For those who select storage devices based purely on maximizing value, similar to choosing affordable bottled water without regard for the label, the recently introduced BuyPerUnit.com platform could prove valuable to monitor.
Created by Jon Levesque, a previous executive at Microsoft and DocuSign, the concept for BuyPerUnit emerged during his efforts to acquire large quantities of hard drives. Rather than emphasizing total cost like typical shoppers, this platform arranges SSDs and hard drives according to the expense per gigabyte or terabyte.
Levesque describes the platform as being in its initial phase—a basic version 1.0—avoiding paid API integrations and instead gathering data by scraping retailers such as Best Buy and Amazon for optimal deals, though this method lacks top efficiency.
The platform maintains a minimalist design, providing sorting options for different items (currently listing 332 hard drives and SSDs, 108 SD cards, and 79 USB drives) based on capacity, physical design, and similar attributes. Users can arrange results by cost per terabyte or per gigabyte, view pricing for larger orders, and then follow links to the retailer for checkout. An early insight from the platform: opting for renewed SSDs could offer the most economical choice when pursuing high-volume storage deals aggressively.
BuyPerUnit.com delivers a practical tool amid the persistent supply constraints affecting PC storage markets. However, it currently overlooks enthusiast-preferred factors like data transfer speeds or detailed connection types for external USB units, except for distinguishing USB-A from USB-C, requiring independent verification from users.
Feedback from users highlights alternatives like the quick-updating DiskPrices.com, which refreshes data every four hours but draws solely from Amazon. Levesque is open to suggestions, including this one: distinguish between solid-state and mechanical hard drives in categories, and explore adding RAM modules. Incorporating speed metrics would help. Although Levesque outlines future plans, such enhancements are expected to appear eventually.
In any case, BuyPerUnit went live just a few days ago, making it a candidate for saving in favorites among those seeking more storage options.
Mark has contributed to PCWorld over the past ten years, drawing on three decades of technology reporting. He has produced more than 3,500 pieces for PCWorld, spanning topics like PC processors, accessories, and Windows from Microsoft. His work has appeared in outlets such as PC Magazine, Byte, eWeek, Popular Science, and Electronic Buyers' News, earning a Jesse H. Neal Award for news coverage. Lately, he cleared out a stash of numerous Thunderbolt docks and USB-C hubs due to limited office space.