Google Drive VS Dropbox

In the cloud storage industry, Google Drive and Dropbox are fierce competitors. Both offer a reliable service with millions of users world wide. Although, most of their features are similar, there are many unique features that you should consider while choosing your primary cloud storage service.

To make it easier to choose the right cloud storage service, we have done a detailed comparison of both services, and you should be able to understand which one offers the features you require.

Data Sync

Data sync is a basic yet very important feature of cloud storage services. Let’s see how both of these services sync data.

Google Drive

Google Drive will let you upload data from smartphones, desktops and a web client to sync over all supported devices. The maximum file size limit is 5TB, which should be more than enough in most cases. If you have a bigger file, then you will have separate it in two files and then upload.

As far as the upload speed is concerned, Google Drive offers complete control over how much bandwidth it should use while uploading and also downloading. By default, it uses 100% of the bandwidth, but you can easily decrease it as you please. It should be noted that Google Drive is known for slow uploads in certain situations like multiple files or a big files in GBs. If this happens to you as well, try going to “Preferences” > “Advanced“ and change Proxy settings to “Direct Connection”. This might speed up the process.

Dropbox

Just like Google Drive, Dropbox also lets you upload data from smartphones, desktops, and from the web client. For the web client, it only supports maximum 10GB file size. However on its desktop and smartphone clients, it offers unlimited uploads without any kind of restrictions.

Dropbox uses 75% of the upload speed by default, but you can increase or decrease it as you like. Dropbox is less known for slowing down, but it is still recommended that you “upload” files from the web client (if possible) to avoid any inconvenience.

Winner: Dropbox! for its unlimited and stable uploads.

Compatibility

Let’s check out how many devices each service supports to see which cloud service supports all your devices.

Google Drive

Currently Google Drive supports Windows, Mac OS X, Android and iOS. This pretty much includes all major players in the market, so you should be satisfied. If device is not supported, checkout the Dropbox support mentioned below to try your luck.

Dropbox

Dropbox has the most extensive support for devices and covers pretty much all popular devices. Dropbox supports Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Kindle Fire, and BlackBerry.

Winner: Dropbox! for supporting more devices.

Features

Without good features what’s the point of having huge storage? Let’s see which cloud storage service wins this round.

Google Drive

The best thing about Google Drive is its integration with other Google services. As almost all of us use at least one of Google services, we are actually using Google drive directly and indirectly any ways. Google Drives works with Google services like, Google Photos, Google Maps, Gmail, Google Office tool, Google Plus and even YouTube.

It also has support for almost all types of files like pictures, audio, video and all types of documents including Microsoft office files. It can also work offline, so you could still view files and docs when you are offline. Furthermore, you can open most files right from the Google Drive and deleted files are kept in the drive for upto 30 days.

Dropbox

Dropbox doesn’t offers any side apps or services beside cloud storage unlike Google. It is made to be extremely simple perfect for novice user, so you will find straightforward features with least complexity. Its features include, share screenshots, Microsoft Office Online support, go back in time, selective sync, offline view and remote wipe.

Winner: Google Drive! for its support for Google services.

Pricing and Plans

So which cloud service can take care of your wallet and also store all of your files? let’s see…

Google Drive

With Google Drive, you will get 15GB of free space just for signing up for a Google account. For basic use, this is actually more than enough. However, if you are looking for more storage you can pay for it. You can get 100GB/$1.99, 1TB/$9.99, 10TB, 20TB/$199.99 and 30TB/$299.99. All these subscriptions are valid for one month.

If you like to use Google Drive for a business, then there is a separate plan for that. With Google Drive for work, you will get unlimited storage for $10/month for a single user, 24/7 customer support, eDiscovery and collaboration tools.

Dropbox

Dropbox offers 2GB of free storage upon sign up, but you can increase it up to 18GB with refer-a-friend program (not so convenient). If you want more space, then you can get 1TB space for a price of $9.99/month  

Dropbox also offers a package for businesses with additional features. With Dropbox for business you will get, unlimited storage for $15/month for one users, user activity monitor, unlimited revision history and recovery. However, the minimum number of users is five, so you will have to buy at least 5 subscriptions no matter what.

Winner: Google Drive! for its cheap packages and flexibility in subscriptions.

Security/Privacy

Now that you know what features you will get and what it will cost you, let’s see how good both of these cloud services are keeping your data safe.

Google Drive

Following are the security features provided by Google Drive:

1. AES-256 encryption on servers storing the data.
2. Two-Step Verification
3. Connectivity protected with SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)/TLS (Transport Layer Security) tunnels.
4. It supports FISMA, FERPA and HIPAA and adheres to the Safe Harbor Privacy Principles
5. They have achieved ISO 27001 certification
6. Security alerts
7. Privacy and sharing management tools

Dropbox

Dropbox offers the following security features:

1. AES-256 encryption on servers
2. Data transmission with SSL/TLS protected tunnels.
3. Two-Step Verification
4. Achieved ISO 27001 and ISO 27018 certification
5. Security Alerts
6. User monitoring
7. Unlimited recovery of data

Dropbox also has a Bug Bounty program to fix vulnerabilities before they could be exploited.

Winner: Dropbox for a positive approach towards security, and at least not being backed by Google.

So above was our comparison of Google Drive and Dropbox. Although, both of the services can be compared in many other ways, but we have tried to compare the most demanding facts. Would you like to add any further information? Let us know in the comments below.

Filed in Computers >Web. Read more about Cloud Storage, Dropbox, Google and Google Drive.