Item: Dropbox
Rating: 10
Author: Enzo Tedeschi

Overall Satisfaction with Dropbox

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

As an indie film production company, as often have a need to move significantly sized files for delivery internationally. We also operate in a place where internet connection can be intermittent, so Dropbox's folder sync combined with its resume features are indispensable. The platform has proven the only 100% reliable upload platform for us for big deliveries, regularly in the hundreds of gigabytes.

We also use it as a company to backup mission critical documents and files, and share information that is project specific. In essence, it has been a part of our central daily workflow for about 10 years now, offering peace of mind. We know files will upload to completion every time, and we know all our critical documents are safely backed up at all times.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Resume interrupted downloads
Instantly syncing local folders
Shared folders across multiple users

Cons

Dropbox for macOS on File Provider seems to have limited support for setting the Dropbox folder to an external drive.
Would love to see a more consistent file sync time estimate - it seems unpredictable as to when a time estimate is even offered. Data / Remaining Data seems consistently available, but not a time estimate based on current connection speed.

Return on Investment

As a film production company that often has to deliver projects internationally, including to festivals for screening, Dropbox has saved us thousands in shipping and storage costs (hard disks etc). A digital screener for a festival alone could cost easily $200 for the drive plus international shipping. It's much easier (and quicker) to send a Dropbox link for download.
Before Dropbox, backing up data was about copying data and filling up hard disks. Now we have one local copy and a rigorously backed up cloud copy which takes care of itself. We've never lost data on Dropbox in over 10 years of use. This represents a saving of thousands each year.

Usability

While simple to use, we've found that the way Dropbox works is sometimes challenging for those that may not have a level of tech savvy, so one point taken off for perhaps some additional user-freindliness that might be possible. Once a user takes a moment to understand best practices (which are very few), the process then always runs smoothly.

Alternatives Considered

Google Drive, WeTransfer, OpenText Hightail and OneDrive

Many of the tested platforms are very usable, however for our specific use case of large files, all of them were left wanting. Upload or download speeds were often slow, available file space was low for the subscription tier, or simply getting a successful upload or download was difficult. Dropbox works across all these features well, as well as the ability to manage sync effectively per folder.

Key Insights

Do you think Dropbox delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Dropbox's feature set?

Yes

Did Dropbox live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Dropbox go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Dropbox again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Acrobat, Apple Numbers, iPages, Microsoft Excel, ClickUp

Likelihood to Recommend

It's the perfect backup solution for documents - setting up a sync folder and saving / working on documents directly in the sync folder means that we don't have to think about actively backing up. The document being backing itself up the second it is saved and Dropbox detects a new file. This is its strongest suit.

However for large file transfers, the resume function comes into its own as well. Using Google Drive or WeTransfer can be successful, but for large file transfers they seem to bomb out with regularity for us, which means having to use ftp (not always an option) or just keep trying until download is successful. Dropbox's sync / resume means that while it might not be the fastest solution, it is the most reliable we have tested.

Dropbox Feature Ratings

Comments

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Dropbox is a core piece of our daily workflow