Difference Between Dropbox and OneDrive
Table of Contents
With the advent of the 21st Century, the world has seen a lot of changes, mainly in the technological field. Although the industry is getting more and more software-oriented, it is important to know that the hardware industry has made great advancements too.
One of the greatest options being storage options. A lot of us have seen that picture where a group of men hauls a huge almirah-sized box which was apparently a 5 MB storage device. But with the advent of nano-technology, following the creation of micro-transistors, all of this has changed.
Enter the cloud. The cloud is basically a virtual storage system, which securely transfers all your data, whether they are photos, videos, documents, etc. to a system that is not the user’s device. Then the user can access this data from any other device, anytime and anywhere.
The only condition is that the person needs to have an active and sufficient internet connection. This inspired many tech giants to come up with their own cloud systems. Two of the most prominent cloud storage systems are Dropbox and OneDrive.
Dropbox vs OneDrive
The main difference between Dropbox and OneDrive is that Dropbox is a more security-oriented cloud system that is suitable for the protection of sensitive data, while OneDrive is better suited for backing up documents and presentations due to its integration with Office 365.
Comparison Table Between Dropbox and OneDrive
| Parameters of Comparison | Dropbox | OneDrive |
| Security | Dropbox has become more security-oriented over time. | OneDrive is supposedly less secure than DropBox. |
| Office 365 Integration | Dropbox is not integrated with the Office 365 suite. | OneDrive is integrated with the Office 365 suite. |
| Encryption | Dropbox encrypts the whole data together. | OneDrive encrypts each data individually. |
| OS Integration | Dropbox has no seamless integration with iOS, Android, etc. However, it is compatible with all of them. | OneDrive has seamless integration with Windows and is well compatible with all other operating systems. |
| Price | Dropbox is priced higher than OneDrive. | OneDrive is relatively cheaper than Dropbox. |
What is Dropbox?
Dropbox is one of the oldest and very popular cloud storage systems. This company was created back in 2007 and is currently headquartered in San Francisco. Initially, Dropbox was created by MIT students Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi. This startup was also funded by seed accelerator Y combinator. The company had seen promising results and was even one of the most valuable startups in the world, with a total worth of $10 billion.
In just 4 years in operation, Dropbox had acquired 200 million active users. It was very evident that the consumers of the tech world did not prefer to carry around storage devices with them, and also, having a cloud storage platform gave them the liberty to free up space on their local devices, which they could use for other purposes.
The modus operandi of Dropbox in a computer was such that there would be a specific folder in the computer that would be the Dropbox folder. The user can simply drop all the content they want to be backed up in this folder and Dropbox will then synchronize it with all the other devices where the person is logged into Dropbox with the same account.
Dropbox is now available for all platforms, although it has had a deal with Microsoft, and had Dropbox present in Windows by default. The main competitor of Dropbox is Google Drive, which has now surpassed it in terms of the user base.
What is OneDrive?
OneDrive is a cloud storage facility provided by the tech giant Microsoft Corporation. OneDrive was founded in the same year as Dropbox, back in 2007. Back then it was known as Skydrive. It was initially launched as a part of the web version of the Microsoft Office service. The main purpose of launching this cloud service was to sync all the documents, presentations, spreadsheets, workspaces, etc. in the cloud so that one does not lose progress or access to their work, regardless of device, or location. The only condition is that the device needs to be connected to the internet.
Initially, OneDrive will offer the user 5GB of free space. All one needs to do to access this space is to just have a Microsoft account. After that, there are a few plan options, which provide 100GB, 1TB, and 6TB storage. One can either purchase this additional storage separately or along with the OneDrive subscriptions.
One of the main benefits of having an OneDrive subscription is that one can edit one documents from anywhere, even if Microsoft Office is not installed on the device, as they can edit them directly from the browser.
Main Differences Between Dropbox and OneDrive
Conclusion
Cloud storage is going to be the future in case it is not already. With the world at the brink of getting mainstream 5G connectivity, more and more people will rely on cloud storage, as in that case, people can access their documents from any device, from anywhere. It also acts as a backup to the local device. Hence, if one item gets deleted from local storage, it can be recovered from the cloud storage. This is just a small part of the many uses cloud storage offers.
References
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