Box vs. IBM Cloud Object Storage

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Box
Score 7.2 out of 10
N/A
Box is an online Intelligent Content Management solution that caters to individual users as well as businesses.
$7
per month per user (3 minimum)
IBM Cloud Object Storage
Score 7.1 out of 10
N/A
IBM Cloud Object Storage is an IBM Cloud product in the endpoint backup and IaaS categories. It is commonly used for data archiving and backup, for web and mobile applications, and as scalable, persistent storage for analytics.
$5,000,000,000
per month
Pricing
BoxIBM Cloud Object Storage
Editions & Modules
Business Starter
$7
per month per user (3 minimum)
Business
$20
per month per user (3 minimum)
Business Plus
$33
per month per user (3 minimum)
Enterprise
$47
per month per user (3 minimum)
Enterprise Plus
$50
per month (billed annually) per user (3 minimum)
Enterprise Advanced
Contact us
per month per user (35 minimum)
One-Rate Plan
As low as USD $12/TB a month
per month
Standard Plan
Free up to 5GB—no minimum fee, pay only for what you use
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BoxIBM Cloud Object Storage
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalOptional
Additional DetailsA discount is available for annual pricing.The One-Rate and Standard service plans for Cloud Object Storage include resiliency options, flexible data classes and built-in security. Pricing is based on the choice of location, storage class and resiliency choice.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BoxIBM Cloud Object Storage
Considered Both Products
Box
Chose Box
I believe that anyone with exposure to software like Dropbox or Google Drive will have an easier transition when attempting to use Box. Where Box could improve is having a refresh of the UI/UX design. With an improvement to the design, Box can be more responsive and widely …
Chose Box
The best user experience of any of the major cloud data providers. As it's not a product of any of the other major technology companies, it remains agnostic to the many platforms / features that everyday users want to have.
Chose Box
I slightly prefer Box over Dropbox, especially if I need to store and manage thousands of files. DropBox online file management was not as easy to navigate as Box. However, DropBox also has a similar cloud sync feature that worked similar to Box and was pretty comparable to the …
Chose Box
Box is nowhere as deep as Google Drive due to the breadth of Google's ecosystem, but it is a self-contained mini-DAM that most will find works really well. The added bonus of built in Gmail sharing is a nice addition.
Chose Box
Google Drive is a bit slower for sending and receiving files. Box helps sending links for files directly once you share it with team members.
Box is good for user interaction for files sharing. And helps users to quickly download files for internal review. I like using Box for …
Chose Box
They are kind of the same. And both of them do their job as promised. But for company and project wise I think that Box slightly wins for some points. Which [makes him] win over Google Drive (don't forget that google drive is very easy to use and has a lot [of] nice features …
Chose Box
Box has fewer features than Dropbox and that makes it easier to use.
Chose Box
The first benefit of using Box that comes to my mind is the cost advantage. Box is generally more affordable and easy-to-use than Dropbox Business because it eliminates the cost of hardware and maintenance which translates into significant cost savings. Box team maintains, …
Chose Box
Most of these cloud storage platforms have a simple interface and provide a feature of drag and drop to easily upload a file to the online drive with little or no expert knowledge. However, Box goes a step further to store data across redundant servers so that even if one of …
Chose Box
The first reason that makes Box worth considering is the ability to ensure each authorized network participant can access the stored files. Another key advantage of using Box is that essentially all organization files and backups can be stored on the Box server and with the …
Chose Box
Among many other solutions box has been vetted by our security professionals and deemed to be the best solution for our particular organization. This lends to many of box's security features that still allow for collaboration and secure file sharing.
Chose Box
Neither pCloud nor Sync.com comes with unlimited storage, even though they are cheaper than Box. They also do not match most of Box's business features like custom branding and data loss protection.
Chose Box
Box has cheap storage pricing and so is preferred by small organizations, and easy to use app and sync make it a good product to use.
Cross platform file sharing and editing over the cloud is one of the best features it has.
Chose Box
It gives different bands to give access to others to see documents which [helps] us to maintain confidential information easily and do what need. The best alternative to other cloud storage because of uploading and sharing the document.
Chose Box
For us switching to Box [was] a big move. It saves us from big problems and troubles which we were already facing while using the other software. Those use a lot of effort and have zero results in terms of results. Box has been a great find for us.
Chose Box
Compared to all the listed alternatives I would give Box a good rating, because regardless of all the things normally associated with data, Box is always protecting all types of data with great efficiency and full responsibility.
Chose Box
We have definitely come a long way to finally reach Box. It is undoubtedly a powerful and secure tool that is embedded with many modern features. Moreover, we wanted a platform that has more features and involves less cost. Altogether, it successfully stored many problems …
Chose Box
I prefer Box over all of these alternatives because I find Box to be a lot more user-friendly and intuitive. Box has a lot more integrations as compared to the previous alternatives I used in my company. Moreover, this tool has led to an improvement in risk mitigation because …
Chose Box
We use both Box and SharePoint for different purposes.
Chose Box
Simply put, having unlimited file storage is a clear differentiator. Furthermore, the number of integrations offered by Box is simply unmatched. If you are looking for pure document and file sharing, I don't think there is a better product on the market. The benefits from …
Chose Box
This platform was a recent selection but before switching to Box we used Hiver, MS SharePoint, Dropbox, and Asana. We moved to Box because of many reasons like cost factors, usability factors, support team rating, and much more. With my
IBM Cloud Object Storage
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
In my opinion, IBM are much more professional and are more buisness oriented than Google.
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
As Google Cloud Storage is our main product for this kind of thing, it remains the standard but in terms of overall performance, flexibility, stability, durability, and scalability, IBM Cloud Object Storage has put it through its paces. I think having a product put Google …
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
Amazon S3 has a more complex pricing model. It charges as per the requests, which will be more costly for us compared to IBM cloud object storage. The safety of our data is the main focus, and this is guaranteed with IBM.
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
Along with IBM Watson for AI and machine learning, IBM Aspera for fast data transport, and IBM Cloud SQL Query for data analysis, IBM Cloud Object Storage works seamlessly with other IBM Cloud services. For research initiatives that call for a variety of tools and services, …
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
IBM Cloud Object Storage compares favorably with other storage solutions due to its:

Scalability: IBM Cloud Object Storage can easily handle growing data volumes, making it suitable for businesses with evolving storage needs.
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
We've evaluated both (and use both), but we've found IBM Cloud Object Storage to be easier to use and manage overall.
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
We selected IBM Cloud Object Storage against S3 for following reasons:1.
1. We already use a lot of IBM's cloud services, IBM Cloud Object Storage would have been easier to manage.
2. It is really cost effective with the features it brings in.
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
IB cloud storage offers more options than what is offered by AWS cloud storage
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
Amazon S3 is a great service to safely back up your data where redundancy is guaranteed, and the cost is fair. In the past I have used Amazon S3 for data that we backup and hope we never need to access, but in the case of a catastrophic or even small slip of the finger with the …
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
As far as the other cloud storage services are concerned, I have limited experience. I used pleased by IBM cloud storage because it provided a smooth, running environment for my data science projects. I used IBM Watson Studio and the experience was smooth. I used IBM Db2, and …
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
IBM Cloud Object Storage is a product that gives us greater scalability, and important security features such as WORM, in addition to Simplicity and Enhanced file access
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
At the end of the day it is an IBM product that gives us a guarantee of being very robust, it is very safe, and reliable, and it also allows flexibility.
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
The previous cloud OSS platform that we used was provided by Google. Functionality in OSS is restricted in several ways. The setup and configuration steps are complicated, making the software difficult to operate. We had no problems at all during our time at IBM. Buckets may be …
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
Every vendor provides the storage capability. Just IBM Cloud Object Storage suits our needs from the cost perspective and usage perspective.
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
I use these services for covering my technological demand and each of them is highly recommended.
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
Previously, we were a user of alibaba cloud OSS. There are some limitations on OSS features. Also, not easy to use due to some complex configurations and setup processes. We didn't face any difficulties here in IBM. Easy configuration and management of buckets can be done with …
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
IBM Cloud Bare Metal Servers, IBM Cloud Virtual Servers and IBM Cloud File Storage
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
It helps to scale performance greatly. Also, it is easy to learn and is developer-friendly, has high data handling capacity, and is easy to administer.
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
Azure App Service
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
Amazon S3 service is also a good option, but based on features it provides compared with IBM Cloud Object Storage, it is less suitable. IBM Cloud Object Storage [is] also integrated with more services, like IBM Cloud SQL and IBM Aspera, which AWS does not provide to transfer …
Features
BoxIBM Cloud Object Storage
Enterprise Content Management
Comparison of Enterprise Content Management features of Product A and Product B
Box
6.1
Ratings
26% below category average
IBM Cloud Object Storage
-
Ratings
Content capture & imaging8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
File sync, storage & archiving9.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Document management6.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Records management5.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Content search & retrieval7.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Enterprise content collaboration8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Content publishing & creation5.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Security, risk management & information governance6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Contract lifecycle management5.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated workflows5.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Artificial intelligence2.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile support3.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
Comparison of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) features of Product A and Product B
Box
-
Ratings
IBM Cloud Object Storage
7.9
Ratings
2% below category average
Service-level Agreement (SLA) uptime00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Dynamic scaling00 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Elastic load balancing00 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Monitoring tools00 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Security controls00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BoxIBM Cloud Object Storage
Small Businesses
Square 9 Softworks
Square 9 Softworks
Score 9.1 out of 10
DigitalOcean Droplets
DigitalOcean Droplets
Score 8.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
MediaValet
MediaValet
Score 9.1 out of 10
SAP on IBM Cloud
SAP on IBM Cloud
Score 9.5 out of 10
Enterprises
MediaValet
MediaValet
Score 9.1 out of 10
SAP on IBM Cloud
SAP on IBM Cloud
Score 9.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BoxIBM Cloud Object Storage
Likelihood to Recommend
6.8
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Usability
6.8
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.5
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
10.0
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
5.8
(0 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BoxIBM Cloud Object Storage
Likelihood to Recommend
Very likely to use it. It gives you the comfort that all the files are being stored in [the] same places from different team members. It is easy to organize in folders and also very useful by adding time stamps. [With] an easy setup u can have and box extension installed on your laptop and use it directly. So you can sync files easily.
Read full review
IBM Cloud Object Storage is well suited for businesses that require scalable and cost-effective data storage solutions. It excels in scenarios involving massive unstructured data, like multimedia content, backups, and archives. However, it may be less appropriate for organizations with minimal storage needs or those requiring high-performance, low-latency access to data, as it's optimized for durability and data integrity rather than real-time data retrieval.
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Pros
  • The main feature that I like the most in Box is that it makes collaboration seamless, workers can easily check the documents any time and make changes according to the needs.
  • Box manages and backs up all of your files on its cloud servers, and provides a very nice interface for creating, viewing, editing, and collaborating on the most commonly used file types (PDF, XLS, DOC, etc.).
  • Over the past few years, Box has built on top of its basic cloud storage management with a host of other tools, such as workflows, AI, monitoring, and analytics.
  • It is helping us to make good connections with clients and our workers themselves as to its syncing and viewing feature to all is very much helpful and easy to go.
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  • Cloud storage allows you to save data and files in an off-site location that you access either through the public internet or a dedicated private network connection.
  • Cloud storage delivers a cost-effective, scalable alternative to storing files on on-premise hard drives or storage networks.
  • Cloud storage services provide elasticity, which means you can scale capacity as your data volumes increase or dial down capacity if necessary.
  • Business continuity of Storing data offsite supports business continuity in the event that a natural disaster or terrorist attack cuts access to your premises.
Read full review
Cons
  • The graphic design of the dashboard should be simpler and more tangible that can be changed to the liking of the Admin.
  • Sometimes there are some syncing issues in the background.
  • The product has very limited functionality in some areas which could be a bit frustrating at times.
Read full review
  • Unexpected errors are known to occur when downloading/uploading files.
  • Not easy to get started. In order to take full advantage of the platform and its features, additional training and reading documentation is needed.
  • The UI of the platform can get a bit confusing and it's easy to get lost.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
As I've stated Box is very easy to use and to set up. The documentation provided by Box is easy to follow and the interface is designed in a way that makes sense. With only a few limitations on the administrator side the system is fully capable to get the job done for our company
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because it is a robust, safe and flexible product
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Usability
I think I can only describe it as excellent. All aspects of Box work without problem, quickly and efficiently. The file upload and download systems are quite fast, the process of access from different platforms is carried out without problems, so far no document has been generated in conflicts or unexpected copies, or any type of error.
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For my use cases, it has been a very smooth experience. Even my new colleagues have been able to get on top of things very quickly. This shows how easy it is to work with
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Yeah, it's always worked, I've never had any kind of connection issues, the only issues I've had it I've been on our end when the Internet hasn't worked.
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We rarely face downtime or access issues with IBM Cloud Object Storage. It’s mostly available when we need it, even during peak hours or heavy data loads.
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Performance
It's performance is great. Everything loads as soon as you open a page. The same goes for the local file application, if is just like going through folders on a native "My Computer" or "Finder" folder. The integration into other softwares is also fantastic, as Box keeps them all running smoothly and quickly
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I would give it a 9 because it works smooth with our AI and analytics tools, no major slowdown. Pages and dashboards load fine most of the time, and reports finish in decent time even when data is heavy.
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Support Rating
I found their support community lacking in clarity when I experienced a login issue. The error messaging was poor on my Box Sync application. I did not reach out to support staff for help, instead, I reasoned that I should try downloading the Box Sync application again and reinstall it. That fixed my issue, thankfully. I think a less computer-savvy user would've been much more frustrated.
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I have been working in IT sector for more than 15 years. I have worked with various vendors. IBM's sales team, support team have been really helpful. After we start to use their product, their UX design team also contacted us to get feedback from us. They are really interested about our experience.
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In-Person Training
The in person training was done in house and I helped with the training, people seem to respond well.
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No answers on this topic
Online Training
The documentation is good. Since Box is a popular service, there were also a number of YouTube videos and other sources that were helpful as we were considering the product and planning for deployment. Also, the ability to try the free version helped to prepare us.
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I just researching and applying the tools on their platforms to ensure a good learning path, based on my needs. Reading the documentation related with resources, tools. Is too big, but I am trying to know more about it every day. It is a good way to know more about their resources. A new way to attract new customers. At the end of the day, we are all involved in improvement and automation of our tasks and resources for customers and end-users.
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Implementation Rating
Be careful with settings. It is easy to get overwhelmed with updates. For example, you don’t want to be updated when doing historical data uploads. I recommend taking off notifications initially and then turn on post you have done your historical data upload.
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IBM's professional service for migrating data and implementing new cloud environment was perfect. They started to help us before we begin to bring together all data such as how can it could be best to transfer all data without problems. During the migration they watched all the process closely to prevent any failure. Lastly, after the migration, they gave us trainings on implementation.
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Alternatives Considered
I slightly prefer Box over Dropbox, especially if I need to store and manage thousands of files. Dropbox online file management was not as easy to navigate as Box. However, Dropbox also has a similar cloud sync feature that worked similar to Box and was pretty comparable to the Box feature. The main reason my team switched to Box was because our organization provided it at no cost to our team, whereas for Dropbox we had to use our own research grant money to pay for it.
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As Google Cloud Storage is our main product for this kind of thing, it remains the standard but in terms of overall performance, flexibility, stability, durability, and scalability, IBM Cloud Object Storage has put it through its paces. I think having a product put Google through its paces is always a good thing, both for businesses and for the industry overall.
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Scalability
It's great, as we put more files on there it's done very well.
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Scaling up the number of users can lead to significant increases in licensing costs, which, while not a technical limitation, can be a practical constraint for some organizations
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Return on Investment
  • Box has been an only positive experience. It provides a seamless way for me and my team to collaborate on documents in such a way where we're not sending the document back/forth via email. It's a huge timesaver.
  • Box reduces the risk of sharing a sensitive document to the wrong person via email.
  • Box has provided a platform where my team can share notes in meetings - this has helped streamline and organize our meetings. Our meetings are more productive and actionable.
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  • In our company, we moved from on-premise to IBM cloud, our ElasticSearch Solution storage in block storage to an ICD elastic search solution with Object storage, and we reduced our cost by more than 45%.
  • Object Storage is a managed service, so you can have savings in your storage-managed team.
  • We have improved our data availability because the Regional solution of COS is distributed in three different Availability Zones.
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ScreenShots

Box Screenshots

Screenshot of an overview of Box's intelligent content management platform. It provides a unified, AI-powered approach to managing and securing your unstructured data, or content. ICM provides organizations with collaboration, AI, security, compliance, and workflow tools, interoperable and customizable, to get the most from their content.Screenshot of how with Box AI, AI can be accessed right where enterprise content exists. While that work can reside within Microsoft, Google, Apple, and other productivity suites, Box helps users to tap the full potential of AI for unstructured data.Screenshot of how Box creates a central workspace to edit, review, and assign tasks. Users can automate business processes and centralize content workflows in Box, including a configurable content submission, unlimited e-signatures, user-drive no-code workflow, and task assignment to power approvals.Screenshot of how Box secures content from threats, including malware and ransomware, and recover from attacks if they happen. This helps to maintain a zero trust architecture to ensure proper usage of corporate data, and prevent data theft.Screenshot of how Box can connect to any productivity suite, including Microsoft, Google, and Apple. This extends any existing security investments with integrations into key DLP, SIEM, and network security tools. Thus, seamless experiences can be built for users in any system they use, whether that’s a business tool like Salesforce or ServiceNow, or communications engines like Zoom and Slack.Screenshot of an overview describing Box's scalability. With unlimited storage capabilities Box has an exabyte (1,000PB) of customer data plus 1 gigabit per second upload and download speed. At its core, Box is a multi-tenant global SaaS platform with enterprise-grade reliability and end-to-end encryption to secure content.

IBM Cloud Object Storage Screenshots

Screenshot of Cloud Object Storage set upScreenshot of storage bucket creationScreenshot of the Access Management interfaceScreenshot of the interface to create, add and management of Storage BucketsScreenshot of data uploadingScreenshot of usage details