Cloud storage has changed the world of computing in ways no one could have imagined. For the average user, it almost completely killed the idea of using removable media to move data between devices. Now you can put down one device, switch to another, and thanks to cloud storage, your data is waiting for you on everything you own.
That being said, the different cloud providers are not interchangeable. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. That’s why we compare Dropbox with Google Drivetwo of the most popular choices of the vast majority of users.
Table of Contents
Dropbox vs Google Drive: What You Get For Free
Both of these services are free to use, but they don’t offer exactly the same amount of storage or features if you don’t shell out for it. Dropbox Basic gives you 2GB of space. This is quite a small space in this day and age, but if you only need to keep a few small documents and moderate quality photos, it will be very effective.
Dropbox Basic users are also limited to a total of three devices. For example, a laptop, tablet and smartphone. Dropbox also offers Dropbox Paper, a cloud-based collaboration tool that lets you work on documents and communicate with team members. There are also DropBox integration for apps like Microsoft Word, which helps keep track of document versions for office files stored and shared through your Dropbox.
The free version of Google Drive currently offers 17GB of space. That’s much more reasonable for general use. If you only store a few documents and work photos, then it is likely that this archive will serve you for a long time. Of course, you also get a Gmail account, access to the full Google Drive suite, and possibly the best online sharing and collaboration toolkit of any cloud software service available today.
So if you primarily want cloud storage as a way to seamlessly work with others, then Google Drive is already a stronger candidate here.
In the end, the sheer lack of storage space of the DropBox Basic product makes it more than just a trial with a different name. So if you don’t want to spend any money, we’d hardly recommend it.
The best things about Google Drive
Google Drive is more than just a cloud storage solution. Drive itself is the unifying hub that links all of Google’s various services together. Your Gmail address is the key to all, and of course, all your mail takes up some storage space in your drive.
Drive is also the backbone of Google’s suite of cloud applications. Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides are the three important ones, but there’s a sizable selection on offer. When you create a new document with one of these apps, it’s stored in your Google Drive.
In the past, offline use and integration was a significant weakness of Google Drive, but thanks to browser extensions and Backup and Sync application, we consider specific gaps to be filled.
The best things about Dropbox
One of Dropbox’s greatest strengths is its simplicity. If you install the Dropbox app on your desktop, it acts as a simple system folder. Moving files in and out of the cloud is no different than using local file transfers. It’s also very easy to get shareable links and see exactly which files have been synced.
All in all, Dropbox just works, and that’s a big plus for its benefits. However, Google Drive has caught up in the last few years. The Backup and Sync app gives it the same look and functionality as Dropbox.
However, we think the Dropbox mobile app is much more user-friendly and easy to navigate than Google Drive. Partly because Dropbox has a much smaller set of functions squeezed into the same space. However, we’re impressed with Dropbox Rewind, which is a powerful and intuitive way to roll back changes to your Dropbox that happened by accident or by malicious actors.
Google Drive also lets you revert file versions and restore deleted items from the Trash, but nothing as good as at the time of writing.
Compare Dropbox prices with Google Drive
While it’s nice that both services offer free tiers for you to try, you’ll need to shell out a little cash to get the most out of them. We’re just focusing on consumer or individual-level options here instead of enterprise or enterprise products.
Starting with Dropbox, here are the plans that are best suited for casual users:
- Dropbox Plus 2TB $9.99 per month (billed annually) or $12.99 billed monthly.
- Dropbox Professional 3TB $16.58 per month (billed annually) or $19.99 per month billed monthly.
Dropbox doesn’t just offer different storage sizes between these two tiers. There are also other feature differences. For example, the Professional option offers 180 days of rewind instead of 30 as with Plus.
On the Google side, the hosting service is called Google One and the price is broken down as follows:
- $2.99 per month: 200 GB
- $9.99 per month: 2 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 annual option, which basically gives you two months of the year free. Google offers a better deal on every level, and Dropbox sadly doesn’t have smaller plans. We have to award Google here, Dropbox just doesn’t compete in terms of pure dollar.
Dropbox vs. Google Drive: Which is for you?
If you are looking for a simple, straightforward cloud storage solution that only works as a hard drive in the cloud, Dropbox is probably the best choice for you. It’s simpler to navigate and manage your files, and it’s easy to sync files across your devices.
A pretty big problem is the lack of family planning. Google Drive, A disk and Apple iCloud both provide options for sharing a group of cloud storage among a group of people, such as a household. With cloud storage pricing, this is often the most efficient and economical. In the case of Dropbox, you will have to purchase individual plans for each. That means, unless you’re just looking for an individual plan, Dropbox will quickly become too expensive.
However, it’s hard to deny that Google has slowly but surely launched one of the most versatile, all-in-one cloud solutions in the form of Google Drive. They have largely solved the problem of offline usage and automatic file syncing. Today’s Google Drive is also more streamlined than ever. Once you get used to the way things are done in Google Drive, it quickly becomes second nature.
Unless you really need Dropbox’s superlative rewinding and other business-oriented aspects, we’re comfortable saying that for most people, most of the time, Google Drive is the go-to choice. better.
