The cloud storage scene has changed a lot since Dropbox launched in 2007, propelled by the falling cost of storage, the rising speed of internet connections, and the proliferation of powerful mobile devices. There is no shortage of options for your storage needs, many of which are free. So why would you pay for it?
Dropbox’s original valuable feature—syncing your files effortlessly across multiple devices—now comes standard on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. Unfortunately, you only get a paltry 2 GB of space with free Dropbox accounts, which isn’t enough to do anything serious. (Google Drive, for its part, starts you off at 15 GB for free.) If you’re going to use Dropbox, then you need to pay the $12 a month for a Plus account or $20 a month for a Professional account. Surprisingly, there are a few features that might make a Dropbox subscription worth it for you.
1) Dropbox Paper:
GizmodoiCloud’s online word processor isn’t much to write home about; Microsoft offers a free version of Word on the web which feels like a desktop app crammed into a browser; and while Google Docs is undoubtedly impressive, it’s not as streamlined as it once was.
Enter Dropbox Paper:
Part online word processor, part collaborative workspace, it’s built with the web and with sharing as top priorities. It’s super-light, super-responsive, and packed with more features than its minimal aesthetic might suggest. Non-paying users can get involved too, so we recommend trying it out if you haven’t already.
And of course, it all integrates very neatly into Dropbox as a whole. If you’re working on Android or iOS, it’s just as easy to make edits, add comments, and keep up to date as it is if you’re working on the web.
2) Dropbox Rewind:
One of the newer features added to the Dropbox stable, Dropbox Rewind, acts like a time machine for your files. You can jump back to a particular point in time and undo any recent changes (such as those wrought by a virus or a particularly over-eager colleague).
If you’ve got a Plus account, you can go back 30 days; if you’ve got a Professional account, you’ve got 180 days of leeway. File edits, renames, additions, and deletions get undone, actions in shared folders get rolled back, and so on. You can make the change from the web or the desktop.
Changes can be restricted to just one folder, if necessary. It’s only one of several ‘undo’ options that Dropbox provides—including file version history—that are more comprehensive and more intuitive than anything offered by the Apple, Google, or Microsoft services.
3) Dropbox Showcase:
DropboxOne of the biggest reasons to upgrade to the top Professional level of Dropbox is for access to the Showcase feature. It essentially turns your Dropbox folder (or part of it) into one massive portfolio, where you can share files of most common types on the web, either individually or as collections.
Say you have a group of designs to show off, or a series of presentations, or several videos—Dropbox
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