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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 (3rd)
ownCloud
Ranking in Content Collaboration Platforms
21st
Average Rating
10.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Content Collaboration Platforms category, the mindshare of Box is 8.5%, up from 8.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ownCloud is 0.5%, up from 0.5% 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

"We can provide controlled access to documents using the product."
"Office Integration. The full integration into the Microsoft Office products is just perfect."
"The sharing feature, with its various permission settings, such as viewing or uploading, is convenient and helpful."
"Box is very user-friendly; more so than SharePoint."
"I like that Box makes it easy to deploy virtual machines."
"The most valuable feature of Box is security."
"Using Box for cloud storage allows us to focus on the service and maintaining infrastructure."
"The solution is used for data storage and any kind of visualization."
"I think it’s probably the best self-hosted file sync tool on the market."
 

Cons

"It could be cheaper."
"The price must be lowered."
"The solution's data security should be improved."
"I would love to see the ability to invite collaborators extended to a file level, not just the folder level."
"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."
"Like all cloud platforms, there are always areas of improvement around sync to local devices."
"Improvements in speed - Box's high level of security impacts performance, especially when compared with other similar services."
"Tasks and comments could be easier to see, report, search, and manage."
"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

"It is expensive per head, as you need the enterprise license to get full security and tools. So negotiate a discount!"
"Box needs to improve with their pricing in terms of licensing costs."
"Box's pricing is excellent."
"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."
"Our pricing and licensing is excellent. I'd tell all Higher Ed customers to talk with Internet2 for excellent pricing and support."
"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."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
57%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Computer Software Company
5%
Government
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.
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Comparisons

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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, Google, Microsoft and others in Content Collaboration Platforms. Updated: March 2025.
847,862 professionals have used our research since 2012.