Dropbox vs. M‑Files

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Dropbox
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Dropbox is a cloud storage solution, equipped with features that help users to save time, improve productivity, and collaborate with others. Users can edit PDFs, share videos, sign documents, and collaborate with stakeholders without leaving Dropbox.
$9.99
per month
M‑Files
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
M-Files is a platform for knowledge work automation. M-Files helps knowledge workers to find information faster, work smarter, and achieve more. M-Files features a metadata-driven architecture, embedded workflow engine, and advanced artificial intelligence that enable customers to eliminate information chaos, improve process efficiency, and automate security and compliance. By embedding automation and GenAI into its core, M-Files' platform not only increases efficiencies…N/A
Pricing
DropboxM‑Files
Editions & Modules
Plus
$9.99
per month
Essentials
$18
per month
Business
$20
per month per user
Business Plus
$26
per month per user
Basic
Free
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
DropboxM‑Files
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
DropboxM‑Files
Features
DropboxM‑Files
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
Dropbox
7.8
Ratings
7% below category average
M‑Files
-
Ratings
Versioning7.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Video files7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Audio files7.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Document collaboration7.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Access control7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
File search7.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Device sync8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Cloud Storage Security & Administration
Comparison of Cloud Storage Security & Administration features of Product A and Product B
Dropbox
7.9
Ratings
9% below category average
M‑Files
-
Ratings
User and role management7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
File organization8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Device management7.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Cloud Storage Platform
Comparison of Cloud Storage Platform features of Product A and Product B
Dropbox
8.0
Ratings
6% below category average
M‑Files
-
Ratings
Performance7.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Reliability8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Storage Reports8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
DropboxM‑Files
Small Businesses
SugarSync
SugarSync
Score 5.8 out of 10
Square 9 Softworks
Square 9 Softworks
Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Druva Security Cloud
Druva Security Cloud
Score 9.7 out of 10
MSB Docs
MSB Docs
Score 9.4 out of 10
Enterprises
Druva Security Cloud
Druva Security Cloud
Score 9.7 out of 10
Tungsten Capture
Tungsten Capture
Score 8.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
DropboxM‑Files
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.9
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
6.7
(0 ratings)
9.9
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.5
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Availability
6.7
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Performance
6.0
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.4
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.2
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.5
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Configurability
6.4
(0 ratings)
9.6
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
6.6
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
DropboxM‑Files
Likelihood to Recommend
Dropbox is great for everyone. Data on a hard drive is no longer secure. Learned the hard way when a hard drive fried. It's great for families, students, artists, entrepreneurs, consultants, small businesses, startups, graphic designers, and photographers. Did I leave anyone out?
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M‑Files is great for companies with multiple locations. Drive letters can become cumbersome to use and collaborate with colleagues and M‑Files fills that gap. The check out/check in system is great and allows only one editor at a time. This can be good and bad depending on the situation.
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Pros
  • Ensures documents are up to date, even with multiple users accessing the same documents.
  • I love that if a team member accidentally deletes a file, I can find it and restore it.
  • I like that I can edit from the web or have the app downloaded.
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  • Version control and history tracking on documents.
  • Search ability to filter content for a team, creator, or another property.
  • Permission control, limit access to documents to read or edit, or only specific workflow states.
  • Administrative control to access all content.
  • Administrative control to restore deleted content.
  • Administrative control to audit and retag content when needed.
  • Robust workflow capabilities.
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Cons
  • I’d like to be able to hover over an image/document and have it expand/enlarge without actually opening it
  • I’d love to see a carousel that lets me thumb through more quickly
  • I’m almost always in thumbnail view. I’d like to see them re-organize automatically when something is moved or deleted instead of leaving an empty space.
  • AI options for photo editing.
  • Easier pdf markups
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  • More user friendly customization options that do not require knowledge of coding/scripting. For example, prompting the creation of a new document from a template in a workflow.
  • When using the 'insert property' feature in a Word doc, I would love to convert dates from a mm/dd/yy format to be written out (such as September 21, 2018). Or possibly even just to pull the year or the month from a selected date to insert into a document.
  • I've often wished that I could find more detailed tutorials online for some features.
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Likelihood to Renew
Even though it has its shortcomings, Dropbox is an exceptionally useful product for simple file sharing. It’s intelligent design and user-friendly interface have continued to facilitate project completion. However, as we expand, we will probably look to other solutions for storage and sharing as we undertake larger and more intensely collaborative projects
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M-files meets our almost all needs, we dont have other option to replace m-files. it saves lots, like Hardware because of Vault Feature means we can create many vaults (mini-servers) in m-files in other solutions we need more hardware for more installations.
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Usability
It works extremely well, and we have never had any issues with connecting or sharing files. It's very easy to use, and any team member can share, add, and delete files to a virtual drive. This is extremely helpful, and it's an amazing tool to use, ensuring everyone can connect and work together effectively.
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It is a powerful system that can locate content fast and effectively. The system takes quite some time to setup initially. It can be hard for M-Files support to know how businesses operate and how they want to use the system in a way that works for them. The customization makes it great for companies to cater to their own needs. Once the system is set up in a way that makes sense for the business, the user experience is positive. There is room for improvement in the notifications, workflow, and support areas.
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
always there.
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Performance
Dropbox is really useful, you can access any file from anywhere and you can upload and even edit files online, but, sometimes it can be slow. Downloading, uploading, and syncing is a bit slow, it can take several minutes. Furthermore, the search engine for large amounts of data can be slow too and it is not powerful.
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I noticed some lagging with the integration with Microsoft Office but not so much that I would not use it. It has gotten better with updates. to be fair the issues were when Office 2013 first came out.
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Support Rating
They immediately responded like in an example that I gave where one of our staff members accidentally deleted the whole Special Hope Network Dropbox, we immediately contacted Dropbox they walked us through the steps of how to retrieve the information and luckily enough we were able to retrieve the entire Dropbox and we have had back and forth with Dropbox on what to do when an employee leaves how to remove them how to add another employee.
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Usually when I need help from them I got support and it was very good and focused to solve my problem. I didn't have so many problems, but when used it worked. I just would like to have a support in my native language, but I can understand that sometimes is hard for the companies.
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In-Person Training
No answers on this topic
We had online conference call training with a recording to use later as needed
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Online Training
I did not personally take any training for Dropbox so I am self taught but I know when our Vice President selected Dropbox, he personally did do some training modules on it and I'm assuming it was very easy and simple to understand since he now acts like he is a pro at it!
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They answer all questions and record your training for later use.
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Implementation Rating
I needed to stay current in improving my daily operations. Dropbox
was suggested to me by a former colleague two-years ago and I've been using it just fine ever since.
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The key insight is that the most important thing is to have a open mind. The application is easy to use, but if you have a company with different views and it is not aligned could be a huge problem. So the company transformation is required together with the application. Ensure to use as much as possible the capabilities of the application helps to have best ROI.
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Alternatives Considered
I prefer the layout and visual aspect of Dropbox as it mirrors my files on my computer. I feel that I am more organized, and it's easier to find my files in Dropbox than it was with Google Drive.
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I've compared recently with Box, but they still predicate their storage on WHERE instead of WHAT, which means if it isn't in a specific folder, you won't find it. Some documents may relate to multiple projects. In M-Files instead of putting a copy of a file in many folders (thus having many copies) you can build out the relationships, so there is only 1 copy of a document which prevents multiple "originals" from being developed separately.
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Scalability
bc i think box.com is better and more affordable
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do so much more than we need but has all the stuff we do need.
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Return on Investment
  • I access my Dropbox account from anywhere—any computer, my smartphone —is very accessible while still secure.
  • I would like it to be more editable with existing projects. This could be just me.
  • I would like it to integrate better with other systems, such as email and Office.
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  • The price we pay for M-Files is about one third less than the price that we were paying our previous vendor plus we have a custom-built amazing dependable system with great support.
  • From a compliance and legal standpoint, our policies are always available to end users including easy access to previous versions.
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ScreenShots

Dropbox Screenshots

Screenshot of the action bar, that sits across the browser page can be used to record the screen, edit PDFs, upload files, create folders, get signatures, or send and track documents.Screenshot of Dropbox Replay, that lets collaborators leave frame-accurate feedback and markups directly on project files.Screenshot of Dropbox Capture, which can be used to take screen recordings, screenshots, and GIFs with one click and share them with a link.Screenshot of the interface where Dropbox lets users upload, edit, send, and sign PDFs in one place.

M‑Files Screenshots

Screenshot of M-Files - SearchScreenshot of M-Files - Profile openScreenshot of M-Files - PermissionsScreenshot of M-Files - Process mapsScreenshot of M-Files - Pinned items