Neil Hughes
Google on Thursday announced drastic price reductions for its paid Drive subscriptions, with 100 gigabytes of cloud storage now costing just $1.99 a month, and 1 terabyte of data available for $9.99 per month, significantly undercutting the prices of rival Dropbox.
Google Drive already offered lower pricing than Dropbox, but the difference between the two services is now even greater: For individual Dropbox users, 100 gigabytes of cloud data runs $8.25 per month when billed annually, or $9.99 per month on a month-by-month basis. A 200-gigabyte Dropbox account runs $16.60 per month billed annually, while 500 gigabytes is $41.60.
Previously, Google charged $4.99 per month for 100 gigabytes and $49.99 per month for one terabyte, but with both now slashed to $1.99 and $9.99 per month, respectively, they are significantly cheaper. The search giant also offers storage levels of 10 terabytes and higher starting at $99.99 per month.
Google Drive also offers 15 gigabytes of complimentary cloud storage for free. That's a higher amount than Dropbox's starting 2 gigabytes, though that number can be increased through various methods, including referrals.
Dropbox is the current leader in the cloud file storage business, serving as the default storage and sharing platform for many. The service is available cross-platform, with dedicated applications available for Apple's OS X and iOS, as well as Microsoft Windows and Google's Android.
Dropbox was allegedly offered a nine-figure buyout by Apple as part of a personal pitch from late CEO Steve Jobs in 2009. That offer was rejected, and Apple ultimately went on to introduce its own iCloud service in 2011 which takes a different approach, focusing on seamlessly syncing data in the background rather than dealing with traditional file structures as Dropbox, Google Drive and others do.
Like Dropbox, Google Drive also has its own application for Apple's iOS, as well as an OS X desktop client. The service is also integrated with third-party applications such as VLC.
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97 Comments
Yeah but - Dropbox doesn't scan your data and make use of that.
Steve tried to convince Dropbox that file storage was a feature and not a standalone product. Dropbox is going to learn that lesson the hard way as storage goes towards free over time
I would not be surprised if Apple doubles free iCloud storage to 10GB at WWDC
Not sure if dropbox will be able to hold on to their lead once the big boys like google and microsoft really starts to go after that market. It's only a matter of time before google starts to offer a free 100gb and at that point what will dropbox do? Microsoft, will not go that far but their pricing will be a lot more competitive than dropbox, that's for sure. Dropbox does not have other business that can help them support their cloud so they will suffer and lose their first mover advantage in the long run.
If it seems too cheap to be true... you are the product not the customer.
[quote name="Red Oak" url="/t/164216/google-drive-slashes-paid-storage-prices-turning-up-the-heat-on-rival-dropbox#post_2486747"]Steve tried to convince Dropbox that file storage was a feature and not a standalone product.[/quote] Even if implemented as a feature, must be multi-platform. Being platform-agnostic is the key of success of DropBox.