Even the full text search, a fairly basic tool that you can perform yourself on local files in just about any OS, isn’t available at the free tier. How about Dropbox? Once again, Dropbox is more stingy with its tools, unlocking some of its more premium options under more expensive consumer or business accounts. Occasional deals on travel and other items.Discounts on purchases in the Google Store.Free access to the Google One VPN on Android.Shared space for Gmail messages/attachments and Google Photos.Purchasing extra Google Drive storage via the Google One system gets you: On top of the above tools, there are less tangible advantages to both systems. While Google One plans can be shared with up to five extra family members (for a total of six users) on the cheapest $2 a month tier, Dropbox only unlocks this option once you start paying $20 a month for 2TB of storage. Sharing storage and PC backupĪs you might expect, Google comes out ahead in terms of sharing storage between family members. It’s a small but crucial advantage if what you’re really looking for is a bucket of syncing storage that’s quick and easy to access.

In practical terms, this makes a file added on your phone (say, a new photo you took of your pet) appear almost instantaneously in the Dropbox folder on your Windows or MacOS computer, so long as both devices are connected to the local network. This tool allows files added to your Dropbox account to start copying over local Ethernet or Wi-Fi connections even before they’re fully uploaded to the cloud. But making users essentially do your marketing for you to get what’s free elsewhere isn’t a great value proposition.ĭropbox also has a feature that makes it faster to send files around your local network: LAN sync. Dropbox users can boost their free storage by getting friends to sign up with referral codes, up to 16GB.

$75 per month/3 user minimum, $25 for each extra userĪs you can see, Google Drive (also known as Google One) offers both more initial, free storage, and more and cheaper options at different levels of storage.

$45 per month/3 user minimum, $15 for each extra user $12 a month (one user only), $20 a month for 6 users Here’s a quick breakdown of the various plans and prices: Storage tier PricingĪt the consumer level, both companies offer at least one approximately comparable plan for cloud storage. Note: You might also be interested in our comparison of Google Drive vs.

Copy vs box vs dropbox