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Box

236
214
+ 1
44
Google Drive

79.8K
66.3K
+ 1
2.1K
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Box vs Google Drive: What are the differences?

Developers describe Box as "Build Innovative Applications on Box". The Box API gives you access to the content management features you see in our web app and lets you extend them for use in your own app. It strives to be RESTful and is organized around the main resources you’re familiar with from the Box web interface. On the other hand, Google Drive is detailed as "Integrate your app with Google Drive". The Drive SDK gives you a group of APIs along with client libraries, language-specific examples, and documentation to help you develop apps that integrate with Drive The core functionality of Drive apps is to download and upload files in Google Drive. However, the Drive SDK provides a lot more than just storage..

Box and Google Drive can be categorized as "File Storage" tools.

Some of the features offered by Box are:

  • Enterprise-grade file sharing
  • Native mobile apps
  • File sharing links

On the other hand, Google Drive provides the following key features:

  • Create & collaborate.- In Google Drive, you can create new documents, spreadsheets and presentations instantly. Work together at the same time, on the same doc, and see changes as they appear.
  • Work better with the products you use everyday.- Say goodbye to bulky email attachments. Send a link from Google Drive in Gmail and everyone has the same file, same version—automatically. Your pictures in Google Drive are instantly available in Google+, so you’re never more than one click away from sharing with your circles.
  • Powerful search.- Google Drive helps you get to your files faster. Search for content by keyword and filter by file type, owner and more. Google Drive can even recognize objects in your images and text in scanned documents.

"Easy to work with" is the primary reason why developers consider Box over the competitors, whereas "Easy to use " was stated as the key factor in picking Google Drive.

Lyft, StackShare, and Asana are some of the popular companies that use Google Drive, whereas Box is used by LinkedIn, Pandora, and Anaplan. Google Drive has a broader approval, being mentioned in 2092 company stacks & 2014 developers stacks; compared to Box, which is listed in 40 company stacks and 13 developer stacks.

Decisions about Box and Google Drive
Noel Broda
Founder, CEO, CTO at NoFilter · | 8 upvotes · 17K views

Due to we are using G Suite for emails, Google Drive comes out of the box.

In Google Drive we keep save just some basic marketing files. We used it as a single repository to share files between designers and developers. Nothing more than that. In some moment we had some backups there, but just for security reasons, we removed it

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Pascal Vuylsteler

Key criteria for that choice. I needed a collaborative backup tool for a 15 people team. All people would have access to both their individual private space that should synchronize automatically to/from their desktop and various shared spaces, with various kinds of access rights. Only Box would allow high fine tuning of the access rights. Multi-platform was important too. The ease to transfer ownership of a folder from one departing colleague to their N+1 was a real plus.

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Pros of Box
Pros of Google Drive
  • 8
    Easy to work with
  • 6
    Shared file hosting
  • 6
    Great API
  • 5
    Ability to see who has downloaded the file you sent
  • 4
    No brainer
  • 4
    Integration with external services
  • 3
    Great web UI
  • 3
    Popular
  • 2
    Custom branding
  • 2
    Secure
  • 1
    Clean Interface
  • 505
    Easy to use
  • 326
    Gmail integration
  • 312
    Enough free space
  • 268
    Collaboration
  • 249
    Stable service
  • 128
    Desktop and mobile apps
  • 97
    Offline sync
  • 79
    Apps
  • 74
    15 gb storage
  • 50
    Add-ons
  • 9
    Integrates well
  • 6
    Easy to use
  • 3
    Simple back-up tool
  • 2
    Amazing
  • 2
    Beautiful
  • 2
    Fast upload speeds
  • 2
    The more the merrier
  • 2
    So easy
  • 2
    Wonderful
  • 2
    Linux terminal transfer tools
  • 2
    It has grown to a stable in the cloud office
  • 1
    UI
  • 1
    Windows desktop
  • 1
    G Suite integration

Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions

Cons of Box
Cons of Google Drive
    Be the first to leave a con
    • 7
      Organization via web ui sucks
    • 2
      Not a real database

    Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

    What is Box?

    The Box API gives you access to the content management features you see in our web app and lets you extend them for use in your own app. It strives to be RESTful and is organized around the main resources you’re familiar with from the Box web interface.

    What is Google Drive?

    Keep photos, stories, designs, drawings, recordings, videos, and more. Your first 15 GB of storage are free with a Google Account. Your files in Drive can be reached from any smartphone, tablet, or computer.

    Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

    What companies use Box?
    What companies use Google Drive?
    See which teams inside your own company are using Box or Google Drive.
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    Sign up to get full access to all the companiesMake informed product decisions

    What tools integrate with Box?
    What tools integrate with Google Drive?

    Sign up to get full access to all the tool integrationsMake informed product decisions

    Blog Posts

    Sep 29 2020 at 7:36PM

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    What are some alternatives to Box and Google Drive?
    Dropbox
    Harness the power of Dropbox. Connect to an account, upload, download, search, and more.
    OneDrive
    Outlook.com is a free, personal email service from Microsoft. Keep your inbox clutter-free with powerful organizational tools, and collaborate easily with OneDrive and Office Online integration.
    Microsoft SharePoint
    It empowers teamwork with dynamic and productive team sites for every project team, department, and division. Share and manage content, knowledge, and applications to empower teamwork, quickly find information, and seamlessly collaborate across the organization.
    Nextcloud
    A suite of client-server software for creating and using file hosting services The most deployed self-hosted file share and collaboration platform on the web. Access & collaborate across your devices.
    ceph
    In computing,It is a free-software storage platform, implements object storage on a single distributed computer cluster, and provides interfaces for object-, block- and file-level storage.
    See all alternatives