I have compared Box and Dropbox based on our users reviews in several parameters. After reading the collected data, you can find my conclusions below:
To summarize, based on user opinions, for larger organizations, Box is the preferred choice when compared to Dropbox. Users appreciate the simplified file management, as well as the ability to access Box on different devices. However, some users mention areas that could be improved, such as the limited integrations and inadequate search features. On the other hand, Dropbox seems to be easier to start with, and has a free pricing tier making it more relevant for smaller organizations.
"The solution is used for data storage and any kind of visualization."
"I like that Box makes it easy to deploy virtual machines."
"You can upload your bin, upload your files quickly, and download your files quickly. It provides a lot of other alternatives."
"The system's performance is impressive, and file sharing is notably straightforward."
"We've never had a penetration. We've never had a security issue that their support didn't solve. We love their audit trail. We can know exactly when a collaborator opens. We love how you can define a collaborator."
"The sharing feature, with its various permission settings, such as viewing or uploading, is convenient and helpful."
"The collaboration of the solution is good."
"The solution is scalable."
"The features that I find most valuable are the ability to sync across devices, easily access/share files and organize them among myself and my team."
"I can use the cloud version for storage and easy retrieval."
"The product's initial setup phase was straightforward."
"One of the advantages of Dropbox is that you can share files with people who are external to your organization without any additional costs. It is also easy to use, stable, and trustworthy."
"The performance is good."
"A valuable feature is that it's useful for exchanging large files and documents. I'm happy with it."
"The way the tool is designed and using the tool itself is quite transparent."
"The solution is very fast and simple. If I want to share a file I can put it on the cloud or on-premise. It's user-friendly."
"The search features and role permissions are not very user friendly. It only searches the first few pages of a document, which is quite a problem."
"If there was a plugin that added some sort of toolbar in Office, that would be great."
"In future releases, there could be encryption, to have better security."
"They could integrate better with other platforms."
"I find their API to be quite complex and it could be more straightforward."
"Like all cloud platforms, there are always areas of improvement around sync to local devices."
"I recommend doing the trial first, because it's not cheap ware. It's not overly expensive, but it's not cheap ware, and enterprise has a minimum number of users."
"The integration with other products should be improved."
"The problem with the storage is that you are only able to synchronize the information within the amount of storage that you have. It doesn't matter if you are accessing from a team member who has more storage, the limitations are with your storage."
"The solution could provide more capacity for free."
"For us, storage is an issue. The free version is too small in terms of the amount of storage on offer."
"The solution could be more scalable."
"I think the product's interface is an area of concern since it has been changed for a long time and can be considered for improvement."
"2 Gb of free space and then a not so cheap subscription (also if the competitors have similar proposals for customers)."
"Security could be enhanced."
"It would be good if they could market themselves as a safe solution for corporates. Currently, most corporates don't see it as a safe area to share within."
Box is ranked 9th in Cloud Storage with 39 reviews while Dropbox is ranked 4th in Cloud Storage with 85 reviews. Box is rated 8.4, while Dropbox is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Box writes "Allows you to upload and download files quickly but lacks integration with Office 365". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Dropbox writes "Seamless file synchronization across devices with user-friendly deployment". Box is most compared with SharePoint, Microsoft OneDrive, Citrix ShareFile, Office 365 and IBM FileNet, whereas Dropbox is most compared with Microsoft OneDrive, SharePoint, Citrix ShareFile, Google Workspace and Amazon WorkDocs. See our Box vs. Dropbox report.
See our list of best Cloud Storage vendors and best Content Collaboration Platforms vendors.
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Having used both I am too in the camp of Box followers simply because it is more secure and there is a great storage space in the free option. Dropbox has gained a lot of fans from the younger market as it is quick and easy to use but it is also fairly limited in its toolsets and also in its storage space. Box has a feel of permenancy and strength about it and has been a real boon for me when preparing presentations for various gigs in a multitude of locations as it enabled all the artists to access runsheets, chord charts, music videos and technical data sheets, so that when we came together at the gig we were all playing, acting and presenting off the same songsheet! Literally!
I have used Dropbox for family business meetings and sharing of documents and ideas. It is also simple to set up and access which is a real boon when dealing with thechnophobes or computer luditites.
In the end it is horses for courses and if you are a thorough bred on a long race with plenty of jumps then I'd go for the horse called Box. if your on the beach for a donkey darby then dropbox will do what you need.
Appologies for the weird sense of humour.
The biggest difference we saw when we looked at Box a few years ago was that Box encrypted stored files both in transit and at rest in storage. This is a deal breaker for most enterprises because most enterprise policies won't allow public storage (outside company data center) of employee or customer data without it being encrypted in order to protect that information. In addition to better security, box had much better administrator tools than dropbox at the time. More granular control, better tools for the security team to enforce policies, etc. As far as I know, this hasn't changed in the last few years. Box is the only player really putting forth the effort to offer a secure cloud storage platform that has the ease of use of consumer solutions, but secured for the enterprise. Microsoft doesn't have it. Dropbox doesn't have it. I'm not aware of anyone else focusing on this niche of the marketplace.
If you’ve ever been frustrated by the desire to share your text files with a friend or business colleague, these two products will be a great boon. Both are free too. Both allow you to invite people to either view your files, or to share the editing. A great idea if you want to co-write a report for example. Both allow you to download the file, edit it, and then load it back up again. Or to edit offline on your PC using the synch option.
Box (formerly box.net) key features:
· Free storage – 10gb
· File size limit – 250mb (free version)
· Main users – business
· Good online help
· Works by you uploading files and folders, which you can then share. These can be synched with boxsynch – similar to Dropbox. Also free.
· Secure storage
· Not as intuitive to use (more like Google docs), due to endless security options
· Great for more robust business usage
· Looks very flash
· Has a business version
· Not so widely used (30m users)
· Access from most phones, ipads, PCs and Macs.
Dropbox key features
· Free storage – 2GB (introduce your friends and this goes up)
· File size limit – no limit
· Main users – everyone
· Little online help
· Works by synchronising to a folder on your PC
· Intuitive to use
· A doddle to set up
· Looks less flashy than Box, but improving
· Secure storage (it is now!)
· Great for simple file sharing
· Has a business version
· Very widely used (300m users)
· Access from most phones, ipads, Kindle, Linux, PCs and Macs.
If I were choosing now, I would almost certainly pick Box to work with, unless I wanted to share really large files (I don’t) or to run on Linux or a Kindle (don’t want to do this either).
If all you want is a simple tool to share a few files, then I’d choose Dropbox.
I’ve been using cloud based storage for many years now, but the earlier versions of Box, when it was Box.net, put me off, as they were flaky and cumbersome to use. Dropbox stole their thunder, made it really simple and hundreds of millions of users now use it. Both companies are working fast to capture users, especially business users. So watch this space, and watch Google docs too.
Thank you,
Jacqui