News
Should I Switch From DropBox to Google Drive?
Personal Cloud storage has forever changed the way I store files, both personally and professionally. No longer am I carrying around USB sticks or asking people how large their email attachment limit is. So now the only problem is ’’Who should I use?”
To preface this, I’ve been using a combination of DropBox and Ubuntu One (For different purposes) for the last 2 years, and I’ve been more than happy with the functionality and data limits.
Google Drive now being available peaked my interest substantially. Anyone that has ever had me work for their company knows how keen I am on consolidation of platforms, and I’m a heavy Google user in most of their other offerings. But I did have my concerns.
There were reports that images that go up on this system will be at the ready to be loaded onto Google Plus. This bothered me because I like to keep my GPlus account pretty clean, and my storage is going to be full of client logos, stock photos, and the crème de la crème of email forward pictures. But much to my surprise, the images didn’t clog up my private profile, so I’ll keep an eye on this, just to make sure they haven’t enabled the feature yet.
Feature wise, I think the sharing and collaboration features are on par. However, myself, I don’t utilize this a great deal. I have other project management tools to do this with teammates and clients. But it’s nice to know that it’s there… maybe I’ll set up a recipe folder so mum can pass on all of her secrets…
Price wise, I decided to pay the whopping cost of $5 per month which affords me 100GB of space shared throughout Picasa, Gmail, and Drive, which due to the dark magic of storage, now that I have it, it will get filled. DropBox for this amount of space is almost 3 times the rate. But in saying that, they do give referral bonuses.
One thing that does push Google Drive out ahead of the pack is it’s file size limit is 10GB… for 1 file… I don’t anticipate backing up my entire Rocky DVD collection and packing it into a single ISO, so I may not need to have this available… but still, nice work guys.
The only other thing that I really like about Google Drive is it’s Web and Phone integration. The files give you the option to open directly within the Google Apps for editing, which sounds pretty simple and straightforward, but you’d be surprised how many small businesses don’t have a spread sheet editor installed on their local machine. If I had have been using DropBox, I would have had to save it, then open it up in an editor.
I realise that some of these points made only really measure to small blessings, but I believe that these products are neck and neck, and these are really only all that separate them.
If Google Drive didn’t come out for another year, would I have survived? Sure, in fact I’m more than happy with DropBox. Will I move across? Sure, if not for the fact that it’s cheaper, has a tighter integration into my working environment, it may actually force me to revisit my long forgotten file structure I had keenly setup within my DropBox environment.
Tagged DropBox, Google Drive, Ubuntu One
VellaMay 11, 2012 at 11:17 am
Hey quick question I got asked today at my job.
Do you know if iCloud will back up Contacts on the iPhone?
I don’t see an option to do it in the tuts…
youtubedominationJuly 6, 2012 at 8:12 am
I believe there is an option, try Settings > iCloud and you should be able to choose to back up your contacts.
youtubedominationJuly 6, 2012 at 8:15 am
On topic, I personally never had much love for Dropbox but Google Drive is definitely a great alternative especially with the fast download speeds.
n42kJuly 6, 2012 at 7:07 pm
Even though Google Drive might have many more features compared to Dropbox, I’m going to stay with Dropbox. First of all, I just want a simple file storage solution. Secondly, I only use about 8Gb space. so by referring some people and doing the initial tasks, it’s more than enough. Finally, it served me very well in the past 2 years and I still use it almost daily. It might not have many features, but it’s great at the features it does have.
jmsben12July 12, 2012 at 4:13 pm
Have you heard about Dropbox recently doubling it’s storage for normal users? I believe dropbox will have to offer more incentives than that, if it hopes to compete with Google Drive’s surprisingly low price. Even Microsoft is stirring the kettle with Skydrive. Hopefully some new features and lower prices will come with these companies competing for customers.
izzypopaJuly 13, 2012 at 5:14 am
Dropbox has always had more experience and has yet to fail me at this moment, i don’t really see the point of switching because Dropbox has already been so stable for this long.
Thanks
Dr23July 19, 2012 at 5:48 am
I’ve used both services and I think both are extremely reliable. However, Google Docs – now named Google Drive – has been my preference pretty much since Day 1. Both are great at storing and sharing but I’ve found Google’s system is a bit easier on the user. For example, I’ll be in my Gmail and I’ll want to switch to a doc or find a doc. Thanks to Drive being with Google, it’s extremely easy to click the tab within my email and I’m instantly looking at all my docs. DropBox is also a solid option but it’s not as easily accessible.
layzorJuly 26, 2012 at 3:05 pm
I personally started using Google Drive only because I like the idea of having everything under Google. Fanboy or not, I feel like its just convenient do to so.
jaruriJuly 30, 2012 at 3:31 am
I haven’t tried out google drive yet, but I will definitely at least give it a shot. I use G+ alot, so I can see myself using this often. I have used dropbox in the past for keeping some smaller files, but it wasn’t very often.
OverAchieverAugust 3, 2012 at 1:27 am
I didn’t realize Google Drive was so much less expensive than Dropbox. I have my crucial files backed up with Carbonite but I need some standard file storage.
I thought about Dropbox, since I use the free account for computer-to-computer transfer (so easy). The price for the amount I need was off-putting for me right now.
The alternatives I looked at were all quite expensive, plus most have too low of a file size limit. Sounds like Google Drive might be just what I’ve been looking for.
KennyKAugust 4, 2012 at 10:08 pm
I have been using Dropbox for so long now and it has always covered my needs. I didn’t know much about Google Drive, so I’m glad I came across of this article here at TWE.
I would love to try it and see if it pleases me just the way Dropbox does. When it comes to price I can see it’s quite cheap, so I think many people will make the switch over time.
McColloughNovember 10, 2012 at 8:59 am
Something tells me that Dropbox will end up dropping their prices in order to remain competitive. Regardless, I’m not comfortable putting all of my eggs into the Google basket, and so I’ll continue to diversify and keep using Dropbox.