 | 4.2/5 ★★★★✩ |
| PRICING & PLANS ★★★★★★★★✩✩ | 7.5/10 |
| EASE OF USE ★★★★★★★★★✩ | 9.0/10 |
| FILE SYNCING ★★★★★★★★★✩ | 9.0/10 |
| FILE SHARING ★★★★★★★★✩✩ | 7.5/10 |
| RETRIEVING FILES ★★★★★★★★★✩ | 9.0/10 |
| SECURITY ★★★★★✩✩✩✩✩ | 5.0/10 |
| SUPPORT ★★★★★★★★★★ | 9.5/10 |
| ADDITIONAL FEATURES ★★★★★★★★★★ | 10.0/10 |
PROS
- Easy to use
- Quality sync options
- Good file retrieving options
- Diverse sharing options
- A wide range of support options
- A huge app library of integrated services such as Zoom, Slack, Trello,…
- Additional services like the password manager, HelloSign,…
CONS
- Semi-expensive
- No backup feature
- Many features locked behind paid plans
- No client-side encryption
- Prone to Patriot and CLOUD Act
Dropbox Review
The reason why I decided to write a Dropbox review is quite simple. Dropbox is one of the most popular hosting companies out there, and there is a reason for that. It’s very simple to use. It offers a variety of features that are quite useful. Dropbox pricing & plans seem alright as well when compared to their competition, however, there are cheaper and better alternatives.
While doing good on almost every field, Dropbox fails to provide proper security. Without the client-side encryption, you never know who has access to your files.
Read the full Dropbox review down below.
Dropbox 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
Dropbox Features
| Pricing & Plans | |
| Free storage |  |
| Free trial | |
| Lifetime plans |  |
| Payment methods | Credit card, PayPal |
| 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
Dropbox offers a few different plans. They have 3 plans that are meant for home usage users and 4 that are meant for work usage. Remember that you can opt-in for yearly payments and that way save 17% on all plans. Another thing worth mentioning is that VAT still needs to be applied to all business plans. Dropbox does not offer any lifetime cloud storage plans nor does it fall under the cheapest cloud storage providers out there.
Home Plans
| Plan | Basic | Plus | Family |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage | 2 GB | 2000 GB | Share 2000 GB |
| Users | 1 | 1 | Up to 6 |
| File recovery and versioning | 30 days | 30 days | 30 days |
| Rewind | No | Yes | Yes |
| Remote device wipe | No | Yes | Yes |
| Dropbox Passwords | No | Yes | Yes |
| Dropbox Vault | No | Yes | Yes |
| Dropbox Transfer | Up to 100 MB per transfer | Up to 2 GB per transfer | Up to 2 GB per transfer |
| Smart Sync | No | Yes | Yes |
| Priority email support | No | Yes | Yes |
Work Plans
In addition to the below plans you can also contact the Dropbox team directly about an Enterprise plan for a customized offer for larger teams.
| Professional | Standard | Advanced | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage | 3000 GB | 5000 GB | As much space as needed |
| Users | 1 | 3+ | 3+ |
| File recovery and versioning | 180 days | 180 days | 180 days |
| Rewind | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dropbox Passwords | Yes | No | No |
| Dropbox Vault | Yes | No | No |
| Document Watermarking | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Account transfer tool | No | Yes | Yes |
| HIPAA compliance | No | Yes | Yes |
| Device approvals | No | No | Yes |
| Dropbox Transfer | Up to 100 GB per transfer | Up to 2 GB per transfer | Up to 100 GB per transfer |
| Branded sharing | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Team management tools | No | Yes | Yes |
| Live chat support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Phone support during business hours | No | Yes | Yes |
Who is it for?
Who’s it not for would be the right question here. It offers a lot of features that have proved to be useful over the time I was using it. It’s very straightforward and easy to use. If you’re somebody that needs just a bit of storage for your school assignment, a few photos or just enough space for those word documents that your co-worker sent you from work, then the free “Basic Dropbox” plan is for you. It offers more than you will ever need. If you would like to get the bigger storage, you can always do so by paying the upgrade cost.
If you’re looking for a cloud service that will automatically backup files on your personal computer or your smartphone, then Dropbox is not the company you want to go with. The backup feature is one of the few things this cloud service hasn’t got to offer.
Ease of use
To register you must enter an email and a safe password. You can also use Google to sign up.
Dropbox is generally very easy cloud storage to use. Every person, whether you’re a computer wizard or just an everyday average user, should be able and will be able to learn how to use it. You log into your account and just upload your files, whether that’s in folders and subfolders or just on its own. Dropbox isn’t just a cloud service, it also offers you to share files or even allows other people to upload files to your account. The data can be shared by creating a link that anyone can access or just send them via e-mail. The interface is modern and feels responsive.
File previews & edits
You’re able to preview PDF documents and edit Office documents directly in the browser.
Likewise, you can listen to music, watch videos and preview images directly in the browser. Dropbox does a great job in this area.
File syncing
Dropbox has developed a program that you can download to your computer. It is available on Windows, Mac and Linux. With Dropbox’s Selective Sync feature, you can prevent certain folders from syncing on all of your computers, if you wish to keep them separate on only one PC. They are just simply uploaded to the cloud instead. Dropbox isn’t meant for cloud backup.
I find this one of the best features of Dropbox. Whatever I am doing I just simply drag the files into the folder as I would to my hard drive. You then wait for a second or two, depending on your internet speed for the files to sync across all platforms. The files are uploaded to the folder instantly though, and you can continue to use them while they’re uploading, it feels so natural, and it’s just another “drive” where you can store your files. Moreover, if you’re offline, you can still access the folder and use all of its contents. That is, of course, a two-edged blade. It means that all of the files you synchronise get saved to your local hard drive taking up space.
Dropbox also offers Smart Sync which acts as a virtual drive, allowing you to access the files from the desktop but not take up any local storage space. Smart Sync is available to users with paid plans only.
There’s no hard limit on transfer speeds with Dropbox programs. The speed depends entirely on your position and your internet provider. Dropbox also uses block-level sync which reduces upload times when updating already synced files.
When uploading files through the website you’re stuck with 50GB file size limit per file. There’s no limit when uploading via the Dropbox client.
Dropbox clients don’t allow you to sync any folder on your computer.
File sharing
You can share your files with whoever you want really. Even to people that don’t own Dropbox. You just click on the share button and you can then forward files or whole folders. When you do that it creates a new link which you can then send to your friends to edit or view. It also gives you additional moderation options where you can decide on various things like:
- Who has access (Only invited people or anyone with the link)
- Add an expiry date on your link (Professional)
- Disable downloads, making the shared filew view-only (Professional)
- Password-protected links (Work Plans Only)
- Document Watermarking (Work Plans Only)
- Branded sharing (Work Plans Only)
- Link traffic analysis (Work Plans Only)
Dropbox introduced limits to the sharing links:
Free accounts:
- 20 GB per day: The total amount of traffic that all of your links and file requests combined can generate
- 100,000 downloads per day: The total number of downloads that all of your links combined can generate
Paid accounts:
- About 200 GB per day: The total amount of traffic that all of your links and file requests combined can generate
- There’s no daily limit to the number of downloads that your links can generate
There’s also an option to request files from specific people via email or link. Users with paid plans also have an option to set a deadline.
There appears to be no file size limit when it comes to sharing files via Dropbox. The Dropbox Transfer feature mentioned above allows you to share files with anyone, even if they don’t have Dropbox. The file size limit of that depends on the user’s plan.
Retrieving files
Dropbox has an integrated versioning and recovery system. Even if your PC has a meltdown your files saved in the cloud won’t be affected by it. In case you’re using the Dropbox desktop application your files are actually backed up multiple times.
You can recover files and versions with:
- Home usage plans – Up to 30 days
- Work usage plans – Up to 180 days
They also offer the Dropbox Rewind feature that lets you take your account back in time. That feature is available only to users with paid plans.
Security
As a lot of you probably know Dropbox is known for having a security breach back in 2012. They do have an advanced security system in place, but as you see even that can’t be enough at some point. Cloud storage security depends on the infrastructure and encryption methods it deploys. As Dropbox doesn’t provide client-side encryption, they’ll always be able to access your files unless you encrypt them yourself (zero-knowledge privacy is not provided) which doesn’t make them a secure cloud storage provider.
All of your data is stored on servers across the United States which means that it’s subject to the Patriot Act and the CLOUD Act. That’s certainly not ideal from a privacy perspective which is why you should take a look at our Top 10 Cloud Storage Providers list.
You can take a look at Dropbox compliances to check their privacy policies and compliances. HIPAA compliance, for example, is quite complicated with Dropbox. You need to follow a bunch of instructions, sign a BAA and you can still breach the HIPAA rules at any point. Dropbox is GDPR compliant.
For advanced users: Dropbox files are encrypted using 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Dropbox uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)/Transport Layer Security (TLS) to protect data in transit between Dropbox apps and their servers; it’s designed to create a secure tunnel protected by 128-bit or higher Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption.
Two-step verification is available for an extra layer of security to log in. You can choose to receive security codes by text message or via any Time-Based One-Time Password (TOTP) apps, such as Google Authenticator.
Online support
Dropbox has already created a Dropbox Help Center to which anyone can access. From the help centre, you can access guides, how-to videos and support articles.
A lot of the questions that you might have are probably already answered there or on their forums. If you will have any additional questions regarding the programs they’re offering, there’s a live chat for you to use. In case you’re having any technical difficulties you can contact their support directly. If you need assistance with anything, you will get it, whether it’s using the Help Center, the forums or by messaging them directly.
Additional features
Dropbox Paper
This feature allows more people to work on one document at the same time. It offers its own type of editing system (not integrated Google Docs or Microsoft Office). It’s quite useful when it comes to commenting on certain parts of the document and allows for collaboration between multiple users.
Dropbox Transfer
It does pretty much what it sounds like. It allows you to send large files to anyone, even people that don’t have a Dropbox account. The Professional plan enables branding, passwords, expiration dates and increases file size.
Dropbox HelloSign
HelloSign allows you to send out documents to various partners for them to sign. After the document is signed it is then organized and safely stored on your cloud. All users can send up to 3 requests for signatures per month.
Dropbox Passwords
This feature is essentially a passwords manager, allowing you to store passwords of various services on all your devices. It’s available for paid Home Plans only.
Dropbox Capture
This allows you to share your work and ideas with video messages and screenshots. It’s designed to allow for better presentation and communication with your coworkers.
Dropbox App Center
The Dropbox app center allows you to browse through various services that can be integrated with Dropbox such as Zoom, Slack, Trello, AutoCAD, Canva,… and the list goes on. A truly invaluable collection of services and probably something that makes Dropbox stand out amongst other cloud storage providers due to immense ease of use this provides.
Mobile application
Dropbox supports iOS, Windows Phone and Android systems.
The Dropbox mobile application allows you to access your files anywhere you are. It feels the same as if I would be browsing on my computer. It also adds an additional feature to upload your photos automatically. I guess you could call that one way to backup your photos. Overall it’s a nice looking interface, and the whole application is well made. Here’s a screenshot of it.
You can listen to music, watch images and videos directly from the app. You can also preview Office and PDF documents.
If you wish to access your files when offline as well just set the specific files for offline usage. Automatic camera uploads are also a thing.
Conclusion
Dropbox is a very useful cloud storage, and you won’t miss if you decide to use it. Keep in mind that if you would like the automatic backup of files as well, go ahead and pick another cloud storage.
Dropbox offers a wide variety of features. However, it lacks in the privacy area. If you would like to have cloud storage that has no access to your files and is based on a “Zero-knowledge” platform and offers client-side protection, I would suggest you take a look at pCloud.com or Sync.com.
Hopefully, I’ve gone through everything that you wanted to know about Dropbox within this Dropbox review. If you have any unanswered questions feel free to ask them in the comments section down below and I’ll answer them shortly!
It seems Dropbox have now made it so complex – in order to extract more dollars without changing or improving the service – that they are incomprehensible. The idea of dropbox is to share, collaborate. But they have made it impossible unless you have the supreme level of membership (well, I assume that anyway, who would know)
The service similarly has dropped right off.
Looking elsewhere. I think their best days are behind them
Greg
Thanks for writing this review. You have outlined all the important details nicely. I personally have been using Dropbox for years now and I like it. It’s easy to use, the interface is clean and I’ve not experienced any issues with it thus far. It’s a great tool to have and allows you to easily share your documents with others. Highly recommend it.
Hello Andrew,
I value my reader’s opinion more than anything else. Thank you for stopping by and sharing your experience with all of us.
Dejan
This a great review. I have an account with Dropbox but haven’t used it for a while. I think I’ll give a try with the mobile application. I’m not a big fan of Dropbox. Could you give me some other options? I would prefer something that is not expensive not cheap but a good value for an excellent product.
Hello there Patricia,
Well first of all, Dropbox is one of those popular cloud storages that is definitely quality. On the other hand, I believe that certain cloud services have gone beyond that and are now better. My #1 choice is pCloud. You can find the review of pCloud here. Hopefully, this will help you out and thank you for stopping by.
Dejan
This appears to be similar to Google Drive, but appears to have a lot more features and functions. We primarily use Google Docs for his school work. I do scan items to google, is it possible to scan them to this? That would be my main issue, is being able to scan documents into my “computer”. That is one feature that I would need to have for sure. It also appears that I cannot create documents or spreadsheets in Dropbox, only drop them in? Correct?
Hello there!
If I understand you correctly you’re using a scanner to scan items to your google cloud. This is enabled by your printer/scanner and it’s up to it, if it supports scanning to dropbox. I did some research and is it possible that you have an Epsilon scanner ? In that case, Epsilon supports Box, Dropbox, EverNote, Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive. If you have any other scanner that supports scanning to Google Drive, there’s a big chance that it supports scanning to Dropbox as well.
Regarding your question about creating documents or spreadsheets, Dropbox itself doesn’t support Google Docs. It has it’s own Paper feature that enables you to create documents and tables. If you really wanted Google Docs there are various ways to integrate them, but I wouldn’t bother with that.
There’s also one alternative to that – Box. It has Google Docs, Spreadsheet, Word, Powerpoint, etc. integrated already. Check it out.
I hope that answers your question. Thanks for stopping by.
Dejan
I’ve been using Dropbox for a few years and really like it. I think my favorite feature is the fact that I can access my files from any computer. I can remember before when if I was going to work on something at at a different computer, I’d have to remember to bring a thumbdrive or email it to myself ahead of time. Now that I have Dropbox I don’t have to think about it anymore. I don’t know how many times it’s saved me!
I still find myself sending an e-mail to myself out of habit, but it rarely happens. That’s why you have cloud storage. Makes it so much easier and faster. Thanks for dropping by.
Dejan
I actually use it but for file sharing rather than storage. I prefer my backups be hardware rather than cloud for a number of reasons. Some of my backups from my hard drives can also get a little large as there are a few terabytes of data. As a file sharing solution though it is great. I can quickly copy up files and photos and diagrams that I want clients to see and get quick feedback – especially if clients have restrictions on email size.
Hello Evie,
I agree with you. In case you have multiple terabytes of data cloud storage might not be the best place to save them as it can come expansive, that is we’re talking about personal use. Business options are a lot better. Then there is also the option to use it just for sharing files, like you do.
Thanks for dropping by.
Dejan
Hi Dejan,
Dropbox is an interesting technology. I really like the idea that once a folder on a PC is ‘connected to Dropbox’ that any file updates, file deletions and file inserts are automatically copied to Dropbox without the need to do anything. It just happens automatically in the background once that machine is connected to the internet and is able to communicate with Dropbox servers. Very useful.
Kind Regards,
David
Hello David,
Yes I agree, the synchronization is about as good as it gets. Thanks for dropping by.
Dejan
This Dropbox is just what I need and now that I have a new job and my own website. I use my computer faithfully and use up a lot of storage. I would probably have to upgrade also. I like how the have a mobile application to as I am mostly on the go. This will be very useful for me.
Thank you and I will be back for more reviews, that you have on your website.
I am glad that I was able to help you. Thanks for stopping by.
Dejan
well written article on this drop box product, sounds that the free version would fit most average people online. I have never used one of these products, I am a bit overwhelmed with them right now.
It seems this type of product is a must to store all your important information, I will have to consider this free version plan for the near future.
Thanks for a well written review of one of my very favorite storage solutions. I have used Dropbox for some years now, but also use some other cloud storage solutions. I guess my favorite Dropbox thing is that it automagically save all my phone pictures on the cloud so that I can snap a picture with my phone and 2 sec later access it from my laptop 🙂 keep up the great work here !
I am also using Dropbox. A couple of times I accidentally deleted a photo and even a file. I was able to retrieve them back again, no problem. Dropbox is easy to use. And since I am techy challenged, I do mean ‘easy to use’ – I am very pleased with Dropbox. Thanks for your informative review.
Hello Beth.
Thanks for leaving your feedback on Dropbox here. I agree with you, Dropbox is very easy to use and offers quality service.
If you have any questions or if you would like me to do a review on another cloud storage leave a comment or e-mail me.
Dejan