These 2 apps are both reasonably priced and offer convenient features. The following article will analyze more clearly to help you choose the application that is more suitable for you.
Table of Contents
Free Storage
Both Google and Dropbox give you free storage space, allowing you to try their services before deciding to spend money to expand the storage space.
By default, Google Drive offers 15GB of free storage, more than Dropbox’s starting rate of 2GB. However, Dropbox gives you numerous ways to increase your free storage. Basic accounts can increase storage by 500MB for each referral to a friend or family member, with a maximum limit of 16GB. They have also introduced: you will get an extra 1GB for free by winning the “Mighty Answer” medal – through user support on the Dropbox forum.
If you fulfill the conditions that Dropbox offers, your free storage will be more than Google Drive, but recommending this application to friends for use is not easy. Currently, many users have chosen their own storage applications.
Obviously, in terms of free storage, Google Drive is slightly better than Dropbox.
Paid storage
When you need to use it beyond the free limit, you have no choice but to pay more.
For individual users, Dropbox offers the following options:
The “Plus” plan offers 1TB of storage with the same features as the free plan. The price is $9.99/month or $99/year. When you contact support via email, they will prioritize contacting you first. Then, you can also access the data even if the device is not connected to the network. (Read more: Install and Use Dropbox).
The “Professional” package is similar to the “Plus” package, but it will add a smart sync feature (Smart Sync) to optimize space on the hard drive and a “Showcase” feature for you to better organize your work layout. Finally, you also get the “120-day version history” feature, which means Dropbox will keep all the different versions of your data for 120 days, even if you delete it. The price of the “Professional” plan is higher than “Plus”, which is 19.99 USD/month or 199 USD/year.
If you’re buying for a business or team, Dropbox also offers “Standard” and “Advanced” plans with data recovery, encryption, and a few other extended features. “Standard” has a capacity limit of 2TB, priced at $12.50/month. In contrast, the “Advanced” plan does not limit storage, however, you have to pay 20 USD per month per user (1-year prepayment condition) or 25 USD per month individually. Up to 3 users on the “Advanced” plan. (Read more: Dropbox Store).
Google Drive offers 3 options in addition to a free account. The first is the 100GB plan when you pay 2 USD/month. Next is the 1TB plan with 10 USD/month. For higher usage needs, the 10TB package is worth $100/month.
However, you can also pay $200 and $300 per month for 20TB and 30TB capacity, respectively.
It is difficult to choose the superior application because if you do not use too much storage space, Google’s 100GB plan is not a bad choice. On the Dropbox side, the price for unlimited storage in the “Advanced” plan costs only 20 USD per month, which will be more beneficial for group users.
Data synchronization
Dropbox offers the feature to sync data across multiple devices and operating systems, including all popular desktop and mobile platforms. What makes Dropbox stand out from Google Drive lies in its support for the Linux platform.
The next strong point of Dropbox is the “block-level copying” technology. Normally, when you make changes to a specific file or folder, most other storage applications will have to copy that file and upload it back to the “cloud”.
Dropbox makes syncing much faster by splitting files into multiple small streams (blocks). After you change the file, Dropbox only uploads the stream of small changes back to the server, not the whole file again.
On the Google darling side, Drive also supports multiple devices and multiple operating systems but omits Linux. In fact, you can still use Google Drive on Linux if you follow the instructions online. And Google Drive does not support “block-level copying”. (Read more: Dropbox service ).
File Sharing
One of the essential features of storage applications is sharing, which makes it more convenient for you to send big data to friends.
Google Drive allows you to share files and folders on both mobile apps and in the browser interface using a direct link or email notification to the person shared. Drive also adds “view only” and “edit permissions” on files with others.
However, due to the support of password setting for files or setting path expiration time, a security risk will also exist if you do not often move the file or archive folder in the future.
Dropbox does better than Google Drive because of the “Professional” plan and business accounts that can set passwords and expiration times for links. The remaining data-sharing features are similar to Google Drive.
Support
Google Drive can quickly save attachments from Gmail, save images side-by-side with Google Photo, and support easy Google Docs, Sheets, and Slide file sharing. Then, the Chrome Web Store offers more than 100 third-party apps that are compatible with Google Drive, making it more powerful than the competition.
Dropbox has several separate services. Individual users will be able to open and edit files belonging to Microsoft Office on the Dropbox interface itself. Business users can also read PDF files and send messages directly through the Slack team application. (Read more: Dropbox Storage Engine ).
Dropbox’s DBX platform is also compatible with services like Autodesk and Okta. The included Dropbox Paper feature is also quite useful.
Security and privacy
Dropbox uses the 128-bit AES standard to encrypt your data while you work and then uses the 256-bit AES standard when the file is not in use. The company also supports 2-step authentication to decrypt files.
Paid users can easily use the “remotely wipe sync” feature to erase data on lost devices. In addition, users are allowed to update files at different time periods, a useful measure against ransomware.
Google Drive also uses the same two encryption standards and 2-step authentication.
Dropbox is better than Drive at protecting user privacy because it doesn’t support “NSL gag orders” – which prevents businesses from notifying users that the government requires access to their data.
Summary
Overall, the choice lies in your needs. If you are familiar with the Google system or don’t save too many files and want to try cloud storage technology, Google Drive is the first choice you should consider.
But when you want to take advantage of faster syncing, better file security with passwords, and unlimited storage on a business account, then choose Dropbox.
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