtexas
    @dstillman

    Because Box is not working anymore, I need to find an alternative webdav server. I had a look at Zotero prices, and it would def be the most convenient.

    I think my library (which I have been using since 2016) is around 1.5 GB, which means I would be in the 2GB/20$ per year. But as soon as I jump over that 2GB limit, I would need 6GB for 60$ and unfortunately that's too much for me.

    Supporting the dev of Zotero is important and for something around 5GB for 20$ per year, I would be the first one to sign up to avoid having to deal with future webdav problems.
Sign In or Register to comment.