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Dropbox vs Google Drive

Dropbox vs Google DriveQuestion about Dropbox vs Google Drive.

Answer based on the Quora question:

Is Google Drive better than Dropbox

Both Dropbox and Google Drive offer storage and collaborative-working services They both have their advantages and of course their disadvantages. This blog post looks at some of these. Dropbox vs Google Drive, which would you choose?

I use both Dropbox and Google Drive for different purposes. This is the beauty of online storage, there is nothing stopping you from using one over the other or from using both. This can be for working on current documents or using backups.

Dropbox vs Google Drive: Drawbacks to sharing

The one single drawback that has put me off actually paying for Dropbox is the way they allocate their storage quota. What do I mean by that? Say you are using 1.5 Gigabytes (GB) of space on the free tariff but a friend needs to share a folder with you. Great, Sharing is easy with Dropbox. You set it up and where you had half a gigabyte spare before, now you suddenly have no space. Your friend’s folder is 0.5 GB. What happened? You were only using 1.5 GB last time you checked. Shared information counts towards your space no matter who shared the folder. Just for helping your friend you will now have to upgrade your subscription or remove some of your own stuff. This is why I call this a major drawback. If I pay for storage, then I want to be able to use that storage.

Contrast this to Google Drive. If someone shared a huge folder with you, it really doesn’t matter. That folder counts towards their quota, not yours. Share away my friends, I can take all your files! I probably wouldn’t want to but I could.

File sizes

A good trick with your Google account to get more space is to create your documents using Google Services. If you have hundreds of files created in Docs, Sheets or Slides for example. They will not count towards your storage limits.

Free Quota

  • Dropbox 2GB
  • Google Drive 15GB (This is shared with all the different Google Services in your one account).

Price comparison

  • Dropbox 1 Terabyte $9.99
  • Google Drive 1 Terabyte $9.99 (remember Google documents don’t count towards your limits so you effectively get more than this.)

You can collaborate using both services but Google Drive, in my opinion, has the edge in this regard. They are both great at synchronizing files across devices and are available on your mobile device.

Google Drive and Dropbox are not the only games in town, don’t forget that Microsoft’s OneDrive is also good.

Reference: https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2375123?hl=en

see question on quora

ceri's q and a

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