"Google vs Dropbox: It might make sense to use both"

Dropbox and Drive both have their uses

Google’s new cloud storage and sharing service, Drive, which was launched earlier this month, is looking to take on other popular services such Dropbox and Microsoft’s SkyDrive Live. But how does it stack up against these much loved programmes? Does it have enough going for it to convince users to switch? And more importantly should you be worried about your privacy?

In our opinion, to call Drive a Dropbox killer would be too soon, because users can easily choose to use both services. However Google’s Drive is admittedly very convenient for people who use Google Docs extensively, as it automatically (and a little worryingly) syncs all your documents.

Here are some quick comparisons between Google Drive and Dropbox and some tips on how you can use both to your advantage.

Space:  Google Drive offers users 5 gb free space whereas a free Dropbox subscription offers only 2 gb space.  One the face of it 5 GB might look like a whole lot more but for anyone who’s serious about more space, you can always buy it for a nominal fee. On Drive you can upgrade to  25GB for $2.49 a month, 100 gb is available for $4.99 per month, and 1TB costs around $49.99 monthly. The pricing is significantly lower than Dropxbox which offers 50Gb for $9.99 a month and 100 GB for $19.99 a month. For the full list of Dropbox pricing click here. But remember Dropbox does give you 512 MB free space every time you refer it to a friend.

With Dropbox you have much more control over what sits there, as it strictly contains only what you have uploaded on to it. However unlike on Drive, Dropbox does not allow you to edit documents online.

Android apps: Both Drive and Dropbox are available for Android. In fact I was surprise to find that once my Drive was ready, it was already installed for my Android phone, which is probably because I had downloaded the Google Docs apps for my phone.

With Dropbox, thanks to the folder system it’s much easier to upload files via your phone. For instance all camera uploads went into a different folder called Camera Uploads, and not straight into the Photos folder.

With the Drive Android app, uploading documents is relatively easy. But the trouble is that it’s not clear how to upload content that are not documents (Like photos for instance). The way to go about it on Android is to simply click on “share a doc” and you can choose Google Drive as an option.Be warned that it will try and convert the Doc into a Google doc format. But you can choose to unclick that option.

Dropbox on Android is little more organised as you can create separate folders. With Drive, the folder option doesn’t quite appear to be there yet.

Note: Dropbox is available as an iPhone app as well, but Drive is not. 

Public, Not public: With Dropbox it’s pretty clear which documents are public and which are not. The Public folder in Dropbox is a clear signifier, and only those who have the link to the file can access it. With Google Drive,  because all your docs are in one huge folder, it’s not always clear which documents are public. However only shared documents can be accessed by someone else although you might not find it easy to trash a shared document unless you are the owner of the document, since others could still have that link.

Syncing: Syncing Word docs into Google Docs might actually be easier for Drive users. It’s also a smarter thing to do since this means that if you have an Android phone you can access and edit your documents straight from your phone.

With Dropbox this is perhaps the biggest disadvantage, even though you can sync all kinds of documents on it with filesharing software. Also Google Docs don’t end up counting as space on your Google Drive, which means it’s best to store important docs on Drive and not use up space, while using Dropbox for more photos and videos.

Uploading folders on Drive is a direct option if you’re using Chrome on your desktop or laptop. But with other browsers you’ll be asked to use Chrome, in case you want to upload an entire folder. In my opinion this makes Dropbox a much better option for folder sharing.

For more on how to use Google Drive you can click here for what the guys at Tech Radar have to say. CNET also has short and sweet tutorial available that you can see here.

Overall it might not be a bad idea to use both. But ideally I would restrict Drive for documents, and stick to Dropbox for photos and other heavy files that are not necessarily documents.