Why I Don’t Use Dropbox

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When I first started storing backups of photos and key files online, I signed up for Dropbox and free 2GB of storage. It became quickly apparent that was far too small, but I was too cheap to pay $100 to jump to the next level. Instead, I started using Microsoft Skydrive, now OneDrive; as of yesterday I have 121GB free!

dropbox

It got me thinking: is Dropbox more competitive now? A very brief glance at their pricing guide tells me they absolutely are not. 1TB of storage is $9.99/month, or $99/year. Meanwhile, OneDrive is $6.99/month, or around $84/year; $16 may not be much, but it’s certainly a savings. And if you don’t need 1TB of cloud storage, OneDrive offers far more rational price points: 15GB for free, then 100GB for $1.99/month and 200GB for $3.99/month. If 1TB is too much and 15GB is too little, you can sit quite comfortably with 200GB for only $48/year, or less than half of what Dropbox wants to go from 2GB to 1TB. And remember, Dropbox offers absolutely nothing in between those two extremes.

Google Drive also offers serious competition, with 15GB free as well. They also offer 100GB for $1.99/month, though after that it jumps to 1TB for $9.99/month. However, Google really shines on the high-end, with plans ranging from 10TB all the way up to 30TB (granted, at a whopping $299.99/month, but still). Incidentally, if you head to Google’s security site today, they’ll give you an additional 2GB free for doing a security checkup.

The point is, the competition is rapidly exceeding what Dropbox can offer, and Dropbox has done absolutely nothing to stop them.It’s not that Dropbox is a bad service. But for me as the end-user, it’s hard to see the value in Dropbox anymore. If all you need is a place to store documents and photos, there are far more wallet friendly choices, and both Microsoft and Google have done quite a bit to integrate OneDrive and Google Drive with third-party services. And with both services offering a default free level that’s above and beyond what Dropbox offers, along with additional incentive amounts along the way, I think I am halfway to deleting Dropbox off my devices entirely.

Are you a hardcore Dropbox user, or have OneDrive/Google Drive/other competitors lured you away?

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About the Author

Zek
Zek has been a gadget fiend for a long time, going back to their first PDA (a Palm M100). They quickly went from researching what PDA to buy to following tech news closely and keeping up with the latest and greatest stuff. They love writing about ebooks because they combine their two favorite activities; reading anything and everything, and talking about fun new tech toys. What could be better?

6 Comments on "Why I Don’t Use Dropbox"

  1. jeremiah.owen | February 10, 2015 at 4:33 pm |

    Currently in the process of jumping from Dropbox to OneDrive. I really like the stuff Microsoft has been doing lately and bottom line…? For 9.99 a month I get UNLIMITED OneDrive storage and access to Microsoft Office on 5 PCs, phones and tablets. That’s an insane deal considering I have been paying Dropbox 13.99 for 1TB. Only downside I have run into is the 10GB file size limit on OneDrive other than that been really happy with OneDrive and can’t wait to finish getting all my stuff moved over this week.

  2. I look at it this way – when Apple beats you on both features and pricing on a non-core product … you are not competitive.

    1. My kids each have an iCloud account because they get 5GB for free.
    2. If you look at the iCloud page (http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201238), you see 20GB is $0.99/month ($12), and 200GB is the same $3.99 as OneDrive.

    Seriously … DropBox is getting under-cut on price. By Apple.

  3. Drew Guttadore | February 10, 2015 at 6:18 pm |

    Well I think storage is more than just a price point.. For example, I generally buy SandDisk USB datasticks as I believe they are a better quality.. I find that the cloud services do deliver a different set of quality.
    I look at
    Synchronisation quality
    Speed of synchronisation
    Features that come with the drive such as share
    Ancillary tools that can use the data

    My findings are as follows:
    1. Synchronisation speed and quality go to Drop Box. i have had serious synchronisation issues with Google Drive and One Drive is very slow for me.
    2. All the service allow a share process, One Drive wins with the ability to pin folders to the desktop or mobile. Saw a good article on this a few days ago.. Drop Box the least as you can only share one file at a time
    3. I think all services allow selective share on your PC/Mac but I’m not sure and this should be important given ultrabook SSD drive sizes
    4. Google Drive and DropBox currently have the most tools that actually use the drive such as Carousel, but this needs to grow a lot! All the services allow you to auto upload your photos, but Google is the worst as you can’t find the folder so you can manage it! Only available through Google+.. Meh

    As you can see this one is near and dear to me, I’ve been living out of two suitcases for a few years now and so having my data available anywhere and quickly is very important. I use Dropbox for personal and One Drive for work as its well integrated with Office 365
    I bagged Apple a long time ago.. until very recently you couldn’t even see your file structure and manage it, not sure if the recent changes allow for that or not but that’s very important.. See ya Apple!

    Just some thoughts.. 🙂

    • Drew Guttadore | February 10, 2015 at 6:23 pm |

      Oh I forgot to mention costs for me..

      1. Drop Box I have 100g free for a couple of years, I tried the 1TB for $100 but dropped it as I wasn’t using it enough and the others started coming up to speed. I use about 10g of space there

      2. One Drive with Office 365, I have up to a 1TB along with my office subscription etc etc for $6.99 a month.. Great deal

      3. Google Drive I have abou 150g free from various device purchases over the last couple years.. Funny thing is it shows I’m using 32g and I can’t for the life of me see where its being used!

    • Re: Apple … nope, still not a ‘virtual file folder’ – it is all in-app access.

  4. I use Dropbox more than anything but I also use Google+ and OneDrive. I even have I like Dropbox the best so far but not for the amount of storage…for the sync! It syncs on ANY OS I use. I can access OneDrive on all os’s too but it’s not nearly as easy as dropbox and it doesnt sync on Linux.

    For non cloud I use Bit Torrent Sync which gets me the same thing as drop box but only locally which I like.

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