Google Drive vs Dropbox – A Detailed Comparison

Are you confused about choosing cloud storage? When it comes to storing and sharing information online, there are multiple options to choose from. Platforms like Dropbox and Google Drive are some of the most popular services with more competition. We can store and share large files online quickly. Let us discuss in detail, Google Drive vs Dropbox.

Each of these platforms has more features in common. Such as syncing files across devices, backing up files to the cloud, and allowing you to share files with your team members.

If you look in-depth, you may consider that both of the services are similar. Let’s dive into deep to know more by seeing the comparisons.

Google Drive vs Dropbox – A Head To Head Comparison

To get an idea of which cloud storage is better, we can look into more before choosing the best. Before getting into the comparisons we will see what it means whether Google Drive or Dropbox.

What is Google Drive?

Google Drive is a familiar word known by everyone compared to Dropbox and it’s a file storage service that allows you to sync and save your files on the cloud. Any user can access it from a smartphone, PC, tablet, etc by downloading a simple app on any of these platforms. Desktop service is also available in Google Drive.

You can sync or upload files here and share them with other people using a shareable link. You can also choose to save your media files such as videos, docs, music, etc.

To get this service, you must create a Google Account and get 15GB of free space on every account. If you need more space, there are multiple packages you can subscribe to and increase your limit.

The best part of this particular service is that you can sync all the other Google services. Some of them are Google Docs, Photos, Sheets, Calendar, and others directly synced with Google Drive.

Read Google Drive Randomly Deleting Files

What is Dropbox?

Dropbox is a cloud storage service that serves as one of the most popular platforms where you can save and synchronize all your files. It is free to use for a specific storage limit, and you may opt for an upgrade based on your needs.

This Dropbox cloud service acts as an alternative to One Drive, Google Drive, and other cloud storage services available on the web.

Also, you can download the desktop version on iOS and Android, PC for easy access. There are multiple features where you can create a group of people and use the application together for work purposes.

Read: How to make a graph on Google Drive

Google Drive vs Dropbox- Edit History and File Recovery

• If your files are required to be accessed, edited, copied, or transferred by multiple people, you have to track who has made changes and what changes have been made to the files in Google Drive.
• With both Google Drive and Dropbox, you can restore your files to an earlier version. The earlier version also provides safety to our files.

Restore time in Dropbox

• We can restore the files, folders, or images in Dropbox if we delete them accidentally or purposely (save the space).
• Moreover, you can also sort deleted files through their parent folder location, deletion date, or the people who deleted them.

However, the files will be kept in the deleted files section for only 30 days. It can be extended to 120 days by subscribing to the enterprise version of the platform. Also, 180 days by purchasing Dropbox Professional. Based on the plans, the files will be kept in Dropbox to recover.

Restore Time in Google Drive

• Similar to Dropbox, Google Drive keeps all the deleted files in the Trash.
• The files will remain there for 25 days until you delete them from the trash permanently.

• This feature helps prevent the loss of data from the Google Drive. In case you want to restore an older version of your file, you can go back to 30 days for older versions of the file through both platforms.
• Compared to Dropbox, Google provides a slight advantage for this feature. It helps you to restore specific versions of your files and informs you about the authority responsible for the edits, even when someone is making changes to the file in real-time. 

You can restore older versions of your documents. However, you cannot track the changes in the version history as it is a paid feature of Microsoft Office.

Read How to enable Google Drive Dark Mode on your smartphones

Security Features in Google Drive vs Dropbox

• Next, the important thing everyone will look at is security features. Since Google Drive and Dropbox are very competitive and hard to differentiate.
• In the Google Drive cloud storage feature, you can get one more layer of security features like two-factor authentication.
• It will secure the files by sending SMS or one-tap signing to protect the important things.

• Dropbox also provides all the security features in addition to password-less login through its standards.
• Additionally, while both platforms encrypt your data before storing them in the servers, Google Drive has an extra layer of security compared to Dropbox.
• For example, if some unauthorized people try to access the data, they would require two separate keys to translate it into a readable format. While Dropbox requires only a single key to decrypt your precious data.

Still, if you are storing highly confidential information on the cloud, and searching for which is best, it’s highly suggested to choose Google Drive.

Google Drive vs Dropbox- Plans and Pricing 

• The free version of both of these competitors provides you with limited storage. However, Google appears to be more generous than Dropbox.
• With the free plan of Dropbox, you get only 2GB of free storage that can be extended to 19 GB by referring friends.

• Google Drive offers you straight away 15GB worth of storage that’s security above shared throughout your Google account.
• However, your photo backups and email attachments will also occupy the space and may burn up your storage quicker than Dropbox.

You can still store unlimited photos up to 16 megapixels, and only larger media files will occupy your storage limit. If you need more storage without spending anything Dropbox keeps you covered in numerous ways.

• The premium plans for Dropbox start from $11.99 per month for 2TB of storage.
• Google Drive requires sign up for a separate service known as Google One. It will add the same storage space with the same price range.
• But you can also choose from several cheaper and smaller plans. Because it can cost you as low as $2 per month for 100 GB of storage and $3 per month for 200 GB of storage.

Although sharing your storage space throughout your Google account may feel inconvenient, the range of plans offered is undoubtedly better as compared to Dropbox. 

Backup Options in Google Drive and Dropbox

• Both Dropbox and Google Drive allow you to back up your photos and videos automatically to the cloud. 
• Dropbox takes a complete backup of the storage volumes attached to your computer. However, you still have to choose a Plus plan for backing up automatically from your smartphone.
• These media files also consume a large number of space that may require you to choose a high-level plan.
• There is a subset of Google Drive known as Google Photos that backs up your videos and photos from your smartphone free of cost.
• Photos lesser than 16 megapixels and videos below 1080P will not be calculated against your storage limit. You also get the option to reduce your media quality to save space.

Email attachments and other Google services share the same storage limit. The flexibility and largeness of Google Drive make it more affordable than Dropbox, and it also excels in terms of sharing and editing media.

More Backup Options

• Dropbox also has a camera uploads folder that can add comments to your media files and share multiple photos at once and you can create a folder and share it with your team members.
• Google Drive allows you to create live albums. It uses facial recognition technology and automatically sorts out the pictures in their respective albums. 
• If you make a photo album of your particular friend and tag him/her in the picture, every newly captured photo will automatically show up in the same album. It also contains a photo editor with features like cropping and rotating images, applying filters, and adjusting colors. 
• Dropbox also features a photo editor in their mobile app, but we cannot do it on a desktop or web interface.

Google Drive vs Dropbox- Sync Speed

• The reason why Dropbox is popular among users is its innovative synchronization technology known as block-level file copying.
• Only the first-time synchronization process will take time. After that, every modified version will be synced immediately on all your devices.
• Whereas Google does not use the block-level file copying feature. It is known to have one of the fastest cloud services in the market. Therefore unless you are trying to sync a considerable file, there should be no difference at all. 
• Dropbox takes the lead here by allowing you to back up files on the local area network, which is not yet introduced to Google Drive. It means Dropbox will sync files automatically between computers connected to a single network with a high-speed transfer speed. 

Google Drive vs Dropbox- Navigation and Search

We have a desktop application in both Google Drive and Dropbox, that lets you sync between multiple devices. This folder can be accessed through File Explorer on Windows OS and finder on Mac OS. The application creates a separate folder that allows you to sort files by their type, know when they are modified, and who is the owner of them.

Search Comparison

• Google’s application is known as backup and sync. It can be downloaded separately for free, and it’s not mandatory to use Google Drive. There’s a quick access toolbar in the web version of Google Drive. It is available at the top section of your screen.
• The toolbar offers navigational suggestions for required files, i.e. documents relevant to your added dates in the Google calendar or files accessed recently. It also allows you to start essential items that are categorized in a separate tab for easy access. 
• Talking about Dropbox shows your recently uploaded files along with a row of items you have checked. Dropbox offers you better control over the files that you access recently. While Google Drive uses algorithms to determine your navigational needs.

Navigation Comparison

To determine which platform provides better navigation features, you have to assess your preferences, but both cloud storage platforms have the best features. Google is better than Dropbox in terms of searching for specific files.

Google Drive provides you with several search parameters. Similar to Gmail it allows you to refine your query by enabling you to search for file type, who they’re shared with, who owns the file, or when they were modified recently.

In case you capture photos of receipts or business cards, Google Lens will copy the text on the images through OCR technology. Furthermore, it allows you to search for that specific information on Google search.

Conclusion

Here we have seen enough important information to compare both the cloud storage. To store files in the cloud and save your local storage both Google Drive and Dropbox work exceptionally well. Moreover, each of these platforms also provides companion mobile apps. It allows you to access your files directly from your smartphone. 

Google offers you more space even with their free account. On a side note, Dropbox has better synchronization features that back up your files faster than Google Drive.

Choosing the best one, Google Drive is surely better in this comparison. It provides you with a higher amount of storage and features than Dropbox.

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