Dropbox is so widely used that it's practically a synonym for cloud storage and file sharing, but the company is being squeezed on price and storage options by bigger competitors such as Google and Microsoft.
Today, Dropbox closed some of the gap by announcing that Dropbox Pro will now provide 1TB of capacity for $9.99 a month, the same price as Google Drive and Microsoft's OneDrive. The Dropbox plan costs $99 if you buy a full year subscription.
"Previously, Dropbox had three different Pro plans with 100GB, 200GB and 500GB of storage, priced at $9.99, $19.99, and $49.99 per month, respectively," PCWorld wrote today. Now Dropbox Pro includes just the terabyte plan, though the company also has pricier options for businesses.
Dropbox's competitors still offer valuable features that Dropbox doesn't, namely cheaper options and access to productivity applications. For $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, Microsoft gives home users 1TB of OneDrive storage and Office 365 Home, providing access to the Office desktop applications on up to five computers. You can get the same terabyte of OneDrive storage for $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year with Office desktop applications on one computer.
OneDrive storage can also be purchased in smaller amounts without Office desktop applications, at $1.99 a month for 100GB or $3.99 for 200GB. While Dropbox still provides just 2GB of free storage, Microsoft offers 15GB without payment.
Google Drive offers 15GB for free, 100GB for $1.99 per month, 1TB for $9.99 per month, 10TB for $99.99 per month, 20TB for $199.99 per month, and 30TB for $299.99 per month. Drive integrates with Google Docs and Google's other Web-based productivity applications.
Apple is finally planning to offer Dropbox-like functionality with iCloud Drive later this year. iCloud functionality is currently more limited when it comes to file sharing, but users get 5GB for free and pricing is $20 a year for another 10GB, $40 a year for 20GB, and $100 a year for 50GB.
Box, which has done well in the business market, offers individuals 10GB for free or 100GB for $10 a month.
While Dropbox hasn't matched all of its competitors' pricing options, its announcement today detailed some new security features for Dropbox Pro users. These include passwords for shared links, expirations for shared links, view-only permissions for shared folders, and the ability to remotely wipe files from a lost or stolen device.
