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
ownCloud
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
ownCloud is a self-hosted open source file syncing and sharing option, from the Boston-based company of the same name.
Box.com is slightly better when it comes to storage space it provides to normal users. ownCloud has an advantage of sharing and keeping everything written in our hard disk. This could be a nice feature as well a horrifying one - thanks to security features. Each software has …
I have a very similar experience between Google Drive and Dropbox. Both offer real-time sharing and collaboration. Google Drive limits external access and requires the recipient of shared files to have a Google account. In the case of both Dropbox and GoogleDrive, they limit …
Other tools with similar functionality have been much better for me to use. However, my company uses ownCloud as its software of choice, so I use it to remain consistent with them.
ownCloud is one of the only self-hosted solutions worth it. It is open source and free, meaning that anyone with a Linux VM or an old laptop can host its own feature-rich cloud server. Many all-in-one firewalls will mix OwnCloud and CrashPlan, joining document management and …
I have used several products based on public (DropBox, Google Drive, Microsoft Drive, etc) and private cloud (Citrix). Most of them work on public cloud space so they could present problems with compliance. Also, it is usually difficult to protect the information contained in …
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.
I'd easily recommend ownCloud to small businesses or teams within organizations. I've not used ownCloud in large deployments, so I'd hesitate before suggesting it in a situation where more than 10 users need support. That said, ownCloud is easy to set up and multiple instances could be used to service a large user base.
Attention and dedication to making the product a world class product with continual product updates.
Ease of use from an administration standpoint, and a very Clear UI.
The price -- you can't beat free!
Mobile applications are great.
Integration with public S3 cloud providers like AWS S3 and Wasabi S3.
2FA authentication is supported and works great!
Marketplace Add-Ons: I love this! For example, I can install an add-on that natively opens raw images. I am a photographer as well, and being able to quickly view the CR2 Raw Files direct from the camera is fantastic! This was made possible by a marketplace add-in.
Embedded Media Players: Photos, Music, and Video files can be viewed and played right in the browser window.
Sync application to keep local files on a computer updated with the files on the server.
Access control and permissions -- shareable links!
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.
Inability to easily collaboratively edit the same document by several people. Some advances have been made with Collabora (Libreoffice online) but it is still very sub-par compared to Office365 and desktop/online Office editing Sharepoint or OneDrive documents.
Apps for Calendar and Contacts are not part of the basic core, and although now quite supported they cannot still be easily deployed in common email clients such as Outlook or Thunderbird, separate CalDAV and CardDAV plugins need to be installed. Embedding an email solution and plugins for major email clients so they can work just by entering username and password would be good.
Risk of moving important folders/files to another location just by random drag-and-drop on Windows. Sometimes this breaks public links that cannot be restored anymore. Reverting such mistake by any of the users is impossible automatically.
When some user deletes some data in a shared folder it is put into recycle bin of the owner of the folder. The user who deleted cannot himself/herself revert such action as he/she does not see the recycle bin (trash) of the owner. Also, there is no log in the recycle bin who deleted that file or folder.
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.
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.
OwnCloud is easy for me to use, and I believe it would be for others too. The barrier for most people will be the set up. For a technology professional like myself, ownCloud's setup is pretty straightforward, but it's not the sort of thing most casual users will be able to handle. Also, it's on the user to maintain the service. These can be taken care of by paying someone to do it for you.
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.
Compared with other cloud services, ownCloud has been the most efficient. It doesn't create a noticeable drain on resources and very quickly syncs across all my devices. I'm usually able to save a file on my laptop and by the time I walk over and sit down at my desktop machine, it's already there. I don't need to wait as often as I have with services like OneDrive.
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.
Regarding the community edition, there is a reasonably good support on the IRC, forums and in the issue section on Github. Perhaps a much more individual approach would be available if the premium support was chosen and the instance of the server was provided by the Owncloud company that also offers some premium extensions, not available generally. However, we did not need this level of support yet.
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!
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.
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.
The paid cloud services are expensive if you need a lot of data. You're giving your personal and business information to a data-hungry organization. Local NAS solutions are too slow. We run ownCloud on an older business PC and the performance is outstanding, even for remote access, due to local syncing.
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.
