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Box vs Dropbox comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 17, 2024

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
7.5
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 January 2025, in the Cloud Storage category, the mindshare of Box is 8.6%, up from 6.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dropbox is 8.5%, down from 10.6% 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

"I like that Box makes it easy to deploy virtual machines."
"Sharing and collaborating across files and folders has been a massive game changer."
"The ability to collaborate around data anywhere, anytime is the most powerful features of Box."
"The sharing feature, with its various permission settings, such as viewing or uploading, is convenient and helpful."
"We can provide controlled access to documents using the product."
"Governance and ease of use are why I think a lot of people like Box, including ourselves. Basically, we're concerned about what information is being sent to Box, so we use a lot of the Box governance features to make sure that what is being sent to Box is appropriate. If it is not appropriate, it is not allowed to be sent. It is also pretty easy to use. It is the easiest to use for customers and for technologists."
"Box is very realistic when it comes to sharing capabilities."
"Using Box for cloud storage allows us to focus on the service and maintaining infrastructure."
"I don't need to carry my laptop while traveling. I just synchronize whatever I've been doing to Dropbox. After the document is synchronized, I can leave my laptop and use Dropbox wherever I am. I can also easily share a document with my colleagues, no matter how big it is. I can allow them to edit, and the editing will be instant. I can see whatever changes they've made to the document. It doesn't delete a document automatically. If I make a mistake and delete a file, it doesn't automatically delete the file. It gives you the warning to say you're deleting a file. In terms of security, I haven't had any challenges with Dropbox where they tell you that your data is compromised."
"It is the best solution in terms of space, file sharing, and live editing. I can share and edit files with multiple users."
"Dropbox has a simple interface, and it's pretty straightforward."
"I had a good experiment with the technical support from Dropbox."
"The setup was straightforward."
"The performance has been good."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is user-friendly."
"It offers security, accessibility, and user-friendly features."
 

Cons

"Maturity of the enterprise security around user management."
"The upload speed needs improvement."
"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’)."
"The solution's data security should be improved."
"Like all cloud platforms, there are always areas of improvement around sync to local devices."
"The price must be lowered."
"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."
"They could integrate better with other platforms."
"They can provide more storage. Data is something that everybody is after. Any organization that has the requirement of data for any type of analysis will definitely need increased storage."
"Considering the solution's shortcomings, I want the product to be more user-friendly and offer more storage capacity."
"The interface could have bigger buttons."
"The solution could provide more capacity for free."
"Dropbox needs to improve its integration with Google platforms, including Google Sheets, Google Docs, and Google Slides, which facilitate easier collaboration."
"They can maybe provide a bit more free space. By default, they give you 2 Gigabytes. The storage space could be a bit more."
"Dropbox could make the installation and the log of what has changed in a file easier. Showing logs could be more accessible."
"Dropbox could be improved by reducing the storage price."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Box needs to improve with their pricing in terms of licensing costs."
"I believe Box is cheaper than SharePoint."
"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."
"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."
"The more you dig, the deeper the level of tools, and the more expensive it becomes."
"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."
"My organization pays for the license."
"We are using the unlicensed free version of Dropbox."
"Dropbox is one of the cheapest tools in the market."
"One area that has been a big issue for me is when I tried to close my accounts, it is difficult. We had small personal accounts, and we then wanted to consolidate everything to the business account, but then to cancel and close those smaller accounts, it's a big issue. I still haven't done it and it's quite a long process."
"I use the free version of the solution."
"We are using the free version of Dropbox which has approximately two gigabytes of data capacity."
"The subscription could be cheaper."
"A basic version of Dropbox is available for free with a paid subscription from Microsoft."
"Users need to pay to increase the solution's capacity."
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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
4%
Healthcare Company
3%
Educational Organization
61%
Computer Software Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
4%
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?
Dropbox needs to improve its integration with Google platforms, including Google Sheets, Google Docs, and Google Slides, which facilitate easier collaboration. I would also like to see features rel...
 

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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: January 2025.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.