Cloud storage has changed the world of computing in ways nobody could have envisioned. For the regular user, it is almost entirely killed the concept of using portable media to transfer data between devices. You can now put down one device, move over into another, and thanks to cloud storage your info is already waiting for you on everything you own.
That being said, distinct cloud suppliers aren’t synonymous. They all have their own pros and cons. That is why we’re comparing Dropbox vs Google Drive, two of their most well-known choices for the majority of users.
Dropbox Vs Google Drive: Everything You Get For Free
Both these services allow you to use them for free, but they don’t offer exactly the same amount of storage or storage attributes if you put no money down. Dropbox Basic offers you 2GB of space. This is a rather small amount of space in this era, but in the event that you merely have to maintain a few tiny documents and moderate-quality photos, it will do in a pinch.
Dropbox Basic users can also be restricted to three devices in total. For instance, a notebook, smartphone and tablet. Dropbox also supplies Dropbox Paper, a cloud-based collaboration tool that lets you work on files and communicate with group members. There’s also DropBox integration for applications including Microsoft Word, which will help keep track of document versions for office documents stored and shared via your Dropbox.
The free version of Google Drive now offers a 17GB allocation of space. That’s far more reasonable for general usage. If you’re only storing a couple of work documents and photos, then it is likely this chunk of storage will serve you for quite a very long moment. Naturally, you also get a Gmail account, access to the full Google Drive suite and very possibly the best set of online collaboration and sharing tools of any cloud software service today.
Therefore, if you mainly want cloud storage as a means to work seamlessly with other people, Google Drive is currently the stronger contender here.
In the long run, the utter lack of storage area of the DropBox Basic offering makes it little more than a trial by a different name. Therefore, if you are not looking to invest any money at all, we have a hard time recommending it.
The Best Things About Google Drive
Google Drive is so much more than the usual cloud storage alternative. Drive itself is the unifying hub that ties together all of the various Google services. Your Gmail address is the key to everything and, of course, all your email takes up a part of the storage in your driveway.
Drive is also the backbone of Google’s suite of cloud applications. Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides are three major ones, but there is a large selection on offer. When you make a new document with one of these programs, it’s stored on your Google Drive.
In the past, offline use and integration continues to be a significant point of weakness for Google Drive, but thanks to browser extensions and the superb Backup and Sync program, we believe these special gaps filled.
The Best Things About Dropbox
One of Dropbox’s greatest strengths is its ease. If you put in the Dropbox program on your desktop computer, it acts as a simple program folder. Moving files in and out of the cloud is no different from using local document transfer. Additionally, it is dead simple to acquire shareable hyperlinks and determine exactly which files have been synced or not.
All in all, Dropbox just works and that is a big plus point in its favor. However, Google Drive has captured up in the last few years. The Backup and Sync program gives it effectively exactly the exact same form and operate as Dropbox.
We do however think that the Dropbox mobile application is much more user friendly and easy to navigate in comparison to Google Drive. Partly because Dropbox has a far smaller group of functions squeezed into the exact same space. We’re however very impressed with Dropbox Rewind, which is a powerful and intuitive way to roll back changes for a Dropbox that happen either by injury or thanks to malicious actors.
Google Drive also enables you to revert file variations and retrieve deleted items in the Trash, but it’s nothing as good as this at the time of composing.
Dropbox Vs Google Drive Pricing Compared
While it’s nice that both services provide a free tier for you to try, you should shell out a little cash so as to get the most from them. We’re simply focusing on the consumer-grade or individual choices here rather than the business or enterprise solutions.
Beginning with Dropbox, these would be the most important plans for the average user:
- Dropbox Plus 2TB $9.99 per month (billed annually) or $12.99 charged yearly.
- Dropbox Professional 3TB $16.58 per month (billed annually) or $19.99 a month billed monthly.
Dropbox does not just offer you different storage sizes between these two tiers. There are other feature differences too. By way of instance, the expert option provides 180 days of rewind rather than 30, as with Plus.
On the Google side, the storage service is called Google One and also the pricing breaks down like this:
- $2.99 per month: 200 GB
- $9.99 per month: two TB
- $99.99 per month: 10 TB
- $199.99 per month: 20 TB
- $299.99 per month: 30 TB
Only the 200GB and 2TB plans have an yearly choice, which basically give you two months from the year for free. Google offers a better deal on every level and regrettably Dropbox doesn’t have smaller plans. We have to give the prize to Google here, Dropbox is just not competitive in pure dollar terms.
Dropbox Vs Google Drive: Which Is For You?
If you’re looking for a simple, simple cloud storage alternative that simply functions as a hard disk in the cloud, Dropbox is most likely the best selection for you. It is easier to navigate and manage your files and easy to sync documents on your own devices.
One rather big issue is the absence of a family program. Google Drive, OneDrive and Apple iCloud all offer options to share a pool of cloud storage among a group of people, such as a family. With the way cloud storage is priced, this is frequently the most efficient and economical. In the case of Dropbox, you’ll need to buy separate plans for each person. Meaning that, unless you are only looking for a person strategy, Dropbox quickly becomes overly expensive.
It’s hard, however, to deny that Google has gradually but surely put together one of the most flexible, general-purpose cloud solutions in the form of Google Drive. They’ve largely solved the issue of offline usage and automatic file syncing. The Google Drive of today can be more streamlined than ever. Once you’re familiar with the way things are done in Google Drive land, it quickly becomes second nature.
Unless you absolutely need Dropbox’s superlative rewind feature and other more business-oriented facets, we are comfortable in stating that for many people, most of the moment, Google Drive is the superior overall option.
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