What the Dropbox price drop means for you

Cloud-based file sharing and sync service Dropbox received significant media attention in the past few days after reducing the price of its paid offering, Dropbox Pro, from $9.99 per month for 100 GB to $9.99 per month for 1 TB. This drop in price -- or rather, increase in storage (more about that in a minute) -- brings Dropbox in line with Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, and others.

I suspect most vendors will gradually lower their prices to remain competitive, and I wouldn't be surprised to see unlimited (or very high) storage quotas becoming a norm in the near future.

What is more important for you the customer, however, is the actually capabilities you obtain. Or in other words, what you can do with the technology.

Of course, Dropbox does have a lot going for it, especially for consumer-focused use cases. For example, its sync apps work reasonably well on most platforms (barring Windows Mobile) and you also get nice photo sharing features. You have access to some additional security features with Dropbox Pro; you can now attach a password to shared links, set expiry dates, and remotely wipe content if your phone gets stolen or lost.

However, there are many similar services out there, each with its own advantages. Consider:

  • Microsoft offers Office 365 along with 1 TB at a lesser price
  • Google has better integration with other Google services and offers more options in terms of pricing
  • Apple's forthcoming iCloud drive will presumably be better integrated with Apple's ecosystem
  • SugarSync gives you the freedom to select any folder on your desktop as a sync folder

That's just for starters. You have many more options, including more enterprise-focused vendors, many of who have individual user editions as well. (We evaluate them in our ECM and Cloud File Sharing evaluations.)

So before you rush to move all your files to Dropbox, remember it's not about the price of storage any more. Storage is a commodity, but enterprise-grade services are not. So test these well before you commit to one (or couple of them).

And hey Dropbox, if you are reading this, many users don't need 1 TB and so would have preferred a more tiered plan instead of a 1 TB threshold to get the extra capabilities that come with the Pro edition. But then 200 GB for $2 wouldn't sound as cool as 1 TB for $9.99...

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