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Box vs ownCloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 Content Collaboration Platforms
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Content Management (6th), Cloud Storage (12th), Digital Asset Management (3rd), Document Management Software (3rd)
ownCloud
Ranking in Content Collaboration Platforms
21st
Average Rating
10.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Content Collaboration Platforms category, the mindshare of Box is 8.5%, up from 8.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ownCloud is 0.5%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Content Collaboration Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

Shrikant Pillay - PeerSpot reviewer
Allows you to upload and download files quickly but lacks integration with Office 365
For enterprise users, the data is in a local repository. We use it for files for the end user process. This is a cloud solution. In my current organization, we have over 10,000 people using this solution. I use it very extensively. Users these days are working remotely You can upload your bin,…
SC
Self-hosted file sync tool used to deploy custom web UIs.
I think it’s probably the best self-hosted file sync tool on the market. It’s a full web application platform, an indispensable tool for a business of any size that needs to deploy any kind of custom web UI. If you build an ownCloud app, you’ve got authentication, storage, security, caching, and database layers already fully baked for you. You just need to build your UI and custom logic. Your app doesn’t even need to interact with files, sync, or interact with other ownCloud features. Any web UI can be included without ownCloud. It can even be a portal to web interfaces of other applications within a business using the external app to display external sites within ownCloud. This is the case as long as that site allows itself to be displayed within a frame.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We can provide controlled access to documents using the product."
"The sharing feature, with its various permission settings, such as viewing or uploading, is convenient and helpful."
"Simple file sharing and sync for internal and external customers."
"The interface is very good."
"Box is very user-friendly; more so than SharePoint."
"Office Integration. The full integration into the Microsoft Office products is just perfect."
"The solution is used for data storage and any kind of visualization."
"I like the ease of use."
"I think it’s probably the best self-hosted file sync tool on the market."
 

Cons

"I find their API to be quite complex and it could be more straightforward."
"If you want to delete something in Box, you have to do it manually, one by one. That was my recent experience. They might have a bulk delete, but I could not find that option. If you want to delete something, you have to go to each and every file and delete it."
"Like all cloud platforms, there are always areas of improvement around sync to local devices."
"I don't like the low level of role-based security it provides – it's very cumbersome, and the support is ordinary at times."
"I would love to see the ability to invite collaborators extended to a file level, not just the folder level."
"In future releases, there could be encryption, to have better security."
"The UI should be faster. Sometimes it lags when switching between documents."
"The price must be lowered."
"Even with fast disks, it still takes a fair bit of time to write most schema changes to multi-GB tables."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Better sign a full year's contract to get a discount."
"Our pricing and licensing is excellent. I'd tell all Higher Ed customers to talk with Internet2 for excellent pricing and support."
"The more you dig, the deeper the level of tools, and the more expensive it becomes."
"I'm in Higher Ed, so we purchase through Internet2-Net+. I absolutely recommend going that route for Higher Ed customers."
"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."
"We are using the free version of the solution. There is a free version and monthly and yearly subscriptions available."
"It is expensive per head, as you need the enterprise license to get full security and tools. So negotiate a discount!"
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
59%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Computer Software Company
5%
Government
3%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Box?
The solution is used for data storage and any kind of visualization.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Box?
The solution is expensive when it comes to API calls.
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Comparisons

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

GE, Toyota, P&G, Caterpillar, Flex, Schneider Electric, Sally Beauty, Eurostar, AstraZeneca, AirBnB, Whirlpool, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Nationwide, Aeropostale etc
CERN, Joy Global, Sciebo, Bauhaus, datto
Find out what your peers are saying about Dropbox, Google, Microsoft and others in Content Collaboration Platforms. Updated: March 2025.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.