TechFriday: Dropbox paid cloud storage is tough to justify
Posted By RichC on June 26, 2020
Besides Google’s less intuitive cloud storage, Dropbox was the first 
cloud service that I gravitated to “back in the day.” I’ve posted about them before on TechFriday (2015 comparison) and they are still one of the best cloud storage services for the way I work on computers and devices. Unfortunately over the last few years they also have had to figure out how to monetize data storage and this began with offering more storage for more money THEN a little arm twisting by restricting devices. Giant tech companies like Google, Amazon and Microsoft (and smaller ones) also expanded in the cloud storage area and could offer bundled services or advertising as a way to offset growing their cloud businesses.
In my opinion, Dropbox found it challenging to compete with the behemoths and have both over-price and “squeezed” their users; instead of growing their user base, they have opted to squeeze those who remain users. I’m not sure how long this will remain? Many of us who like their excellent cloud storage service found it difficult to justify a pricey storage-only plan (yes they offer other “not really necessary” features too).
This past week I revisited them since I’m a long time user once again evaluating where I should be when it comes to storing data. The customer service rep was polite and understanding. She was well aware of my predicament in evaluating a monthly amount of money just to cloud store increasing amounts of data … much of it archival in nature. It sounded as if she has had this conversation many times before. My point was that considering I can store tons of data for free on my Miami University Google Drive (graduated from and taught there) or store 1 TB on my OneDrive since I use Microsoft Office365 … or even consider storing more on my Apple iCloud or Amazon Clouddrive for “no” additional dollars (not to mention using Odrive to store on company servers). The point being is that I would not mind even a small fee to have a few more GBs on Dropbox “just for personal stuff” if it would loosen up the device restriction and be competitively priced.
So for 2020, Dropbox continues to remain an overprice “great cloud service” but is off my list. Suggestion: They really should “bundle” their service with someone (maybe Netflix, Walmart, Intuit, Facebook, banks or a media organization).
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