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Box vs Dropbox comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 23, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Box
Ranking in Cloud Storage
12th
Ranking in Content Collaboration Platforms
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Content Management (6th), Digital Asset Management (3rd), Document Management Software (2nd)
Dropbox
Ranking in Cloud Storage
5th
Ranking in Content Collaboration Platforms
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
89
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Cloud Storage category, the mindshare of Box is 4.3%, up from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dropbox is 4.3%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Storage
 

Q&A Highlights

AS
Jul 09, 2014
 

Featured Reviews

Shrikant Pillay - PeerSpot reviewer
Allows you to upload and download files quickly but lacks integration with Office 365
For enterprise users, the data is in a local repository. We use it for files for the end user process. This is a cloud solution. In my current organization, we have over 10,000 people using this solution. I use it very extensively. Users these days are working remotely You can upload your bin,…
Edgar  Paez - PeerSpot reviewer
Work from anywhere and backup easily while being practical
I recommend Dropbox, yet not for all of the features it has. I am a basic user. In a personal mode, we have about 100 employees, and maybe 20 of them use Dropbox as a personal backup system. ShareFile is more secure than Dropbox. Five years ago, ShareFile was qualified as having better security control, access privilege management, and version control recovery, among many features that we were using for private documentation. Overall, I would rate Dropbox an eight out of ten.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"We can provide controlled access to documents using the product."
"The sharing feature, with its various permission settings, such as viewing or uploading, is convenient and helpful."
"You can upload your bin, upload your files quickly, and download your files quickly. It provides a lot of other alternatives."
"It is really easy to load files to and from this solution."
"The solution is used for data storage and any kind of visualization."
"I like that Box makes it easy to deploy virtual machines."
"Office Integration. The full integration into the Microsoft Office products is just perfect."
"Box is very user-friendly; more so than SharePoint."
"The solution is easy to use, everyone can use it."
"The primary standout feature for me is the effortless synchronization across various devices."
"A valuable feature is that it stores my files and photos. I'm satisfied with this product."
"It is the best solution in terms of space, file sharing, and live editing. I can share and edit files with multiple users."
"Setting up DropBox is straightforward, and one person can do it in less than five minutes."
"The solution is very clear and easy to use."
"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 initial setup is simple and straightforward."
 

Cons

"Maturity of the enterprise security around user management."
"If you want to delete something in Box, you have to do it manually, one by one. That was my recent experience. They might have a bulk delete, but I could not find that option. If you want to delete something, you have to go to each and every file and delete it."
"Data privacy, regarding where to store your data: Offering several transparent(!) options (where to store my data and whether to sync back or not and where to sync) regarding the local law situations (USA, EU, Switzerland!) would increase the credibility of a US based company (after NSA ‘snooping’)."
"I find their API to be quite complex and it could be more straightforward."
"With OneDrive, you can continuously save your files over a Box folder. That is something I wish we could have."
"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."
"I haven't really come across a case where we're not able to use it for what it is, so I don't really have anything holding us up or any customers holding us up at this point that I know of. There are always some limitations, but as a technologist, I just live with them, and there is always room for improvement, but I don't have anything quantifiable."
"The room for improvement is in the area of integrations. They need to establish more integrations, especially with Office 365 and Outlook."
"A room for improvement in Dropbox is document editing. It would be nice to have the functionality of editing the document with other people at the same time. This is something that can be done on Office 365, and it's a feature I'd like to see in the next release of Dropbox."
"It's an expensive solution."
"I see that if you use a mobile device that does not allow you to properly configure the email part with Dropbox, then you cannot access it."
"The pricing could be better and so could the amount of storage space. I feel like for the price, they don't offer very much storage space, especially when compared to competitors like Google."
"The free storage can be increased."
"I'd like to see security improved a bit."
"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."
"Dropbox could improve by increasing its storage."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Better sign a full year's contract to get a discount."
"A business account has a minimum of three users. If you are more than three people in-house, go for the Enterprise version. All the external users are free of charge."
"They are very price competitive when pushed. Initially, they come out with a standard list price, but they are willing to be very competitive. The Box price was pretty much equal to or lower than the Citrix price, and Box has more features."
"We are using the free version of the solution. There is a free version and monthly and yearly subscriptions available."
"Box's pricing is excellent."
"I'm in Higher Ed, so we purchase through Internet2-Net+. I absolutely recommend going that route for Higher Ed customers."
"Box needs to improve with their pricing in terms of licensing costs."
"It is expensive per head, as you need the enterprise license to get full security and tools. So negotiate a discount!"
"I find their pricing to be fairly standard and competitive when compared to the rest of the market."
"I was using the free version of the product."
"I am using the free version of the solution."
"I don't pay any licensing costs."
"There is a subscription-based pricing model and I pay monthly."
"Dropbox offers a freemium model which is very convenient and affordable. Beyond that, the pricing is favorable."
"My company makes monthly payments towards the licensing charges associated with the product. I think it's a reasonably priced product."
"We use a yearly license. The pricing is not a bad price. I'd rate it about a five out of ten, with ten being expensive and one being cheap."
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Answers from the Community

AS
Jul 9, 2014
Jul 9, 2014
Just an FYI...I found out this week that Microsoft with their OneDrive solution will be also encrypting files in storage and in transit, and if you have your email already in the cloud with Microsoft O365 you can get enormous amounts of data per user in each person's OneDrive...I probably can't say how much, but let's just say it's WAY more storage per user than you get with Box or Dropbox. I'...
2 out of 4 answers
it_user120363 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 17, 2014
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
ED
Jun 17, 2014
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.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
60%
Computer Software Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Healthcare Company
3%
Educational Organization
64%
Computer Software Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
3%
University
3%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Box?
The solution is used for data storage and any kind of visualization.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Box?
The solution is expensive when it comes to API calls.
What do you like most about Dropbox?
For me, the biggest thing is version history. I can easily go back and view older versions.
What needs improvement with Dropbox?
I would like to have a document flow. Sharing documents with other people in the same division or department and being able to work without downloading the file would be ideal. Working online would...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

GE, Toyota, P&G, Caterpillar, Flex, Schneider Electric, Sally Beauty, Eurostar, AstraZeneca, AirBnB, Whirlpool, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Nationwide, Aeropostale etc
Vita Coco, BCBGMAXAZRIA Group, Centric Project, Kayak, FourSquare, Asana, Huge Adversting , USA Gymnastics, Appen, Valliant, Radio Lab
Find out what your peers are saying about Box vs. Dropbox and other solutions. Updated: February 2025.
842,296 professionals have used our research since 2012.