Dropbox vs iCloud Drive
iCloud Drive comes out ahead of Dropbox on 5 of the 6 things that decide this, going by what each company publishes and what independent review sites report. The one that matters for you may be one the leader loses.
The verdict
iCloud Drive takes it, 5–1 on rounds.
On the published figures and the independent review sites, iCloud Drive takes 5 of 6 rounds. Treat that as a starting point and check the current figures on both pages, because prices and plans move.
Choose Dropbox if…
- • You want Dropbox's edge on biggest single file you can upload
Choose iCloud Drive if…
- • You want iCloud Drive's edge on how much you get free and what the cheapest paid plan costs
Round by round
- Round 1How much you get freeiCloud Drive wins
iCloud Drive wins this round on what the company itself publishes.
- Round 2What the cheapest paid plan costsiCloud Drive wins
iCloud Drive wins this round on what the company itself publishes.
- Round 3Who can read your filesiCloud Drive winsDropbox5/10
Not zero-knowledge
Dropbox can read files on its servers
- Not zero-knowledge, against Optional
Source: cloudslinker.com ↗
iCloud Drive8/10Optional
end-to-end encryption needs Advanced Data Protection to be switched on
Source: cloudwards.net ↗
iCloud Drive wins this round on independent review-site data, not on its own claims.
- Round 4How easy it is to useiCloud Drive winsDropbox5/10
4.5 out of 5
ease-of-use rating from Capterra reviewers
- 4.5 out of 5, against 4.6 out of 5
Source: capterra.com ↗
iCloud Drive wins this round on independent review-site data, not on its own claims.
- Round 5What 2 TB costsiCloud Drive winsDropbox5/10
$11.99/mo (Plus, monthly)
Basic Extra (cheapest) / Plus (2 TB), billed monthly (click Billed monthly)
- $11.99/mo (Plus, monthly), against $9.99/mo (iCloud+ 2 TB)
Source: dropbox.com ↗
iCloud Drive8/10$9.99/mo (iCloud+ 2 TB)
iCloud+ 50 GB (iCloud+ 2 TB for the 2 TB price), billed monthly
Source: apple.com ↗
iCloud Drive wins this round on what the published sources say.
- Round 6Biggest single file you can uploadDropbox winsDropbox8/10
2 TB per file
Basic Extra (cheapest) / Plus (2 TB), billed monthly (click Billed monthly)
Source: help.dropbox.com ↗
iCloud Drive5/1050 GB per file
iCloud+ 50 GB (iCloud+ 2 TB for the 2 TB price), billed monthly
- 50 GB per file, against 2 TB per file
Source: support.apple.com ↗
Dropbox wins this round on what the published sources say.
Side by side
- Basic Extra (cheapest) / Plus (2 TB), billed monthly (click Billed monthly)
- 2 GB, against 15 GB
- $9.99, against $8.33
- $9.99, against $1.99
- 1.3 out of 5, against 2.3 out of 5
- 5 GB, against 15 GB
- $9.99, against $8.33
- 1.3 out of 5, against 2.3 out of 5
- 50 GB, against 100 GB