{"id":107850,"date":"2023-01-26T09:44:34","date_gmt":"2023-01-26T17:44:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/?p=107850"},"modified":"2024-08-14T11:15:11","modified_gmt":"2024-08-14T18:15:11","slug":"backblaze-vs-dropbox-backing-up-our-backup-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/backblaze-vs-dropbox-backing-up-our-backup-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"Backblaze vs. Dropbox: Backing Up Our Backup Claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

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If you follow the Backblaze blog, you\u2019ve likely come across some of our \u201cHow to Back Up Your Life\u201d posts. We\u2019re interested in helping you, our readers, design the best backup plan<\/a> for your needs, regardless of what your setup is, what social networks you\u2019re on, or if you\u2019re on a Mac or a PC.<\/p>\n

Of course, Dropbox has shown up in that content<\/a>. We have several articles talking about the best ways to integrate with their platform, and some articles that just talk about how to deal with the differences between sync and backup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Edited to Add\u2026<\/h4>\n

After we published this post, lots of Mac users reported issues<\/a> when using Dropbox for macOS. You might have noticed that external drives are no longer supported, there are syncing issues with offline files, AirDrop doesn\u2019t work when Dropbox Backup is enabled, searching through Finder might not return all of your files, and more. <\/p>\n

All of these issues<\/a> are related to the macOS API, and Dropbox has promised a fix in coming months. However, some functions (like using an external hard drive to store your Dropbox folder) are going away forever. <\/p>\n

We could talk a lot about why that\u2019s important, but the short story is that lots of people buy computers with less memory and extend their storage with cloud services. So, it\u2019s important to make sure that your backups can play nice with your devices\u2014which is a huge benefit of Backblaze Personal Backup<\/a>. <\/div>\n

Recently, we heard that Dropbox released a backup product and wrote an article<\/a> comparing our two services. (We\u2019re flattered that they consider Backblaze to be the gold standard to compare to!) We thought we\u2019d take this opportunity to respond, mostly because we want our library of guides to include their new offering, and a little bit because, well, there were some interesting interpretations included in the article.<\/p>\n

Without further ado, our thoughts on the differences between Backblaze and Dropbox backup.<\/p>\n

Backup vs. Sync<\/h2>\n

Dropbox started out as a syncing service, which, as we\u2019ve noted before, is not the same as a backup service<\/a>. When you\u2019re using a sync service, you can easily delete or change a file, save it, and then lose the one you actually wanted to keep. This is one of the big reasons you should back up, even if your files are synced.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Over the past several years, Dropbox has been expanding their offerings, including file transfer, document signing, and now backup. It makes a lot of sense if you want to be a leading file management system. But, does Dropbox Backup stack up as a functional, independent product\u2014or is it more of an add-on they\u2019re offering to their sync functionality?<\/p>\n

A Quick Note on Citing Your Sources\u2026<\/h4>\n

When I set out to write this article, I first wanted to see if the things Dropbox claims hold water\u2014After all, innovation is about iteration, and you don\u2019t change or get better if you believe your product is perfect. Maybe we could learn something.<\/p>\n

I kept hearing about this product research they\u2019d done:<\/p>\n

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Source: Dropbox Backup vs. Backblaze<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You know we at Backblaze love data<\/a>, so I was curious\u2014How did they collect this data? Who were these users? I couldn\u2019t find much more information about it in the article. But, after some digging, I found this on their product page:<\/p>\n

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Source: Dropbox Backup page<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It makes sense that people who already use Dropbox would like a product similar to the one they\u2019re paying for. But, do the rest of the claims of the article hold true?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s Talk Pricing<\/h2>\n

Hey, price is definitely a part of my decision when I purchase services, and I\u2019m sure it\u2019s part of yours too. So, let\u2019s get the big argument out of the way first.<\/p>\n

Backblaze Personal Backup<\/a> is $9 per month. That license includes an automatic, set-it-and-forget-it backup service, unlimited data storage, one-year version history, and you can add forever version history for $0.006 per GB for data above 10GB that was updated, changed, or deleted longer than one year previous to the current date.<\/p>\n

For argument\u2019s sake, let\u2019s grant that Dropbox also built a backup product that runs smoothly in the background. I haven\u2019t personally tried it, but I\u2019ve used Dropbox for file management, and it\u2019s a great service.<\/p>\n

Dropbox Backup has several tiers of payment. It\u2019s also included in many of their other paid plans\u2014so, in other words, if you\u2019re already paying $12\u2013$90+ per month for Dropbox, you can take advantage of Dropbox Backup. But, if you\u2019re trying to purchase just Dropbox Backup, there are several tiers of licensing, and (like most SaaS companies) there are discounts for paying monthly versus yearly.<\/p>\n

So, let\u2019s try to compare apples to apples here. Say you only have $10 per month budgeted for your backup plan. Here\u2019s what you\u2019d get with Dropbox:<\/p>\n