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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
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Content Management (8th), Cloud Storage (12th), Digital Asset Management (6th), Document Management Software (6th)
ownCloud
Ranking in Content Collaboration Platforms
20th
Average Rating
10.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Content Collaboration Platforms category, the mindshare of Box is 7.2%, down from 8.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ownCloud is 1.3%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Content Collaboration Platforms Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Box7.2%
ownCloud1.3%
Other91.5%
Content Collaboration Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

Ahmed Rashad - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Projects Manager at Tech-hub
Team collaboration has improved through shared access and real-time synchronization
I find the synchronization feature most valuable in Box. When I use multiple devices, it syncs them together and gives excellent results. I can assess the benefits of Box's file sharing. Box's integration with third-party apps is valuable, especially with Outlook. Box has helped my team's productivity by being very helpful with team collaboration when we are sharing certain shared documents between us. I mostly value Box's automation capabilities. They have helped optimize my business processes by saving time for sharing or sending files between the team. This gives us a shared workspace to work together on the same document or the same ideas. Box's security features have helped my organization meet compliance needs.
SC
Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
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

"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."
"I like that Box makes it easy to deploy virtual machines."
"The solution is used for data storage and any kind of visualization."
"Box had a very easy-to-use search feature and a good user interface on its website, which was faster and better than SharePoint."
"Box is extremely stable, they have not been hacked or lost any data in the past seventeen years. I am very impressed with it."
"We can provide controlled access to documents using the product."
"Some units have migrated their content and processes from on premises storage to Box, saving money and time, and putting the power of collaboration into the hands of the users instead of requiring admin intervention."
"It is really easy to load files to and from this solution."
"I think it’s probably the best self-hosted file sync tool on the market."
 

Cons

"I would love to see the ability to invite collaborators extended to a file level, not just the folder level."
"The solution's data security should be improved."
"Improvements in speed - Box's high level of security impacts performance, especially when compared with other similar services."
"The security settings are such that if I have a folder with subfolders several levels deep, whatever security setting I have for the parent folder gets inherited at all the subfolders. This has been limiting."
"Like all cloud platforms, there are always areas of improvement around sync to local devices."
"The integration with other products should be improved."
"Maturity of the enterprise security around user management."
"Improvements in speed - Box's high level of security impacts performance, especially when compared with other similar services."
"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

"The more you dig, the deeper the level of tools, and the more expensive it becomes."
"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."
"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."
"We are using the free version of the solution. There is a free version and monthly and yearly subscriptions available."
"A business account has a minimum of three users. If you are more than three people in-house, go for the Enterprise version. All the external users are free of charge."
"I believe Box is cheaper than SharePoint."
"I have to pay for Box. It could be a little cheaper. On a scale from one to ten, I would give the pricing a five."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
University
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise27
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Box?
I found the pricing reasonable because when I was working for an IBM partner, Box was free for us. We did not go to payment and other matters like this.
What needs improvement with Box?
I believe Box has a lot of features that put it in a good rank among the file-sharing apps. I would like to see features for online collaboration between team members in the future, to open and see...
What is your primary use case for Box?
I use Box, Delphi, and IBM FileNet. I worked for a software company as a project manager, and this experience includes FileNet. I also used Delphi for programming work. I am familiar enough with Bo...
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