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Unless they drop the price soon we're going to move away from them. It sounds silly to argue over $15/user/month, but in comparison to Google Drive it's just st

by malanj 13y ago

Unless they drop the price soon we're going to move away from them. It sounds silly to argue over $15/user/month, but in comparison to Google Drive it's just started feeling too expensive. I really like the product, but I don't know if any product in a commoditized space can sustain such a price premium.

nileshtrivedi 13y ago
For Dropbox, it is their core business. For Google, it's a drop in their massive bucket of cash that comes from advertising. If business reliability matters to you, Dropbox seems comparatively better.
- RALaBarge 13y ago
  I dont think it is fair to equate the fact that Google Drive is less reliable than Dropbox, just based on the fact that Google has more irons in the fire compared to Dropbox. They also have orders of magnitude more employees and resources than Dropbox.
  - derefr 13y ago
    I think there are two kinds of "reliability" getting conflated here. There's reliability as in "this is built on the stable foundation of a big system and has a bunch of engineers ensuring it's Highly Available" -- both Google and Dropbox can give you that. Then there's reliability as in "this product won't blow away in the corporate-political wind" -- and Dropbox is the only one who can truly say that. (Though Google Drive is pretty core to a lot of stuff Google does, e.g. Android, so it's probably not going anywhere either.)
    - UVB-76 13y ago
      On the other hand, Dropbox is a one-trick pony, providing a service that is easily replicable and becoming increasingly commoditized. Dropbox don't even own the hardware they store your files on. Google own the data centre, the hardware, in many cases the device (Android devices, Chromebooks, Chromecast, Google TV etc.) you use to access their services, and increasingly (with Google Fiber) the connection between you and them.
- yid 13y ago
  > If business reliability matters to you, Dropbox seems comparatively better. If you're comparing Drive to the Reader fiasco, keep in mind that Drive for business is a paid offering.
  - zhoujeffrey 13y ago
    But so is google apps no?
    - yid 13y ago
      Yes, and google apps for business continues to exist...
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
    - superuser2 13y ago
      No, the free version of Google Apps was not a paid offering. The paid version is, and is still going strong.
- ditojim 13y ago
  How sure are you that Dropbox is more reliable than Google Drive? As sure as you are that Google Drive is just a drop in the bucket for Google?
- orky56 13y ago
  It sounds more like cost-plus pricing rather than value-based pricing. At the same time, it makes sense for Dropbox to go on the higher end of the pricing spectrum and drop it if things don't go as well as hoped since it's much easier to drop price than ever to raise.
- Touche 13y ago
  If their business is dependent on charging significantly more than the competition then I disagree that it is reliable.
- _zen 13y ago
  You really think Google would drop Google Apps for Business and Google Drive? That is really illogical. It's the future, they're not going to drop it. Dropbox is more likely to go under before Google Drive does.
spindritf 13y ago
Well, it's $15/user for unlimited storage. Google Apps is $5/user for 30GB for each user, and then you have to start buying additional storage with "licenses"[1] which brings the price a little closer to Dropbox if you have a lot of data. I only use a Google Apps account so I don't know how well the clients work with multiple accounts (private Gmail and Apps). Maybe Dropbox will handle it better? Obviously, Google Apps gives you much more than just Google Drive so the comparison will greatly depend on what other services you need/use, what your employees and contractors already know, and whether you have Linux clients since Goolge Drive still doesn't support Linux. [1] https://support.google.com/a/answer/1726914 https://support.google.com/a/answer/1726914
- yid 13y ago
  > Google Apps is $5/user for 30GB for each user I'd be willing to wager that someone at Google has figured out that 30GB/user covers > N% of users, where N ~ 80-90. This makes Drive more attractive than Dropbox for that N%.
- Spooky23 13y ago
  I believe Google pools the storage. Office 365 does the same thing. My org manages many thousands of people each with 10GB of OneDrive space. We allocate big users as much as 200GB of space without even looking at the allocation ,because most user needs are very light.
  - eitally 13y ago
    Google does not currently pool the storage, but will move to that model in coming quarters.
    - CPAhem 13y ago
      How do you know this. Have they announced pooled storage?
      - Spooky23 13y ago
toxican 13y ago
They already lost me. I had just recently upgraded to their $9/mo 100GB plan and was happy as could be. Then Google dropped their prices and suddenly that same $9 could buy me an entire TB, which allows me to do/store way more. I didn't even hesitate to switch, although I'd much rather be paying Dropbox than Google. If they ever make a similar price drop I'll switch back.
rogerbinns 13y ago
Remember that Google Drive doesn't have official Linux support nor a Linux cli only client. Dropbox has both. This is very handy if you have any servers, some developers etc. Dropbox for Business also includes their unlimited backups (older versions of files).
- ableal 13y ago
  > unlimited backups (older versions of files). Versions are not backups. I wish I could find a simple web page that I read quite a few years ago. It very starkly explained why some things are commonly confused with, but just are not, backups. The consequences of those confusions are usually bad.
  - Angostura 13y ago
    So, to all intents and purposes versions appear to act as backups, but you read a Web site a few years ago that said they aren't so that's what you tell people?
    - hrktb 13y ago
      Not really. The concept of version works like backup for full fledge systems (SVN, git), but not what Dropbox exposes. Dropbox keeps version of _existing_ files. You won't get back the files deleted and synched by mistake/misbehavior of some script. A backup would keep the files. You'll also have different behaviors if you need to bring back a set of data (i.e. all your files as they were two days ago). You'll be in pain to do it file by file with Dropbox's version system.
      - price 13y ago
        Dropbox keeps the history of deleted files just like modified files. Take a look on the web interface and hit the "Show deleted files" trashcan in the icons at the top. Or for a different view, hit the "Events" link on the left navbar.
      - egeozcan 13y ago
Yabood 13y ago
Shameless plug: http://www.nubisio.com http://www.nubisio.com. Our pricing is capacity based, so you can have as many users as you want, and our product (CloudStorm) supports all major cloud providers.
dwb 13y ago
We tried to move to Google Drive but are about to go all in for Dropbox for Business. The Google Drive desktop sync client (for Mac at least) is just not reliable enough. Make sure you trial Google Drive first.
- CPAhem 13y ago
  The Google Drive sync client is lacking features for business. But third party Google Drive sync clients like Syncdocs http://syncdocs.com http://syncdocs.com make it better than Dropbox.
  - dwb 13y ago
    Not features; reliability. We have fairly modest Enterprise® requirements, but we do shunt around medium-size files quite often and expect them to be synchronized around the office as well as Dropbox manages it.

by malanj 13y ago

nileshtrivedi 13y ago

For Dropbox, it is their core business. For Google, it's a drop in their massive bucket of cash that comes from advertising. If business reliability matters to you, Dropbox seems comparatively better.

RALaBarge 13y ago
I dont think it is fair to equate the fact that Google Drive is less reliable than Dropbox, just based on the fact that Google has more irons in the fire compared to Dropbox. They also have orders of magnitude more employees and resources than Dropbox.
- derefr 13y ago
  I think there are two kinds of "reliability" getting conflated here. There's reliability as in "this is built on the stable foundation of a big system and has a bunch of engineers ensuring it's Highly Available" -- both Google and Dropbox can give you that. Then there's reliability as in "this product won't blow away in the corporate-political wind" -- and Dropbox is the only one who can truly say that. (Though Google Drive is pretty core to a lot of stuff Google does, e.g. Android, so it's probably not going anywhere either.)
  - UVB-76 13y ago
    On the other hand, Dropbox is a one-trick pony, providing a service that is easily replicable and becoming increasingly commoditized. Dropbox don't even own the hardware they store your files on. Google own the data centre, the hardware, in many cases the device (Android devices, Chromebooks, Chromecast, Google TV etc.) you use to access their services, and increasingly (with Google Fiber) the connection between you and them.
yid 13y ago
> If business reliability matters to you, Dropbox seems comparatively better. If you're comparing Drive to the Reader fiasco, keep in mind that Drive for business is a paid offering.
- zhoujeffrey 13y ago
  But so is google apps no?
  - yid 13y ago
    Yes, and google apps for business continues to exist...
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - superuser2 13y ago
    No, the free version of Google Apps was not a paid offering. The paid version is, and is still going strong.
ditojim 13y ago
How sure are you that Dropbox is more reliable than Google Drive? As sure as you are that Google Drive is just a drop in the bucket for Google?
orky56 13y ago
It sounds more like cost-plus pricing rather than value-based pricing. At the same time, it makes sense for Dropbox to go on the higher end of the pricing spectrum and drop it if things don't go as well as hoped since it's much easier to drop price than ever to raise.
Touche 13y ago
If their business is dependent on charging significantly more than the competition then I disagree that it is reliable.
_zen 13y ago
You really think Google would drop Google Apps for Business and Google Drive? That is really illogical. It's the future, they're not going to drop it. Dropbox is more likely to go under before Google Drive does.

spindritf 13y ago

Well, it's $15/user for unlimited storage. Google Apps is $5/user for 30GB for each user, and then you have to start buying additional storage with "licenses"[1] which brings the price a little closer to Dropbox if you have a lot of data. I only use a Google Apps account so I don't know how well the clients work with multiple accounts (private Gmail and Apps). Maybe Dropbox will handle it better? Obviously, Google Apps gives you much more than just Google Drive so the comparison will greatly depend on what other services you need/use, what your employees and contractors already know, and whether you have Linux clients since Goolge Drive still doesn't support Linux. [1] https://support.google.com/a/answer/1726914 https://support.google.com/a/answer/1726914

yid 13y ago
> Google Apps is $5/user for 30GB for each user I'd be willing to wager that someone at Google has figured out that 30GB/user covers > N% of users, where N ~ 80-90. This makes Drive more attractive than Dropbox for that N%.
Spooky23 13y ago
I believe Google pools the storage. Office 365 does the same thing. My org manages many thousands of people each with 10GB of OneDrive space. We allocate big users as much as 200GB of space without even looking at the allocation ,because most user needs are very light.
- eitally 13y ago
  Google does not currently pool the storage, but will move to that model in coming quarters.
  - CPAhem 13y ago
    How do you know this. Have they announced pooled storage?
    - Spooky23 13y ago

toxican 13y ago

They already lost me. I had just recently upgraded to their $9/mo 100GB plan and was happy as could be. Then Google dropped their prices and suddenly that same $9 could buy me an entire TB, which allows me to do/store way more. I didn't even hesitate to switch, although I'd much rather be paying Dropbox than Google. If they ever make a similar price drop I'll switch back.

rogerbinns 13y ago

Remember that Google Drive doesn't have official Linux support nor a Linux cli only client. Dropbox has both. This is very handy if you have any servers, some developers etc. Dropbox for Business also includes their unlimited backups (older versions of files).

ableal 13y ago
> unlimited backups (older versions of files). Versions are not backups. I wish I could find a simple web page that I read quite a few years ago. It very starkly explained why some things are commonly confused with, but just are not, backups. The consequences of those confusions are usually bad.
- Angostura 13y ago
  So, to all intents and purposes versions appear to act as backups, but you read a Web site a few years ago that said they aren't so that's what you tell people?
  - hrktb 13y ago
    Not really. The concept of version works like backup for full fledge systems (SVN, git), but not what Dropbox exposes. Dropbox keeps version of _existing_ files. You won't get back the files deleted and synched by mistake/misbehavior of some script. A backup would keep the files. You'll also have different behaviors if you need to bring back a set of data (i.e. all your files as they were two days ago). You'll be in pain to do it file by file with Dropbox's version system.
    - price 13y ago
      Dropbox keeps the history of deleted files just like modified files. Take a look on the web interface and hit the "Show deleted files" trashcan in the icons at the top. Or for a different view, hit the "Events" link on the left navbar.
    - egeozcan 13y ago

Yabood 13y ago

Shameless plug: http://www.nubisio.com http://www.nubisio.com. Our pricing is capacity based, so you can have as many users as you want, and our product (CloudStorm) supports all major cloud providers.

dwb 13y ago

We tried to move to Google Drive but are about to go all in for Dropbox for Business. The Google Drive desktop sync client (for Mac at least) is just not reliable enough. Make sure you trial Google Drive first.

CPAhem 13y ago
The Google Drive sync client is lacking features for business. But third party Google Drive sync clients like Syncdocs http://syncdocs.com http://syncdocs.com make it better than Dropbox.
- dwb 13y ago
  Not features; reliability. We have fairly modest Enterprise® requirements, but we do shunt around medium-size files quite often and expect them to be synchronized around the office as well as Dropbox manages it.