Cloud storage has changed the computing world in ways that no one else could have imagined. For the average user, this almost completely killed the idea of ??using portable media to transfer data between devices. Now you can put one device aside, move on to another, and thanks to cloud storage, your data is already waiting for you on everything you have.
However, different cloud providers are not interchangeable. Each of them have their own pros and cons. That’s why we’re comparing Dropbox and Google Drive, two of the most popular options for most users.
Dropbox vs Google Drive: What you get for free
Both of these services allow you to use them for free, but they don’t offer exactly the same amount of storage or features if you don’t invest. Dropbox Basic offers you 2GB of storage. This is quite a bit of space these days, but if you only need to save a few small documents and medium-quality photos, this is a last resort.
Dropbox Basic users can also use just three devices. For example, laptop, tablet and smartphone. Dropbox also offers Dropbox Paper, a cloud-based collaboration tool that lets you work on documents and connect with team members. There is also DropBox integration for apps like Microsoft Word, which helps keep track of document versions for office files that are stored and shared via Dropbox
The free version of Google Drive currently offers 17GB of storage. It’s much more sensible for general use. If you only store a few working documents and photographs, chances are this piece of storage will serve you for a long time. Of course, you also get a Gmail account, access to the full suite of Google Drive, and arguably the best suite of online collaboration and sharing tools out there today.
So, if you mainly want to use cloud storage for a seamless experience with other users, Google Drive is already a stronger contender here.
After all, the apparent lack of storage space on the DropBox Basic offering makes it little more than a trial version under a different name. So if you don’t want to spend money at all, it’s hard for us to recommend it.
Best things about Google Drive
Google Drive is much more than just cloud storage. Drive itself is the unifying hub that links all of Google’s various services together. Your Gmail address is the key to everything, and of course all your mail takes up some of your storage on your disk.
Drive is also the backbone of Google’s suite of cloud apps. Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides are three important ones, but their selection is quite impressive. When you create a new document in one of these apps, it is saved to your Google Drive
Offline use and integration has been a significant disadvantage of Google Drive in the past, but thanks to browser extensions and a great backup and sync app, we find these specific gaps filled.
Best things about Dropbox
One of the greatest strengths of Dropbox is its simplicity. If you install the Dropbox app on your desktop, it acts like a simple system folder. Moving files to and from the cloud is no different than local file transfer. It’s also very easy to get links to share and see exactly which files have been synced and which have not.
All in all, Dropbox just works, and that’s a big plus for it. However, in the past few years, Google Drive has caught up. The Backup & Sync app gives it the same form and function as Dropbox
However, we find the Dropbox mobile app to be much more convenient and user-friendly than Google Drive Partly because Dropbox has a much smaller set of features squeezed into the same space. However, we are very impressed with Dropbox Rewind, which is a powerful and intuitive way to roll back changes to your Dropbox that are accidental or malicious.
Google Drive also lets you check in versions of files and recover deleted items from the recycle bin, but at the time of writing, it has nothing better than that.
Comparison of Dropbox vs Google Drive Pricing
While it’s nice that both services offer you a free tier, you’ll have to shell out some cash to get the most out of them. Here we are only focusing on consumer or individual options, not business or enterprise products.
Starting with Dropbox, these are the most suitable plans for the average user:
- Dropbox Plus 2TB $ 9.99 / month (billed annually) or $ 12.99 / month.
- Dropbox Professional 3TB $ 16.58 / month billed annually or $ 19.99 / month billed monthly.
Dropbox doesn’t just offer different storage sizes between the two. There are other functional differences as well. For example, the Professional option allows you to rewind 180 days instead of 30 as in Plus.
On the Google side, the storage service is called Google One, and the pricing is as follows:
- $ 2.99 / month: 200GB
- $ 9.99 / month: 2TB
- $ 99.99 / month: 10TB
- $ 199.99 / month: 20TB
- $ 299.99 / month: 30TB
Only the 200GB and 2TB plans have an annual option, which essentially gives you two months of the year for free. Google offers a better deal at all levels, and unfortunately, Dropbox has no lesser plans. Here we have to give the prize to Google, Dropbox is simply not competitive in dollar terms.
Dropbox vs Google Drive: Which One Works for You?
If you’re looking for a simple and straightforward cloud storage solution that just acts like a hard drive in the cloud, Dropbox is probably the best choice for you. It’s now easier to navigate and manage files, and it’s easy to sync files across your devices.
One rather serious problem is the lack of a family plan. Google Drive, OneDrive, and Apple iCloud offer options for sharing a cloud storage pool between a group of people, such as a household. Considering the cost of cloud storage, it is often the most efficient and cost effective. With Dropbox, you’ll have to buy separate plans for each person. This means that if you’re not looking for just a custom plan, Dropbox will quickly become too expensive.
However, it’s hard to deny that Google has slowly but surely created one of the most versatile general-purpose cloud solutions in the form of Google Drive They have largely solved the problem of offline use and automatic file synchronization. Today’s Google Drive is more optimized than ever. Once you become familiar with how things are done in Google Drive, it quickly becomes second nature.
If you don’t want Dropbox‘s excellent rewind and other more business-focused aspects, we can safely say that for most people, Google Drive is the best option in most cases.
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