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

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 March 2025, in the Content Collaboration Platforms category, the mindshare of Dropbox is 8.2%, down from 12.6% 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

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 initial setup is extremely easy."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is user-friendly."
"It's very easy to use and quite accessible for everybody."
"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."
"Many people can use the Dropbox service and edit the data, it is simple to use."
"I like how user-friendly the solution is."
"Dropbox allows me to organize files well. I can name files in such a way as to lead students to the right destination."
"Dropbox is a very easy-to-use site that allows me to save files to the cloud for retrieval from almost any device (laptop, iPhone, iPad, etc...)."
"I think it’s probably the best self-hosted file sync tool on the market."
 

Cons

"It is difficult to set up. I'd rate the solution maybe a six or seven out of ten."
"Currently, it permits up to five users, but for larger families, it would be beneficial to have a more flexible offering."
"I find it a little hard to organize my Dropbox folders on my mobile device."
"The arrangement of documents can be simplified. Personally, I am used to it, but for a new user, it might be a little confusing. It can maybe have a feature to allow people to collaborate or work on the same document at the same time. I'm just using it to load and access information, and I haven't faced many challenges. However, I have seen that the whole system or laptop slows down a bit when I am synchronizing files to Dropbox. I don't know if it is because of my system. It might be good if they can enhance the synchronization process so that we can specify that synchronization should be done after 30 minutes. In addition, synchronization should only be done for the documents that have been uploaded."
"Dropbox could be improved by reducing the storage price."
"It could be more secure."
"Improve the ease of use. Sometimes, occasional users struggle to login again and access documents."
"I think the product's interface is an area of concern since it has been changed for a long time and can be considered for improvement."
"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

"The solution is expensive."
"Given the price and limitations, there are more competitive options available."
"My company makes monthly payments towards the licensing charges associated with the product. I think it's a reasonably priced product."
"It has some free features, but for some of the features, you need to pay. If you need more storage, then you need to pay. Its licensing probably is on a monthly basis."
"The product is free up to a certain limit."
"A bigger discount for existing users would be appreciated."
"I don't pay any licensing costs."
"The subscription could be cheaper."
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
64%
Computer Software Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
3%
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?
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...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

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, Microsoft, Google and others in Content Collaboration Platforms. Updated: March 2025.
842,296 professionals have used our research since 2012.