Box vs. Dropbox

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Box
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Box is an online cloud content management solution that caters to individual users as well as businesses.
$5
Per Month (Paid Annually) per user (minimum of 3 users)
Dropbox
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Dropbox is a cloud storage solution, equipped with features that help users to save time, improve productivity, and collaborate with others. Users can edit PDFs, share videos, sign documents, and collaborate with stakeholders without leaving Dropbox.
$9.99
per month
Pricing
BoxDropbox
Editions & Modules
Business Starter
$5
Per Month (Paid Annually) per user (minimum of 3 users)
Business
$15
Per Month (Paid Annually) per user (minimum of 3 users)
Business Plus
$25
Per Month (Paid Annually) per user (minimum of 3 users)
Enterprise
$35
Per Month (Paid Annually) per user (minimum of 3 users)
Enterprise Plus
Custom
Contact Us
Plus
$9.99
per month
Essentials
$18
per month
Business
$20
per month per user
Business Plus
$26
per month per user
Basic
Free
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BoxDropbox
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsBox is available as an annual subscription. Many customers opt for either the Digital Workplace or Digital Business suite, which includes the baseline software plat (Box Enterprise) plus multiple additional features including Box Shield for data loss prevention and threat detection, Box Governance for retention management and legal holds, Box Relay for no-code workflow, and Premier Services. Customers are eligible for discounting beyond volume list prices, depending on a number of conditions.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BoxDropbox
Considered Both Products
Box
Chose Box
Box has excellent file sharing options and easy link creation. Most of the file share companies are top-notch, but Box is more user-friendly than Dropbox, and an interface that’s easier to navigate than Google Drive's. In my industry, I have to be versatile and able to use …
Chose Box
Box is compatible with other cloud-based storage solutions like Dropbox or Google Drive. While the latter is probably the most customizable, user-friendly and widely adopted, Box and Dropbox are fantastic alternatives for companies that shy away from the Google suite of …
Chose Box
Box is more secure than Dropbox and has a better user interface on desktop clients. We also like Box's UI for editing documents in the cloud and Box's offerings for sharing documents outside our organization over competitors like Dropbox. However, Dropbox is better known for …
Chose Box
Box is better for large file sets than Dropbox, and doesn't have the collaboration abilities of Sharepoint (But that's not a negative! Sometimes it's just not needed).
Chose Box
This platform was a recent selection but before switching to Box we used Hiver, MS SharePoint, Dropbox, and Asana. We moved to Box because of many reasons like cost factors, usability factors, support team rating, and much more. With my
Chose Box
Our university previously used a private VPN, and we've used Google Drive as well before. At a previous university, I had experience with Dropbox. While I was unhappy about the switch to Box at first (change is always hard), Box seems superior in ease of use and collaboration …
Chose Box
The first benefit of using Box that comes to my mind is the cost advantage. Box is generally more affordable and easy-to-use than Dropbox Business because it eliminates the cost of hardware and maintenance which translates into significant cost savings. Box team maintains, …
Chose Box
Box has fewer features than Dropbox and that makes it easier to use.
Chose Box
I slightly prefer Box over Dropbox, especially if I need to store and manage thousands of files. Dropbox online file management was not as easy to navigate as Box. However, Dropbox also has a similar cloud sync feature that worked similar to Box and was pretty comparable to the …
Chose Box
I believe that anyone with exposure to software like Dropbox or Google Drive will have an easier transition when attempting to use Box. Where Box could improve is having a refresh of the UI/UX design. With an improvement to the design, Box can be more responsive and widely …
Chose Box
The best user experience of any of the major cloud data providers. As it's not a product of any of the other major technology companies, it remains agnostic to the many platforms / features that everyday users want to have.
Chose Box
Among many other solutions box has been vetted by our security professionals and deemed to be the best solution for our particular organization. This lends to many of box's security features that still allow for collaboration and secure file sharing.
Chose Box
Box has cheap storage pricing and so is preferred by small organizations, and easy to use app and sync make it a good product to use.
Cross platform file sharing and editing over the cloud is one of the best features it has.
Chose Box
I prefer Box over all of these alternatives because I find Box to be a lot more user-friendly and intuitive. Box has a lot more integrations as compared to the previous alternatives I used in my company. Moreover, this tool has led to an improvement in risk mitigation because …
Chose Box
Simply put, having unlimited file storage is a clear differentiator. Furthermore, the number of integrations offered by Box is simply unmatched. If you are looking for pure document and file sharing, I don't think there is a better product on the market. The benefits from …
Chose Box
Box and its competitors are all quite similar in their filesharing and storing capabilities. I think the closest, most similar product would be OneDrive, which I use quite often. Google Drive provides a bit more of real-time updating and version control of documentation that I …
Chose Box
A simple secure link and a password protection is what employees use to share files. Box is made different from other cloud content collaboration software because of the commenting feature which keeps all discussions together and enables any collaborator to provide feedback on …
Chose Box
Box was selected prior to me starting with the company. We eventually switched to Sharepoint because of the cost savings, but otherwise, we would have preferred to stay on Box. OneDrive did not stack up to Box because it was determined that it was best suited for storing work …
Chose Box
Box has a similar, but easier interface.
Chose Box
Box is a professional tool that has a rich suite of features that go head to head with Google and has many more use cases [than] iCloud. For the price, Box is a great alternative to other cloud storage and data asset management software offers. Box is a great addition to any …
Chose Box
Box was the most versatile and cheaper of these options, also had more granular admin capabilities and platform agnostic (whether your are using MS Office or Google Docs).
Chose Box
Box has added some new protections to try and prevent multiple people from working on the same document at the same time without knowing, but I have yet to test them out. That has been an issue in the past that has led to some weird file uploads where now there are multiple …
Dropbox
Chose Dropbox
We switched over to box because of some integration tools we wanted for Salesforce, and to have a platform that could be better utilized by others outside of our design and production team. We found that box has better usability for our users that aren't as fluent in computers. …
Chose Dropbox
I have used Box, Google Drive and MS OneDrive. Honestly, most of the company has trust issues with Microsoft and Google as they have a history of leaks and system hacks. Box is good but not as complete a business solution compared to Dropbox. Dropbox is fast and reliable and it …
Chose Dropbox
I've been a longtime user of Dropbox, for me, I'm already invested. I never have any issues across different devices or platforms. "Dropbox Life"!
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
BoxDropbox
Enterprise Content Management
Comparison of Enterprise Content Management features of Product A and Product B
Box
6.6
25 Ratings
20% below category average
Dropbox
-
Ratings
Content capture & imaging7.919 Ratings00 Ratings
File sync, storage & archiving9.224 Ratings00 Ratings
Document management7.923 Ratings00 Ratings
Records management6.919 Ratings00 Ratings
Content search & retrieval7.123 Ratings00 Ratings
Enterprise content collaboration7.821 Ratings00 Ratings
Content publishing & creation5.315 Ratings00 Ratings
Security, risk management & information governance7.325 Ratings00 Ratings
Contract lifecycle management5.311 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated workflows5.313 Ratings00 Ratings
Artificial intelligence2.711 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile support5.022 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration8.022 Ratings00 Ratings
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
Box
-
Ratings
Dropbox
7.7
887 Ratings
9% below category average
Versioning00 Ratings7.6714 Ratings
Video files00 Ratings8.0697 Ratings
Audio files00 Ratings8.2623 Ratings
Document collaboration00 Ratings7.5780 Ratings
Access control00 Ratings7.5828 Ratings
File search00 Ratings7.2855 Ratings
Device sync00 Ratings8.0814 Ratings
Cloud Storage Security & Administration
Comparison of Cloud Storage Security & Administration features of Product A and Product B
Box
-
Ratings
Dropbox
7.7
848 Ratings
12% below category average
User and role management00 Ratings7.6778 Ratings
File organization00 Ratings8.0837 Ratings
Device management00 Ratings7.5730 Ratings
Cloud Storage Platform
Comparison of Cloud Storage Platform features of Product A and Product B
Box
-
Ratings
Dropbox
8.0
836 Ratings
6% below category average
Performance00 Ratings7.8829 Ratings
Reliability00 Ratings8.2834 Ratings
Storage Reports00 Ratings7.8636 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BoxDropbox
Small Businesses
Square 9 Softworks
Square 9 Softworks
Score 9.8 out of 10
SugarSync
SugarSync
Score 7.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
MediaValet
MediaValet
Score 9.6 out of 10
Druva Security Cloud
Druva Security Cloud
Score 9.7 out of 10
Enterprises
MediaValet
MediaValet
Score 9.6 out of 10
Druva Security Cloud
Druva Security Cloud
Score 9.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BoxDropbox
Likelihood to Recommend
7.7
(153 ratings)
7.8
(911 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(12 ratings)
7.1
(31 ratings)
Usability
7.5
(20 ratings)
7.7
(65 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(5 ratings)
7.6
(3 ratings)
Performance
9.1
(12 ratings)
6.3
(8 ratings)
Support Rating
8.5
(29 ratings)
6.2
(34 ratings)
In-Person Training
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
10.0
(3 ratings)
8.2
(2 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(6 ratings)
8.1
(4 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(1 ratings)
6.4
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(1 ratings)
7.2
(4 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BoxDropbox
Likelihood to Recommend
Box
I think Box is great for research teams or anyone that has a large number of files that need to be securely stored. Particularly in the case of social science research, where it is important to protect identifying data, Box is a great option. In cases where teams need a more reliable means for real-time collaboration, I would probably consider a different alternative
Read full review
Dropbox
It works very well for my particular role in book design, where I manage multiple projects simultaneously and need to link to hundreds of images nested within other folders. At times, though, it seems my computer folders will change which files are kept in the cloud vs. my desktop.
Read full review
Pros
Box
  • The main feature that I like the most in Box is that it makes collaboration seamless, workers can easily check the documents any time and make changes according to the needs.
  • Box manages and backs up all of your files on its cloud servers, and provides a very nice interface for creating, viewing, editing, and collaborating on the most commonly used file types (PDF, XLS, DOC, etc.).
  • Over the past few years, Box has built on top of its basic cloud storage management with a host of other tools, such as workflows, AI, monitoring, and analytics.
  • It is helping us to make good connections with clients and our workers themselves as to its syncing and viewing feature to all is very much helpful and easy to go.
Read full review
Dropbox
  • Shared data among all peoples who have access to certain folders.
  • Data stored online so it frees lots of space from the personal computer.
  • Updates really fast.
  • You can access all the information on a file on your computer and on the Dropbox online platform.
Read full review
Cons
Box
  • The graphic design of the dashboard should be simpler and more tangible that can be changed to the liking of the Admin.
  • Sometimes there are some syncing issues in the background.
  • The product has very limited functionality in some areas which could be a bit frustrating at times.
Read full review
Dropbox
  • One issue is when the preview of the video will sometimes play at the same time when watching it in full screen, where the two videos overlap each other.
  • Faster import time when inserting multiple files
  • It will be easier and faster to have a section to delete files under the folder tab
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Box
I like the security features and I like the website. It's easy to use and create and move things around as needed. The main reason for a lower rating is because the Box Sync app is just not a good program. It's a memory hog, it's slow, transfer speeds are slow, and it's not the most efficient route. If you have a large Box account and you need to get a computer up to speed on a large amount of data within Box, you are in for the long haul. Last time I had to do this, it took 3 days to sync all of the files and we are talking around 100 GB worth of data
Read full review
Dropbox
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.
Read full review
Usability
Box
Everything with Box is seamless. It can be integrated into virtually any other software or application. You can even get the app for your phone or tablet to work on the go. File syncing is so quick. The only reason I gave it a 9 is the issue I discussed earlier about the local file application rebooting and not continuing to sync files. Other than that, it's great!
Read full review
Dropbox
[Its] functionality and usability are very good, however[,] on every computer that I have ever installed the app on, Dropbox assumes I want it to update the files every time I start the system up. That's not always true, but the app assumes it is. I can switch that function off, but I would rather that function default to "Off" and then I can decide to turn it on as needed.
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Reliability and Availability
Box
Yeah, it's always worked, I've never had any kind of connection issues, the only issues I've had it I've been on our end when the Internet hasn't worked.
Read full review
Dropbox
No answers on this topic
Performance
Box
The general operation and management of Box is very efficient, both when accessing the account, and when adding files, downloading or modifying any document directly. The web platform, mobile and desktop versions work really well and quickly, making all the work and process flow smoothly and without setbacks. So far I have not been able to observe any inconvenience
Read full review
Dropbox
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.
Read full review
Support Rating
Box
I found their support community lacking in clarity when I experienced a login issue. The error messaging was poor on my Box Sync application. I did not reach out to support staff for help, instead, I reasoned that I should try downloading the Box Sync application again and reinstall it. That fixed my issue, thankfully. I think a less computer-savvy user would've been much more frustrated.
Read full review
Dropbox
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.
Read full review
In-Person Training
Box
The in person training was done in house and I helped with the training, people seem to respond well.
Read full review
Dropbox
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Box
The documentation is good. Since Box is a popular service, there were also a number of YouTube videos and other sources that were helpful as we were considering the product and planning for deployment. Also, the ability to try the free version helped to prepare us.
Read full review
Dropbox
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!
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Implementation Rating
Box
Be careful with settings. It is easy to get overwhelmed with updates. For example, you don’t want to be updated when doing historical data uploads. I recommend taking off notifications initially and then turn on post you have done your historical data upload.
Read full review
Dropbox
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.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Box
They are kind of the same. And both of them do their job as promised. But for company and project wise I think that Box slightly wins for some points. Which [makes him] win over Google Drive (don't forget that Google Drive is very easy to use and has a lot [of] nice features too).
Read full review
Dropbox
Google Drive has similar features, but the security functions of Dropbox allows our institution to save our sensitive and regulated data in a more protected way on Dropbox. This gives administrators, decision makers and policy makers additional piece, especially during a time and living in a world where data breaches are much more frequent and common.
Read full review
Scalability
Box
It's great, as we put more files on there it's done very well.
Read full review
Dropbox
bc i think box.com is better and more affordable
Read full review
Return on Investment
Box
  • Box has been an only positive experience. It provides a seamless way for me and my team to collaborate on documents in such a way where we're not sending the document back/forth via email. It's a huge timesaver.
  • Box reduces the risk of sharing a sensitive document to the wrong person via email.
  • Box has provided a platform where my team can share notes in meetings - this has helped streamline and organize our meetings. Our meetings are more productive and actionable.
Read full review
Dropbox
  • Negatively impacted my ROI as it's rather expensive.
  • Many of my freelancers were having issues accessing Dropbox because they already had other clients with Dropbox, so I requested Google Drive instead.
  • Wish the collaboration was easier.
  • A lot of times, people on my team can't access photos.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Box Screenshots

Screenshot of In the Content Cloud, you get a single, secure, easy-to-use platform built for the entire content lifecycle, from file creation and sharing, to editing, signature, and retention.Screenshot of Keep your files safe with cloud-native security and compliance capabilities like granular access controls, watermarking, and classification. Stay proactive with Box Shield’s machine learning and the ability to set policies that detect threats.Screenshot of Power secure collaboration from anywhere with a central workspace to edit, review, and assign tasks.Screenshot of Integrate your tech stack across 1,500+ best-of-breed apps.Screenshot of Get e-signatures right where your content lives in Box. Power a simple, seamless signing experience for critical business documents like sales contracts and offer letters.Screenshot of Create workflows in minutes, so you spend more time on what matters most.

Dropbox Screenshots

Screenshot of the action bar, that sits across the browser page can be used to record the screen, edit PDFs, upload files, create folders, get signatures, or send and track documents.Screenshot of Dropbox Replay, that lets collaborators leave frame-accurate feedback and markups directly on project files.Screenshot of Dropbox Capture, which can be used to take screen recordings, screenshots, and GIFs with one click and share them with a link.Screenshot of the interface where Dropbox lets users upload, edit, send, and sign PDFs in one place.