Box.com Honest Review

Box Review – Summary

Box may not be as well-known as some of the other cloud storage and online backup providers like Dropbox and Sync but that doesn’t make it any less of a contender. If you are looking for an online storage solution for your files you could do a lot worse. In fact, Box, which was launched in 2005 at the birth of many of its competitors, now boasts over 40 million users. Not only that but it has 59,000 business users which consist of a massive 59% of the Fortune 500 companies. That’s some impressive stats.

We wanted to know what makes them such a popular choice with so many individuals and businesses so we had a deeper look into what they offer including their features, pricing plans, security and support. If you are looking for a reliable and secure online cloud storage solution for personal or business use could this be the solution for you?

Features

When you look at the features of Box they are not unlike many other online storage providers, however, they do boast some impressive features like the fact that one of their users has over 200,000 users all working on files shared in Box. It is a great collaboration tool for large organisations which probably accounts for why so many large organisations use the service. What other features can you expect to find when becoming a Box user, though?

• Forget e-mail – now you can just share links to files with other members of your team or organisation.
• Preview files without downloading them. This is useful if you haven’t got time to be sifting through lots of files looking for the right one.
• Centralise files and make it easier for your team to collaborate.
• View files online and offline from a variety of devices.
• Send pics immediately to your Box account without having them take up memory on your phone.
• Remotely wipe a stolen or misplaced device or that of an employee that has left suddenly and without returning their equipment.
• Get 10MB of data free.

Ease of Use

There is no doubt that Box.com is easy to use. Some of the best-known brands in the world use it within their organisations to collaborate and store data online. So what about individuals that just want to use it for personal storage? Is it easy to use? We checked out both the mobile and desktop versions and were happy to report that the sites are easy to navigate and simple to use for everyday tasks.

First of all, you are asked to choose between personal, business and platform plans before signing up to your account. You can sign up for a free account if you are a personal user which will give you 10MB of free space that is yours to use on an ongoing basis.

If you are unsure as to whether the site is easy to use though there is a video on the sign-up page showing you exactly how the site works so the user can simply watch the video and decide if this is something they can work with.

For ease of access to files all files are available online and offline on any device whether desktop, laptop or mobile device.

Pricing

Once you have chosen whether you want a personal, business or platform plan you are taken to the relevant section to choose which is the relevant plan for you.

A Box personal cloud storage plan is free unless you want more storage then for £7 per month you can get more space and greater flexibility.

If it’s a business account you need then there are 3 options – Starter, Business and Enterprise. A start package costs £3.50 per user per month, a Business account will set you back £11 per user per month but for an Enterprise account, you will need to contact them.

Finally, there are platform plans which carry a higher cost and are a little more complicated but serve those with large organisations.

With Business and Enterprise plans there are optional add-ons available should you need more from your plan and it should be noted that if you are taking the FREE Personal plan the upload limit size is 250MB per file.

Security

With so many large blue chip organisations using Box as their online data storage solution, this would indicate that security is good. Like all reputable online storage providers Box use the very best in data encryption. In fact, they operate a system called Box KeySafe which gives you the ownership over the encryption keys. Box can’t see your encryption keys – they are for you to manage and own your content.

All content is encrypted in transit so that nothing is compromised at any time. Data security is extremely important to many organisations who have to maintain over client data at all times. With Box, all contractual compliance and data requirements are met so you can rest assured that you are meeting all of your legal obligations when it comes to client security.

Support

The page tab menu of the site contains links to Features, Pricing Plans and Solutions and Resources. The 5th menu tab is a Contact tab. Immediately below this on the mobile is a telephone number to simply click and call support.

If you press the contact us link you will get several options to call Box depending on where you are calling from. You can contact their USA office, email billing, get 24/7 technical support or call their international offices for general assistance and sales. You can also contact an office in France, Sweden and Tokyo. As well as the telephone numbers there are also addresses for each office as well as their office in the Netherlands. So you can easily call or e-mail them and reach the correct department.

Verdict

Box seems like a good, all round, solid offering so it is hardly surprising that the likes of Coca-Cola use them for their online storage. Having a look around the site you will notice some other big name clients as well which does tend to instil confidence that this provider knows what they are doing when it comes to online data storage.

Pros

• Have your whole organisation collaborating on products without the need for so much e-mail.
• Preview files without having to open them – saving time for you and members of your organisation.
• Extremely secure solution used by many of the Fortune 500 companies. Choose your own data encryption keys so that you are fully in control.
• Contact support and get technical assistance 24/7 from wherever you are in the world.
• Remotely wipe lost or stolen devices – if a rogue employee leaves with access to all of your data you can simply wipe their system.
• A variety of solutions for personal and business users so that there is something to suit everyone.

Cons

• 250MB limit to a single file upload which for users who like to upload lengthy videos or large files could be a bit of a drawback.