Eric P. Butts

THE Career Site for Accountants and Consultants.

  • Home
  • About
  • Useful Resources
  • Articles
  • Work With Me
    • Breakthrough Resume Writing
    • How to Get Smart in Excel…Fast!
    • Corporate Ladder University (Book)
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Disclaimer
  • Login
You are here: Home / Technology / Box Vs. Dropbox – Which One Is Better?

March 5, 2013 by Eric Butts 17 Comments

Box Vs. Dropbox – Which One Is Better?

As promised, I spent some time playing around with the Box and Dropbox cloud storage apps to see if one is better than the other. What prompted me to do this is that Box was/is giving away 50GB of storage free for life to new users.
I’ve been a Dropbox user for a while but getting 25x more space for free seemed like it was worth at signing up for and then figuring out if it was a better product later. Standard operation for any of these cloud storage systems (Box, Dropbox, Google Drive) is to have an app for tablets, mobile, and desktop in addition to the basic web-based access you get by going directly to any one of those services’ respective websites.

What is Cloud Storage?

Before jumping into the comparison, let’s establish some basics about cloud storage for those who aren’t familiar with it. To put it simply, cloud storage is a system of offsite servers where you can maintain all of your data without using any of the precious space on your hard drive. So why all the talk about the cloud? You can access this information from anywhere with an internet connection. You never have to remember to bring that flash drive or portable hard drive again. If you’ve ever used Microsoft SharePoint before, these cloud storage options work in a similar fashion.

Now that we took care of that, we can move on with the point of this post, comparing two cloud storage options, which will cover three areas:

  1. Home Screen/Hierarchy
  2. Opening/Editing Files
  3. Sharing/Collaboration

Note that all descriptions and screenshots that follow are based on use of the iPad/tablet versions. Experience may vary depending on the platform you use to access either service.

Home Screen/Hierarchy

When logging into Box or Dropbox, the home screens look almost identical, so I’ll only screenshot one of them below. You get a nice split screen view with all of your files and folders on the left with the contents of the highlighted file or folder appearing on the right. Both services have the ability to create folders and move files around within the application. You’ll also find that you can flag files as favorites to make finding things a bit easier to find if you have lots of files stored in the cloud. Advantage: Push

Box Home Screen

Opening/Editing Files

Dropbox and Box each have the ability to allow you to open files in different programs for different viewing and editing purposes. The strange thing here is that Dropbox treats photos differently than other files as you’ll see below. By that I mean, you don’t have as many options available to you if you want to save a copy of  the file in a different application. This could be for photo editing, marking up PDF documents or transferring to a different cloud service. There’s no reason the same type of functions shouldn’t be available for all file types. Advantage: Box

Box Photo Options
Dropbox Photo Options
Dropbox PDF/ebook options

Sharing/Collaboration

A large part of what makes these cloud services great is how they allow you to easily share documents and entire folders that would’ve required substantial effort in years past primarily for one of two reasons:
  1. Too tedious to attach some absurd number of files
  2. Attachments you want to send exceed your email limits
I don’t know about you, but I can’t think of situation in which I’d want to post a link to shared files via Facebook post or Twitter, but Dropbox gives you that choice. And it’s always better to have an option and not need it than the other way around. Advantage: Dropbox
Box Sharing Options
Dropbox Sharing Options

Which One Is Better?

At the end of the day, you have to do what’s best for you but I’ll tell you how I approach this decision. With the proliferation of options available, my first priority is using the one that gives me the best chance at keeping everything in one place. All of the apps I tested that integrated with Dropbox functioned just as well with Box. Within each app, the features were comparable enough that the choice came down to space, so I’m going with Box.

Which one are you using? Is space alone enough to make you switch?


Sign up here to receive more updates like this directly to your inbox!

Filed Under: Technology, Uncategorized

About Eric Butts

I’m a management consultant, MBA and CPA who has a passion for helping others in their career pursuits. Grab my FREE cheatsheet on 12 simple habits of highly successful consultants.

Comments

  1. Eric Butts says

    June 4, 2013 at 9:01 pm

    I haven’t had that particular problem but if I did, the frustration would get old very quickly. A lot of people who are big in Social Media seem to use Dropbox will more “traditional” corporate folks seem to lean toward Box.

    Log in to Reply
  2. Eric Butts says

    July 10, 2013 at 4:48 pm

    At one time I used Dropbox but had so many problems with Dropbox’ failure to sync so now I’m using Box especially for large projects.

    Log in to Reply
  3. Eric Butts says

    July 12, 2013 at 7:28 pm

    Loving Box.com. Currently, I run a small ministry and publication. Box does a fine job keeping me organized and synced with my team members. For larger projects I’m using TeamBox with the capabilities of syncing to Google and sharing via video.

    Log in to Reply
  4. Eric Butts says

    July 12, 2013 at 8:12 pm

    Sounds like you found your winning cloud service! When you have 50GB of space at no charge, it also makes the decision much easier.

    Log in to Reply
  5. Eric Butts says

    August 18, 2013 at 5:51 pm

    Guys, don’t forget Copy. It is the new Dropbox now. I use both currently, but Copy offers you more space for free than Dropbox. Both are good and both come with the desktop client to sync your files to their cloud servers.

    Check it out and use this link to sign up for Copy to get 20GB free instead of the regular 15GB.

    https://copy.com?r=DFygGq

    Log in to Reply
  6. Eric Butts says

    October 28, 2013 at 1:03 am

    Copy is much better, 20GB on signup https://copy.com?r=mV0QDB

    Log in to Reply
  7. Eric Butts says

    February 7, 2014 at 7:13 pm

    Box does not sync pkg files so mac users are out and it does not sync Quickbook files. It also has a size limit of only 250mb. Dropbox wins hands down.

    Log in to Reply
  8. Eric Butts says

    February 7, 2014 at 7:18 pm

    Thanks, Dan. If you have those specific needs then you’re right but I suspect there are a lot of users that doesn’t apply to so not so clear cut.

    Log in to Reply
  9. Eric Butts says

    February 9, 2014 at 4:09 pm

    I tried a lot of services. Copy is a real good service, fast and
    reliable. To get a total of 20gb) u must 1-Register 2-Answer
    email confirmation 3-install app. https://copy.com?r=mE8shp

    Log in to Reply
  10. Eric Butts says

    February 16, 2014 at 5:42 am

    dropbox is best option for photos and videos, box for documents and other files.

    Log in to Reply
  11. Eric Butts says

    February 16, 2014 at 5:44 am

    Thanks for the comment, @Davide. Are you using standard documents or have you seen issues like @BtoBDan raised in the comment below?

    Log in to Reply
  12. Der Führer says

    July 7, 2014 at 12:11 pm

    Somehow Copy’s referral system has a bug. Registering from this link I found on internet gave you +5 GB, a total of 25GB at start:

    https://copy.com?r=vHqQri

    Log in to Reply
  13. Emily Kulish says

    August 4, 2014 at 5:26 pm

    Both Box and Dropbox use folder sync, and they can only sync a single “Dropbox” folder. You have to drag files into the dropbox folder to be synced.

    If you want to sync multiple folders, e.g. if you want to select a folder on your C: drive and sync it to a cloud folder, you need to use DriveHQ FileManager. You don’t need to drag files to “dropbox” folder.

    If you want to directly edit files on the cloud, you can do so with FileManager. This way, it does not take your local storage space. DriveHQ also allows you to map cloud storage as a network drive. You can access cloud storage just like your local drive, this is even easier than Dropbox or Box.

    Of course, DriveHQ’s service is mainly for business. For consumers, the price could be more expensive. But business users are usually charged by user licenses. In this case, DriveHQ’s business service price is much lower.

    Log in to Reply
  14. Manish Shah says

    January 3, 2015 at 5:11 pm

    Another option that is not discussed which I love is File Apartment – it’s simply a better solution. $3.99/mo for unlimited storage with 7 day free trial, you can’t beat that.

    Log in to Reply
    • EB says

      January 4, 2015 at 10:37 am

      Thanks, Manish. I hadn’t heard of this one so I need to check it out. Why do you think it’s better though?

      Log in to Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Featured Posts

How to Get Into Business School – Part 4 (Recommendations)

Stop Dressing Like a Clown and People Will Stop Treating You Like One

What Exactly Do Consultants Do?

Case Study: When Should You Protect Your People?

Sometimes You Have to Do First and Ask Questions Later

Popular Posts

  • 5 Reasons You Should Be Proud to Ask Dumb Questions at Work
  • What Does It Mean to Have a Sense of Urgency
  • Always Stay Close to the Gatekeepers
  • Why Are There Still So Few Black CPAs?
  • What's the Difference Between FP&A and Accounting?
  • 3 Reasons Average Students Become Good Accountants
  • One Thing You Should Never Do on Linkedin
  • How to Handle Double Standards in the Workplace
  • How to Pass the CPA Exam Without Breaking the Bank
  • Masters in Accounting Isn't The Sweet Treat Some Students Think

Recent Posts

  • How To Customize A LinkedIn Invite From Your Phone
  • Weird non-flex but ok
  • The little video game that could is putting on a masterclass in marketing yourself by picking a fight with two juggernauts
  • Today’s message is brought to you by middle of the night confusion
  • This. Is. Sparta!
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Disclaimer

© 2012–2021 Eric P. Butts