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I would recommend MEGA as the best cloud storage in comparison to BOX. This is because MEGA provides great features for free and it is safer to be used for file storage.

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- Primarily a business service, but still offers personal storage options
- Free package gives you 10GB of free space, limits files to 250MB, doesn’t support versionin. Personal Pro plan cost £7 per month with 100GB of storage and a file size limit of 5GB. Starter business plan £3.50 per month, offers 100GB, 2GB file size, but works with teams of 3-10 people, supports document encryption, granular permissions and stores previous versions of any file
- Mobile apps available on iOS, Android, Windows, and Blackberry
- Web portal gives ability to create new documents in either Microsoft Office, Google Docs, or web-based formats, which can then edit in Box via a free, downloadable plug-in
-  Excellent range of apps that exist to increase Box’s versatility

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Box is one of the top competitors for online cloud storage suitable for both personal and business use.

Introduction

Box has been around since 2005 and is beginning to make a serious mark in the cloud storage market against tough competition such as DropBox. The service offers tiered plans starting at a free 5GB personal account and ending at an enterprise level account with unlimited storage. All files are accessible through logging into your Box.com account online, using an installed Box client on your computer, or by connecting to the Box service via a variety of mobile device applications.

Company Reputation & Service

Box is currently a much less popular service than it's competitor DropBox, but its marketshare is growing at a fairly steady rate. According to the Box.com website, they are currently being used in companies such as Six Flags, TaylorMade, Pandora, AARP, MTV, RedBull, Panasonic, Skype, Linkedin, DirectTV, and over 140,000 other businesses. In my opinions this does give the Box service some serious credibility as many of these companies are very successful and well run companies who would not rely on a mediocre service. In terms of customer service, they provide you with many options. They have a customer service number, but in most cases I do not think this is necessary. The reason I say this is they have dedicated a big focus on providing the Box user with all types of documentation. This includes a huge list of online help pages featuring FAQs and general information, tutorials & documentation in the form of downloadable PDFs, free online training sessions, and step by step how-to videos.

The features of Box are pretty on par with competing services in the market. All accounts are able to share file links with friends or coworkers, access the service via the mobile app, take advantage of secure storage and transfers of their data, sync important files or folders automatically, and have the ability to edit documents in the cloud straight through the Box service. By signing up for a business account, you will receive the added benefits of being able to enable password protected sharing, experience faster upload times, utilize text search through your uploaded content, access download tracking and stats, issue access to documents based on a user's role, see multiple version histories, and directly integrate the service within Google Apps. Lastly, if you decide you need some major firepower you can sign up for the enterprise account which gets all the previously mentioned features, plus a long list of extra features primarily dealing with account management and security settings. Personal accounts offer 1 user access and storage space from 5-50GB, business accounts offer from 3-500 users and 1TB of space, lastly enterprise accounts offer unlimited users as well as an unlimited amount of online storage. Personal accounts start at $9.99, business accounts start at $45 a month for 3 users, and enterprise accounts prices vary depending on your needs. In comparison to Dropbox they do have the advantage of offering more storage for a cheaper price. One of the largest problems I have personally with the Box service is the file size limits that are thrown onto each account and I'll explain why. For a personal account, there is a file size limit of 250mb-1GB depending on the account tier. For someone like me who often works with multimedia or video files that end up rendering out to 3-5 GB at a minimum, the Box service will not be able to cater to my needs. If I have put 30+ hours into a single file I would absolutely invest into a backup service that will ensure I do not have the chance of loosing my work if my computer were to crash, become stolen, or some other unfortunate event. You might be thinking, well why don't you just upgrade from a personal plan? Even if I were to upgrade to a business account my file size limit only raises to 2GB and the enterprise level raises it to 5GB. These are still too low in my personal opinion and something I hate most about the service. Especially when you compare to Dropbox who does not feature a file size limit, it is one of Box's major downfalls.

The Box service function's fairly well though not as well as DropBox in my personal opinion. The interface for both the online control panel and the desktop/mobile client are not as appealing and well designed,. I much prefer the Dropbox interface simplicity and ease of use that practically anyone can handle without having to reference support or how-to documentation. Another thing I noticed that was very disappointed with Box was the upload speed of the personal accounts. Documents seem to take years to upload and the only way to boost this speed is to purchase a business level plan or higher where you will get the advantage of the "faster uploads" feature. How much of an increase would this be, I really cannot answer that as I haven't had a chance to demo anything, but the personal account. In comparison of the upload speeds of DropBox, Box is the clear loser of this matchup.

Final Thoughts

The Box service will undoubtedly satisfy some users, but due to a few major flaws such as constricting file size limits and slow upload upload speeds I cannot recommend it when there are superior options available within the same price range. If you are someone looking to store small sized files and don't mind dealing with slow upload speeds then sign up and give it a try, you have nothing to lose. If you are looking to store files that are larger than 1GB then you should steer clear and look into an better alternative such as Mega or DropBox.

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Box Personal & Business Cloud Storage Review - Better Than Dropbox?

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Box is one of the top competitors for online cloud storage suitable for both personal and business use. Box has been around since 2005 and is beginning to make a serious mark in the cloud storage market against tough competition such as DropBox.

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- New Zealand based
- Provides encryption in every part of the process
- Only able to be opened by you
-  Local clients for Windows, OS X, and Linux,  secure browser plugins for Chrome and Firefox.
- Apps are available for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Blackberry
- Standard free package 50GB of space, 500GB (99 Euros per year), 2TB (199 Euros per year), or 4TB (299 Euros per year) and increased bandwidth with each package
- Allows sending invitation to a friend and set the level of actions they can complete
- Secure communications features

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MEGA is not your typical cloud storage service. That is, unless your typical cloud storage service is anti-government, pro-privacy, and founded in the wake of the largest file sharing shutdown in history.

MEGA's founder, Kim Dotcom, is not known to shy away from publicity. In the aftermath of Megaupload's shutdown for copyright infringement, Dotcom has openly criticized world leaders for their stances on privacy and free speech. For their part, governments have spied on him, raided his property, and seized his assets. The U.S. government calls him a criminal. His fans call him a hero. One could argue Kim Dotcom's reputation precedes MEGA's. Regardless, his new brand of file hosting service remains popular. MEGA counts over 7 million users to its name.

So is MEGA a cloud storage service you should use? Can you trust it to backup your data online? I will take a look at how it performs in this review.

Pros

50GB free cloud storage

Synchronize folders on your PC

Great mobile apps

Completely private encryption

Attractive, useful web interface

File versioning

Deleted file recovery

Cons

Windows only sync client

Security features aren't as newbie friendly as other cloud storage services

Doesn't transcode shared videos

The Bottom Line

MEGA provides a completely private cloud storage experience, combined with easy to use features and great looking apps.

MEGA Plans and Pricing

MEGA offers several plans to choose from:

Free Plan

50GB storage

10GB bandwidth limit, reset every 30 minutes

Pro I

9.99 € (about $13.50 USD) per month. Or 99.99 € per year (save 17%).

500GB storage

1TB monthly bandwidth limit

Pro II

19.99 € (about $27 USD) per month. Or 199.99 € per year (save 17%).

2TB storage

4TB monthly bandwidth limit

Pro III

29.99 € (about $40 USD) per month. Or 299.99 € per year (save 17%).

4TB storage

8TB monthly bandwidth limit

If you pay for the annual plan, the bandwidth limits are multiplied for the entire year. So sign up for a yearly Pro I plan, and get 12TB of total bandwidth (1TB x 12 months).

First Impressions of MEGA

When you sign up, MEGA will tell you how easily your password is brute forced. I liked this, because most people don't put enough effort into creating strong passwords.

The MEGA web interface is where you can manage your account and stored files. The tabs include:

Cloud Drive: Where all your files are stored.

Rubbish Bin: Your deleted files are kept here.

Contacts: Add emails of people you want to share files with.

Inbox: I still don't know what this is for. To get messages from people you've shared with, I guess? I couldn't get any messages to show up here.

The MEGA Sync Client

The MEGA sync client can synchronize files and folders on your PC with your MEGA account. This is kind of like Dropbox and other cloud storage services which put a virtual drive on your computer. The difference is that MEGA lets you choose which folders to sync. So you can have a "Pictures" folder on your hard drive that syncs to a "Pictures" folder in your MEGA account. You're not limited to just one folder; you can sync as many as you want.

Network drives can also be added, so you can sync folders on a NAS device.

The sync client is only available for Windows, so Mac and Linux users are out of luck. Update Sept 2014: Mac and Linux are now supported.

Sharing Files and Folders

You can share files publicly, which would not require a MEGA account to view. This is good for files you don't care too much about, security wise.

For private files, you can grant access to other MEGA users. Shared folders can bet set as read-only, read & write, or full access. You can set permissions on a per individual basis. So if you want Fred to have read-only access to a folder, but Mary to have full access, you can do so. Both parties need to have a MEGA account for security. Since MEGA offers free accounts, this is a great way to share files with friends and family.

Shared folders with pictures in them will be converted to photo galleries, so your recipient can easily view them. Videos are not viewable on the web, however. You have to download them, which I thought was a bit of a bummer. Other cloud storage services can transcode videos. Not MEGA, apparently.

If you no longer want to share a folder, you can turn off the public link in the Sharing menu.

Restore Deleted and Changed Files

Deleted files will show up in your Rubbish Bin. Restoring a deleted file is easy. Just navigate to it using the folders organized by date, right click on it, then restore it.

MEGA lets you recover previous versions of files. However, it does not perform incremental file versioning. So if a synced file changes, it is replaced as a whole. It is not recommended to sync large, constantly changing files for this reason.

Regardless, you can restore previous versions of files by right clicking on them and downloading them to your computer. It's not perfect, but it works.

MEGA Speed

MEGA is very, very fast when uploading and downloading files.

My upload speeds to MEGA averaged 7.8 megabits per second (Mbps), which maxed out my bandwidth. So potential speeds could be even higher.

As far as restore speeds, I downloaded a 10GB test file at 27.3 Mbps, which was just short of my 31 Mbps maximum.

MEGA Mobile Apps

MEGA has mobile apps for Android, iOS, and Blackberry.

I felt the Android app was polished and easy to use. With it, I could access my cloud files, upload files, move files, and create share links. It does everything the web interface does.

There's a photo sync feature to automatically backup photos on your phone. A PIN unlock setting adds an additional layer of security, by requiring a passcode before opening the app.

MEGA also has apps for Chrome and Firefox, which are supposed to be faster than using the default web interface. I tested the Chrome app and it was definitely better than using the default web interface. Using the app resolved an issue where large files (many gigabytes in size) failed to download. So I highly recommend you use it, especially if you're working with large files.

MEGA Security

When you're storing data in the cloud, security is extremely important. After all, you don't want hackers or government agencies to have access to your data. Only you should have access to your files.

MEGA uses above-average security measures to protect your data. They're as paranoid about the NSA as you are.

All data stored on MEGA is encrypted end to end. Data is only decrypted once it's on the receiving device (i.e. your computer). MEGA stores your data encrypted at all times, and never has access to your decrypted data.

Your password unlocks your master encryption key. Without it, you can't view your data. You can reset your password, but this requires a copy of your encryption key (which you can download as a backup).

Who Should Use MEGA?

Anybody who is paranoid about security and needs to store large amounts of data in the cloud would be well served by MEGA. Their policy of end to end encryption - making it impossible for MEGA to view your data (even if they wanted to) is a step above other cloud storage services.

On the downside, there's no sync client for Mac or Linux users. You're also out of luck if you forget your password, so this service isn't ideal for beginners.

As far as performance, I was really impressed with the quality of the web interface. Downloading and uploading files is essentially effortless. Speeds are fast. You can give custom permissions to shared folders, and it's all very easy to use.

Since MEGA offers a whopping 50GB of free cloud storage space, you should definitely it a try.

More Screenshots

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MEGA Review: 50 GB of Free Cloud Storage and Bulletproof Security

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MEGA is not your typical cloud storage service. That is, unless your typical cloud storage service is anti-government, pro-privacy, and founded in the wake of the largest file sharing shutdown in history. MEGA's founder, Kim Dotcom, is not known to shy away from publicity.

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BOX vs MEGA