Box is a longstanding provider and one of the best cloud storage platforms. It offers both an individual service and a business one, with its main focus now on helping businesses operate efficiently, securely, and collaboratively, even when working remotely. Read our full Box review to get an insight into the personal cloud storage element of the service.
Box for Business review: Snapshot
The best cloud storage platforms usually come with a suite of tools to help businesses manage their files and other data, and Box for Business is no exception. It boasts a great selection of tools, including leading security integrations and a range of collaboration features.
In addition, the Box for Business user interface is up there with the best we’ve seen. It’s simple and easy to navigate, and there are numerous admin tools for streamlined team management. Prices are a little on the high side, but you really get what you pay for here.
In our Box for Business review, we dive a little deeper into the ins and outs of this platform, analyzing its main features, performance, prices, and more to help you decide whether or not it’s the right option for your needs.
Score: 4.5/5
Read on for the full review.
Box for Business’s competitors
| Box for Business | IDrive | Google Drive | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Score | 4.5/5 | 4.5/5 | 4.5/5 |
| Pros | – Advanced business features – Industry-leading security – Streamlined admin panel and user management | – Excellent automatic backup features – Supports unlimited devices – Very competitively priced | – Backed by the power of the Google ecosystem – 15GB of free storage for all users – Leading collaboration features |
| Cons | – Can be a little expensive – Three-user minimum with business plans | – Upload and download speeds can be slow – The user interface is a little outdated | – A clear lack of security tools – No password protection features |
| Verdict | Box is a leading cloud storage platform, and it boasts a great selection of tools for businesses of all sizes. | IDrive offers advanced cloud backup solutions, enabling you to securely store files of all shapes and sizes. | Google Drive lacks security and privacy features, but it remains a great option due to its collaboration and file-sharing tools. |
| View deals | Visit site | Visit site | Visit site |
Key features
Box is an industry leader in the business cloud storage space, and it’s backed by a great selection of features to ensure that this remains the case. One thing it is known for is its powerful security integrations. All files are protected by end-to-end and at-rest encryption, ensuring they can’t be viewed by those without the appropriate permissions.
In addition, Box boasts full compliance with numerous regulations and regulatory bodies, including GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, GxP, and FINRA. With this, you can rest assured that you’re meeting your legal requirements when it comes to data storage and security.
All of Box’s business plans come with a range of collaboration tools, enabling you to work alongside both fellow employees and external collaborators. All files can be accessed and edited from your desktop with the Box Drive app, while Box Tools enables editing from within your web browser.
Use Box Notes for real-time note-taking within your team, and ensure everyone remains informed about their responsibilities and relevant updates.
Box for Business: Key features and highlights
One thing that stands out about Box and its cloud storage solutions is its excellent selection of desktop and mobile apps. Along with the intuitive web interface, there are apps for Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS operating systems.
You can download Box Drive onto your computer, so you can access and manage files directly from your desktop. Simply drag and drop files or folders into the Box Drive folder to sync them with your account, and access stored files with the click of a button.
The mobile app is also excellent, enabling you to share and view files with the tap of a button. Preview numerous files, and organize your library in a simple, streamlined manner.
There’s also a tidy Box Notes app that you can download on your Mac or Windows device. This enables you to collaborate with other users, creating and editing notes alongside your team members. Lastly, the Box Tools app, which is also available for Mac and Windows, enables you to edit virtually any type of file from your web browser.
Finally, Box boasts more than 1,500 app integrations. There are a few native Box apps that you can use to add specific features, but most of these are for third-party platforms. Connect to everything from your customer resource management (CRM) platform to project management and collaboration apps, to ensure you have all the tools you need at your fingertips.
What’s new?
Unfortunately, Box provides little information about its recent updates. As a cloud storage leader, though, it’s constantly evolving and adding new tools and features, to ensure it remains at the forefront of the industry.
The Box blog does provide short updates when major new features are added, which was nice to see. Most recently, the platform announced a partnership with Ambra Health, adding a suite of tools to help healthcare professionals manage their important content.
A number of cloud security updates were also added recently to help you protect your files. Various measures were put into place to prevent accidental data leakage, and there are additional single-sign-on (SSO) tools to streamline admin processes.
Pricing
Box offers four business options. These range from $7 to $47 per user a month, and annual subscription discounts are available. You can also take advantage of a 14-day free trial for all plans, although you will have to enter payment information to access this. Note, though, that there’s a minimum of three users with each plan.
The cheapest Starter plan ($7 per user a month) supports up to ten users with 100GB of storage and integrations with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. The Business ($20 per user a month) and Business Plus ($33 per user a month) options add unlimited storage, data loss protection, custom branding, and more.
There’s also an advanced Enterprise plan, which starts at $47 per user a month. This adds unlimited enterprise app integrations, HIPAA and FedRAMP compliance, password policy enforcement, document watermarking, and various other advanced tools.
| Plan type/feature | Starter | Business | Business Plus | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per month | $7 | $20 | $33 | $47 |
| Cost per year | $60 | $180 | $300 | $420 |
| External collaborators | X | X | ✓ | ✓ |
| Storage | 100GB | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| File upload size limit | 2GB | 5GB | 15GB | 15GB |
| Custom branding | X | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Document watermarking | X | X | X | ✓ |
Testing Box for Business
To better benchmark Box for Business against its competitors, we analyzed how easy it is to get started with the cloud storage service, and looked at its download and upload speeds, which are a key factor in terms of cloud storage.
How do you get started with Box for Business?
To create a new Box account, simply select the plan you want to use and follow the prompts. You will be required to add a minimal amount of personal information, along with credit or debit card payment details. You won’t be billed for 14 days after your subscription, enabling you to cancel without financial penalty at any time during this period.
Next, sign in to your account to begin adding users. There’s a short getting started guide that will help you through simple setup procedures, and then you will be able to add extra users and access other important parts of your admin panel.
When you add new users, you can allocate a defined amount of storage to their accounts. Set user permissions to ensure people can only access files that they should be able to, and create groups for more streamlined management.
How fast is Box for Business?
There are a few different ways to upload and/or download files to and from your Box cloud storage drive. On a desktop computer, you can either use the web interface or the downloadable Box Drive, which is available for both Windows and Mac operating systems. Or, you can use the Box Android or iOS app for streamlined mobile management.
To test the upload speed, we added a number of large files to our Box account. Even with a relatively slow WiFi connection (22Mbps download, 13Mbps upload), 120MB of files were uploaded in well under a minute, which was great to see. Downloads were even faster, suggesting that Box’s server infrastructure is fast and responsive.
The competition
Box offers an excellent selection of business cloud storage products, but it is a little on the expensive side. Its cheapest Starter business plan costs from $7 a month, and there’s a three-user minimum. This only gives you 100GB of storage, and you will be constrained by a ten-user maximum.
On the plus side, Box boasts leading security features, including full end-to-end and at-rest encryption. You can control your own encryption keys, ensuring unauthorized file access is virtually impossible.
Another very popular competitor is IDrive, which is among our favorite cloud storage platforms on the market today. Its cheapest business plan starts at $74.62 per year, which supports five users and includes 5TB of storage. Unfortunately, though, monthly billing isn’t an option with most plans.
On the plus side, IDrive offers security integrations that are comparable to Box’s. You can schedule automatic file, folder, or drive backups, use the program with multiple desktop and mobile devices, and take advantage of the advanced business features to improve your cloud storage experience. Read our full IDrive review to find out more.
The last competitor we looked at, Google Drive, is among the most widely used cloud storage platforms of all time. However, it lacks security tools, and industry experts have expressed countless concerns about the company’s privacy practices over the past few years.
If the lack of privacy and security features doesn’t worry you, Google Drive’s collaboration tools are among the best we’ve seen. You will benefit from the power of the Google ecosystem, and it offers excellent value for money across the board. To learn more about the service, read our comprehensive Google Drive review.
| Box for Business | IDrive | Google Drive | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage | From 100GB | From 5TB | From 100GB |
| Minimum users | Three | Five | One |
| End-to-end encryption | Yes | Yes | No |
| Support | Online ticketing, live chat, community forum | Online ticketing, 24/7 live chat, business-hours phone | 24/7 live chat and phone |
| Basic plan | $7 per user a month | $74.62 a year | $1.99 a month |
The verdict
Box is known as one of the world’s most advanced cloud storage platforms, and our Box for Business review shows nothing to suggest that this isn’t the case. In simple terms, it’s a leader in the space, featuring excellent security, a huge number of third-party integrations, a user-friendly interface, and leading collaboration tools.
On the downside, it is quite expensive when compared to some of the main alternatives. But you do get what you pay for, as all bar the cheapest plan come with unlimited storage and a suite of advanced management and organization tools. Note that there is a three-user minimum with business plans, which means that you will essentially have to pay triple the advertised price.
Other positives include the use of end-to-end encryption with all data transfers, a selection of mobile and desktop apps, and great support services across the board.
All things considered, Box is a great option for business users. If you have a generous budget and can afford to spend slightly more on an advanced cloud storage solution, we’d highly recommend signing up for an account and taking advantage of the free trial to test it out.
