Dropbox Business Review: What we love, and what we don’t
Wilson • February 26, 2021 Looking for a Dropbox Business review? Maybe you were interested in a document management system, and you want to know if Dropbox Business is right for you.
You’ve come to the right place! Those looking at new modes of file sharing to enable remote working might be wondering what solution to turn to in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the new normal, we’ve grown used to online-only colleagues and stopped relying on the office Nespresso machine (by getting our own).
However, some things still feel like they’d be easier to carry out in person, such as brainstorm sessions or collaborating on documents. No worries!
In our experience, Dropbox Business helps bridge the gap between you and your team.
Whether you’re entirely new to Dropbox , or have had experience with Dropbox personal and wonder if upgrading to Dropbox Business will boost productivity, you can take it from us — it’s a worthwhile switch that’ll make remote working a breeze, thanks to cloud storage and collaboration features.
7 reasons why we love Dropbox Business, and why it may not be for you.
1. Cloud Storage enables remote working
While most of us struggled with remote working in the beginning, it’s quickly become just another way to deliver good work without stepping foot into the office.
It’s worth noting that despite the distance, most of us still continue to collaborate with each other in a team-like structure — whether it’s a short-term project with lightning-fast turnaround or a long-term one that spans several months and requires all parties to have access to the same up-to-date files, Dropbox Business makes remote working easier than before.
This is especially important if you’re working in a team whose members are currently located in different countries. Due to COVID and recent MOM changes, it’s now not uncommon to have a team that comprises members from various countries and even different time zones. Dropbox business gives you a file storage solution that lets you store and access files from anywhere.
For example, Web Imp was one of the companies that made the change to remote working ahead of the pack, thanks to our early adoption of Dropbox Business. Many features such as Team Folders and Dropbox Paper made the entire experience a smooth one, with each employee gaining access to necessary files that facilitated an easy transition.
(Read more: Find out more in our case study here!)
2. Unlimited storage
The next thing we love about Dropbox Business? The unlimited storage space (in Dropbox Business Advanced).
Now, you can upload large working files such as PSDs, high-quality images, and videos with ease without worrying about needing more space down the line.
This also means cutting out unnecessary third-party file-sharing websites, since each file uploaded to Dropbox Business comes with its own shareable URL for access, making sending big files to clients a breeze. You can even send entire folders.
What’s more, we have a policy of recording our Zoom meetings and saving them so that we can review them at a later date. The same applies to client meetings and training sessions, which makes information sharing easier than ever.
In this respect, collaborating and communicating over Dropbox Business trumps its real-life counterpart thanks to digital recording. For example, our project manager Rain records all their meetings, which means accruing over 50GB of meetings in a span of less than two weeks.
These Zoom recordings are stored safely in our Dropbox Business account, ready for access and review anytime at our convenience.
3. Dropbox just syncs better
Dropbox Business syncs differently from other types of file-sharing software.
If you’re someone who’s used to working in tandem alongside teammates on the same document, you’ll know how important file syncs and auto-saves are.
Dropbox Business takes the sync process and makes it way more intuitive — it only updates the bits that you’ve changed since the last save. Knowing how often workplaces base new documents off existing templates, this move is an innovative one that has won them a lot of praise for those looking for lightning-speed syncs.
Dropbox Business does “block-level file copying”, and compared to other syncs which require you to re-upload the entire file, this is an optimised version of file-syncing that gets you high-performance transfers in the shortest amount of time possible.
Block-level file copying is achieved when only blocks of the file are copied and saved, versus the entire file. This speeds up the entire process considerably, which means that even if you’re waiting in a cafe for your colleague at home to save that file so that you can work on it, the latest version should be available to you immediately wherever you are on any device.
4. Dropbox Paper does so much
Advertised as “a co-editing tool that brings creation and coordination together in one place”, Dropbox Paper almost seems like the perfect answer to those who miss brainstorming with their colleagues over a drawing pad in the office.
True to form, it enables collaboration to a great degree. We think of it as a digital whiteboard, except that you can embed media files and even code for developers to work with. It’s also powerful enough for projects and client-facing work, and it manages to pack all these handy features in while still remaining user-friendly and relatively straightforward to use. This ease of use is great for our clients as well.
What our team members love about Dropbox Paper is that there is no need to use a combination of different paid tools to put a project together, such as Microsoft Office and Asana or even Trello, making it a dream come true for project management.
5. File version and recovery
If you’ve ever accidentally deleted a file and forgot that CTRL-Z (or Command-Z for Mac users) exists — this feature was made with you in mind. As we expand our digital worlds, many now preserve their files online or in hard drives.
However, nothing is more painful than losing a digital file: you can piece together a torn note or straighten out a crumpled piece of paper, but once a digital document is gone it most likely stays gone.
Furthermore, one danger of having many people work on one document, is that certain changes are saved over another persons’ accidentally. Not all software saves file versions, but Dropbox Business lets you recover previous versions of files.
This is why companies should always have a backup of documents. Dropbox Business excels at this task by letting users recover deleted files and even find old versions of files spanning any file type.
There’s even a feature called Dropbox Rewind, which allows administrators to restore team content to a previous point in time. This can be useful in many circumstances, such as mass file deletion, virus attacks, or even just corrupted documents.
(Another nice feature? You can set a notification alert in case anyone deletes or edits files.)
6. External Large File Sharing
For those of us who are client-facing, we face a unique set of challenges compared to a coworker who works internally. Sharing files with the client can be difficult with myriad software tools out there for us to choose from, but Dropbox Business simplifies the process greatly with user-focused features.
Dropbox Business allows us to share files easily by just sending a link. You can share large files up to 1000GB, without taking up space in your storage.
When sharing files, you can lock them and set password-protected links for security reasons to make sure that only the right eyes see them. What’s more, you can even set a timer on links, which means that they expire after a certain period of time and are not live forever. This is especially crucial to works-in-progress, which can be sensitive to share.
All in all, utilising Dropbox Business means gaining access to a set of tools that makes sharing files with clients and vendors easier than before. No more waffling about with emails and having to change the privacy settings temporarily – it improves the workflow.
7. Organisation management
If you’re a business owner or in management, you’ve likely thought about permission control in Dropbox Business.
You can grant broad access to teams across the board, allowing people access to the files they need daily to function. Assigning permission rights to team folders also come with several levels of security, with the option of limiting people to view-only to preserve the integrity of important documents. This also means that you can keep different Team Folders private, and prevent cross-sharing of irrelevant information.
Onboarding with Dropbox Business is also a breeze, thanks to these tools. Contract workers and interns who join for a short period of time can be granted access for the period of their tenure, and have access revoked in a snap when they leave the workplace for good.
Plus, keep vital company documents safe with the remote wipe function — perfect for those worried about the spread of confidential information.
Dropbox Business is not for everyone
However, as much as we like Dropbox Business, we know it might not be for everyone.
If you’re just starting out as a small business owner, it might be better to wait until the company and business have more teammates before investing in Dropbox Business. If you have less than 3 users, then Dropbox Business might be too expensive for your needs.
Related read: Dropbox Business VS Dropbox Personal
If your team is already using more advanced project management software to keep everyone’s tasks up to date, you might find that Dropbox Paper is too basic.
The same goes for other software like word processors or spreadsheets. If your team requires robust functionalities in those, or are already paying for Microsoft’s suite, then Dropbox Paper will likely fall short.
If you work with a large number of tools, you might find that Dropbox Business might not integrate with some of them. In terms of 3rd party integrations, Dropbox Business may not boast the most compatibility when compared to Google Drive.
What do you think of our review of Dropbox Business?
We hope this Dropbox Business review helped you understand how different features of Dropbox Business fits in a business. If you want to learn more, click here.
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