Google Drive vs Dropbox: which is right for you?
In 2015, office networks and hard drives are old news. The secure and efficient way to store your company’s data is using cloud storage. As this trend develops, two big names are leading the way: Google Drive and Dropbox. Both products allow you to store large amounts of data in a password-protected online space. This means you can access your files on multiple devices, whether you’re in the office, at home, or out and about. It’s the perfect storage solution for the modern business, no matter which industry you work in.
The history
While Dropbox was the first cloud storage brand to establish itself as a favourite among business users, Google Drive has the advantage of being associated with one of the world’s biggest, and most trusted, names in technology. Each service offers a certain amount of storage for free, which is great as it means you can try out both to see which you prefer, without spending a cent.
How they work
The way that the two services work differs somewhat. To manage your files on Google Drive, you need to log in via your browser and use Google’s online viewing and editing tools. However, a benefit of Dropbox is that it has the option to store your files simultaneously on your hard drive and online. As you update files in the Dropbox folder on your computer, all copies of the files stored online and on yours and your colleagues’ other devices, will automatically be updated too. This is ideal if you sometimes work without an internet connection, as you can still access and edit files on your computer when you’re not online.
Google Drive has its own advantages too. It offers a much larger amount of free storage (15GB to Dropbox’s 2GB), and the cost as you increase your storage is more reasonable. With a 500GB limit, Dropbox may not be suitable for larger companies, or at least may only allow you to store a portion of your files, rather than everything. Google Drive, however, offers storage of up to 30TB. Another benefit of Google Drive is its connection to other Google services, so if you use Gmail, Google+ or Google Play, for example, you can switch easily between them and have one login for all Google services.
Our verdict
Here at iFactory, we use both services because, as a Brisbane digital agency, they’re useful to us in different ways. If you’re not sure whether Dropbox or Drive is right for you, search for more cloud storage reviews, or just get stuck in and try them out for free – you’ll soon get your answer!
