Dropbox Launches New 'Dropbox Professional' Account Option for Freelancers

[MacRumors]

Dropbox today introduced a new account option called Dropbox Professional, aimed at individuals who need more storage and features than are available with a standard Plus account, but don't need a business account.

Priced at $19.99 per month, Dropbox Professional offers 1TB of storage and it includes a new feature called Dropbox Showcase.

Dropbox Showcase allows for Dropbox content to be organized into a PDF with a customized layout, visual previews, captions, and personalized branding, turning it into a portfolio of sorts.

Along with Dropbox Showcase and 1TB of storage, the new tier includes OCR and Smart Sync, a feature previously limited to Dropbox Business users. Smart Sync allows users to customize where files and folders are stored, with options for storing locally, in the cloud, or both.

With OCR or optical character recognition, Dropbox can understand the text in scanned documents, allowing for them to be searchable. The final feature available in Dropbox Showcase is an option to cause a document to remotely expire.

The introduction of Dropbox Professional comes two weeks after Dropbox introduced its revamped brand design that focuses on bright, contrasting colors, and introduces new fonts and logos to its products.

Dropbox users can sign up for Dropbox Professional starting today.

Article Link: Dropbox Launches New 'Dropbox Professional' Account Option for Freelancers

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I think Dropbox is great... maybe even best of the lot all things considered. But how about a tier between $0 and $99/yr?

 

[nutmac]

$19.99/month for the same storage capacity as $9.99/month plan? Some of the "Professional" features seem interesting, but Dropbox could've at least doubled the storage space also.

 

[steve knight]

I had paid for their smallest plan years ago with unlimited versions. when they got rid of the low end plans they gave it all to me for free and a refund. cna't complain it has saved my butt often.

 

[robinp]

Their redesign still makes me want to vommit

 

[cheesyfox]

How is this any better than G Suite ($10/month, unlimited storage, google docs, gmail, etc)? No more worthwhile function in Dropbox anymore, it seems.

 

[ryanmcv]

It's pretty clear that Dropbox doesn't want to focus on individual, non-business users. If they did, they would increase the free tier to at LEAST 15GB and offer plans at 99 cents or $2.99/month for 50 to 200GB.

 

[BeyondtheTech]

It's pretty clear that Dropbox doesn't want to focus on individual, non-business users. If they did, they would increase the free tier to at LEAST 15GB and offer plans at 99 cents or $2.99/month for 50 to 200GB.

I've been waiting for them to add the option to password-protect the Selective Sync option, so that way I could've shared my Dropbox space with family members and only sync the folders I specify. But that specific request kept falling on deaf ears, and this is what they do instead.

Now that iCloud Storage offers 2TB for $9.99/month, and shareable with family members, I'm glad I let my Dropbox subscription run out.

 

[subjonas]

Good they’re offering a new option I guess. But they should have increased storage from the cheaper Plus plan. And the offline folder sync feature is a pretty basic feature. I can understand why it’s not available for free but I think it should be included in all the paid tiers including Plus.

 

[SigEp265]

How is this any better than G Suite ($10/month, unlimited storage, google docs, gmail, etc)? No more worthwhile function in Dropbox anymore, it seems.

G Suite only gets 1TB if you don't have more than 5 accounts. Is it more $$ to add more accounts???

"Use Drive to keep all your work files in one secure place with unlimited cloud-based file storage (accounts with fewer than 5 users get 1TB per user). Access your files whenever you need them from your laptop, phone, or tablet."

 

[vicviper789]

It's pretty clear that Dropbox doesn't want to focus on individual, non-business users. If they did, they would increase the free tier to at LEAST 15GB and offer plans at 99 cents or $2.99/month for 50 to 200GB.

how do you know this if they are not focusing on individuals/non-business users?

 

[ryanmcv]

how do you know this if they are not focusing on individuals/non-business users?

How do I know what? I said IF they cared about non-business users, they would offer cheaper monthly subscription plans.

 

[Zwhaler]

Just don't take away my $99/year price point.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Interesting that, according to Dropbox, 1 TB = 1000 GB, but 2 TB = 2048 GB.

 

[AronDraws]

Their redesign still makes me want to vommit

Agreed. I cancelled my subscription with them and I don't think I'll be going back. All of their zany color combinations hurt my eyes and I honestly can use another service.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Wow @ the price point for the same storage as the 2x cheaper tier. What? Dropbox does syncing very well and a lot of people like it but good grief, you'd think they could 3x their userbase if they had a 500GB or less storage tier... Heck, I'm on Google Drive's 100GB for $1.99/mo ($19/year) and I'm only using 34GB. For my family's iPhones we're paying the $3/mo for 200GB shared which we're only using 23GB combined.

I guess they get more revenue from businesses paying for the TB but probably using very little overall vs 3x the userbase actually using 100GB.

 

[WolfSnap]

I have an old grandfathered Plus plan with unlimited version history for $138/yr. Seems like for an extra $100/yr I'd get smart sync and a few other minor features. I'd also lose my unlimited/forever version history...

Doesn't really scream out, "Buy me!" to me...
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I've been waiting for them to add the option to password-protect the Selective Sync option, so that way I could've shared my Dropbox space with family members and only sync the folders I specify. But that specific request kept falling on deaf ears, and this is what they do instead.

Now that iCloud Storage offers 2TB for $9.99/month, and shareable with family members, I'm glad I let my Dropbox subscription run out.

iCloud still needs better file sharing options IMHO. However, I'm pretty close to just tossing Dropbox away and saving the $138/yr I spend on it.

 

[techpr]

I don’t understand what Dropbox is doing. Where is the 500GB $4.99 tier???

 

[BigMcGuire]

I don’t understand what Dropbox is doing. Where is the 500GB $4.99 tier???

Not as profitable as 1TB for $20

 

[Cougarcat]

Agreed. I cancelled my subscription with them and I don't think I'll be going back. All of their zany color combinations hurt my eyes and I honestly can use another service.

It;s ugly but it's really for their marketing. The web app and iOS app still look the same. The only place where I notice is in the app icons.

 

[jst_testing]

I've been waiting for them to add the option to password-protect the Selective Sync option, so that way I could've shared my Dropbox space with family members and only sync the folders I specify. But that specific request kept falling on deaf ears, and this is what they do instead.

Now that iCloud Storage offers 2TB for $9.99/month, and shareable with family members, I'm glad I let my Dropbox subscription run out.

Same - I've switched over to iCloud with their 2TB offering (agree, some minor glitches with the overall uptime), but so far, can't beat that deal and combined with native Files access, can't justify paying for Dropbox

 

[CarlJ]

I don’t understand what Dropbox is doing. Where is the 500GB $4.99 tier???

In the early days, when I was participating in their forum and avidly awaiting new releases, a lot of us were clamoring, "we love your free product, we want you to stay around, and we'd like more space, how about 20 or 50 GB for $2-$5/mo". They came out with professional and business services at notably higher prices and ignored our pleas. I won a number of treasure hunt-type contests they had early on that gave additional free space, and got various referrals, and now I have enough free space that it's not a limiting factor, plus lots of other (usually less well implemented) cloud storage services have arrived. I wish that they had taken us up on having a lower-end plan, I think they could have gotten much more market penetration than the path they chose.

 

[ryanmcv]

In the early days, when I was participating in their forum and avidly awaiting new releases, a lot of us were clamoring, "we love your free product, we want you to stay around, and we'd like more space, how about 20 or 50 GB for $2-$5/mo". They came out with professional and business services at notably higher prices and ignored our pleas. I won a number of treasure hunt-type contests they had early on that gave additional free space, and got various referrals, and now I have enough free space that it's not a limiting factor, plus lots of other (usually less well implemented) cloud storage services have arrived. I wish that they had taken us up on having a lower-end plan, I think they could have gotten much more market penetration than the path they chose.

Agreed. If it weren't for the extra storage space I earned through referrals and the old Dropquest games, I would have switched to Google Drive or OneDrive long ago.

 

[fairuz]

How is this any better than G Suite ($10/month, unlimited storage, google docs, gmail, etc)? No more worthwhile function in Dropbox anymore, it seems.

Has G Suite fixed Google Drive? I haven't used it since 2014, but back then, it was an unintuitive and glitched-up mess. Dropbox has been great for me; I signed up when they were pretty much brand new (late 2007) and still use it.

Gmail and Google Docs, though... That's nice to have.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Has G Suite fixed Google Drive? I haven't used it since 2014, but back then, it was a glitched-up mess.

Yeah it's pretty good now days. I've used the Google Apps Unlimited and my personal Google Drive. Dropbox easier to use but for $20/year 100GB is not bad (Google Drive).