Filestream.me Review
FileStream.me is a Russian cloud torrenting and storage site launched in February 12, 2012 in public beta. An early version of the site existed back in 2011, but it was available only in Russian.
FileStream.me during its early days. Snapshot from April 29, 2012, taken from the wayback machine.
The platform works completely online, with no additional software required to operate. Mobile apps are available for Android and iOS users.
What does FileStream.me offer?
The site provides both anonymous cloudtorrent downloads and storage facilities, with limitations and features subject to the type of account.
Regardless of the promised anonymity, registration is mandatory in order to gain access to FileStream’s services. The site complies with copyright laws, warning their users about not violating anyone’s property rights.
Customers can opt for any of the four offered plans, named Free, Bronze, Silver and Gold. The last three correspond to the paid tier, while the first one comes at no cost.
Downloads are not limited for anyone and download speeds are not capped either. Other features shared by both free and premium users include secure file transfers through SSL, the possibility of working with private torrents and support for parallel downloads.
To download from private torrenting services, the user first has to get the torrent file and then upload it to FileStream.me. The platform does not offer a seeding rate (since they are not a seeding service, according to their FAQ), but they try to at least keep the ratio of their users for “popular” torrents.
While daily downloads are technically unlimited, they are restricted to 5 ~ 30 at once (depending on the contracted plan). Files are stored on the cloud for no more than 20 days (and no less than 3 days, lifetime for Free users).
Premium memberships come with access to dedicated servers, increased allowed file size and video streaming from the web and in Android and iOS devices (with a Kodi add-on in development). Besides the standard plans, premium memberships can also be purchased for 24h to boost speeds, lifetimes and storage.
Pricing
The actual price will depend on the selected plan and duration. Prices start at 1.75 USD / month, but your first purchase will be slightly cheaper thanks to their welcome coupons. The 24h premium upgrade costs just 2 USD.
There is a wide range of accepted payment methods, including credit / debit cards (MasterCard and Visa), e-wallets (such as Payza), Paymentwalls and Bitcoin. In any case, no money back guarantees are given.
Invoice for a Bronze subscription to be paid in Bitcoin
The free tier will work just fine if you mostly want to download files whose size is no greater than 200 MB. For complex programs and HD videos, you will need to become premium.
FileStream.me plans, annual subscription. More information here.
Using the site
Free trial
Free accounts have an expiration time of 14 years, making them virtually lifelong. The only concerning restriction of this tier for average users would be the 200 MB file size limit, which depending on the intended use could translate into it not being useful at all.
How to download anonymously through FileStream.me
First you have to sign in or sign up (or both). Creating an account takes just seconds, with the longer part of the process being completing a captcha. Social login is available with Facebook, Google and Microsoft accounts.
The first time you use the site you will receive a few coupons to encourage you to go for a premium subscription. If you will be torrenting often or need some extra file storage, take advantage of the deal (60% off does not come every day). You can also get yourself a premium plan (for free) for being active on their Facebook fan page.
Premium memberships come at a 60% off the first time you buy them
Whatever you had decided, using the service is quite straightforward. First, you have to get a magnet or torrent link to the file you want, paste it to the box located at the top-center of the site and click load.
The platform will search for the file and immediately start moving it to its servers. We verified that the promised “unlimited” speed is real and saw how the files were transferred almost instantly.
File browser interface. It took me more time to find the magnet links than having the content ready on my dashboard
You can move the content to your system by clicking the cloud-and-arrow icon to the very left of it, in the file browser. You can alternatively enter to the downloaded folder and manually select the files that you want to retrieve.
Preparing to move one of the folders in my dashboard to my computer
You can also open the folders and view their content; audio and video files, particularly, can be played directly from the website.
Browsing a music album I had just transferred to my FileStream.me account
Something interesting about playing audio files from your browser is that you can reproduce more than one at once. In general, that probably won’t be the desired behavior, but there are some use cases when it makes sense.
These are audio files, they played fine without any interruptions. Just, ignore the black screen on the player
How anonymous is FileStream.me?
Even though registration is required, no personal information is collected in the process. The site hides the IPs of their customers and does not collect information about their activity, but it is important to point out that by accepting their terms and conditions you are granting them the right to monitor your activity at their own discretion.
The site claims to respect copyright, and while not prosecuting their users, they will collaborate with anyone presenting valid claims about intellectual property violations.
What about the security?
Downloads take place through SSL, adding a layer of security for the user. The site itself supports HTTPS, ensuring adequate encryption of any data involved.
Files are not scanned for viruses prior to their download, in other words, users are responsible for the safety of their own systems and must double-check their sources.
Captchas are all over the site, to the limit of being slightly annoying from after some time. Nevertheless, they still accomplish their purpose of discouraging brute force attacks.
User experience on FileStream.me
The site is properly designed, portraying fast load times and intuitive navigation. Responsiveness was in the mind of the dev team when the site was built.
Captchas are all over the site, making the experience slightly cumbersome at times. Some pages within the site are excessively charged with elements, making it confusing to the eye. URLs are also reformatted right after loading a page, making it harder to link to resources.
There are not many reviews about the service, and no entries on any popular reviewing directories, but the ones that can be found seem slightly positive. The site has a 3.5/5.0 on Sitejabber, based on just two reviews.
Their Android app has more than 1,500 reviews, with an average rating of 4.2/5.0. On the other hand, their iOS app still has not received many reviews and has not been assigned a score.
Scam Adviser gives the site a 81% score, tagging it as safe. The site’s Alexa rank is 38,021, according to the same source.
Pros
- Anonymous downloads.
- Generous free tier (besides max. file size).
- Good speed.
- No additional software required.
- Smooth parallel and queued downloads.
Contras
- No antivirus.
- No money back guarantee.
- No seeding.
- Purchasing a Silver or Gold membership is mandatory to download bigger files.
- Short file lifetime.
Conclusion
FileStream.me works great for people downloading smaller files. We are not only talking about the file size limitations for free (200 MB) and Bronze (2.5 GB) accounts, but the max. storage limits (1TB for Silver and Gold users) coming into play.
Overall, speeds are good, the interface is clean and the site almost error-free. Parallel and queued downloads also make the site quite convenient, and the 24h premium subscription constitutes a handy aid in many situations.
Go to filestream.me