Dropbox vs. OneNote

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
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
OneNote
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft's OneNote is a digital note-taking app, supporting photos, annotating, web page clipping, emailing, and synchronizing notes across devices.N/A
Pricing
DropboxOneNote
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
Microsoft OneNote
Free
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
DropboxOneNote
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
DropboxOneNote
Considered Both Products
Dropbox
Chose Dropbox
Dropbox is better in most situations Except for when multiple users are editing and saving one document. In this circumstance typically Google Drive allows easier use of services as you do not have to worry about your files being overwritten and chasing the change history to …
Chose Dropbox
I know my company was considering Box for security reasons, but we never made the switch.
Chose Dropbox
We briefly considered Mozy and Carbonite as solutions against Dropbox, but their focus is backup first. To be honest, I'm not sure if either even offers a file sync feature any longer. They didn't solve the problem that Dropbox does in an elegant way. Apple iCloud is very …
OneNote
Chose OneNote
I tried organizing various online hard drive storage products like Dropbox, iCloud and Google Drive and One Drive. However, I like the visual aspects of OneNote when I save a document or webpage. It's simpler and I am able to know immediately if I have found the item I am …
Chose OneNote
The only real product that I can directly hold in juxtaposition to OneNote is Evernote. OneNote ultimately wins that battle because of its zero cost. It compares like for like in most other ways to Evernote, with the exception of its organizational system. If you intend to …
Chose OneNote
I chose OneNote on the recommendation of a colleague. I found that OneNote is more useable than Evernote, although both are very good. Both products organize your notes in the same way, so it could also just come down to familiarity with OneNote, but I really like how the …
Chose OneNote
As far as I'm concerned, OneNote is the 'go-to' note-taking application. Evernote is not helpful and it's also confusing. OneNote has so much more functionality, putting Evernote to shame. Once I started using OneNote, Evernote became a thing of the past.
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
DropboxOneNote
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
Dropbox
7.7
887 Ratings
9% below category average
OneNote
-
Ratings
Versioning7.6714 Ratings00 Ratings
Video files8.0697 Ratings00 Ratings
Audio files8.2623 Ratings00 Ratings
Document collaboration7.5780 Ratings00 Ratings
Access control7.5828 Ratings00 Ratings
File search7.2855 Ratings00 Ratings
Device sync8.0814 Ratings00 Ratings
Cloud Storage Security & Administration
Comparison of Cloud Storage Security & Administration features of Product A and Product B
Dropbox
7.7
848 Ratings
12% below category average
OneNote
-
Ratings
User and role management7.6778 Ratings00 Ratings
File organization8.0837 Ratings00 Ratings
Device management7.5730 Ratings00 Ratings
Cloud Storage Platform
Comparison of Cloud Storage Platform features of Product A and Product B
Dropbox
8.0
836 Ratings
6% below category average
OneNote
-
Ratings
Performance7.8829 Ratings00 Ratings
Reliability8.2834 Ratings00 Ratings
Storage Reports7.8636 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
DropboxOneNote
Small Businesses
SugarSync
SugarSync
Score 7.0 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
Druva Security Cloud
Druva Security Cloud
Score 9.7 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Enterprises
Druva Security Cloud
Druva Security Cloud
Score 9.7 out of 10

No answers on this topic

All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
DropboxOneNote
Likelihood to Recommend
7.8
(911 ratings)
7.8
(71 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.1
(31 ratings)
10.0
(13 ratings)
Usability
7.7
(65 ratings)
8.0
(11 ratings)
Availability
7.6
(3 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Performance
6.3
(8 ratings)
8.8
(3 ratings)
Support Rating
6.2
(34 ratings)
8.7
(10 ratings)
Online Training
8.2
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.1
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
6.4
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.2
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
DropboxOneNote
Likelihood to Recommend
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
Microsoft
In my opinion OneNote is a must for anyone who does business. It’s versatile, stable and sustainable. It can keep private information private - like passwords. It can be used for collaborative work - like standard operating procedures. It is fairly easy to use and far superior to pen and paper. When used for meeting notes, it can be flagged with icons that are searchable - like ideas or important items. You can even create Outlook tasks on the fly
Read full review
Pros
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
Microsoft
  • Because of its flexibility and ability to hold different types of content (text, images, tables), it is a great tool for collecting content from different resources and organizing it in one place.
  • Technical support analysts are using sections for their support case analysis; they paste pieces of logs, screen-shots, document their steps in troubleshooting etc., all in one section, to get the full picture yet stay organized.
  • The logic of content structure; Notebook>Section>Page>Paragraph, allows you to manage and collect all needed information by the areas of the user's responsibility. For example; each of my projects has its own section, in which each page is a task.
Read full review
Cons
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
Microsoft
  • The table editing tools are too simplistic and lack the features found in other Office products.
  • Some content loses its rich text formatting when being pasted into OneNote. A workaround is to paste the content first into Outlook or Word and then copy/pasting that into OneNote.
  • Microsoft is moving away from a local install of OneNote, which means notebooks have to be in the cloud in Office 2019. This will actually reduce the usefulness of OneNote in some environments and opens the door to competitor products.
  • Update: Microsoft has now announced that it will continue to support OneNote 2016 through 2023. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-365-Blog/Your-OneNote/ba-p/954922
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.
Read full review
Microsoft
As this is not a compulsory tool in our organization, I would say all depends on the decision makers, however since this is a part of MS Office, I am sure we will have it for as long as we will possibly need it. However, I would not be so sure, if it was a separate product
Read full review
Usability
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
Microsoft
I find OneNote incredibly usable. I'm fairly middle of the road when it comes to tech savvy-ness. The platform was very easy to learn and explore. I like that OneNote is no clunky and offers a clean interface. This is important when it comes to deciding if a tool is usable for multiple people.
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
Overall, I rate OneNote's performance highly. In general, notebooks, sections and pages load quickly. OneNote integrates with other apps and info ca easily be shared/copied to and from the tool to other tools. Moreover, Notebooks tend to sync quickly meaning shared notebooks are up to date almost immediately provided there are no syncing issues.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
Microsoft
Since it is part of Microsoft Office and used across the globe there are a lot of support options available. It's quickest to just do a google search which will have plenty of articles to help you since there are so many OneNote users but as an Office customer you also have access to Microsoft support and I have had good experiences with their support (probably because I'm with a large company who is a large customer to them).
Read full review
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
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
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
Microsoft
I tried using Evernote and it is an equally usable tool, however, I prefer the interface and capabilities of OneNote. OneNote seems much easier to use and understand. I think that may primarily be because OneNote is a Microsoft application and I am very used to using Microsoft applications such as Word, Excel, etc. I also use OneNote to keep my grocery list. It does as good of a job as the grocery list applications out there, only I like the flexibility I have with OneNote and how I specifically do my shopping.
Read full review
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
  • 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
Microsoft
  • OneNote has become our organizational standard method of taking electronic notes (though some still prefer pen and paper.) It has been a zero cost outlay due to its freely available nature.
  • Its integration with other Microsoft Office products makes it easy to share notes and content between products, allowing for easy collaboration where needed.
  • OneNote's integration with OneDrive ensures that individual's notes are always safe and secure, taking away the tedious responsibility of backup from the user, and makes it happen seamlessly in the background.
Read full review
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.