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Dropbox 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

Dropbox
Ranking in Content Collaboration Platforms
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
89
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Storage (5th)
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 January 2025, in the Content Collaboration Platforms category, the mindshare of Dropbox is 9.3%, down from 13.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ownCloud is 0.8%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Content Collaboration Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

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.
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

"The solution is reliable and user-friendly."
"Dropbox is easy to use."
"It is easy to install. It is stable and scalable."
"I like how user-friendly the solution is."
"We don't really use the collaboration features because we have only a small organization. Dropbox is valuable having the hard drive space available, and the access to be able to upload and access the content."
"The security features of the product for data protection are good. I rate the security part a ten out of ten."
"It is straightforward and works seamlessly."
"The main feature that I found the most valuable is the ability to link the documents such that they are automatically taken to a page where you can review them."
"I think it’s probably the best self-hosted file sync tool on the market."
 

Cons

"It could be more secure."
"The solution could provide more capacity for free."
"The only thing I have had trouble with is the ability to share files. The recipients of my requests have had difficulty accessing the files."
"The free storage amount should be increased."
"We are moving to Microsoft Teams. Instead of Dropbox, we will be using Microsoft Teams that has the advantage of saving the versions. It supports file versioning so that you can always go back to the previous version if you want to. If somebody has made a change in one of the files and you don't know what changes have been made, you can always go back to the previous version. This feature led us to migrate to Microsoft Teams. With Dropbox, there is no option for simultaneous work. This feature is there in Google Files. In Microsoft Teams, you can invite team members to collaborate. That is the reason why I prefer Microsoft Teams over Dropbox. It should also have more integration with other solutions."
"I would like to see integration with Office products, it would be very helpful."
"While generally user-friendly, there is room for improvement in the user interface, especially with the introduction of new integrations and features."
"The product must be more user-friendly."
"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

"I am using the free version of the solution."
"Given the price and limitations, there are more competitive options available."
"Dropbox is one of the cheapest tools in the market."
"I am using the free solution, which provides me with 2GBs of storage, and for me, it's sufficient."
"The solution is purchased on a subscription basis, and there are purchasing options. If you purchase annually there is a discount."
"We must pay when we upsize to a larger space."
"A basic version of Dropbox is available for free with a paid subscription from Microsoft."
"I find their pricing to be fairly standard and competitive when compared to the rest of the market."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
62%
Computer Software Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
4%
University
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 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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Comparisons

No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Vita Coco, BCBGMAXAZRIA Group, Centric Project, Kayak, FourSquare, Asana, Huge Adversting , USA Gymnastics, Appen, Valliant, Radio Lab
CERN, Joy Global, Sciebo, Bauhaus, datto
Find out what your peers are saying about Dropbox, Google, Microsoft and others in Content Collaboration Platforms. Updated: January 2025.
831,481 professionals have used our research since 2012.