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 8.1 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
I like using Box much better than Dropbox although I have not used Dropbox in ten or so years, so their performance and [user] interface may have improved. Box is more user friendly and easy to navigate. When I was using Dropbox, I disliked that it did not sync well or quickly, …
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
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 …
Chose Box
Both of these services are fine but they both seem to either be missing features or are much slower to do what needs to be done. Price might be the biggest difference since Google Drive is free but paying for Box is still worth it.
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
7.9
23 Ratings
4% below category average
Dropbox
-
Ratings
Content capture & imaging7.519 Ratings00 Ratings
File sync, storage & archiving8.222 Ratings00 Ratings
Document management8.521 Ratings00 Ratings
Records management8.117 Ratings00 Ratings
Content search & retrieval7.521 Ratings00 Ratings
Enterprise content collaboration8.020 Ratings00 Ratings
Content publishing & creation7.014 Ratings00 Ratings
Security, risk management & information governance7.823 Ratings00 Ratings
Contract lifecycle management7.510 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated workflows8.212 Ratings00 Ratings
Artificial intelligence8.110 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile support7.921 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration8.021 Ratings00 Ratings
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
Box
-
Ratings
Dropbox
7.5
584 Ratings
12% below category average
Versioning00 Ratings7.2446 Ratings
Video files00 Ratings7.9453 Ratings
Audio files00 Ratings8.3402 Ratings
Document collaboration00 Ratings7.6508 Ratings
Access control00 Ratings7.5545 Ratings
File search00 Ratings7.0566 Ratings
Device sync00 Ratings7.4536 Ratings
Cloud Storage Security & Administration
Comparison of Cloud Storage Security & Administration features of Product A and Product B
Box
-
Ratings
Dropbox
7.3
561 Ratings
17% below category average
User and role management00 Ratings7.1507 Ratings
File organization00 Ratings7.8552 Ratings
Device management00 Ratings7.1471 Ratings
Cloud Storage Platform
Comparison of Cloud Storage Platform features of Product A and Product B
Box
-
Ratings
Dropbox
7.5
557 Ratings
12% below category average
Performance00 Ratings7.6554 Ratings
Reliability00 Ratings7.9556 Ratings
Storage Reports00 Ratings7.0422 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BoxDropbox
Small Businesses
Square 9 Softworks
Square 9 Softworks
Score 9.7 out of 10
SugarSync
SugarSync
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
MediaValet
MediaValet
Score 9.8 out of 10
Druva Data Resiliency Cloud
Druva Data Resiliency Cloud
Score 9.6 out of 10
Enterprises
MediaValet
MediaValet
Score 9.8 out of 10
Druva Data Resiliency Cloud
Druva Data Resiliency Cloud
Score 9.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BoxDropbox
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(151 ratings)
7.3
(606 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(12 ratings)
5.8
(27 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(18 ratings)
8.5
(26 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(5 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Performance
9.1
(12 ratings)
7.3
(6 ratings)
Support Rating
8.5
(29 ratings)
5.1
(33 ratings)
In-Person Training
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
10.0
(3 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(6 ratings)
9.1
(3 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(2 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
Dropbox is well-suited for file sharing within our organization. We have employees who do not work out of a traditional office and need to access files from a variety of locations: at home, in client meetings, and while traveling. Dropbox allows us to continue to work from anywhere and collaborate with each other by sharing our files.
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
  • Dropbox's real-time collaboration features, including simultaneous editing and commenting, have revolutionized the way our teams work together.
  • On multiple occasions, we've accidentally overwritten important documents or needed to retrieve deleted files. With Dropbox, we can easily revert to previous versions or recover deleted files, preventing data loss and minimizing disruptions.
  • Dropbox excels in making file sharing a breeze. With just a few clicks, we can generate shareable links or invite colleagues to shared folders.
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
  • Change the name of the root folder, the "()" can cause problems sometimes with some tools trying to find paths inside of the root folder.
  • The upload queue becomes slow trying to upload files that have more than ~500mb of file size, even if I have 1 Gbit of speed, Dropbox gets stuck uploading single files with that rule.
  • Sometimes we can't move a shared folder from root location.
  • LAN sync seems not to be working in my experience.
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.
Read full review
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
Our experience with support has been limited which is a good thing. We haven't experienced any major issues with the service and most of our service interactions have been useability questions which we were able to find answers for within their knowledge base. For the few times we have reached out to support, the responses were on point, quick, and our issue was resolved in one interaction. I appreciate not being routed to a chatbot or offshored support.
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
No answers on this topic
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
Dropbox gives more visual control over the success of uploading. WeTransfer uploads and then sends a link to the recipient. If something goes wrong during the upload, there doesn't appear to be a way to begin again from the dropping point. With Dropbox, I can watch as it uploads. If I lose a connection, it will continue uploading where it left off when I get a new connection. This is vital in transferring large files. If WeTransfer offers that, I was never able to figure it out.
Read full review
Scalability
Box
It's great, as we put more files on there it's done very well.
Read full review
Dropbox
No answers on this topic
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
  • Helped us to streamline boxes of papers into electronic folders.
  • Enables a more solid backup of necessary files, not dependent on one specific computer or one specific box of papers.
  • Enabled a quicker search to locate specific files than the previously used operations.
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.