VIDEO: Box or Dropbox – Which is Best?

Box or Dropbox? You’ve probably stumbled upon these two companies while searching for a cloud storage solution for your business and wondered to yourself, “similar names, similar services.” So what exactly is the difference?” Let’s start with how they are similar. Both offer secure cloud storage with collaborative and administrative tools, and they both offer plans for business as well as personal accounts. Box offers two personal storage plans, but their product is geared first and foremost toward enterprise clients, meaning it’s features and user experience are both tailored to the needs of CIO’s and IT departments of larger businesses.

They’ve had this target in mind since the beginning. Dropbox, on the other hand,started out as a product facing consumers and gradually made its way into the workplace. Dropbox users began using it at work, and employers quickly witnessed the benefits. Before long, Dropbox was being utilized by businesses all over the world. When considering any option for cloud storage, we’ve noticed pricing is a common concern with the folks we advise, so let’s look at pricing first, then we’ll dive into security, collaboration features, and document creation features.

We’ll first start with Box Box offers 3 pricing tiers for businesses. Their Starter Package is aimed at 3-10 person teams providing 100GB of storage. The Business Tier is for medium sized teams and provides unlimited storage. The Enterprise tier adds some advanced features like help desk, workflow automation and metadata management. Dropbox offers a single plan for businesses with 5 users and up. They call their plan, “Dropbox for Business.” The plan includes all business features and 1 Terabyte of space.

You can upgrade as necessary. Security and Administrative features is the next category we will evaluate. Box provides a full suite of advanced security features from file encryption to custom data retention rules and enterprise mobility management. With Dropbox for Business you’ll get 256-bit AES encryption, and the ability to remotely wipe data. Now, onto collaborative features. Both Box and Dropbox perform pretty well in this category. They both offer flexible sharing options including link sharing, invite-only sharing, and external sharing.

They both enable teams to collaborate in real time using team/group folders. Users can comment on files, work directly from Outlook, and access their storage account through native mobile apps. Also both have built-in file recovery and versioning to keep users from losing work. For document creation Box allows you to create documents inside the application, though the editing tools aren’t very advanced. Dropbox relies on third party applications like Office 365 to create documents.

When we look at integration with third-party business apps, both have a substantial list of abilities. Both integrate with Office 365 and Outlook, since it is still commonly used in the majority of Fortune 500 companies. Box appears to integrate more with business-critical apps like CRM’s and marketing systems. Dropbox has a more universal approach with it being both a consumer and business app. To compare number of integrations, Dropbox has nearly 300,000 connected apps, where box has a mere 1,000.

So which is best for your? Box or Dropbox? Both offer solutions for private cloud storage, including versatile file sharing, mobile access, and reliable security. The better product will depend on your priorities. Remember, Box and Dropbox aren’t the only cloud storage solutions out there. To learn about more options and their capabilities check out our website, TechnologyAdvice.com, where we can help you find the best technology for your business.