We all need to download files from time to time. Upstore.net is a popular place to host and share these files. When you visit the site, you have two choices. You can use it for free as a guest, or you can pay for a Premium account.
Is the paid account worth the money? Or is the free account good enough? I decided to test both of them. I wanted to see the real difference in speed and ease of use. The results were very clear. The experience is completely different depending on your account type.
The Struggle of the Free Account
Using the free account tests your patience. It is designed to be slow. If you are in a rush, a free account is not a good choice.
First, there is a speed limit. Upstore limits free users to under 100 KB per second. I tested this myself. The reality was even slower than the limit. My download speed stayed between 20 KB and 50 KB per second. This is very slow for modern internet.
Second, you have to wait before you can start. When you click on a file, you cannot download it right away. You must stare at a timer. You have to wait 60 seconds. Only then will the download link appear.
Third, you have to prove you are human. After the 60-second wait, you must solve a Captcha. You have to click images or type words. This adds another step to the process.
Finally, there is a delay between downloads. This might be the most annoying part. Let’s say you need two files. You finish downloading the first one. You try to get the next one. The site will stop you. You will see a message that says: “Sorry, we have found that you or someone else have already downloaded another file recently from your IP.” You must wait 20 minutes before you can try again.
The Speed of the Premium Account
The Premium account removes all these barriers. It is much faster and easier to use.
The biggest difference is the speed. There is no limit. The file downloads as fast as your internet connection allows. In my test, I used a VPN. Even with the VPN, my speed reached 15 MB per second. That is huge compared to the free account. If you have a fast home broadband connection, you could likely reach 50 MB per second easily.
Also, there is no waiting. You do not have to watch a 60-second timer. You click the link, and the file starts. There are no Captcha puzzles to solve. You get your file instantly.
You can also download as many files as you want. There is no 20-minute penalty. You can download one file after another without stopping.
A Real-World Test: The 360 MB Video
To see the real difference, I ran a specific test. I tried to download a video file named test.mp4. The file size was 361.73 MB. This is a common size for a short video or a small set of photos.
The Free Result:
The download was painful. Because the speed was only around 20 to 50 KB per second, it took a very long time. It took one full hour to get this small file.
The Premium Result:
The difference was night and day. With the Premium account, the speed jumped to 15 MB per second. The same 361.73 MB file finished in just one minute.
Conclusion
The numbers tell the whole story. The free account took one hour. The Premium account took one minute.
If you only need to download a tiny text file once a month, the free account is fine. You can wait a minute. But for anything else, the free account is too hard to use. The speed is too low. The 20-minute wait between files blocks your progress.
If you value your time, the Premium account is the winner. It turns a one-hour wait into a sixty-second task. It removes the stress and lets you get your files fast.