 | 3.5/5 ★★★★✩ |
| PRICING & PLANS ★★★✩✩✩✩✩✩✩ | 3.0/10 |
| EASE OF USE ★★★★★★★★✩✩ | 7.5/10 |
| FILE SYNCING ★★★★★★✩✩✩✩ | 6.0/10 |
| FILE SHARING ★★★★★★★★✩✩ | 7.5/10 |
| RETRIEVING FILES ★★★★★★★✩✩✩ | 7.0/10 |
| SECURITY ★★★★★★✩✩✩✩ | 6.0/10 |
| SUPPORT ★★★★★★★★★★ | 10.0/10 |
| ADDITIONAL FEATURES ★★★★★★★★★✩ | 8.5/10 |
PROS
- Free 10 GB storage
- Integration with Office, Google Docs, etc.
- Great 3rd party programs
CONS
- No file versioning in the free plan
- 250 MB file limit in the free plan
- No client-side encryption
- Very limited pricing options
Box Cloud Storage Review
Box cloud storage review in a few words: “This is perfect cloud storage for users that need up to 10 GB of storage.” Box is a cloud storage, known more in the business world. While uncompetitive in prices, when talking about personal usage, it offers a lot of features that you can benefit from. It also provides a free 10 GB storage for anyone who decides to join. The overall quality of the service is very good. The integration between various other programs like Office, Google Documents, etc. is excellent. There are no backup features included.
Read the full Box cloud storage review down below.
Box Alternatives
 | pCloud 4.6/5 ★★★★★ | 5-10 000 GB 10 GB Free | ❌Sync Folder | Read Review |
 | Sync.com 4.6/5 ★★★★★ | 5-6000 GB 5 GB Free | ✔️Sync Folder | Read Review |
 | Icedrive 4.5/5 ★★★★★ | 10-10 000 GB 10 GB Free | ✔️Sync Folder | Read Review |
 | Cubbit 4.5/5 ★★★★★ | 1-8000 GB 1 GB Free | ✔️Sync Folder | Read Review |
 | Mega 4.2/5 ★★★★✩ | 15-16000 GB 15 GB Free | ✔️Sync Folder | Read Review |
Jump to:
Pricing & Plans
Who is it for?
Ease of use
File syncing
File sharing
Retrieving files
Security
Online support
Additional features
Conclusion
Box Features
| Pricing & Plans | |
| Free storage |  |
| Free trial |  |
| Lifetime plans | |
| Payment methods | Credit card |
| Ease of use | |
| Open in-browser | |
| Edit in-browser | |
| Mobile apps | |
| WebDAV | |
| File syncing | |
| Supported systems | |
Imaginary drive  | |
| Sync folder | |
| Block-level file sync | |
| Selective sync | |
| Sync any folder | |
| File sharing | |
| Share download links | |
| Link password protection | |
| Link expiration dates | |
| Link branding | |
| Link download limits | |
| Link stats | |
| Share upload links | |
| Share folders | |
| Set folder permissions | |
| Retrieving files | |
| File versioning system | |
| Trash bin | |
| Rewind feature | |
| Security | |
| Server location | |
| HIPAA Compliance | |
| Encryption protocol | |
| At-rest encryption | |
| In-transit encryption | |
| Client-side encryption | |
| Zero-knowledge privacy | |
| Two-factor authentication | |
| Online support | |
| FAQ base | |
| Forums | |
| E-mail support | |
| Live chat support | |
| Phone support | |
Pricing & Plans
I think it’s best if I say it right from the start. Box, as a cloud service is meant more for business companies, but you can sign up as a personal user as well. You can still get that free 10 GB and if that’s enough for you, great! When compared to other services Box doesn’t match them. Their personal plans seem a bit out of date and rather expensive. Here’s the chart.
| Plan | Pricing | Storage | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Box Personal | Free | 10 GB | Box Personal is free to use for an unlimited time. It comes with almost all the features that are available in the Box. |
| Box Personal Pro | $11.50 / month | 100 GB | Comes with additional features like increased storage, file limit and file versioning. |
Here’re some of the features comparisons between the two plans. There are some other minor differences to it as well.
- Max file size
- Personal – 250 MB
- Personal Pro – 5 GB
- Version history
- Personal – 1 version
- Personal Pro – 10 versions
- Download bandwidth limit for shared links
- Personal – 10 GB per month
- Personal Pro – 2 TB per month
Box doesn’t offer any lifetime cloud storage plans nor would we go for their monthly paid plans. There are much better and cheaper cloud storage providers out there.
Who is it for?
This service is more suitable for business owners, but can be used for personal use as well. If you want to have a lot of features at your disposal, quality cloud storage to which you can store your files, ability to share your files and sync them across all your devices, then this is for you. Keep in mind that you can get up to 100 GB only by upgrading to the Pro plan.
Ease of use
The registration procedure is simple (you can also use Google to sign up).
Box is rather easy to use if you want to upload your files and keep them there. There are a lot of additional features that need to be examined more thoroughly before using them. The interface itself looks modern and easy to navigate through. There are some other options under some small buttons, which you have to find once and then you know they’re there. Apart from that it just looks nice and gives you a feeling that you’re using a professional cloud service. It’s simple and straightforward.
You can also check your connection to Box through their diagnostic program. When I ran the program, I achieved nearly the maximum speeds that my provider offers, which is good.
File previews & edits
You can preview Office and PDF documents directly in the browser. You can also edit them with the help of Google Docs integration.
Box also allows you to listen to music and preview images but doesn’t allow you to watch movies.
File syncing
Box Sync is a desktop version of Box and is available on Windows and macOS. It allows you to have a virtual drive right in your library. Once you install it, it’s easy to use. It becomes just another drive to which you can store your files. You can also install Box Drive which is the new version of Box Sync. It allows you to save more space by not saving files directly on your hard drive. That’s not entirely true though as it caches quite a lot of your files (up to 25GB) before it starts deleting them.
There are no transfer speed limits with Box Drive. Box is quite limited when it comes to file sizes though:
- Free personal max file size: 250 MB
- Personal pro max file size: 5 GB
Using the Box Sync you can do selective sync on your computer. The problem is that using both Box Sync and Box Drive won’t work correctly. That means you can’t do selective sync and save local storage at the same time. Box offers no block-level file sync either. It’s important to also note that Box doesn’t offer any cloud backup features present in cloud backup providers.
File sharing
While in Box Sync (desktop application) – If you need to share any of the files you just right-click on them and select the “copy link” or “e-mail link”. If you choose the first, it copies the sharing link of that file to your clipboard.
You can also invite other people and give them access to your folders and files with different permissions.
If you’re using browser version, you just click on the “share” button. It brings up some additional options, but what it essentially does is, it provides you with a link that you can then share forward.
You can make the download links view only. In the pro version, you can also assign passwords and set link expiration dates.
Download Bandwidth for Shared Links
The following limitations apply:
- Individual free account: 10 GB per month
- Personal Pro and Box Business Accounts: 2 TB per month, per user
Files uploaded and downloaded
The following limitations apply to the user who uploads and/or downloads the file:
- 1TB per user per month for all plans
Retrieving files
You can recover your deleted files within 30 days of deletion. After that, they’re permanently removed. Moderators can only change this in business and enterprise plans.
File versioning, on the other hand, isn’t available to all users. This feature is very limited for free users – 1 version only. With the pro version, it automatically saves up to 10 previous version of the file you’re editing. This can prove to be very useful, especially if you’re a baboon like me and are likely to mess something up.
Security
Box has their servers all over the world though it mainly uploads data of personal users to the U.S. servers. You can read all about Box compliances here. They mainly focus on HIPAA, PCI DSS and ISO 27001 compliance for businesses. They’re also GDPR compliant.
Box doesn’t offer specific zero-knowledge privacy or client-side encryption which is in huge demand nowadays. You can opt-in for two-factor verification though.
Redundancy: Files are backed up daily to additional facilities. All files uploaded to Box are encrypted at rest using 256-bit AES encryption. For files in transit, they use TLS 1.1 or TLS 1.2 encryption. While this is good, the lack of client-side encryption makes Box questionable which is why we advise you take a look at our “Most secure cloud storage” list for a better alternative.
Online support
Now, this is a topic that I’ve been looking forward to. I believe Box as cloud storage has one of the biggest forum communities. There’s usually a couple of hundred of people online at all times, and the forums itself are filled with all the information you need.
If only that wouldn’t be enough. They provide live chat support during their working hours. You just send a message and a staff member comes by in a few minutes, and from that point forward you just continue the discussion about the problem. If you send a message while non-working hours they reply the next day through e-mail.
When I contacted them, they had the answers to almost all of the questions.
Additional features
Numerous applications
Box has created a unique environment for all developers. It has a lot of his official apps that you can use, and it has a lot of 3rd party programs that you can integrate with Box. The integration that it has with other “giants” is just unbelievable. Here’s an example of it:
You can create a Word or any other document directly through Box on the website itself. How awesome is that? Then you just save it to any folder and continue next time, wherever you are.
There are a lot of 3rd party programs as well, made by various companies, which you can use.
To see the full scale of these applications and to see if you would be interested in any of them click here.
Mobile Applications
Box offers its official app both for iOS and Android. It enables you to manage your files wherever you are. You can also access them offline if you save them manually. Despite some negative reviews on the app store, I haven’t run into any troubles so far. The application feels very responsive and straightforward to use. Here’s how it looks.
Conclusion
Box is one of those “get what you pay for” services. Despite its uncompetitive prices (Personal Pro plan), there are so many features that come with it. If you’re looking for business storage, though, this is one of the better options to pick from. I will be doing a separate review on Box Business service since there’s a lot to cover.
Hopefully, we’ve gone through everything in this Box cloud storage review. If you’re looking for a cloud storage with some serious capacity and decent privacy & security you should check our Best Cloud Storage Providers list.
Hopefully, we’ve gone through everything that you wanted to know about Box within this Box cloud storage review. If you have any unanswered questions feel free to ask them in the comments section down below and I’ll answer them shortly!
I have always been afraid to use cloud storage because I was afraid that it would be a public source that other people could access. So I stick to my flash drives, but after reading this I see that it is safe and secure. Do you recommend the pro account for someone that takes a lot of pictures on their phone and has them automatically synced?
Hello Guy,
Thank you for stopping by. Box is one of those cloud storages that would be so much better if they focused on making their service more approachable to personal users. However, they decided to make their service more suitable for companies. If you’re a personal user I would advise you to look at some cheaper and better alternatives such as pCloud.
Deja
Very clear review – thank you for all the screen grabs, made it much clearer. I like your recommendation of the online support forums (often missing in these deals). Great food for thought!
I am glad you found it useful.
If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask.
Dejan
I have been looking more and more into this cloud storage stuff as it seems to be getting more popular. I had not thought of a lot of the benefits you explained here, especially syncing with various devices. Up until this point I had just been using and carrying a flash drive with me. This seems like it would do just fine to replace that ain’t?
Hello there James,
Hopefully, this review was helpful to you. If you need any additional information you can read more about it – Cloud storage definition or Cloud storage facts and features.
Cloud storage can and will easily replace the need of carrying a flash drive with you.
Thanks for dropping by.
Dejan