Box vs Dropbox

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Box

239
213
+ 1
44
Dropbox

23K
17.9K
+ 1
1.7K
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Box vs Dropbox: What are the differences?

What is Box? Build Innovative Applications on Box. The Box API gives you access to the content management features you see in our web app and lets you extend them for use in your own app. It strives to be RESTful and is organized around the main resources you’re familiar with from the Box web interface.

What is Dropbox? Build the power of Dropbox into your apps. Harness the power of Dropbox. Connect to an account, upload, download, search, and more.

Box and Dropbox can be categorized as "File Storage" tools.

Some of the features offered by Box are:

  • Enterprise-grade file sharing
  • Native mobile apps
  • File sharing links

On the other hand, Dropbox provides the following key features:

  • Dropbox Chooser- Get files from Dropbox into your web app with just a few lines of JavaScript.
  • Sync API- Read and write to Dropbox from iOS & Android as if it were a local filesystem.
  • Core API- The basics. Upload, download, search, and more from your web or mobile app.

"Easy to work with" is the top reason why over 7 developers like Box, while over 428 developers mention "Easy to work with" as the leading cause for choosing Dropbox.

According to the StackShare community, Dropbox has a broader approval, being mentioned in 1070 company stacks & 957 developers stacks; compared to Box, which is listed in 40 company stacks and 13 developer stacks.

Decisions about Box and Dropbox
Noel Broda
Founder, CEO, CTO at NoFilter · | 8 upvotes · 16.6K views

Due to we are using G Suite for emails, Google Drive comes out of the box.

In Google Drive we keep save just some basic marketing files. We used it as a single repository to share files between designers and developers. Nothing more than that. In some moment we had some backups there, but just for security reasons, we removed it

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Pascal Vuylsteler

Key criteria for that choice. I needed a collaborative backup tool for a 15 people team. All people would have access to both their individual private space that should synchronize automatically to/from their desktop and various shared spaces, with various kinds of access rights. Only Box would allow high fine tuning of the access rights. Multi-platform was important too. The ease to transfer ownership of a folder from one departing colleague to their N+1 was a real plus.

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Pros of Box
Pros of Dropbox
  • 8
    Easy to work with
  • 6
    Shared file hosting
  • 6
    Great API
  • 5
    Ability to see who has downloaded the file you sent
  • 4
    No brainer
  • 4
    Integration with external services
  • 3
    Great web UI
  • 3
    Popular
  • 2
    Custom branding
  • 2
    Secure
  • 1
    Clean Interface
  • 434
    Easy to work with
  • 256
    Free
  • 216
    Popular
  • 176
    Shared file hosting
  • 167
    'just works'
  • 100
    No brainer
  • 79
    Integration with external services
  • 76
    Simple
  • 49
    Good api
  • 38
    Least cost (free) for the basic needs case
  • 11
    It just works
  • 8
    Convenient
  • 7
    Accessible from all of my devices
  • 5
    Command Line client
  • 4
    Synchronizing laptop and desktop - work anywhere
  • 4
    Can even be used by your grandma
  • 3
    Reliable
  • 3
    Sync API
  • 3
    Mac app
  • 3
    Cross platform app
  • 2
    Ability to pay monthly without losing your files
  • 2
    Delta synchronization
  • 2
    Everybody needs to share and synchronize files reliably
  • 2
    Backups, local and cloud
  • 2
    Extended version history
  • 2
    Beautiful UI
  • 1
    YC Company
  • 1
    What a beautiful app
  • 1
    Easy/no setup
  • 1
    So easy
  • 1
    The more the merrier
  • 1
    Easy to work with
  • 1
    For when client needs file without opening firewall
  • 1
    Everybody needs to share and synchronize files reliabl
  • 1
    Easy to use
  • 1
    Official Linux app
  • 0
    The more the merrier

Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions

Cons of Box
Cons of Dropbox
    Be the first to leave a con
    • 3
      Personal vs company account is confusing
    • 1
      Replication kills CPU and battery

    Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

    What is Box?

    The Box API gives you access to the content management features you see in our web app and lets you extend them for use in your own app. It strives to be RESTful and is organized around the main resources you’re familiar with from the Box web interface.

    What is Dropbox?

    Harness the power of Dropbox. Connect to an account, upload, download, search, and more.

    Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

    What companies use Box?
    What companies use Dropbox?
    See which teams inside your own company are using Box or Dropbox.
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    Sign up to get full access to all the companiesMake informed product decisions

    What tools integrate with Box?
    What tools integrate with Dropbox?

    Sign up to get full access to all the tool integrationsMake informed product decisions

    Blog Posts

    Sep 29 2020 at 7:36PM

    WorkOS

    PythonSlackG Suite+17
    6
    3030
    What are some alternatives to Box and Dropbox?
    OneDrive
    Outlook.com is a free, personal email service from Microsoft. Keep your inbox clutter-free with powerful organizational tools, and collaborate easily with OneDrive and Office Online integration.
    Google Drive
    Keep photos, stories, designs, drawings, recordings, videos, and more. Your first 15 GB of storage are free with a Google Account. Your files in Drive can be reached from any smartphone, tablet, or computer.
    Microsoft SharePoint
    It empowers teamwork with dynamic and productive team sites for every project team, department, and division. Share and manage content, knowledge, and applications to empower teamwork, quickly find information, and seamlessly collaborate across the organization.
    Nextcloud
    A suite of client-server software for creating and using file hosting services The most deployed self-hosted file share and collaboration platform on the web. Access & collaborate across your devices.
    ceph
    In computing,It is a free-software storage platform, implements object storage on a single distributed computer cluster, and provides interfaces for object-, block- and file-level storage.
    See all alternatives