Box vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP comparison

Box and NetApp are both solutions in the Cloud Storage category. Box is ranked #13 with an average rating of 7.7, while NetApp is ranked #2 with an average rating of 9.0. Box holds a 4.0% mindshare in CS, compared to NetApp’s 12.1% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of Box users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

Box

Read 41 Box reviews

573 Views
186 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Read 62 NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP reviews

2,085 Views
554 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Box

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 17, 2024

Box and NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP are both prominent data management platforms. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP seems to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive functionalities and performance, making it worth the investment for many users.

Features: Box is highly rated for its collaboration tools, seamless integration with various third-party applications, and file-sharing capabilities. On the other hand, NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP stands out for its robust data protection, scalability, and high performance. While Box excels in user-friendly features, NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP offers more advanced technical capabilities, catering better to large-scale enterprise needs.

Room for Improvement: Users suggest that Box could improve its customization options, data storage limits, and more granular access controls. For NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, users point out the need for better cost management features, a more intuitive setup process, and addressing cost efficiency and ease of initial deployment.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Box receives positive feedback for its straightforward deployment process and responsive customer support. Users find it quick to set up with minimal technical expertise required. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, while offering a more complex deployment, is praised for its comprehensive support and detailed documentation. Box is easier to implement, but NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP provides better support resources for resolving issues and optimizing use.

Pricing and ROI: Box is generally viewed as affordable with satisfactory ROI, particularly for small to medium-sized businesses. Users appreciate its predictable pricing model. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, although perceived as more expensive, is valued for its long-term ROI due to higher performance and reliability. While Box is cost-effective and user-friendly, NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP's higher initial costs are justified by greater enterprise-level benefits.

To learn more, read our detailed Box vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Box vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

June 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Box

Ranking in Cloud Storage

13th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Content Management (8th), Digital Asset Management (3rd), Document Management Software (4th), Content Collaboration Platforms (5th)

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Ranking in Cloud Storage

2nd

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Migration (1st), Cloud Backup (14th), Public Cloud Storage Services (7th), Cloud Software Defined Storage (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Cloud Storage category, the mindshare of Box is 4.0%, down from 4.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is 12.1%, down from 14.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Storage

Featured Reviews

Parthasarathy Chellapillai

Program Administrator at Flextronics

Used for data storage and data collaboration, but its data security could be improved

If I have restricted access within an organization by keeping the data in Box, there are other applications through which I can barge into the data. If anyone wants to keep a file restricted to four people, I can access it because it's available in the cloud. I can directly access the file and pull in the data by entering the file's name. Someone from outside the organization can't access it. However, someone from within the organization who is not supposed to access the data can access it, provided it is in Box. Box is almost like a folder structure outside your system. The solution uses the cloud, and you don't need any separate storage in your system. Even if your system crashes down, the data will be saved. Overall, I rate the solution a six out of ten.

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Pramod-Talekar

Sr Service Engineer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Allows customers to manage SAN and NAS data within a single storage solution

The tool's most valuable features are the SnapLock and SnapMirror features. If something goes wrong with the data, we can restore it. This isn't a mirror; we store data in different locations. If there's an issue on the primary site, we can retrieve data from the secondary site. Multiprotocol support in NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is beneficial because it allows customers to manage SAN and NAS data within a single storage solution. This feature eliminates the need to purchase different types of storage.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Box is extremely stable, they have not been hacked or lost any data in the past seventeen years. I am very impressed with it."

"File sharing with collaborators not on the same domain with offline access from multiple devices: I work on many projects that are multi-organizational, such as with customers, suppliers, or acquisitions."

"The solution is scalable."

"I like the ease of use."

"The solution is used for data storage and any kind of visualization."

"Simple file sharing and sync for internal and external customers."

"Box had a very easy-to-use search feature and a good user interface on its website, which was faster and better than SharePoint."

"It is really easy to load files to and from this solution."

More Box pros

"It makes sure we have control of the data and that we know what it's being used for. The main thing for us is that we need to know what applications are consuming it and responsible for it. The solution helps us do that."

"SnapMirror helps mirror metadata and data volumes between endpoints in a data fabric."

"The storage tiering is definitely the most valuable feature... With respect to tiering, the inactive data is pushed to a lower tier where the storage cost is cheap, but the access cost is high."

"It gives a solution for storage one place to go across everything. So, the customer is very familiar with NetApp on-prem. It allows them to gain access to the file piece. It helps them with the training aspect of it, so they don't have to relearn something new. They already know this product. They just have to learn some widgets or what it's like in the cloud to operate and deploy it in different ways."

"CVO gives us the ability to access data as quickly as possible, which is critical because of the mission set we handle. Some things cannot wait. For example, we tried having the data in the cloud itself, but it took too long for us to retrieve it from cold or deep storage. If we have it ONTAP or on-prem, it's so much easier to pull it within minutes."

"The solution’s Snapshot copies and thin clones in terms of operational recovery are good. Snapshot copies are pretty much the write-in time data backups. Obviously, critical data is snapshotted a lot more frequently, and even clients and end users find it easier to restore whatever they need if it's file-based, statical, etc."

"The most valuable features are tiering to S3 and being able to turn it on and off, based on a schedule."

"ONTAP has been very stable for us, specifically in the cloud environment. It allows us to have high availability as well as standalone systems if that's what we want within our specific workloads. Also, on-premise has been a very stable environment. We have very few outages and when we do, we work with support to get systems back online in a timely manner."

More NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP pros

Cons

"The price must be lowered."

"If there was a plugin that added some sort of toolbar in Office, that would be great."

"I don't like the low level of role-based security it provides – it's very cumbersome, and the support is ordinary at times."

"The UI should be faster. Sometimes it lags when switching between documents."

"Improvements in speed - Box's high level of security impacts performance, especially when compared with other similar services."

"Better integration with other solutions is needed."

"Working on documents in real-time is sometimes faulty and could be improved."

"The upload speed needs improvement."

More Box cons

"I would like to have more management tools. They are difficult to work with, so I would like them to be a bit more user-friendly."

"We are getting a warning alert about not being able to connect to Cloud Manager when we log into it. The support has provided links, but this particular issue is not fixed yet."

"They definitely need to stay more on top of security vulnerabilities. Our security team is constantly finding Java vulnerabilities and SQL vulnerabilities. Our security team always wants the latest security update, and it takes a while for NetApp to stay up to speed with that. That would be my biggest complaint."

"We have customers that are still using IBM mainframes and that very old SNA architecture from IBM. There are questions about how you interconnect the data on the mainframe side... But I don't know if it's worth it for NetApp to invest in developing products to include mainframes for a few customers."

"The automated deployment was a bit complex using the public APIs. When we had to deploy Cloud Volumes ONTAP on a regular basis using automation, It could be a bit of a challenge."

"In terms of improvement, I would like to see the Azure NetApp Files have the capability of doing SnapMirrors. Azure NetApp Files is, as we know, is an AFF system and it's not used in any of the Microsoft resources. It's basically NetApp hardware, so the best performance you can achieve, but the only reason we can't use that right now is because of the region that it's available in. The second was the SnapMirror capability that we didn't have that we heavily rely on right now."

"The only area for improvement would be some guidance in terms of the future products that NetApp is planning on releasing. I would like to see communication around that or advice such as, "Hey, the world is moving towards this particular trend, and NetApp can help you do that." I do get promotional emails from NetApp, but customer-specific advice would be helpful, based on our use cases."

"The support is good in general but the initial, front-line support could be improved. Because I have already been using the product for so long, when I call support I would rather talk to somebody who is a little bit more advanced or senior, rather than talking to the first-level support. Usually, it takes some time to reach out to their senior support."

More NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing may seem steep at first, but delve into the features and you'll soon realize it is incredible value for what you get."

"Better sign a full year's contract to get a discount."

"They are very price competitive when pushed. Initially, they come out with a standard list price, but they are willing to be very competitive. The Box price was pretty much equal to or lower than the Citrix price, and Box has more features."

"Box needs to improve with their pricing in terms of licensing costs."

"Our pricing and licensing is excellent. I'd tell all Higher Ed customers to talk with Internet2 for excellent pricing and support."

"Box's pricing is excellent."

"We are using the free version of the solution. There is a free version and monthly and yearly subscriptions available."

"There's a free version that allows you to use it with almost full-feature access. Even in the free version, it gives you all you need."

More Box pricing and cost advice

"Make sure you investigate what your requirements are going to cost you using the native cloud solutions versus what NetApp is going to cost you, to make sure you have a business case to go with NetApp."

"I know the licensing is a bit on the high-end. That's when we had to downsize our MetroCluster disks and just migrate to disks that were half used. We migrated into those just to reduce maintenance costs."

"The pricing could be improved. It is a good product, but it is very expensive for me."

"We purchased the product directly from NetApp."

"Cloud is cloud. It's still expensive. Any good solution comes with a price tag. That's where we are looking to see how well we can manage our data in the cloud by trying to optimize the costs."

"If we wanted to use the AWS solution, we would have to manage two or three different platforms and pay more money than what we should have to pay, as some of the features don't even exist. If we wanted to, we could use AWS cloning, but it is useless because it uses more space, is more expensive, and takes more time."

"Overall, the pricing of NetApp is aggressive and the pricing becomes more aggressive as the amount of data increases. The cost for a given volume of data that you are storing becomes lower. The greater the volume of data, the cheaper the license."

"Some flexibility around the licensing model would help. The product is licensed based on capacity. Basically, the largest capacity license that you can buy is 368 terabytes. At this point, NetApp is addressing some people's concerns around this."

More NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

26%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Healthcare Company

Educational Organization

28%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Box?

The solution is used for data storage and any kind of visualization.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Box?

I was not involved in discussions about paying for Box, so I cannot provide specifics about pricing.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Box?

Collaborative editing was challenging if multiple people were in a document at once. The installation procedure was tricky but manageable with provided guidance and steps.

See all answers

What do you like most about NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP?

So a lot of these licenses are at the rate that is required for capacity. So they're they're able to reduce the license consumption and also the consumption of the underlying cloud storage.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP?

The solution's pricing is reasonable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP?

NetApp's support could improve.

See all answers

Comparisons

SharePoint vs Box

Compared 17% of the time

ShareFile vs Box

Compared 13% of the time

Microsoft OneDrive vs Box

Compared 12% of the time

Egnyte vs Box

Compared 7% of the time

IBM FileNet vs Box

Compared 5% of the time

More Box Competitors

Azure NetApp Files vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 18% of the time

Amazon S3 vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 12% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 10% of the time

Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 9% of the time

Portworx Enterprise vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 6% of the time

More NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Box

June 2025

Download Box product report

Buyer's Guide

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

June 2025

Download NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP product report

Also Known As

No data available

ONTAP Cloud, CVO, NetApp CVO

Overview

Box is a Modern Content Management Platform for companies of all sizes and industries. The difference that Box brings is that it offers the security and controls admins need with the sharing and collaboration capabilities end users want. Box has made it easier for people to securely share ideas, collaborate and get work done faster. Today, more than 62,000 businesses, including 59% of the Fortune 500, trust Box to manage content in the cloud.

The Box platform provides HIPAA, FINRA, FedRAMP, and many other compliances to go with granular access permissions and advanced security capabilities.

By using Box you can sync, share, and collaborate on all types of files, anywhere, on any device - but that's just the beginning. You can choose where to store your data, to manage your own encryption keys, and set workflows to automate content-based processes. You can also assign custom metadata tags to content, watermark sensitive content, and set file retention or legal hold policies.

Box has deep, native integrations with Microsoft Office and Outlook, Google Apps for Work, Salesforce, Netsuite, Docusign, Adobe, and many other best-of-breed solutions you may already be using.

Box

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is an efficient storage management solution for managing and storing data in the cloud. It offers seamless integration with cloud providers, advanced data replication capabilities, and high data protection. With reliable performance, it is ideal for industries like healthcare and finance.

NetApp

Sample Customers

GE, Toyota, P&G, Caterpillar, Flex, Schneider Electric, Sally Beauty, Eurostar, AstraZeneca, AirBnB, Whirlpool, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Nationwide, Aeropostale etc

1. Accenture 2. Acer 3. Adidas 4. Aetna 5. AIG 6. Apple 7. Bank of America 8. Barclays 9. Bayer 10. Berkshire Hathaway 11. BNP Paribas 12. Cisco 13. Coca-Cola 14. Comcast 15.ConocoPhillips 16. CVS Health 17. Dell 18. Deutsche Bank 19. eBay 20. Eli Lilly 21. FedEx 22. Ford 23. Freescale Semiconductor 24. General Electric 25. Google 26. Honeywell 27. IBM 28. Intel 29. Intuit 30. JPMorgan Chase 31. Kellogg's 32. KeyCorp 33. Liberty Mutual 34. L'Oréal 35. Mastercard

Buyer's Guide

Box vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

June 2025

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