OneDrive vs Dropbox: 2024 Cloud Storage Space, Pricing & Features Comparison

Dropbox offers more features and flexibility with its tools than OneDrive, so we think it is a better overall option and recommend it for a wider range of consumers. With OneDrive, you can access the Microsoft 365 suite of apps. However, even with a free Dropbox account, you have Word, PowerPoint and Excel integrations. Dropbox may be pricier, but you get more storage.

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2TB – 5TB$9.99 / month

(save 16%) (All Plans)

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• Microsoft 365: Microsoft apps like Word, Excel and PowerPoint are integrated into OneDrive accounts.
• Downloadable apps: You can download apps for your desktop or mobile device with Mac, Windows, iOS and Android support. 
• Backup support: OneDrive has added support for backing up your folders and files. This service is available through the desktop app and is subject to your overall storage capacity.
• Admin console: Specific to business plans, the admin console lets you manage team members and includes many settings and security features. 

• Sync features: Dropbox has excellent sync features, including block-level sync and selective sync.
• Third-party apps: Dropbox has connections to Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace apps, and other apps like Slack and Zoom.
• Dropbox backup: Dropbox has a dedicated backup tool.
• Native apps: Dropbox-built apps such as Dropbox Paper, a web-based word processor, are included with your account. 

OneDrive has three paid storage plans focused on personal or home use. The family plan is the most expensive, costing $99.99 per year for 6TB of shared storage capacity for up to six people. The Microsoft 365 Personal plan costs $69.99 and has 1TB of cloud storage.

OneDrive has three plans for businesses. OneDrive for business costs $5 per month and provides 1TB of storage per user; it is essentially only cloud storage. Microsoft 365 Business Basic costs $6 per user per month and offers 1TB of space per user. 

Microsoft 365 Business Standard costs $12.50 per user per month. It does not increase the storage capacity but adds more features, like the desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.

Microsoft 365 Free (5GB)

• For one person
• 5GB

FREE

Microsoft 365 Basic (100GB)

• 100GB

1-month plan

1-month plan

$1.99/month

1-year plan

$1.67/month

$19.99 billed every year

Save 16%

Microsoft 365 Personal (1TB)

• Comes with Office 365 Personal
• 1TB

1-month plan

1-month plan

$6.99/month

1-year plan

$5.83/month

$69.99 billed every year

Save 16%

More plans

Microsoft 365 Family (6TB)

• Comes with Office 365 Home
• 6TB

1-month plan

1-month plan

$9.99/month

1-year plan

$8.33/month

$99.99 billed every year

Save 16%

OneDrive for Business (Plan 1)

• Price per user
• 1TB

1-year plan

$5/month

$60 billed every year

Microsoft 365 Business Basic

• 1TB

1-year plan

$6/month

$72 billed every year

Microsoft 365 Business Standard

• Price per user
• 1TB

1-year plan

$12.50/month

$150 billed every year

Dropbox has several plans that cover a wider range of customer types. Personal users can get the Plus plan, which includes price id=”8763-1-1-gb”] of storage space. It costs $9.99 per month when billed annually; otherwise, it is $11.99 per month.

Individuals also have two professional plans to choose from, with little difference between the two except for price. The Professional plan costs per month on an annual cycle and has of storage. The Essentials plan costs $16.58 per month annually and also has 3TB of space. Essentials comes with extra features, like unlimited signature requests and better PDF editing.

Businesses and teams have four plan options: Standard, Advanced, Business or Business Plus. For business plans with shared storage, the capacity increases with respect to the number of licenses. For example, if you add a fourth license to the Business plan, you’ll get an additional 3TB of shared storage added to the original .

Here’s a quick table highlighting some of the features of each plan:

	Standard	Business	Business Plus	Advanced
Cost	$15 per month (one-year plan)	$15 per month (one-year plan)	$30 per month (one-month plan)	$30 per month (one-month plan)
Users	3+	3+	3+	3+
Storage Space	5TB			15TB
Signature Requests	3 per month	Unlimited	Unlimited	3 per month
Version History	180 days	180 days	365 days	365 days
File Size Limit	Upto 50GB	Upto 100GB	Upto 250GB	Upto 100GB

OneDrive and Dropbox both have excellent sync features. Each supports block-level sync and selective sync. Block-level sync and differential sync only update the parts of a file that you change, which increases the overall sync speed. Selective sync lets you choose the folders to update on your account. 

You can easily share folders and files with Dropbox and OneDrive by selecting the content you want to share and clicking on the “share” icon. You can share directly using an email address or create a link that you can copy/paste and share. Additionally, with paid accounts, you gain access to password protection and shared link expiration features.

OneDrive and Dropbox use AES 256-bit encryption and TLS/SSL encryption protocols to protect data at rest on remote servers and when you transfer content from your devices. AES 256-bit encryption protects against brute-force attacks that try to access your account. TLS/SSL protects against man-in-the-middle attacks that try to intercept your data.

You can download and install apps for desktop and mobile devices for both OneDrive and Dropbox. Supported OSs include Mac and Windows, and you can download mobile apps for iOS and Android. The desktop app comes with a sync folder, letting you work with your data on your computer. The mobile apps offer support to sync your images.

	1st attempt:	2nd attempt:	Average:
Upload	0:08:10	0:07:51	0:08:00
Download	0:07:45	0:07:40	0:07:42

	1st attempt:	2nd attempt:	Average:
Upload	00:07:10	00:07:27	0:07:19
Download	00:07:17	00:07:21	0:07:19

Both OneDrive and Dropbox have fast upload and download speeds. In our independent speed tests, OneDrive averaged 7 minutes, 19 seconds for both uploads and downloads. Dropbox had very similar speeds, averaging 7 minutes, 18 seconds for uploads and 7 minutes, 22 seconds for downloads.

This puts both services near the top of the list of the fastest cloud storage providers, a position they’ve held for the three years we’ve been conducting our standardized tests.

When compared side-by-side, it’s easy to see that Dropbox has more visual appeal than Microsoft OneDrive. Beyond aesthetics, Dropbox and OneDrive have a similar layout, with a left-hand sidebar for account navigation and a divided main screen to display your files and the items the service thinks you want to see. 

It’s easy to see that Dropbox doesn’t feel shackled by the Microsoft layout and color scheme. However, since OneDrive is entrenched in the Microsoft ecosystem, it offers a seamless user experience for PC users, as your folders and files mirror File Explorer’s look and functionality.

This is even enhanced for those who prefer a traditional file management approach, as OneDrive can be mapped as a network drive in File Explorer.

Navigation is where Dropbox separates itself from OneDrive. Both have a settings option, and each has a mini-menu that expands to show additional apps and tools. Dropbox’s settings menu has a logical flow, and it’s easy to find what you are looking for. It has more options within the settings than OneDrive, including security-based settings.

You’ll always feel like you’re in control of managing and setting up your Dropbox account the way you want it to be. The same can’t be said for OneDrive.

Any business plan you purchase with OneDrive or Dropbox includes access to an admin console. The admin console is a singular hub where business users can go to manage all aspects of a business account. An admin console includes data for analytics, settings to manage users and security features to protect data and accounts, to name just a few.

Similar to the previous section, Dropbox’s admin console does a good job of explaining what each tab does and how to use the new tools and features. It’s inherently intuitive and makes managing user accounts and altering settings a simplified experience. 

Where OneDrive excels is in the sheer number of settings and options available. When you purchase a business account, you get a subscription to Microsoft 365, which is more than just cloud storage. Like everything else, the admin console is baked into the larger Microsoft ecosystem, so it offers far more than just cloud storage management.

OneDrive’s admin console provides more features and functionality than Drobpox’s. Microsoft adds in items like Defender, a robust security and protection app, and Microsoft Purview, which is mainly for data governance. If anything, OneDrive’s admin console can feel overwhelming at first.

We briefly touched on this above, but with a Dropbox account you get access to more features and tools than with OneDrive. This is true even when accounting for OneDrive’s integration into the larger Microsoft 365 platform. 

With a paid OneDrive account, you can access many different Microsoft apps beyond just the most widely used ones. These include Microsoft Access for business plans and Editor for personal plans. However, Microsoft integration is the main reason why Dropbox edges past OneDrive. 

However, Word, Excel and PowerPoint are the core productivity apps, and with a Dropbox account, you can use the web versions of these apps at no additional cost. Additionally, Dropbox supports Google Workspace apps like Docs, Sheets and Slides. For obvious reasons, OneDrive does not include support for Google productivity apps.

Dropbox adds more value to your account by including its homegrown apps for you to use. We highlighted Dropbox Paper earlier in this article, which is a great app that supports real-time collaboration. Additional apps include Dropbox DocSend, which provides a secure way to send and receive digitally signed documents, and Capture, which lets you create screen recordings.

Dropbox has a broader appeal to a bigger audience — particularly those who consider themselves creatives. Dropbox makes productivity and collaboration easy for all types of users, as you can collaborate in real time with many of Dropbox’s apps or third-party connections. OneDrive also supports collaboration, but only with Microsoft apps.

A good example for how creatives can make the most of Dropbox is Dropbox Replay. This is a collaborative video review tool designed to foster quick and easy communications, which is especially useful for review and approval processes.

A new tool called Dropbox Dash is designed as a centralized content manager with an advanced search feature that can locate your content, launch meetings, and organize work and email items in stacks. 

As we indicated before, if Microsoft is your chosen productivity suite, OneDrive is the clear choice. However, outside of Microsoft apps, collaborating with OneDrive is a less robust experience than it is with Dropbox.

Third-party integrations are another area where Dropbox appeals to a wider audience. You can include popular apps such as Zoom and Slack. It even supports connectivity with Microsoft Teams to include content from your Dropbox account.