Image via CrunchBase
I’ve been a paying customer of DropBox since very early on in their existence and I’ve evangelized and spread the word, but I’ve decided to drop DropBox for Google Drive. Here’s the 5 primary reasons why:
- Price – Simply put, Google Drive is far cheaper than DropBox. In my case, it’s a pretty simple equation:
Google Drive
– $9.99 per month for 200GB
– $19.99 per month for 400GBDropBox
– $40.00 per month for 200GB, but I really can’t even figure out if I can have 200GB. Their plans go from 100GB to a team plan of 1Terabyte for $800 per year for 5 users or $66 per month which makes their pricing all the more confusing. - Security and Safety – No challenge. Google is a monster of storage. They know how to get the job done. Neither of them has ever lost any of my data, so it’s not a big worry for me and the fact that by nature they both synchronize drives to my devices means I have my data even if they lose it. There’s been much hand-wringing about Google’s terms of use and I am not in the least worried about Google “owning” my data, because they couldn’t allow me to do all I do with their apps and my data without those terms. Beyond that I trust Google.
- Integration – I use Google Apps in both of my companies and so, the integration makes it easier. I use Podio for my companies as well and they both integrate well.
- Functionality – It’s Google Apps. I use it everyday. DropBox has no functionality beyond storing and synching my files. I get that in Google with a full suite of apps and it costs less.
- Sharing – With Google, I can easily share a file with anyone with any level of security I choose. With DropBox I have to put it in a Public folder or the user has to join DropBox and then we have file limits in their account and it’s a confusing mess. I kept hoping DropBox would get it’s act together and realize the greatest weakness in their product, but they didn’t.
Unfortunately, I can’t keep waiting for DropBox to figure things out and the pricing advantage makes things even easier. Sorry DropBox, I love what you created, but I can’t stick with you when you don’t keep up. Google Drive has many areas that need improvement, but for the most part it’s where I need it to be.
