Dropbox vs. Microsoft Azure

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Dropbox
Score 8.6 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
Microsoft Azure
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform and infrastructure for building, deploying, and managing applications and services through a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters.
$29
per month
Pricing
DropboxMicrosoft Azure
Editions & Modules
Plus
$9.99
per month
Essentials
$18
per month
Business
$20
per month per user
Business Plus
$26
per month per user
Basic
Free
Developer
$29
per month
Standard
$100
per month
Professional Direct
$1000
per month
Basic
Free
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
DropboxMicrosoft Azure
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsThe free tier lets users have access to a variety of services free for 12 months with limited usage after making an Azure account.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
DropboxMicrosoft Azure
Considered Both Products
Dropbox
Chose Dropbox
The above products have good features but have some functionality missing in each of them. In comparison, Dropbox has all of them included in it which is very helpful.
Chose Dropbox
Dropbox is easy to use and integrate.
Manages documents effectively.
Digital Signatures are easy to use.
Chose Dropbox
It is a different solution, perfect for our requirements of security, ease of deployment and billing.
Chose Dropbox
Dropbox is somewhat operating system agnostic. That, in and of itself, removes obstacles that potentially occur in corporate settings.

Additionally, the functionality meets the typical request from users all in one solution. Not having to move from one application to another is …
Chose Dropbox
User-friendly features, better sync rates and the ability to work across different operating systems make it a compatible and convenient platform to use. You don't need to have a very fast internet connection. Files get synced automatically rather than put in a folder hence …
Microsoft Azure
Chose Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure seems to be the most cost-effective and the ability to buy credits for projects instead of a license makes it attractive.
Features
DropboxMicrosoft Azure
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
Dropbox
8.2
1302 Ratings
3% below category average
Microsoft Azure
-
Ratings
Versioning8.21080 Ratings00 Ratings
Video files8.31061 Ratings00 Ratings
Audio files8.6959 Ratings00 Ratings
Document collaboration7.81133 Ratings00 Ratings
Access control8.31202 Ratings00 Ratings
File search8.01248 Ratings00 Ratings
Device sync8.41201 Ratings00 Ratings
Cloud Storage Security & Administration
Comparison of Cloud Storage Security & Administration features of Product A and Product B
Dropbox
8.3
1234 Ratings
4% below category average
Microsoft Azure
-
Ratings
User and role management8.61100 Ratings00 Ratings
File organization8.31215 Ratings00 Ratings
Device management8.11082 Ratings00 Ratings
Cloud Storage Platform
Comparison of Cloud Storage Platform features of Product A and Product B
Dropbox
8.5
1224 Ratings
1% below category average
Microsoft Azure
-
Ratings
Performance8.61213 Ratings00 Ratings
Reliability8.91220 Ratings00 Ratings
Storage Reports7.8928 Ratings00 Ratings
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
Comparison of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) features of Product A and Product B
Dropbox
-
Ratings
Microsoft Azure
8.4
28 Ratings
2% above category average
Service-level Agreement (SLA) uptime00 Ratings8.227 Ratings
Dynamic scaling00 Ratings8.626 Ratings
Elastic load balancing00 Ratings8.725 Ratings
Pre-configured templates00 Ratings8.126 Ratings
Monitoring tools00 Ratings8.227 Ratings
Pre-defined machine images00 Ratings8.425 Ratings
Operating system support00 Ratings8.927 Ratings
Security controls00 Ratings8.627 Ratings
Automation00 Ratings8.225 Ratings
Best Alternatives
DropboxMicrosoft Azure
Small Businesses
SugarSync
SugarSync
Score 4.5 out of 10
DigitalOcean Droplets
DigitalOcean Droplets
Score 9.3 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Druva Security Cloud
Druva Security Cloud
Score 9.7 out of 10
SAP on IBM Cloud
SAP on IBM Cloud
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Druva Security Cloud
Druva Security Cloud
Score 9.7 out of 10
SAP on IBM Cloud
SAP on IBM Cloud
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
DropboxMicrosoft Azure
Likelihood to Recommend
8.9
(1192 ratings)
8.7
(97 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.5
(38 ratings)
10.0
(17 ratings)
Usability
8.5
(348 ratings)
8.4
(37 ratings)
Availability
7.3
(3 ratings)
6.8
(2 ratings)
Performance
6.2
(8 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.5
(35 ratings)
8.0
(28 ratings)
Online Training
8.2
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.9
(4 ratings)
8.0
(2 ratings)
Configurability
6.4
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
6.9
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
DropboxMicrosoft Azure
Likelihood to Recommend
Dropbox
It has been great for my real estate business as I have many files and need to keep them for a minimum of 5 years. I use it for business and personal files to stay organized. I don't care to use it for photo storage as I feel that it takes up too much space, and I prefer to keep them separate.
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Microsoft
Azure is particularly well suited for enterprise environments with existing Microsoft investments, those that require robust compliance features, and organizations that need hybrid cloud capabilities that bridge on-premises and cloud infrastructure. In my opinion, Azure is less appropriate for cost-sensitive startups or small businesses without dedicated cloud expertise and scenarios requiring edge computing use cases with limited connectivity. Azure offers comprehensive solutions for most business needs but can feel like there is a higher learning curve than other cloud-based providers, depending on the product and use case.
Read full review
Pros
Dropbox
  • I can share projects I need feedback on.
  • I can make projects available to editors so that they can do their work.
  • Dropbox is a place where I can store files that I can access from anywhere, even if I don't have my laptop with me at the time.
  • I have an old friend who is an acting professor in Tokyo. He loves the dialogue that I write in my novels. He converts chapters into scenework for his acting students. They get very excited when there's new material!
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Microsoft Azure is highly scalable and flexible. You can quickly scale up or down additional resources and computing power.
  • You have no longer upfront investments for hardware. You only pay for the use of your computing power, storage space, or services.
  • The uptime that can be achieved and guaranteed is very important for our company. This includes the rapid maintenance for security updates that are mostly carried out by Microsoft.
  • The wide range of capabilities of services that are possible in Microsoft Azure. You can practically put or create anything in Microsoft Azure.
Read full review
Cons
Dropbox
  • 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
Read full review
Microsoft
  • The cost of resources is difficult to determine, technical documentation is frequently out of date, and documentation and mapping capabilities are lacking.
  • The documentation needs to be improved, and some advanced configuration options require research and experimentation.
  • Microsoft's licensing scheme is too complex for the average user, and Azure SQL syntax is too different from traditional SQL.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
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.
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Microsoft
Moving to Azure was and still is an organizational strategy and not simply changing vendors. Our product roadmap revolved around Azure as we are in the business of humanitarian relief and Azure and Microsoft play an important part in quickly and efficiently serving all of the world. Migration and investment in Azure should be considered as an overall strategy of an organization and communicated companywide.
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Usability
Dropbox
It works extremely well, and we have never had any issues with connecting or sharing files. It's very easy to use, and any team member can share, add, and delete files to a virtual drive. This is extremely helpful, and it's an amazing tool to use, ensuring everyone can connect and work together effectively.
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Microsoft
As Microsoft Azure is [doing a] really good with PaaS. The need of a market is to have [a] combo of PaaS and IaaS. While AWS is making [an] exceptionally well blend of both of them, Azure needs to work more on DevOps and Automation stuff. Apart from that, I would recommend Azure as a great platform for cloud services as scale.
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Reliability and Availability
Dropbox
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
It has proven to be unreliable in our production environment and services become unavailable without proper notification to system administrators
Read full review
Performance
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
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
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.
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Microsoft
We were running Windows Server and Active Directory, so [Microsoft] Azure was a seamless transition. We ran into a few, if any support issues, however, the availability of Microsoft Azure's support team was more than willing and able to guide us through the process. They even proposed solutions to issues we had not even thought of!
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Online Training
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!
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
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
Microsoft
As I have mentioned before the issue with my Oracle Mismatch Version issues that have put a delay on moving one of my platforms will justify my 7 rating.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Dropbox
For me, Dropbox is so much easier to use than Google Drive. I have both because I have a client who relies on me using Google, but each time I upload something, it gets lost in translation, and the document does not appear the same in Google. Frustrating. Love Dropbox!
Read full review
Microsoft
As I continue to evaluate the "big three" cloud providers for our clients, I make the following distinctions, though this gap continues to close. AWS is more granular, and inherently powerful in the configuration options compared to [Microsoft] Azure. It is a "developer" platform for cloud. However, Azure PowerShell is helping close this gap. Google Cloud is the leading containerization platform, largely thanks to it building kubernetes from the ground up. Azure containerization is getting better at having the same storage/deployment options.
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Scalability
Dropbox
bc i think box.com is better and more affordable
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Dropbox
  • When it works (usually if a client already has Dropbox, so they don't get the solicitation to sign up), it works flawlessly.
  • I've had multiple clients not see the "continue with download only" at the bottom and email me to resend the media another way because they don't have a Dropbox account.
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Microsoft
  • For about 2 years we didn't have to do anything with our production VMs, the system ran without a hitch, which meant our engineers could focus on features rather than infrastructure.
  • DNS management was very easy in Azure, which made it easy to upgrade our cluster with zero downtime.
  • Azure Web UI was easy to work with and navigate, which meant our senior engineers and DevOps team could work with Azure without formal training.
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ScreenShots

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.