Dropbox

Dropbox is the oldest cloud storage provider in the category. The service syncs files across computers, smartphones, and tablets, enables external sharing, and backs everything up in the cloud. It was the first to do this reliably and is still one of the fastest at sync.

Pricing: Plus at $9.99 per month with 2TB for a single user. Standard for business at $15 per user per month with 3TB shared. Advanced at $24 per user per month with 15TB. Enterprise at a custom price. The free account gives only 2GB, well below the 15GB on Google Drive.

The main edge over Google Drive and OneDrive: fast, stable sync. Smart Sync frees disk space by keeping files in the cloud only, with fast access. Built-in PDF editor, digital signatures, and sharing large files up to 50GB on Plus.

In business, Standard offers 180 days of deleted-file recovery, advanced permissions management, and team folders. Advanced adds end-to-end encryption, SSO, hierarchical management, and a year of recovery.

The main downside: relatively expensive. Google One gives 2TB at $9.99 too, but with Gmail, Drive, Photos. Microsoft 365 at $9.99 gives 1TB plus Office. Dropbox only pays off when sync and sharing are critical.

Fits design studios sharing heavy files with clients, photographers syncing huge libraries, and distributed teams that need worry-free sync. For private users, the alternatives are cheaper.