Ask HN: Advantages of using dropbox over google apps?

The key advantage is the auto sync - I just install Dropbox on all my computers and I just save files as normal and they are automatically available everywhere. Google apps I have to manually upload.

I'm not a Google Apps user, so I'm a bit confused by the question. I thought Google Apps was all about creating/editing documents. Can one easily upload random files (say, PDFs and MP3s) to Google Apps? Is this a common use case?

For me, Dropbox is a beautiful way to keep my office desktop computer, my home computer, and my laptop all in sync with documents I am working on, but also with random stuff I've downloaded and need to read or otherwise deal with somehow.

I'll clarify a few things before I comment, just in case people have misunderstood things. 1) Google Docs will store any file. 2) Google Docs allows you to convert pdfs to docs & edit them.

With this in mind, I prefer Google Docs, as Dropbox, to my eye, has no advantage. Perhaps you would argue that Dropbox syncs automatically. I think we must consider that GDocs are only stored in the cloud, so don't need to be synced.

I would also add that you need to have DropBox installed to sync files (though web access only needs... well... Web Access). So GDocs is just as good in that respect.

I use Dropbox to back up my "My Documents" folder, as well as a bunch of other folders. Can't do that with Google Apps.

Depends on your use case. If you want to share documents and you don't mind google's version of the word/excel/ppt, it's a good way to go. For files in which the application is on your laptop or has complicated directory structures, dropbox is better. Google has cheaper storage -- 20Gb for $5/yr last time I checked. I think Dropbox is something like $10/month for 50Gb. Google Docs is good for simple documents, but the rest of the apps are pretty bad compared to MS Office. If you're a powerpoint ranger, you aren't going to want to use Google Apps, you're going to want to put your PPT files in dropbox and use Office.

I have to say - I don't particularly like Google docs - I'd really like to, but I find the document editing clumsy enough to put me off.

DropBox works pretty well - I like the fact it syncs files on all of the machines I have it set up for rather than storing stuff purely in the cloud and downloading it when I want to look at it (although that is what their iPhone app does, and I can see why).

The DropBox model of sync'ed local files and local apps just seems to work better for me than keeping everything (files and apps) in the cloud - YMMV.

I use dropbox for a full autobackup and sync, with no thought beyond initial 30 sec configuration, across all 6 of the machines I use regularly. The advantage is that I don't have to think about it-at setup or at use time.

I also find it indispensable as a coder, sure I use version control and save regularly, but I do make mistakes. Just recently I had worked an hour or so on a new class for a recent iPhone app, saving and committing merrily along the way, when I made a mistake and deleted the .m/.h files. Turns out I missed adding it to the repo. I fired up dropbox and got the backup within seconds. Other times I've used it to revert back to previous versions of documents not traditionally kept under version control.

I haven't used Google Apps in the same sense, although I do use Google Docs for collaborative realtime editing and easy form creation.

Dropbox is good if you want to have local copies of files (perhaps because you go offline once in a while), or if you want these files to be synced in different computers, or if those files need to be edited/viewed with software that does not live in the cloud or if you want to automatically keep the different versions of files (a new version stored every time you save the file)

Google Docs is great if you need to synchronously edit documents with other people. You can upload and download files to Google Apps but as far as I know there is no cross-platform file syncing client that does what Dropbox does.

Sometimes Google apps behave just weird for me. Spreadsheet occasionally doesn't load, it's generally unusable on my mobile, etc.

I don't like Dropbox though - it doesn't really seem to guarantee the safety of my documents - what actually happens if my connection drops mid-sync?

I went Zoho way and I'm really happy with them. If you go for the business account (there is a free one), you can get the needed document storage, online editing, own domain handling, etc. It's pretty cool.

I guess dropbox works for most people because it's so easy to use and just fixes their specific problems (of keeping files in sync, quickly sharing them via url, etc).

Me, personally, I use Google Apps for emails and documents and so, naturally, I try to do as much as I can with it. Today i collaboratively worked on wireframes through it even though mockflow or mockingbird are much better at that. But they cost a bit more than I can affort right now. Also, it's nice to have everything in one place.

I'd rather use (YMMV) Dropbox, because:

- Set & forget install and maintenance - Select folder syncing. I don't want my personal files on my work computer.With recent Dropbox version, I can enable syncing on a particular machine folder by folder. - It's a real, native OS folder. I've always had problems with virtual folders and drivers and the magic they use. - I can store any type of files in a native folder :) - Sharing files via the web is dead simple. - Posting a photo gallery to the web is dead simple. - 50 GB - My files are available everywhere on every device I have.