There are so many Dropbox integrations available that the service seems essential, or at least difficult to imagine doing without. Over the years I’ve hooked numerous apps and services into my Dropbox account, which is why I started paying for the professional plan seven years ago. And yet each year, at renewal time, I think a bit more deeply about the question of whether Dropbox is in fact so indispensable. This is the very boring story of how I came to realize that it’s not.
Designer Khoi Vinh discusses how he kicked the Dropbox habit.
For a number of reasons, I’d like to stop using Dropbox. I recently moved most of my files to OneDrive, essentially because of the three-device limitation for free Dropbox plans. As I’ve said many times, I’d by happy to pay for Dropbox, for a plan with, say, 50 GB storage, but I don’t need a terabyte. However, I have that space with OneDrive, as part of an Office 365 subscription.
I have lots of space on iCloud, and I’ve been using iCloud Drive more, and as Vinh says in his article, he plans to use it more when the next Apple operating systems bring in iCloud Drive folder sharing. I’ve tried this, and it seems to work will, just like Dropbox.
The problem for me is that I have clients who use Dropbox, and share folders, so I cannot not work with that service. So no matter what, I will have to continue to use Dropbox, but I think much of my storage will be moving to iCloud Drive soon, and I may not every renew my Office 365 subscription when it runs out.
In any case, read the article, and see how complicated it can be to move away from Dropbox. So many apps integrate with Dropbox, but not with other cloud storage services, that it may not be easy to make the change.