I know this isn't a very good answer for most people, but for me at least, I trust Dropbox way more than Google. I really dislike the direction and influence Google has on the Web right now, and I'm more or less ideologically opposed to them as a company (and in general, any giant monopolistic company).

I hate the fact that I have to "vote with my dollar," but in the end I just feel better giving my money to an "independent" company like Dropbox or Snapchat than to Google or Facebook.

I got tired of keeping track of changes at Google, plus their programs are very heavy in power consumption. Dropbox is quick, has always worked for me, and you don't even notice it in the background.

I try not to touch Microsoft stuff because of their constant changes too, and I was annoyed at their advertisements in Windows 10. I'd rather just not deal with any of their stuff.

I would probably stop using Dropbox if Apple started offering the ability to share folders with other iCloud users.

I don't. Google provides way more for a lot less money. You can encrypt your own content on either providers. For GSuite you get literally almost every service you can imagine, include a phone number that you can make unlimited calls to/from landlines with using your computer.

It's not just about cost-effectiveness, it's about which company is making the Web a better place — and I see a lot of Google's activities actively moving in the wrong direction.

For me, it's more about the companies than the product (which, like I said, is probably an unsatisfactory criteria for most people).

Glad you're enjoying Google's services though :)

In a lot of ways making the world a better place is about cost-effectiveness, and honestly what is Dropbox doing? Are they the main contributor to Nextcloud? Yeah, Google isn't much better in that regard, but I can buy a descent $199 unlocked Android phone now at Costco, and have all of Google services integrated. They also provide a lot of descent open source tools. Have you tried Kubernetes? :)

> In a lot of ways making the world a better place is about cost-effectiveness

I think we just have different worldviews. Certainly economics are important, but I try not to boil everything down to dollars and cents.

And for sure, Google has done a ton of useful and interesting things that I'm grateful for. But they also contribute to undermining online privacy, and use their size to wield disproportionate power in politics, etc. etc.

The CEO of Dropbox is listed as a founder of FWD.us:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FWD.us#Keystone_XL_oil_pipelin...

I agree that Google contributes to undermining online privacy, but I still don't see Dropbox doing more in that regard. I'm sorry, but I really am not a fan of Dropbox after my experience with them, so I am inclined to be a vocal critic of their service (or lack thereof).

The last thing I want is to get all my services from the same provider.

I use Dropbox. There are various reasons. First, Dropbox does block-level sync. If you change a large file, only changed blocks are synced. Secondly, LAN sync, which does peer to peer sync over a local network. Another nice feature is that you can set up file requests, where people can upload files without sharing a folder (which I often use for classes).

Besides lacking these features, Google Drive had some serious deficiencies the last time I tried it. E.g., it was not possible to get a list of shared folders (besides running a Google apps script, which takes a long time to run). The Google Drive client would regularly bail out when syncing a large number of files. And they were permitted to mine user files for ads when you don’t have Google Apps for Work (and it is not clear if your files are indexed for ads if you share a folder with a non-Apps for Work user).

I tried Google drive for about a year several years ago. It never actually backed up all my files, it would always crash before it finished syncing. I tried for quite a while (many dozens of times over months) and finally gave up and bought Dropbox. Dropbox just worked a heck of a lot better. Maybe this has changed, but why change back if it just works and it isn't expensive?

The major reason for me is their Linux support. I don't think any mainstream provider offers linux support. I also feel their sync is better than both One drive and GDrive. They probably sync the deltas most affectively. Given that this is their only important product, it s bound to have the attention of their best engineers. You can't say the same about Google or MSFT.

My two reasons:

1) More people use Dropbox, which makes sharing easier.

2) First-class support for Linux

Dropbox never worked on Linux for me. It was buggy and maxed out my CPU. They didn't even provide proper changelogs at the time.. not sure if they do now? Is their application open source? Rclone works with Google Drive just fine, and it is unlimited storage.

I had a major data-loss (recommended third-party element for KDE may have been responsible; was using free version), haven't used it since.

It's very similar to IMAP in the way a major data loss can be sync-ed. Would love to have "only mark remote deletions" (in both! with option to perform deletion locally on request), perhaps it's in there now, or part of the paid version.

I've been using the free tier of Dropbox on Linux (Arch Linux, Debian, Ubuntu) for years and I've never had an issue.

I guess it still works, and it's just what we've always been using. It's probably the first thing that most people used like this, and it still gets the job done for most people, I'd guess.

At this point for me, it's lock-in. Even if Box, Google Drive, and OneDrive offered me all the main functionality I use with Dropbox, I still couldn't muster the time/energy it takes to investigate even though I'm a paying ($99 for 100GB or whatever) user. It's not just apathy, though, in the ~10 years I've used Dropbox, I have yet to ever have an issue, while at the same time, it's been such an integral part of my computer usage and workflow.

Dropbox has better quality software, and I would use them if they had individual plans that just scaled linearly like google drive and amazon drive do.

Because they don't I use amazon drive, which is 2TB @ $10/month. I mostly use it for client side encrypted backups and use about 1.3TB currently.

Also I've noticed many apps if they do integrate with a drive provider, they integrate with dropbox almost all the time, and the others not so much.

I do. I used to use Google Drive but then Google renamed the PC app and discontinued it and rather trying to figure out what I have to use instead I just said screw it and grabbed Dropbox. Plus many apps I want to use are integrated into Dropbox far better than anything else so it makes using it as a storage area for multiple apps and devices super easy.

I just wish it had a good encryption option like SpiderOak.

If keybase can do half of what it looks like they're going to do they will scratch that itch for you. I use kbfs as my dropbox now and have for a while.

Agreed, Keybase is kicking it up a notch and gotta love me some GnuPG!

I use GDrive too, primarily because Dropbox does not have a "middle" storage tier. I do not want 1 TB of storage right now. Google offers 100 GB for $2/month which works much better for me.

For me, there's three reasons:

1) they seem much more accessible to people with @outlook.com, @comcast.net, @yahoo.com, etc. email addresses

2) On a Mac, I've found their syncing to be quicker, more reliable and more efficient than Google Drive. Google Drive does not like network glitches at all, often having to be killed and restarted. I've tried changing ownership of things in Google Drive. Sometimes I can, sometimes I can't. This is a problem when working with things I want to hand over to someone else (for me that's the soccer club, PTA, etc.)

3) I had separate apps for Google Drive and Google Photo backup. Which I liked. Now I have Backup and Sync or whatever they're calling it. Dropbox has been easy to set up and forget.

I have more stored in Google Drive because I buy Chromebooks for me or the kids every couple of years.

Personally, I have never had an issue with Dropbox on any device that I am running. The very first app I'll install on any new device is Dropbox without even thinking about it. At this point, cloud storage has become an independent category so I don't mind using an additional service that is not part of Google, Microsoft, Amazon, or Apple. Normally I try to consolidate the number of apps/services I use, but Dropbox performs exceptionally well and I trust them.

Congrats to Dropbox on achieving this milestone!

1TB of storage:

- Google Drive: $9.99 (https://www.google.com/drive/pricing/

- Dropbox: $8.25 (https://www.dropbox.com/individual/plans-comparison)

There's one answer for you.

Look into GSuite and see what else you get, in addition to archiving support for Google Drive... and actually, GSuite is unlimited storage... sorry Dropbox, but you lose in terms of price and features.

Depends on what features you need. I don’t need unlimited storage. Dropbox’ sync is far more reliable (see my other comment). Dropbox has Paper, which supports LaTeX equations and can be exported as Markdown. Dropbox has great integration with Microsoft Office and Office Online. Dropbox supports file requests.

The only relevant feature for me that Google Apps offers over Dropbox is email. But I highly prefer FastMail, which respects standards (IMAP, CaldDAV, CardDAV) and not Googles broken implementations.

Sure, but if you literally just want somewhere to store files, then Dropbox is cheaper. That's one reason why someone might prefer it.

You are comparing a monthly plan against an annual plan. Google's annual plan costs $100. Only very slightly more expensive. In addition they have a 200gb plan which is enough for people like me

Fair point, though I'm surprised Google doesn't promote that more, on the pricing page I can't see yearly pricing mentioned anywhere.

For me its because I can directly link to images and text files as opposed to One drive or Google drive.

Agreed. Thought they would be great at first, but their client uses way too much memory, especially in Linux. Their support was lacking. They don't (or didn't) provide changelogs. I finally switched to rclone and am using Google Drive due to price. Thinking that I'd need automatic syncing, I'm actually happy with manual syncing, so that I can track my changes as well. Crashplan does the automated syncing portion, and then daily or weekly, I will sync to/from Google Drive. I have my Photos sync from Google Photos as well using rclone.

I'd rather buy my storage from a storage company than an ad company.

For me the reason is that Google Drive doesn't work on Linux.

rclone works really well, and even supports Team Drives.

I use Google Drive, but I'd switch to Dropbox in a flash if they offered 100GB pricing package. Mainly because I find the Dropbox app more reliable and syncs quicker than GD. I've had Google Drive or "Backup and Sync" or whatever they call it now crash a few times as well.

But I'm sticking with Google Drive for the time being, I really cannot justify paying £6.59 a month for 1TB of storage, when I'm prettty certain I'd use less than 10% of that.

I find Dropbox’s sync client to be way more stable and has better operating system integration. Also better API documentation =)

Dropbox is the most efficient one. They only upload what's been changed. Skydrive/Google Drive upload the entire file. (At least they did 4 years ago when I tried them out.)

Thanks for the responses! I'm always confused by which products people prefer to purchase à la carte and which they prefer to buy in bundles.

Companies like Facebook would prefer Dropbox to store their data over a competitor like Microsoft or Google.

They are used by lots of businesses. It’s just for personal use.

Wait I think you're missing a word there...

When a market is big enough, many people can win!