Well I wrote a post on Dropbox Giveaway and Features, and via the comments on that post I came to know about Box, a similar kind of service, wanted to try out Box, but unfortunately even the trial for the Box needs a credit card, and I don’t have one, so I could not try it out personally but based on the introduction and information on the homepage of Box, I tried to compare it with Dropbox, so here is the comparison in tabular form.
| Features |  |
 |
| Restrictions on file type Upload/Share | No-restriction | No-restriction |
| Access from anywhere | Yes | Yes |
| Collaborate with anyone | Yes | Yes |
| Edit documents and photos online | No (Editing requires download and upload after editing) | Yes |
| Keep a safe copy / Backup | Backup is not available but, a restore facility is there, even if u delete the file by mistake you can restore it back | Available |
| Uploading | Normal uploading feature, by browsing the file from storage media. | Uploading via E-mail is also available, simply e-mail the file. |
| Publishing | You can generate public link for any file from Desktop or Online. | You can host your photos and other files on Box |
| Multiple file upload | Supported, simply drag n drop. | Supported, simply drag n drop. |
| Embeddable code | No such facility | Provided, can be used for hosting files. |
| Sharing Limit | Right now in Beta, according to proposed plan, after release Beta user will continue to enjoy it for Free, whereas only 1GB of space will be available for Free users, and there will be tiered paid options. | 3 Tiered options (Lite, Individual and Business) available, Lite version is free and 14 days trial can be taken, for other versions if you can provide the credit card details |
| File Size limit | As such no file size limit is imposed, but uploading large files is obviously cumbersome, however 2 uploaders are available which make handling of large files a bit smooth.. | 10Mb for Lite and 1GB each for Individual and Business. |
| Custom Branding (Ability to add your logo on pages seen by your sub-users) | Not available | Available for Business version. |
From the above table its quite clear that superiority of one over other depends more upon the kind of user you are, its like basic and general sharing is pretty convenient with Dropbox, whereas very professional kind of requirements can be fulfilled by Box.
The need of credit card details even for trial version of paid options of Box, is heart breaking, I think the Box team should give it a thought (A free version is available). So which one of these meets your needs, which one do you like, feel free to Share your thoughts
I’m using getdropbox and it’s actually faster and as of this time, they are giving away 2 G of memory for free. An extra 1 G if you could let your friends sign up. Haha.
One major thing to mention is the huge diffrece in price.
If you want 30GB Storage, at box net it will cost $45 and at dropbox, even for 50GB it will cost you only $9.99 per month.
The pricing info on Box.net’s website is very misleading, this is what it says, Business – $15 / user per month. when you want to sign up you see they will charge you $45.00 for a minimum of 3 users which is $45.
my harddrive hasn’t got file size limit so
@ Ivan de la Jara, Well if you aren’t planning to share some huge data and only stuff like small documents and photos, i don’t think less storage capability on your HDD is an issue.
Hello all, this is Sean from Box.net. Either solution works great depending on what you want to do with it, so I appreciate that this point was made in the post. Box really focuses more around sharing content and giving people a collaborative online workspace.
I also wanted to add some info to the comparison chart. In terms of publishing, you can share web links to files and folders, set up widgets to display content on your blog and even set up public webpages with vanity URLs to share content.
As for file uploads, our free Lite account lets people upload files up to 25 MB each, while our paid plans let you upload files up to 1 GB each.
In terms of value, if you place more of a premium on having lots of different options around sharing files with others, using a service as a collaborative workspace and using files with third-party services from Google, Zoho, Scribd, Twitter, eFax and others, Box provides a lot of value on that front. But again, it really just depends on what you’re looking for – Dropbox is a great solution that we have a lot of sincere respect for.
If you need more info, I encourage you to check out our latest set of features at and our latest pricing plans at .
Feel free to reach out to us anytime. We’re on Twitter @boxdotnet or get in touch with us on our blog at .
adrive.com is the best
The article misses the best thing about Dropbox, it has offline desktop access. If Box.net had this I’d use it as it sounds great, but for me, I really need the straight forward sync from desktop that Dropbox has. And please let me know if there is a client for Box.net because it isn’t obvious. There is a WebDAV implementation but that’s not much good for offline.
We use both at my firm. Box.net has more security and features around collaboration and sharing with multiple users, connecting with other software (e.g., Google Apps, LinkedIn, TimeBridge) and allows us to embed files in our website. On the other hand, Dropbox allows users to sync between multiple PCs and provides offline storage. So we think of it more like Dropbox is a user-specific application for keeping all of a user’s files on multiple machines and then Box.net is for files to be shared and available to others.
Two additional notes on Box.net. We have built a number of websites for delivering documents to clients – or to our own staff – and rely on Box.net for holding those documents due to its easy and good security options. Unfortunately, in a number of instances, our clients’ corporate IT departments have blocked access to Box.net. (We suspect that Dropbox would not be available for those clients either.)
This is obviously not a serious compare… this guy is bought.
@Geeee May I know why did you feel so?
I think 4shared.com is better than any other… It gives 10 GB space to free users. So it should be included
You wrote “The need of credit card details even for trial version of paid options of Box, is heart breaking”. That comment makes no sense. Businesses need income to survive. You are more likely to have your heart broken by a vendor that offers free service and goes out of business because it has no income.
@Douglas I agree, also it was written under some misinterpretation, they have a Free option, however, I think, every Business should have a free trial option, if the Business really has that potential to create a fan following of its own, there is no need to charge for the Trial versions, don’t you think so?
I have been using the free version of box.net for years and have loved the features as well as how amazing the box.net team is in working with you and working on new ways to use it. I have yet to run out of space in my account. I have tried dropbox and the only thing that does not work for me is that you have to download an exe file to use it. As I do not use one primary computer, I rely heavily on portable drives and cloud computing. I use a combination of Google apps and box.net and have been extremely pleased. If I should have to share a much larger file than 25MB, then I use yousendit to deliver. So, I could see how the offline use of dropbox as well as syncing with a PC is useful to some, those characteristics of dropbox are the things that drive me to use box.net as the alternative. BTW, I have no affiliation with Box.net, just a huge fan as it has served my needs very well.
Box.net dropped their credit card requirement for free trial, but have you actually read their privacy policy. I wouldn’t touch Box.net with a 10 foot pole. Their policy says that they routinely share you personal information with other companies. That personal information includes your phone number (required for sign up, not optional) and even details about what you upload. NO THANKS!