Box Reviews

Pros
1. Sharing files is simple, no matter who you want to share with and no matter from what device. You can share a document with someone inside or outside of the organization without giving up control of the document. No need for someone outside of the organization to upload any software in order to access the shared document. 2. As an HR professional I find Box to be a great tool for collaborating with hiring managers. I set up a system for resume sorting that allows hiring managers to see just those resumes selected for their review, and allows the manager to move the candidates ahead in the hiring process, or not, as desired. I can then take action based on their actions in Box. It's very efficient. As a small business we do not need expensive, extensive stand-alone software for applicant tracking. Box allows us to record our decision making process 3. Largely intuitive, but in case you need a bit of help, the webinars and how-to videos are very easy to follow. 4. I can access, read and send documents from my phone. Very helpful for those moments at the beach when you realize you forgot to send a document to your boss. It's happened.

Cons
1. I work mostly from an old Mac. I find some of the interface less smooth than from my PC. For example, when I create a Word doc within Box while using my Mac, the Mac defaults to Text Edit instead of Word. I suspect that's user error, though.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
There are many things to love about Box. For one, its Business plans come with unlimited storage! We started out with Free just to try it, then moved to Starter then Business (as we needed more than 10 users on board). It's worth it esp for small to medium-sized businesses looking for a secure place for storage with tons of extra features for both admin and security. The 5GB upload is enough for the big multimedia and other iso/archive files we have. For our admin, the integration with our Active Directory saved us from having to require our users to create/maintain an extra account (user/password) for Box. We are also proud to announce to our team about its security features like SSL, encryption, and even two-factor authentication for the meticulous. Although​ we haven't had the need for the DLP (Data Loss Prevention) that Box advertises, we are happy that this is part of our subscription and gives a little extra boost of confidence with our files. The corporate logo can also be incorporated into the platform to make it personalized according to your company's branding scheme. Box also offers a ton of possible integrations. So far what we use are integrations with Google Suite (e.g., docs), Salesforce (CRM), and MS Office 365. This makes it easy for users​ to create content is our usual platforms and then easily save and manage them in Box.

Cons
We have quite a number of staff who already use other online storage platforms (Dropbox, Google Drive). Note that Non-Box users can only access files as Read-Only... in which case our people really had to be forced to create an account for edit purposes and collaboration.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
Strong security. Data ownership model. Flexibility of collaboration and sharing options. Platform and vendor agnostic. Good administrative controls. Reasonably good reporting. Reasonably good APIs. Ease of use for end users. It's been great watching the creativity and innovation of the users. They've found ways to do things with Box we never imagined when we signed on.

Cons
The desktop sync is different than and technically inferior to that of Dropbox, the consumer tool most users are familiar with in this space. We anticipate this change when Box for Desktop is released in 2017. We'd also like to see the maximum file size increase. I'd like to see improvements in the administrative reporting. Many users have trouble getting their head around Box's waterfall permission model, particularly IT professionals. It's different than what they are used to. It ads an impediment to the retirement of NFS.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Security is still my favorite feature - I have the confidence that our data is secure and will remain secure. Box meets a number of US based and international security regulations and data compliance requirements, Box makes governance and compliance easy. Notifications based on file changes or folder changes have allowed us to create "instant workflows" to quickly move data from a variety of locations in the hands of a number of users. This has allowed us to create a system where data is not only securely stored, but able to be quickly acted upon by a geographically diverse group of staff. Rolling Box seats out to new users is easy, and Box makes a wide variety of training materials available to its users to help them leverage the features.

Cons
There's not much to dislike - the feature set is good and continues to grow. If there is a downside, it is that - like all cloud based solutions - connectivity is required, and that can sometimes be a challenge for my organization is some of the remote international locations where we work.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
My university decided to replace its archaic system of various collective departmental, college, and institution drives and servers with Box. It is a thousand times easier to access from a variety of locations, at almost any time, using almost any communicative medium you wish to employ. In the 21st century the modern mobile educational facility and educator lives and dies on the capacity to not just amass data and research and information but also to retrieve and manipulate it at remote locales in a secure, rapid way.

Cons
The biggest challenge is that Box has, like many modern softwares, engineered a number of plug ins. I have found that the reliability and functionality of these varies. for example, the general BoxSync application works perfectly but then there is a Box application for Windows 8 and another for Windows 10 which are "store apps" which are not as good at syncing and it is possible you might have both kinds of applications on your machine and that is rather confusing for the user since they have different interfaces and the syncing between them is not as transparent as one might expect. There is a page of these plugins and their descriptions overlap substantially and so it's not always clear which application you should employ in conjunction with your general Box.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
I like the versatility for uploading and downloading files. Files can be uploaded by dragging them into the folder in a web browser. You can also allow them to be uploaded through email. When this is activated, a unique email address is created. Any attachments in emails sent to that address are uploaded to that folder. We use our reporting software to send reports to these folders. Within this folder, uniquely named documents can replace existing ones or be added in addition to the original. Files can also be uploaded through synced folders. I use this to store all of my work documents. Any file in this folder is synced with the online folder. The Box files can easily be accessed from any web browser or through the mobile app. Ours is placed behind our firewall. With the mobile app, you can also create offline versions of documents for easy access without internet access. Downloading can be completed easily though the app or online. Individual files can be downloaded one at a time or en mass as a zip file.

Cons
I am pretty happy with this product. The only thing that I would prefer is the ability to download multiple files at once as separate files instead of being downloaded as a zip file.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
The features I have found to be most helpful over other cloud storage platforms are: 1) Collaboration just not that it exists, but it is easy and user friendly. Allowing data that is necessary to be worked on to be brought to the surface 2) Security focus on compliance, encryption, enterprise grade management 3) 3rd Party Integrations allowing for Box to truly be a platform to be used with other software. 4) Mobile apps, very strong and easy to use

Cons
There are still some management features I would like to see improved, giving more control to IT. There is a good bit here, but could use a bit more.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
1. Enterprise Edition with unlimited storage plan costs roughly $35/month. For a mature organization spending a large amount on servers/admins for those servers, this is very affordable. 2. Ability to model sharing between departments is priceless. Literally changes the way an organization behaves with information sharing if configured properly (silo killer). 3. Customer service is second to none. 4. Native integration with other cloud apps that charge additional fees for storage quotas. This includes NetSuite, SFDC and Workfront and many more. 5. MetaSearch on Enterprise allows granular searching. Every time someone has ever used a single word is indexed -- INSIDE the documents stored.

Cons
1. More of a learning curve for users because of more features. 2. More robust administrative functionality also requires more learning. 3. Not the cheapest cloud solution out there - but you get what you pay for.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
Box is used by everybody in the company for a very easy to use file storage system. The company is 100+ employees in the construction industry. We store each project in its own specific folder with everything related in this. This makes my life easier by being able to pull up blueprints or files from any device I am on. I work out of 4 different locations and so local storage would not be possible for this. Box is easily integrated onto your desktop for localized access on the computer. Anytime you make a change from your computer it will update the files in the cloud. We have over 20 people that access the files for the project and we are able to assign roles to anybody accessing the files. Some might be only able to open the files and other we can allow editing of the documents. Share large files is as simple as right-clicking and copying a link for the file location. You do not need to go through the web portal in order to share folders or documents. Box is probably one of the best enterprise level cloud storage solutions for a business.

Cons
I wish to allow the administrator to have a log of changes and able to temporarily access deleted files. I sometimes have people make mistakes or changes and it would be useful to see who moved a file or deleted a file. However, it does show you the last user to save a file just not a log of deleted documents. I have also had a worker delete important documents that we were not able to retrieve on an administrator level.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
First off - let me say that I was a very early adopter of the Box platform, and I was grandfathered in with 25GB free storage. That said, I am not on a paid plan which is why I didn't comment on the pricing. I can say that the pricing is on par with the rest of the industry. I will also stick to commenting on the free version - which lacks some of the paid features. The Box Drive sync client works very well. I have seamless access to my files on all of my devices. I am able to share files and folders with ease. It is a very stable cloud platform in my opinion. As for the paid options - I believe that they work as advertised, and I've watched the platform evolve and mature over time to be a competitive with the other providers. Some of their partnerships are better by far than the others.

Cons
Honestly - from the free version standpoint - the biggest issue I had was when they migrated from the simple sync client to the Box Drive client. That actually proved to be more difficult than it should have. I also lost some features that I had with the sync client - due to me being on the free version.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
The security structure is great and very flexible. You can create various structures for all sorts of use cases. The integrations are also great. With so many partners from Microsoft to Google, we are able to create new ways to stitch our software together. Shoutout to HelloFax for being awesome! Box Notes has been amazing as well. Everyone has users using GDocs, even if you're not officially using it in your organization. This has effectively replaced at least the Document component. We have a group of users that cannot get enough of Box Notes. The new UI plus the training materials are great. Way better than most other competitors. As is the support. They are happy to help in any way possible. We've been recommending Box to other non-profits as a great solution to replacing the outdated File Server.

Cons
The inability to share individual documents to non-registered users for editing. This is probably the #1 driver for some of our users wanting to use GDrive or OneDrive.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
The file sharing capabilities. I love the fact that there is a Box sync solution that can be utilized which allows individuals to seamlessly work on documents as they would from their desktop, without having to be within a web browser or something equivalent. Saving the files is simple, and depending on the file size and internet speed, the syncing of files is pretty quick. If multiple people are working on the same file, a duplicate version will be created. If a file is accidentally deleted, there is a window where you can restore the file - no more lost files!

Cons
I have have had issues with syncing certain files which cause me to restart the program, or my computer, or overall spend some time troubleshooting the root cause. When working as it should be, Box sync is an excellent solution. As a side note, many work environments specifically block the use of file sharing software, so Box might need to be whitelisted prior to using.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
I'ved used Box, dropbox, OneDrive, and many other cloud based file storage systems for many years. Box is -- hands down -- the best application for three big reasons. The first is that Box has many built in features for SSO, management, archiving, search, and integrations that are very well suited to large scale enterprise implementations to replace client/server file systems. The second is that Box has amazing integrations (pre-built). Some of my favorites are email based notifications and submit (drop in) files via email. Not that I used them for email itself, but they are great to build automation with. The third is Box's API which is super easy to use.

Cons
The one thing I never liked about Box is that when a corp IT team includes someone to have read access (or other access) to a folder, it always shows up. Box should have user features that allow the user to hide content that is shared with with, but which they don't want or need to see. Clearly one of the huge problems of massive file collections is finding the right data. I think their search, sort, and filter technologies could really use a lot of help here.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
The Box web app and the Box Sync/Box Edit software are intuitive and easy for the new user to pick up quickly. For more experienced users, workflows can be designed and used to increase the efficiency and decrease the problems associated with file servers and other file sharing services. The Box API provides those who are inclined to develop applications a standard, with well documented features and flexibility that securely allow access to content and metadata.

Cons
The desktop applications Box Sync and Box Edit occasionally are impacted by Windows policies (IE permissions generally), which is not the fault of Box, just something to keep in mind when deploying to users. The administrator GUI search function for files is indiscriminate and doesn't allow for more complex searching.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
Security and Ease of use !! Every file you store with Box is encrypted using AES 256-bit encryption. In addition, the Box user interface makes it easy to share out and collaborate folders with specific permissions. You can easily see which collaborator (customer) has opened a specific file by running a report. Reliable file sharing....We have given all our field technicians access to a wealth of information that would normally have been emailed to them upon request and they are able to access Box directly from their tablets to access this info. This has streamlined our business and has made it easy for us to collaborate our reports with others. We have tried other file sharing sites and Box has worked perfectly for our needs.

Cons
I think the reporting on the back end needs to be improved. Other than that, we have no other complaints.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
I love how simple this software is to use. I had to begin using it as a new employee having never seen it before. It only took a few days before I felt like an experienced user. We deal with healthcare patients, and privacy and security are our top priority. This sofware provides a safe networking environment where we can discuss patient information in a HIPPA compliant way. I use Box for everything, and I have never had it crash. The information I need to access is always available. We frequently use the @ feature to signal when another person is mentioned in a task or comment, this allows for quick communication between departments that are sates away. The task feature allows you to set a "due date" which is extremely helpful when we are dealing with time sensitive issues.

Cons
Some of the document views are difficult to maneuver. For example, when there is a comment you wish to delete from a document, the toggle is not visible until you hover over comment name. I would rather have everything visible than to have to discover them by accident.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
The web interface for Box is great. Very easy to use and navigate. Managing files from the Android/iOS apps is also very well put together. One of the small features we like the most is the automatic file version numbering when overwriting an existing file on your Box. It's a nice touch that keeps track of how many revisions we've done on any specific file/design. Overall, the download/upload speeds are great, and web application is also fantastic, and the pricing is competitive for the industry.

Cons
I wish I could review the box web application and Box desktop applications separately, because they're vastly different experiences. The Box Desktop Sync (Windows) is often pretty buggy, and refuses to sync files randomly. We've been having a number of connection issues, only to learn that Box has said they won't be supporting this version of the app, and all users have to move to the new Box Drive app. It's all very confusing.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 7/10

Pros
The Box platform works, and does what it says it will do. Live online training is especially helpful for bringing on new users, and there are numerous pre-recorded tutorials and white papers. No excuses for users to not understand how the platform works. System is flexible for businesses needing to meet international security, medical compliance, etc.

Cons
Navigating all admin options can be a little daunting. The default settings are probably 'right' for Enterprise users, but for a small business I had to invest a little time with tech support to get the settings right so that my users couldn't make changes that affected the monthly cost. The Box business (from their sales, support, features) are strongly designed for large customers, not for a freelancer working with clients (examples: minimum 3 users, automated 'Relay' workflows Enterprise only.)

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
Box is one of the most popular tools in Content Management solutions on the cloud. What makes Box one of the biggest? Definitely Security is Box's strength. Additionally I really like the cross - functional team work capability. Overall, a pretty good tool if you want your documents to be synchronized at work, being able to collaborate with your team work and be sure that all your documents are safe.

Cons
The biggest weakness of Box will be the user experience. If you compare Box with its biggest competitors like Dropbox, you will see a huge difference regarding user experience. Box is not so intuitive when I use it in my day to day work. Although Box is already trying to improve this, it's still behind their competitors. Additionally, I will say that Box can improve some user management features as well.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
I love its integration with Canvas. It is the best file sharing/storage service that integrates with Canvas. We have Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive integrated with our instance of Canvas as all, and Box stands head and shoulders above those. The security is top-notch and the ease of use is great. Users can access their box content through their Canvas profile page. Teachers can enable Box use at the course level, and share Box content directly in an assignment or information page. The Box preview window is amazing as well. It allows you to preview pretty much any file type. It also has a new Microsoft Office plugin that allows you to work on a file locally on your machine and save it directly to your Box account without storing the file on your machine and syncing it.

Cons
Box doesn't allow its sync tool to be used on beta OS environments like a beta version of macOS. It kind of sucks having to wait for the general release of an operating system just because you're dependent on a file-storage service.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
1.- There are a variety of options to choose from according to your needs. You can choose a personal account or a company account. 2.- Within the personal account you have the possibility to create a free account. This account has 10GB of space in the cloud, which is enough space to store thousands of documents, songs, photos and much more. 3.- the prices of the different accounts are quite good and they are within the market price. 4.- The work environment is simple and neat, which gives the impression of being very neat and clean. 5.- You can share your files easily through the link generated by box. You can also configure if this link will be for public or private use. 6.- The speed of upload and download of larger files (over 50mb) is quite fast, although it also depends on the connection you use.

Cons
1. - Like other similar programs, conflicts are created in the files if two or more people try to use the same file at the same time. 2.- there is an important difference between the gartis account and the payment account, since the paid accounts can transfer and unload large files (up to 5GB in the most expensive version, and 2GB in the cheapest), while in the free version is an important limitation, where you can only manipulate files up to 250mb.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
It's a good way to have a centralized storage for small companies, in general it has a good interface and functionality.

Cons
Be careful how things are implemented, it can become a labyrinth if you start creating folders left and right and sharing individual folders with individual people. I would like better auditing tools, for example a way to see the whole folder structure and files easily (currently there is an export tool for this but the csv files it spits out are huge hard to look at). Having several users collaborating can create a lot of duplicate files and folders. I would like an easy way to add virtual folders, so I can have one physical folder that can be under several others. I believe you can do this through links, but is not very intuitive.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
We switched to Box from an older competitor when we realized we could get truly unlimited storage for a lower price than we were paying for a mid-level option at another competitor. When I actually got in the weeds of working with it, I was blown away by how much more feature-rich it was too. First of all, the design and user-interface is really very simple and visually appealing. But Box really shines when you're doing a lot of collaborative work and file-sharing. The tagging and notes features are very well designed, and being able to easily see all past versions of any file is really helpful.

Cons
Setting up Box Sync to automatically sync certain files/folders from my laptop was a little clunky compared to the competitor we had used, which just backed up pretty much EVERYTHING on both my cloud storage and hard drive. But the benefits of it working this way definitely override the clunkiness, and once you're past the initial setup decisions, it's just as easy but with less unnecessary junk on my hard drive.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
I lіkе thе vеrsаtіlіty fоr uрlоаdіng аnd dоwnlоаdіng fіlеs. Fіlеs саn bе uрlоаdеd by drаggіng thеm іntо thе fоldеr іn а wеb brоwsеr. Yоu саn аlsо аllоw thеm tо bе uрlоаdеd thrоugh еmаіl. Whеn thіs іs асtіvаtеd, а unіquе еmаіl аddrеss іs сrеаtеd. Any аttасhmеnts іn еmаіls sеnt tо thаt аddrеss аrе uрlоаdеd tо thаt fоldеr. Wе usе оur rероrtіng sоftwаrе tо sеnd rероrts tо thеsе fоldеrs. Wіthіn thіs fоldеr, unіquеly nаmеd dосumеnts саn rерlасе еxіstіng оnеs оr bе аddеd іn аddіtіоn tо thе оrіgіnаl. Fіlеs саn аlsо bе uрlоаdеd thrоugh synсеd fоldеrs. I usе thіs tо stоrе аll оf my wоrk dосumеnts. Any fіlе іn thіs fоldеr іs synсеd wіth thе оnlіnе fоldеr. Thе Bоx fіlеs саn еаsіly bе ассеssеd frоm аny wеb brоwsеr оr thrоugh thе mоbіlе арр. Ours іs рlасеd bеhіnd оur fіrеwаll. Wіth thе mоbіlе арр, yоu саn аlsо сrеаtе оfflіnе vеrsіоns оf dосumеnts fоr еаsy ассеss wіthоut іntеrnеt ассеss. Dоwnlоаdіng саn bе соmрlеtеd еаsіly thоugh thе арр оr оnlіnе. Indіvіduаl fіlеs саn bе dоwnlоаdеd оnе аt а tіmе оr еn mаss аs а zір fіlе.

Cons
Vеrsіоn соntrоl іs nоt аvаіlаblе fоr аll fіlе tyреs (suсh аs .lyx). Nоt mаny орtіоns/рrеfеrеnсеs аvаіlаblе. Dоеs nоt sееm tо аlwаys sеnd а nоtіfісаtіоn whеn runnіng оut оf sрасе.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Good all-around file sharing and collaboration tool. The Microsoft plugins allow you to edit a file either on your desktop or in Microsoft Online (though it breaks our formatting sometimes, so be careful!). Share links are easy to generate, even for users who don't have access to the company Box folders. Keep in mind that an administrator should be in charge of keeping the files in Box manageable and organized as well, as it can get out of control with tens or hundreds of people adding and organizing files.

Cons
Box Sync / Box Drive are not perfect - often we end up with duplicates of documents because two people opened them at the same time, or there was some issue with syncing that duplicated the documents on both ends, then was unable to reconcile them when syncing caught up. Also, while the admins can see some user activity, they can't see deleted items, which would actually be a useful thing for us to be able to see.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10