It’s hard to put a bet on Google Drive vs Dropbox in a head-to-head matchup. For those that do not need enterprise-level cloud storage, both are excellent cloud storage services with plenty of room and free options.
Both offer a range of common features, such as backing up files to the cloud, future technology, synchronising files across devices, and allowing you to share your files with others. They seem to be the same service at first glance, just from different businesses.
Google Drive and Dropbox do have their variations, however. You’ll want to dig deeper into how they sync, back up, and exchange your files, not to mention their various security measures, if you’re wondering which is best. First, let’s look at what google drive and dropbox are?
Blog Contents
- What is Google Drive?
- What is Dropbox?
- Security
- Free Storage
- Paid Storage
- Features for file sharing
- Sync up
- Conclusion
What is Google Drive?
Google Drive is a cloud-based, free storage service that allows users to store files online and access them. The service synchronises papers, pictures and more stored across all devices of the customer, including mobile devices, tablets and PCs.
Google Drive integrates with other services and systems from the company, such as Google Docs, Gmail, Android, Chrome, YouTube, Google Analytics and Google+. Microsoft OneDrive, Apple iCloud, Box, Dropbox and SugarSync compete with Google Drive.
What is Dropbox?
Dropbox is one of a lot of famous cloud storage services that allow you “in the cloud” to store and share your files online. What does that mean? This ensures that your files can be saved and backed up electronically for easy access from anywhere, such as your home computer, work computer, or mobile device. Your files are stored on Dropbox’s servers, and all of your devices can be synchronised or automatically held up to date. The basic Dropbox service is free, but to get more storage space and extra functionality, you can upgrade for a charge.
Here’s a look at how in five main ways, they match up against each other.
- Security
Google Drive and Dropbox also provide two-factor authentication and encrypt your data from the cloud storage service to your computer while it’s in transit, and vice versa. However, Dropbox uses a stronger encryption variant, Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256-bit encryption, to keep your files secure while they are stored. The United States National Security Agency’s network security professionals have accepted this encryption standard to secure information that has been classified as top secret.
For data at rest, Google Drive only utilises 128-bit encryption (in storage).
- Free Storage
Google Drive is the obvious winner if your primary use of Google Drive or Dropbox is free storage. Google Drive gives 15 GB of available storage, while you only get 2 GB from Dropbox. However, for every friend you refer to Dropbox, you will get an additional 500 MB of storage space, for a maximum of 19 GB of free storage space.
One caveat about Google Drive is that before you know it, you might very quickly burn through those 15 GB if you use Gmail, Google Images, or other Google items.
- Paid Storage
You can switch to paid storage when you require more than the 2 GB or 15 GB that Dropbox and Google Drive offer, individually. Dropbox plans for up to 2 TB of storage start at $11.99 per month, or $9.99 per month if you pay yearly. You also get specialities like Dropbox Smart Sync, which lets you access your cloud files from your desktop without storing them to your hard drive, and mobile offline folders when you move to paid storage with Dropbox, so that you can sync folders to your mobile device and access them without an internet connection.
You have to update to Google One a subscription service, to get 2 TB of storage with Google Drive. Google One costs less than $99.99 per year, compared with $119.88 per year for Dropbox.
- Features for file sharing
Google Drive and Dropbox both help you share files and directories with each other. When it comes to issuing permits or exchanging ties, they’re almost the same. When it comes to protecting your shared files, however, Dropbox beats out Google Drive. In Dropbox, you can set passwords for shared files such that people with that password can only access them. You may also set a sharing expiration date, and the file-sharing connection won’t function after the date passes.
Dropbox also makes sharing files directly from Windows Explorer or Mac OS Finder a little easier. Both allow you to right-click a file or folder to share it via email, but Dropbox also adds an option to “Copy Dropbox Link” that you can paste into, for example, an email or Slack channel. You can appoint someone to the owner status of the files when anyone enters or leaves your team, and the owner can then exclude someone fully from accessing the files.
- Sync up
Different syncing methods are used by Google Drive and Dropbox, affecting sync speed. However, all save files automatically, Google downloads and uploads the whole document to sync it. If you are trying to access the latest version of the document from another computer, this can lead to delays. In addition, if you lose your internet connection when Google is synchronising your files, you may lose the work you have completed.
Dropbox syncs move to a file in blocks, on the other side. It’s much quicker, and if you’re using Dropbox collaboration features, the updates for all appear faster. Also, if you would like to access the latest version of your file on another computer, you do not have to wait as long.
Conclusion
The best cloud storage service in the Dropbox vs Google Drive battle is Dropbox, by the nose. Based on security, it just edges out Google Drive. Still, its slightly simpler file sharing and faster synchronisation also do it a better service, especially for AI developers that collaborate on a lot of documents.