Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) vs. Dropbox

Amazon S3 is a great service to safely backup your data where redundancy is guaranteed and the cost is fair. We use Amazon S3 for data that we backup and hope we never need to access but in the case of a catastrophic or even small slip of the finger with the delete command we know our data and our client's data is safely backed up by Amazon S3. Transferring data into Amazon S3 is free but transferring data out has an associated, albeit low, cost per GB. This needs to be kept in mind if you plan on transferring out a lot of data frequently. There may be other cost effective options although Amazon S3 prices are really low per GB. Transferring 150TB would cost approximately $50 per month.

Incentivized

If I need a specific file or want to access certain movies or music tracks, I download and store it on one device (e.g., PC), where DB is integrated into the file system. I can then effortlessly access this file on any device, like a tablet, where DB is integrated into the file system.

• Fantastic developer API, including AWS command line and library utilities.
• Strong integration with the AWS ecosystem, especially with regards to access permissions.
• It's astoundingly stable- you can trust it'll stay online and available for anywhere in the world.
• Its static website hosting feature is a hidden gem-- it provides perhaps the cheapest, most stable, most high-performing static web hosting available in PaaS.

Incentivized

• It is secure. I haven't had any breaches whilst using Dropbox.
• Its search functions helps me find relevant files and images quickly.
• It backups on a frequent basis that I can take it for granted that my files are being backed up.

• Web console can be very confusing and challenging to use, especially for new users
• Bucket policies are very flexible, but the composability of the security rules can be very confusing to get right, often leading to security rules in use on buckets other than what you believe they are

Incentivized

• I’d like to be able to hover over an image/document and have it expand/enlarge without actually opening it
• I’d love to see a carousel that lets me thumb through more quickly
• I’m almost always in thumbnail view. I’d like to see them re-organize automatically when something is moved or deleted instead of leaving an empty space.
• AI options for photo editing.
• Easier pdf markups

Due to princing, availability and scalability.

Incentivized

Dropbox is a user-friendly, easy tool which requires little to no skill and they offer a free version with a good amount of storage available. There are other file sharing tools available however at a cost. Dropbox free version I have used for years and it serves every purpose I need.

Incentivized

It is tricky to get it all set up correctly with policies and getting the IAM settings right. There is also a lot of lifecycle config you can do in terms of moving data to cold/glacier storage. It is also not to be confused with being a OneDrive or SharePoint replacement, they each have their own place in our environment, and S3 is used more by the IT team and accessed by our PHP applications. It is not necessarily used by an average everyday user for storing their pictures or documents, etc.

Incentivized

Because the program is simpler, it does not use large resources to run, and there are no problems on older operating systems. It is easy to use for both private and business use. It's a bit annoying that the same texts have to be rewritten multiple times. Consider whether you want the truth or for users to actually answer quickly and easily.

Dropbox is really useful, you can access any file from anywhere and you can upload and even edit files online, but, sometimes it can be slow. Downloading, uploading, and syncing is a bit slow, it can take several minutes. Furthermore, the search engine for large amounts of data can be slow too and it is not powerful.

Incentivized

AWS has always been quick to resolve any support ticket raised. S3 is no exception. We have only ever used it once to get a clarification regarding the costs involved when data is transferred between S3 and other AWS services or the public internet. We got a response from AWS support team within a day.

Incentivized

They immediately responded like in an example that I gave where one of our staff members accidentally deleted the whole Special Hope Network Dropbox, we immediately contacted Dropbox they walked us through the steps of how to retrieve the information and luckily enough we were able to retrieve the entire Dropbox and we have had back and forth with Dropbox on what to do when an employee leaves how to remove them how to add another employee.

Incentivized

I did not personally take any training for Dropbox so I am self taught but I know when our Vice President selected Dropbox, he personally did do some training modules on it and I'm assuming it was very easy and simple to understand since he now acts like he is a pro at it!

Incentivized

I needed to stay current in improving my daily operations. Dropbox
was suggested to me by a former colleague two-years ago and I've been using it just fine ever since.

Overall, we found that Amazon S3 provided a lot of backend features Google Cloud Storage (GCS) simply couldn't compare to. GCS was way more expensive and really did not live up to it. In terms of setup, Google Cloud Storage may have Amazon S3 beat, however, as it is more of a pseudo advanced version of Google Drive, that was not a hard feat for it to achieve. Overall, evaluating GCS, in comparison to S3, was an utter disappointment.

Incentivized

Dropbox stands out for its simple interface, reliable file syncing, and strong version history compared to other storage platforms. While Google Drive is better for real-time collaboration and OneDrive integrates well with Microsoft Office, Dropbox offers faster file sharing, better organization, and smoother cross-platform access. We chose Dropbox because it’s easy to use, works across different devices, and keeps our files secure and accessible.

bc i think box.com is better and more affordable

Incentivized

• It practically eliminated some real heavy storage servers from our premises and reduced maintenance cost.
• The excellent durability and reliability make sure the return of money you invested in.
• If the objects which are not active or stale, one needs to remove them. Those objects keep adding cost to each billing cycle. If you are handling a really big infrastructure, sometimes this creates quite a huge bill for preserving un-necessary objects/documents.

Incentivized

• Being a small business, the pricing is a little steep for my organisation, specially when it's not directly reimbursable to my clients. But the confidence of being able to access all my years of work in a few clicks saves me huge amounts of stress and effort. It's true power comes to light when an unfortunate incident causes panic about probable loss of access to valuable data. It is delightful when it gets resolved without breaking a sweat. Hence, I would say that it is eventually worth every penny.
• I am a designer, and I like to create a lot of options for my work. Each of these options is a potential asset which can be potentially monetised directly, or at a future date. Hence, being able to retrieve it at the right time is priceless.