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Dropbox

22.8K
17.8K
+ 1
1.7K
Google Drive

78K
64.7K
+ 1
2.1K
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Dropbox vs Google Drive: What are the differences?

Dropbox: Build the power of Dropbox into your apps. Harness the power of Dropbox. Connect to an account, upload, download, search, and more; Google Drive: Integrate your app with Google Drive. The Drive SDK gives you a group of APIs along with client libraries, language-specific examples, and documentation to help you develop apps that integrate with Drive The core functionality of Drive apps is to download and upload files in Google Drive. However, the Drive SDK provides a lot more than just storage..

Dropbox and Google Drive can be primarily classified as "File Storage" tools.

Some of the features offered by Dropbox are:

  • 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.

On the other hand, Google Drive provides the following key features:

  • Create & collaborate.- In Google Drive, you can create new documents, spreadsheets and presentations instantly. Work together at the same time, on the same doc, and see changes as they appear.
  • Work better with the products you use everyday.- Say goodbye to bulky email attachments. Send a link from Google Drive in Gmail and everyone has the same file, same version—automatically. Your pictures in Google Drive are instantly available in Google+, so you’re never more than one click away from sharing with your circles.
  • Powerful search.- Google Drive helps you get to your files faster. Search for content by keyword and filter by file type, owner and more. Google Drive can even recognize objects in your images and text in scanned documents.

"Easy to work with", "Free" and "Popular" are the key factors why developers consider Dropbox; whereas "Easy to use ", "Gmail integration" and "Enough free space" are the primary reasons why Google Drive is favored.

Lyft, StackShare, and Zillow are some of the popular companies that use Google Drive, whereas Dropbox is used by Lyft, StackShare, and MIT. Google Drive has a broader approval, being mentioned in 2070 company stacks & 1949 developers stacks; compared to Dropbox, which is listed in 1068 company stacks and 939 developer stacks.

Decisions about Dropbox and Google Drive
Noel Broda
Founder, CEO, CTO at NoFilter · | 8 upvotes · 15.7K 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 Dropbox
Pros of Google Drive
  • 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
  • 505
    Easy to use
  • 326
    Gmail integration
  • 312
    Enough free space
  • 268
    Collaboration
  • 249
    Stable service
  • 128
    Desktop and mobile apps
  • 97
    Offline sync
  • 79
    Apps
  • 74
    15 gb storage
  • 50
    Add-ons
  • 9
    Integrates well
  • 6
    Easy to use
  • 3
    Simple back-up tool
  • 2
    Amazing
  • 2
    Beautiful
  • 2
    Fast upload speeds
  • 2
    The more the merrier
  • 2
    So easy
  • 2
    Wonderful
  • 2
    Linux terminal transfer tools
  • 2
    It has grown to a stable in the cloud office
  • 1
    UI
  • 1
    Windows desktop
  • 1
    G Suite integration

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Cons of Dropbox
Cons of Google Drive
  • 3
    Personal vs company account is confusing
  • 1
    Replication kills CPU and battery
  • 7
    Organization via web ui sucks
  • 2
    Not a real database

Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

What is Dropbox?

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

What is 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.

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What companies use Dropbox?
What companies use Google Drive?
See which teams inside your own company are using Dropbox or Google Drive.
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What tools integrate with Dropbox?
What tools integrate with Google Drive?

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Blog Posts

Sep 29 2020 at 7:36PM

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What are some alternatives to Dropbox and Google Drive?
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.
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.
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.
G Suite
An integrated suite of secure, cloud-native collaboration and productivity apps. It includes Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar, Meet and more.
Evernote
Take notes to a new level with Evernote, the productivity app that keeps your projects, ideas, and inspiration handy across all your digital devices. It helps you capture and prioritize ideas, projects, and to-do lists, so nothing falls through the cracks.
See all alternatives