Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Box vs ownCloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 Content Collaboration Platforms
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Content Management (6th), Cloud Storage (12th), Digital Asset Management (3rd), Document Management Software (2nd)
ownCloud
Ranking in Content Collaboration Platforms
20th
Average Rating
10.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Content Collaboration Platforms category, the mindshare of Box is 8.3%, up from 8.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ownCloud is 0.6%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Content Collaboration Platforms
 

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,…
SC
Self-hosted file sync tool used to deploy custom web UIs.
I think it’s probably the best self-hosted file sync tool on the market. It’s a full web application platform, an indispensable tool for a business of any size that needs to deploy any kind of custom web UI. If you build an ownCloud app, you’ve got authentication, storage, security, caching, and database layers already fully baked for you. You just need to build your UI and custom logic. Your app doesn’t even need to interact with files, sync, or interact with other ownCloud features. Any web UI can be included without ownCloud. It can even be a portal to web interfaces of other applications within a business using the external app to display external sites within ownCloud. This is the case as long as that site allows itself to be displayed within a frame.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Office Integration. The full integration into the Microsoft Office products is just perfect."
"Simple file sharing and sync for internal and external customers."
"Using Box for cloud storage allows us to focus on the service and maintaining infrastructure."
"File sharing with collaborators not on the same domain with offline access from multiple devices: I work on many projects that are multi-organizational, such as with customers, suppliers, or acquisitions."
"The collaboration of the solution is good."
"The system's performance is impressive, and file sharing is notably straightforward."
"The application is very light in terms of uploading and downloading files."
"I like the ease of use."
"I think it’s probably the best self-hosted file sync tool on the market."
 

Cons

"I would love to see the ability to invite collaborators extended to a file level, not just the folder level."
"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."
"It could be cheaper."
"The upload speed needs improvement."
"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."
"The integration with other products should be improved."
"Improvements in speed - Box's high level of security impacts performance, especially when compared with other similar services."
"Even with fast disks, it still takes a fair bit of time to write most schema changes to multi-GB tables."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There's a free version that allows you to use it with almost full-feature access. Even in the free version, it gives you all you need."
"We are using the free version of the solution. There is a free version and monthly and yearly subscriptions available."
"The pricing may seem steep at first, but delve into the features and you'll soon realize it is incredible value for what you get."
"I believe Box is cheaper than SharePoint."
"The more you dig, the deeper the level of tools, and the more expensive it becomes."
"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."
"I have to pay for Box. It could be a little cheaper. On a scale from one to ten, I would give the pricing a five."
"Our pricing and licensing is excellent. I'd tell all Higher Ed customers to talk with Internet2 for excellent pricing and support."
Information not available
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Content Collaboration Platforms solutions are best for your needs.
842,296 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
60%
Computer Software Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Healthcare Company
3%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

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.
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Comparisons

No data available
 

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
CERN, Joy Global, Sciebo, Bauhaus, datto
Find out what your peers are saying about Dropbox, Microsoft, Google and others in Content Collaboration Platforms. Updated: March 2025.
842,296 professionals have used our research since 2012.