Looking for a Dropbox replacement (with more free storage but same features?)

How much Dropbox space do you currently have?

What do you mean you're not sure if Google Drive "offers the same convenient functionality?" I use Google Drive for absolutely everything - it's easy to use, cross-platform, and if you use their format for things it doesn't count against your space.

troy14 said:

Hi everyone.

I currently use dropbox and I love it. It's so easy to share files and the way it just acts as another folder on my mac is wonderful. I especially love how I can right click a file and share it and just send that link to someone without anyone have to log in, sign up, etc. Also, automatically uploading screenshots and generating a link is awesome.

I am close to hitting my space limit with nothing much I can delete to free up space.

Does anyone have any good alternatives with more free space? I looked into Google Drive but i'm not sure if it offers the same convenient functionality. I am a college student almost graduated and really trying to stay away from adding more monthly bills.

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I haven't found anything that works as well. Google Drive's client is nowhere near as polished and it wants to just link you to BS cloud-based "documents" instead of actually syncing whatever files you put in there. I'd just find a way to pay for it if you actually use it that much.

octothorpe8 said:

I haven't found anything that works as well. Google Drive's client is nowhere near as polished and it wants to just link you to BS cloud-based "documents" instead of actually syncing whatever files you put in there. I'd just find a way to pay for it if you actually use it that much.

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I personally think Google's is much more polished - and it really isn't that difficult to understand the difference between a document you created in Google Docs (because it even calls itself a Google Document as file type) and an Office One (just so happens to label this Microsoft Office Document)...

I have been using Dropbox for more than two years, and benefit from 50Gb free disk space because I made the decision to go with a Samsung Note phone.

I shall be returning to the iPhone later this year, and at the same time plan on migrating to the new iCloud Drive.

If I understand everything correctly this will mean I can store all my data files on the drive, access them from any of my devices, and at the same time free up disk space on my Air. As things stand I have some large folders disconnected from the Air simply because dropbox stores copies locally and my 256Gb SSD is not enough for that..

Martin29 said:

I have been using Dropbox for more than two years, and benefit from 50Gb free disk space because I made the decision to go with a Samsung Note phone.

I shall be returning to the iPhone later this year, and at the same time plan on migrating to the new iCloud Drive.

If I understand everything correctly this will mean I can store all my data files on the drive, access them from any of my devices, and at the same time free up disk space on my Air. As things stand I have some large folders disconnected from the Air simply because dropbox stores copies locally and my 256Gb SSD is not enough for that..

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Just know that as of now, you will only get 5GB free iCloud Drive space.

Yes, I realise that space will be payable, but the advantages of everything being within the Apple ecosystem, and freeing up disk space make it worthwhile.

Cloud storage prices are dropping and it now becomes a reasonable option.

And as soon as IOS8 and Yosemite is released, their i-Cloud storage will increase competition and lower prices. If you can hang on until then, you may have some better choices.

I personally use several but my main cloud storage vendor is Dropbox. I have the 100GB plan, but when I am at a client's site, I sometimes have problems connecting to Dropbox and have setup Onedrive as a backup so I can keep files separate, personal and work. So far, these two have worked well for just about any situation and going from Mac to PC to iPad and then to iPhone (on rare occasions) has proven to be seamless with these two. I'm sure the others like Box and G-Drive are just as good but I prefer Dropbox and Onedrive.

I'll wait and see how i-Cloud is when it comes to cross platform support before I can make any decisions about that.

Hi troy14,

I can suggest you this new service which I am very happy http://www.copy.com, when you register you get 15gb free.

It does not have the same in app integragtion of dropbox but you get 5GB referral for anyone that signs up with your credetial so it very easy to get large amount of free storage. On top of everything it is all encripted by Barracuda so you can't really ask for more.

nexus4life said:

I personally think Google's is much more polished - and it really isn't that difficult to understand the difference between a document you created in Google Docs (because it even calls itself a Google Document as file type) and an Office One (just so happens to label this Microsoft Office Document)...

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Is it still the case that opening a Google Document requires you to be actively connected to the internet?

Martin29 said:

I have been using Dropbox for more than two years, and benefit from 50Gb free disk space because I made the decision to go with a Samsung Note phone.

I shall be returning to the iPhone later this year, and at the same time plan on migrating to the new iCloud Drive.

If I understand everything correctly this will mean I can store all my data files on the drive, access them from any of my devices, and at the same time free up disk space on my Air. As things stand I have some large folders disconnected from the Air simply because dropbox stores copies locally and my 256Gb SSD is not enough for that..

Click to expand...

You won't necessarily save space on your Air. I don't think iCloud/iCloud Drive is much different than Dropbox in that regard.

There's a good reason for this: Accessing and modifying your documents while disconnected from the web (whether while in Airplane Mode, or simply off the grid).

According to what I've read at Apple's developer site, Macs will always download new iCloud documents, as soon as they're available. Apple calls that "greedy peer."

On iOS, initially only the metadata for the document (roughly the equivalent to the file's Get Info data) is downloaded. But once the document has been opened on the iOS device, a complete copy is retained on that device. I have a pile of fairly large Numbers spreadsheets, but I only have about 1mb of Numbers documents when I check my iPhone's Usage data. If I put my iPhone into Airplane Mode and open Numbers, I see all the Numbers documents listed, but only some can be opened. Documents that are resident on the device are represented by thumbnails of the actual document, the non-resident documents are represented by an icon.

octothorpe8 said:

Is it still the case that opening a Google Document requires you to be actively connected to the internet?

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That's a good question. I know you can open google documents offline on ipad/android/iphone, but not sure on Mac/PC. Would test it out for you but I can't for next several hours.

I second the Google Drive option. 15gb standard, $2/mo gets you 100gb. You get the same Finder/Explorer integration that you would with Dropbox.

I've been using Google Drive extensively for work and personal use for years and it's never let me down. Dropbox is fine, Google Drive just feels like better value.

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nexus4life said:

That's a good question. I know you can open google documents offline on ipad/android/iphone, but not sure on Mac/PC. Would test it out for you but I can't for next several hours.

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I believe you can, you just need to flag individual documents for "offline viewing".

ryanmillercg said:

I believe you can, you just need to flag individual documents for "offline viewing".

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But then what, you're opening them in Chrome or what?
Last I checked, Google Drive felt like an OS X-ified version of their Chrome OS in which everything drives you back to their browser.

Dropbox to me feels just like it's a part of OS X and I really prefer that.

Unless things have changed, I'm good with Dropbox for now, especially if they drop their storage prices (which I'm sure they'll have to at some point).

edit: I'm trying it out again now to see what's changed

If you're after cloud-synced offline-editable documents, maybe Evernote is more of what you're looking for?

I second copy.com. If someone refers you, you start with 20GB free. And unlike Box.com, it doesn't choke on keynote/pages formats.

octothorpe8 said:

But then what, you're opening them in Chrome or what?
Last I checked, Google Drive felt like an OS X-ified version of their Chrome OS in which everything drives you back to their browser.

Dropbox to me feels just like it's a part of OS X and I really prefer that.

Unless things have changed, I'm good with Dropbox for now, especially if they drop their storage prices (which I'm sure they'll have to at some point).

edit: I'm trying it out again now to see what's changed

Click to expand...

The thing is that you are not required to make use of Google Documents, if it bothers you that they sit there in the folder and then (maybe?) have to be opened in a browser or otherwise online. Just use office documents and it's a solved issue. I would think it should be appreciated that at least Google gives you another office option, but of course you aren't required to use it.

nexus4life said:

The thing is that you are not required to make use of Google Documents, if it bothers you that they sit there in the folder and then (maybe?) have to be opened in a browser or otherwise online. Just use office documents and it's a solved issue. I would think it should be appreciated that at least Google gives you another office option, but of course you aren't required to use it.

Click to expand...

Gotcha. I'm actually running Dropbox and Drive side by side on my work machine now to test out. I do wish Drive's web interface had some options for editing plain .txt documents — but then again Dropbox has zero web editing options so I can't really complain so much about that.

OK, I'll concede Drive has made some strides since the initial version I tried. I still think Dropbox has some more intuitive sharing features, but I'm cautiously warming to Drive — at least until we see if the new iCloud is going to be any good.

Or... buy a 12-month Office 365 subscription. It's officially $99, but you can get it for $65 on Amazon. This gets you 1TB OneDrive account (yes, one-terabyte - that's not a typo) as well as licenses to install the full MS Office Suite on up to 5 computers. OneDrive has Dropbox like sync app for Mac OS in the App Store as well as iOS devices.

You actually get 5 accounts each with their own 1TB storage limit (so 5TB if you use them all yourself!)

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It's the best deal in town right now for Cloud Storage.

Here's the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Office-365-Home-Subscription-Card/dp/B009SPTUW2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406751347&sr=8-1&keywords=office365


Edit: I know this reads like a sales pitch, but I signed up for this last week and am blown away at the value of it all.

CalMin said:

Or... buy a 12-month Office 365 subscription. It's officially $99, but you can get it for $65 on Amazon. This gets you 1TB OneDrive account (yes, one-terabyte - that's not a typo) as well as licenses to install the full MS Office Suite on up to 5 computers. OneDrive has Dropbox like sync app for Mac OS in the App Store as well as iOS devices.

You actually get 5 accounts each with their own 1TB storage limit (so 5TB if you use them all yourself!)

--

It's the best deal in town right now for Cloud Storage.

Here's the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Office-365-Home-Subscription-Card/dp/B009SPTUW2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406751347&sr=8-1&keywords=office365


Edit: I know this reads like a sales pitch, but I signed up for this last week and am blown away at the value of it all.

Click to expand...

I have this because a friend linked me to their subscription, but I just feel like Google Drive integrates with my devices better - I use Mac OS, Windows, iPad & Nexus 5 on a regular basis, and it is really seamless between them all.

inkhead said:

Here's an idea: Pay the $99/year for dropbox.

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Or you can find a competitor that gives more away for less. I use Office so I'm an office 365 subscriber and I'm rocking with over 100GB of storage. I'd rather pay 99 a year, get the storage, and the ability to run Office. Additionally, I can install the app on 5 computers and tablets.

My point is not to promote Office 365 but rather communicate there are better cost effective solutions.

Unfortunately the writing is on the wall for dropbox. They will be unable to compete with Google, Microsoft and Apple, that offer more features and services for less.

If you like Dropbox so much, why not consider paying and supporting them? I've tried several of the other cloud based drives and haven't found anything nearly as good. Instead of trying to manage a bunch of different folders, I just paid Dropbox and upgraded. I don't use nearly as much as 100 gigs, but it's good to know I have the option.