Cloud computing is an on-demand computing model, which allow users to share, and access data across multiple devices. These types of services have become very popular lately and the number of cloud service providers have been increasing considerably. Google Drive and Dropbox are among the best cloud storage apps and in this post, we will compare both solutions to help users choosing the solution most suitable for them.
What is the best cloud storage?
Cloud storage solutions are deployed by individuals as well as by businesses. Some feature sets are very important to businesses but may not be crucial to individuals. Here we have compared how Google Drive and Dropbox work in few aspects relevant to businesses.
Storage & Pricing
The free account of Dropbox gives you 2 GB of storage space. Google Drive provides you 15 GB, but it is shared between all Google programs. You can upgrade to either a Dropbox Plus or a paid Google One account to get more storage space. A Dropbox Plus account is $120 per year for 2 TB of space. Google yearly subscription for the same amount of space cost $100. It also has cheaper plans with storage space between the 15 GB and 2TB marks. Dropbox only offers 2 options: a free account and Dropbox Plus.
Dropbox does have a referral program that can be used to get additional storage space. From the referral page, you can send email to friends and coworkers. For every person that signs up from your referral, Dropbox gives both you and the new signee 500MB of free storage space. Referrals are capped at 32 for a total of 16GB with a free account.
Security
When it comes to security, Google and Dropbox are quite similar. Google provides two-factor authentication support, which require your choice of SMS, an authenticator app, one-tap sign-in on your phone or a phone call with a code to use the account. Dropbox is using passwordless logins through standards such as the webauthn. Both Google and Dropbox encrypt your data while it is been sent from your computer to their servers. Once the information is in the cloud, both generate a key that is used to decrypt it when you need to access it.
Google goes an extra mile by encrypting that key using a second, rotating master key. This means anyone who could steal data from Google’s servers would need two keys to access your data. Google also encrypts data when it’s in transit between its own servers.
Syncing
Dropbox’s way of syncing is faster than Google’s way. When you work on a file, changes are saved automatically and files and documents are then synced within the program so they can be accessed from any device or browser.
Dropbox uses a block-syncing method, which mean that saves and syncs just the changes made to the document. If you are using the collaboration features within Dropbox, block syncing makes changes appear for everyone more quickly. Therefore, you don’t have to wait a long time to access changes yourself when logging into Dropbox from another device.
Google Drive has a different way of syncing. It actually downloads and uploads the entire document. Sometimes you will see a delay when accessing a file from a device different than the one the changes were made from. For instance, if changes were made from your desktop, when you open the document from your cell phone, you might not see the changes straight away. Sometimes, you need to close down the app and reopen it in order to see the changes. Then Google Drive sync the changes properly so you can access them.
Team collaboration
With Dropbox is easy it is to collaborate with teammates. You can share files from within the project itself by simply sending an email invite to loop them in. If you upgrade to an individual Professional account, Dropbox gives you access to SHowcase, a tool for real-time collaboration. You can’t drag and drop existing documents into a newly created folder, or combine folder in this way. Instead, you have to open the file then select the option to move it into the appropriate folder. Dropbox also allow you to sync to and embed calendars and events
When using Google Drive, you can invite others to view or edit your projects in any of Drive’s office programs by clicking on the Share button at the top of the view screen and sending an email invitation. You can even share an entire folder with someone.
Final thoughts
Both Google Drive and Dropbox work well for storing files in the cloud rather than on your device. Dropbox was the original online storage solution, but Google Drive has quickly caught up providing more space with its free accounts, access to file creation tools that Dropbox does not have and giving more upgrade options for additional storage. Dropbox does have block syncing which makes saving file changes faster than using Google.
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