file-hosting service comparison: quick access with dropbox

AUGUST 2014

A PRINCIPLED TECHNOLOGIES TEST REPORT Commissioned by Dropbox

FILE-HOSTING SERVICE COMPARISON: QUICK ACCESS WITH DROPBOX

Two big advantages of storing files in the cloud are the convenience and the

speed with which you can access them. Anything that slows down your access can put a

damper on your productivity and be a source of frustration. In your busy daily routine,

you dont have time to deal with sluggish loadingyou need to be able to access your

files whenever and wherever you want. Choosing a reliable file-hosting service that can

deliver a smooth and speedy experience ensures that file access wont be an issue.

At Principled Technologies, we wanted to compare the file-hosting service

Dropbox against three competing services. To do so, we conducted a series of tasks on

three devices: a Microsoft Windows 7 laptop, an Apple laptop, and an Apple

smartphone. Our laptop tasks included uploading, editing, downloading, and syncing

files, and our mobile tasks included opening directories and previewing files. We found

that Dropbox can save you valuable time by providing a faster user experience than the

competing solutions. Dropbox saved over 3 minutes compared to Box when syncing an

edited file and saved over 30 seconds compared to OneDrive when syncing a small file.

Choosing the wrong file-hosting service can limit accessibility to your files:

access your cloud and your files on your terms.
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A Principled Technologies test report 2

File-hosting service comparison: Quick access with Dropbox

OUR TESTING: FOUR SERVICES ON THREE DEVICES We performed a series of tasks using four file-hosting services:

Dropbox

Google Drive

Box

Microsoft OneDrive

All of these services offer a program that you can install on your device and use

to synchronize your files. We used these programs on three devices:

HP ProBook 430, a representative Windows 7 laptop

MacBook Air, a representative Apple laptop

Apple iPhone 5S, a representative mobile device

All of the hosting services also let you perform synchronization tasks using a

Web browser. We tested this function using Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 on the

Windows 7 HP ProBook 430.

We found that, across the board, performing synchronization tasks using

Dropbox was quicker than with the other three services. For more information about

the devices on which we tested, see Appendix A. For details on how we tested, see

Appendix B.

USING A SYNCHRONIZATION PROGRAM Using the sync program for a file-hosting service can be easier than using a Web

browser. We used each services application on each of the three devices we tested.

Windows 7 programs on the HP ProBook 430 Uploading files

We tested the upload capabilities of each file-hosting offering by pasting a 50KB

file to the desktop sync folder and timing how long it takes to upload the file. Figure 1

shows the results. Dropbox uploaded the file to the cloud over 3 seconds faster than

Google Drive and Box and over 6 seconds faster than OneDrive.



Figure 1: Time in seconds to upload a 50KB file on the Windows 7 laptops using the application version of each file-hosting solution. Lower numbers are better.

Syncing edited files We edited 1 KB of random data in the middle of small and large files located in

the desktop sync folder. Figures 2 and 3 show the results of the small file and large file

edit tests, respectively. Dropbox synced the large single file edit over 1.5 minutes faster

than Google Drive and OneDrive and over 2 minutes faster than Box.

Figure 2: Time in seconds to synchronize an edited 50KB file on the Windows 7 laptops using the local desktop sync application of each file-hosting solution. Lower numbers are better.



Figure 3: Time in minutes:seconds to synchronize an edited 25MB file on the Windows 7 laptops using the local desktop sync application of each file-hosting solution. Lower numbers are better.

Downloading files We simulated downloading a 50KB file from each file-hosting offering by

dropping a file onto the Web interface and measuring the time it took to download to

the local desktop sync folder. Figure 4 shows the results. Dropbox downloaded the file

over 10 seconds faster than Google Drive and over 5 seconds faster than OneDrive.

Dropbox and Box had the same download times.

Figure 4: Time in seconds to download a 50KB file on the Windows 7 laptops using the local desktop sync application of each file-hosting solution. Lower numbers are better.



Performing end-to-end synchronization It is convenient to sync files between multiple computers using a file-hosting

service. We timed an end-to-end synchronization by copying a 50KB file to the desktop

sync folder on one HP ProBook 430 and measuring the time it takes to sync on a second

HP ProBook 430. Figure 5 shows the results. Dropbox performed the end-to-end sync

over 12 seconds faster than Google Drive and OneDrive and over 5 seconds faster than

Box.

Figure 5: Time in seconds to synchronize a 50KB file on the Windows 7 laptops using the local desktop sync application of each file-hosting solution. Lower numbers are better.

OS X applications on the Apple laptop Uploading files

We performed the same upload test using the Apple OS X local sync applications

of each file-hosting offering that we performed on the Windows 7 laptops. We pasted a

50KB file to the local sync folder and timed how long it took to upload the file. Figure 6

shows the results. Dropbox uploaded the file to the cloud over 2 seconds faster than

Google Drive and over 3 seconds faster than Box. Dropbox was less than 1 second faster

than OneDrive.



Figure 6: Time in seconds to upload a 50KB file on the Apple laptops using the local desktop sync application of each file-hosting solution. Lower numbers are better.

Syncing edited files Figures 7 and 8 show the results of the small and large single file edit tests,

respectively, using the OS X version of the desktop sync application. When we edited 1

KB of random data in the middle of small and large files, we found that Dropbox

synchronized the large edited file over 1.5 minutes faster than Google Drive, Box, and

OneDrive.

Figure 7: Time in seconds to synchronize an edited 50KB file on the OS X laptops using the local desktop sync application of each file-hosting solution. Lower numbers are better.



Figure 8: Time in minutes:seconds to synchronize an edited 25MB file on the OS X laptops using the local desktop sync application of each file-hosting solution. Lower numbers are better.

Downloading files We performed the same file download test on OS X that we describe above for

Windows 7 by dropping a 50KB file onto the Web interface and timing the download to

the local desktop sync folder. Figure 9 shows the results. Dropbox downloaded the file

over 10 seconds faster than Google Drive, over 2 seconds faster than Box, and over 6

seconds faster than OneDrive.

Figure 9: Time in seconds to download a 50KB file on the OS X laptops using the local desktop sync application of each file-hosting solution. Lower numbers are better.

Performing end-to-end synchronization We performed the end-to-end synchronization using the desktop sync app on

two Apple MacBook Air notebooks. Figure 10 shows the results. Dropbox performed the

end-to-end sync over 14 seconds faster than Google Drive, over 6 seconds faster than

Box, and over 30 seconds faster than OneDrive.



Figure 10: Time in seconds to synchronize a 50KB file on the OS X laptops using the local desktop sync application of each file-hosting solution. Lower numbers are better.

iOS applications on the Apple iPhone Opening a directory

We opened a directory from the cloud using each file-hosting services app on

the Apple iPhone and timed how long it took to open the directory. Figure 11 shows the

results. Dropbox completed the task over 0.66 seconds faster than Google Drive.

Figure 11: Time in seconds to open a directory on the Apple iPhone using each services app. Lower numbers are better.

Previewing a Word document We clicked a 500KB Word document in each app to preview the document and

measured how long it took the preview to load from the cloud using each file-hosting

service. Figure 12 shows the results. Dropbox completed the task over 6.71 seconds

faster than Box.



Figure 12: Time in seconds to preview a Word document on the Apple iPhone using each services app. Lower numbers are better.

Previewing a PDF file We performed the same preview test using a 25MB PDF file. Figure 13 shows

the results. Dropbox completed the task over 16.38 seconds faster than Box.

Figure 13: Time in seconds to preview a PDF file on the Apple iPhone using each services app. Lower numbers are better.



WEB BROWSER RESULTS

In addition to operating system specific-applications, laptops can also access

file-hosting services via Web browsers. For the Web-browser testing on the Windows 7

laptops, we used Microsoft Internet Explorer 11.0.9600.16428.

Creating home directory listing We created a home directory listing using each file-hosting service. Figure 14

shows the results. Dropbox completed the task over 0.8 seconds faster than Google

Drive.

Figure 14: Time in seconds to create a home directory listing on the Windows 7 laptops using Internet Explorer 11. Lower numbers are better.

Opening a directory We opened a directory containing 100MB of random files from the cloud using

the Web to access each file-hosting service. Figure 15 shows the results. Dropbox

completed the task over 0.67 seconds faster than Box.



Figure 15: Time in seconds to open a directory on the Windows 7 laptops using Internet Explorer 11. Lower numbers are better.

Creating a sharing link We created a sharing link using a browser for each file-hosting service. Figure 16

shows the results. Dropbox completed the task over 7.12 seconds faster than OneDrive.

Figure 16: Time in seconds to create a sharing link on the Windows 7 laptops using Internet Explorer 11. Lower numbers are better.

Previewing a Word document We used the browser interface to preview a 500KB Word document from the

cloud for each file-hosting service. Figure 17 shows the results. Dropbox completed the

task over 9.3 seconds faster than Box and 5.85 seconds faster than OneDrive.



Figure 17: Time in seconds to preview a Word document on the Windows 7 laptops using Internet Explorer 11. Lower numbers are better.

CONCLUSION Storing files with a private file-hosting service is a great decision. The services

offer accessibility that can save you time and keep you moving through your day.

However, not all file-hosting services are equalwe found that Dropbox can offer a

faster user experience compared to Google Drive, Box, and OneDrive. For example, it

took over 3 minutes less to sync a large edited file with the Windows 7 Dropbox app

than the Windows 7 Box app. Save time during your busy day with Dropbox, the right

file-hosting service for productive people.



APPENDIX A SYSTEM CONFIGURATION INFORMATION Figure 18 provides detailed configuration information for the test systems.

System HP ProBook 430 Apple MacBook Air Apple iPhone 5S

Screen size (inches) 13.3 13.3 4

Display resolution 1,366 768 1,440 900 1,136 640

PPI 118 127.68 326

Dimensions - length width height (inches)

12-7/8 9-1/4 3/4 12-3/4 9 1/2 4-7/8 2-1/4 1/4

Weight (lbs.) 3.40 2.90 0.25

CPU Intel Core i3-4010U 1.7 GHz Intel Core i5-4260U 1.4 GHz Apple A7 1.3 GHz

Storage Samsung 128GB SSD Apple 256GB SSD 16 GB

OS Windows 7 Professional SP1 Apple OS X 10.9.4 iOS 7.1.2

Figure 18: System configuration information for the test systems.



APPENDIX B HOW WE TESTED We performed each test on all applicable devices sequentially at approximately the same time of day. Only

the device being tested was powered on to avoid possible bandwidth conflicts among applications. Note: For each

application, we stopped the stopwatch in response to the following indicators:

Dropbox: The blue arrows become a green checkbox.

Google Drive: The icon stops blinking.

OneDrive: The animated bar below the cloud disappears.

Box: The orange arrows become a blue checkbox.

The indicators are the same for upload, download, and synchronizing actions.

TESTING THE APPS ON HP PROBOOK 430 AND APPLE MACBOOK AIR DEVICES Setting up the test

1. Create a large random test file (25 MB) and a small random test file (50 KB).

2. Using Python 2.7.8, create several 100MB random test directories made up of 40 files split across 15 folders.

3. Create several 100MB test directories made up of 98 real files of varying types (Word Docs, Excel Docs,

PowerPoint Docs, MP3s, PNG images, GIF images, and PDFs) split across 15 folders.

4. To perform the edit file tests, install Python 2.7.8 from www.python.org/download/ on each laptop.

5. Install the Google Chrome Web browser on each laptop.

6. At www.dropbox.com, create a Dropbox account.

7. At drive.google.com, create a Google Drive account.

8. At onedrive.live.com/about/en-us/, create a OneDrive account.

9. At www.box.com/, create a Box account.

10. Place the 100MB random test directory, large random test files, and small random test files in the documents

folder on each laptop.

11. Connect a PC laptop to the network with access to each storage account through a wired connection with an

uplink of 2.5 Mb/s and downlink of 12 Mb/s.

12. Connect a Mac laptop to the network with access to each storage account through a wired connection with an

uplink of 2.5 Mb/s and downlink of 12 Mb/s.

Running the test Uploading and downloading a 50 KB test file

1. Navigate to the Documents folder, and prepare the stopwatch.

2. Right-click the small random test file, and click Copy.

3. Navigate to the desktop sync folder for the storage solution under test.

4. Right-click the desktop sync folder for the storage solution under test, and simultaneously click Paste and start

the stopwatch.

5. When the file has completely uploaded, stop the stopwatch.
https://www.python.org/download/https://www.dropbox.com/https://drive.google.com/https://onedrive.live.com/about/en-us/https://www.box.com/



6. Record the result as the small random test file upload.

7. Open a browser and navigate to the Web interface of the storage solution under test.

8. Prepare the stopwatch.

9. Left-click a different small random test file, and drag it over the Web interface storage folder and drop the file.

10. When the file has completely uploaded, start the stopwatch.


12. Stop the stopwatch when the file has finished synchronizing to the laptop under test.

13. Record this result as the small random test file download.

Editing a 50 KB test file 1. Navigate to the desktop sync folder for the storage solution under test, and prepare the stopwatch.

2. Open the small file from the storage solution sync window.

3. Run the Python script that will place 1 KB of data in the middle of the file with random data precisely.

4. Click Save document and simultaneously start the stopwatch.

5. When the file has completely synchronized, stop the stopwatch.

6. Record the result as the small random test file edit.

Editing a 25 MB test file 1. Navigate to the desktop sync folder for the storage solution under test, and prepare the stopwatch.

2. Open the large file from the storage solution sync window.

3. Run the Python script that will place 1KB of data in the middle of the file with random data precisely.

4. Click Save document and simultaneously start the stopwatch.

5. When the file has completely synchronized, stop the stopwatch.

6. Record the results as the large random test file edit.

Performing end-to-end synchronization for a 50 KB test file 1. Prepare another desktop on the same local network by opening the desktop app of the storage solution under

test.

2. On the system under test, navigate to the Documents folder and prepare the stopwatch.

3. Right-click the small random test file, and click Copy.


5. Right-click the desktop sync folder for the storage solution under test, and simultaneously click Paste and start

the stopwatch.

6. Switch to the Desktop that was setup in step 1.

7. When the small random test file has completely synchronized and shows up as synchronized on the remote

desktop in the sync folder, stop the stopwatch.

8. Record the result as the small random test file end-to-end synchronization.

Perform a Checksum 1. At the end of each of the various upload/download tests, download the entire test corpus.

2. To make sure all the files are the same and intact, perform a batch-run of MD5 hash verifications against the

original test corpus using the tool Checksum Compare.



3. Record the results.

Repeating the tests 1. Once you have completed all of the tasks above, reboot the system and complete the tasks two more times with

a new set of randomly generated files.

TESTING THE MOBILE APP ON APPLE IPHONE 5S DEVICES Setting up the test

1. On each storage solution, create and place a 25MB PDF file.

2. On each storage solution, create and place a 500KB Word document.

3. On each storage solution, place the 100MB directory with real files.

4. On each device, install the appropriate storage solution app.

Running the test Opening a directory

1. Open the app for the storage solution under test, and prepare the stopwatch.

2. Simultaneously click the batch file directory and start the stopwatch.

3. When the files and filenames in the subdirectory are visible, stop the stopwatch.

4. Record this result as the time to click on a directory and have it open.

Previewing a small 500KB Word document 1. Open the app for the storage solution under test, and prepare the stopwatch.

2. Simultaneously click the Word document and start the stopwatch.

3. When the document has completely opened, stop the stopwatch.

4. Record this result as the time to preview 500KB Word document.

5. Verify that the document displayed correctly. Note any broken formatting or display problems.

Previewing a large 25MB PDF document 1. Open the app for the storage solution under test, and prepare the stopwatch.

2. Simultaneously click the PDF file and start the stopwatch.

3. When the PDF has completely opened, stop the stopwatch.

4. Record this result as the time to preview a 25MB PDF document.


Repeating the tests Once you have completed all of the tasks above, reboot the system and repeat them two more times with a new

set of randomly generated files.



TESTING THE WEB BROSWER ON HP 430 DEVICES Setting up the test

1. Install Microsoft Internet Explorer on any device that does not already have the browser.

2. On the devices with Google Drive, enable the new Google Drive Experience:

a. Navigate to Google Drive. b. Click the settings gear and choose Experience the new Drive from the drop down menu. c. Click Next three times. d. Click Take me to Drive. e. Close Google Drive.

3. Place a 500KB Word document on each storage solution.

4. For the Create a Folder Share test, create a doc file with three email addresses and place this file on each system

under test.

Running the test Creating a home directory listing

1. Open the browser under test, and prepare the stopwatch.

2. Enter the home directory address of the storage solution under test into the address bar.

3. Simultaneously press Enter and start the stopwatch.

4. When the files and filenames in the home directory are visible, stop the stopwatch.

5. Record this result as the time to open a home directory.

Opening a directory 1. In the browser under test, navigate to the home directory of the storage solution under test, and prepare the

stopwatch.

2. Simultaneously click the 100MB random test directory and start the stopwatch.

3. When the files and filenames in the subdirectory are visible, stop the stopwatch.

4. Record this result as the time to click on a directory and open it.

Creating a sharing link 1. In the browser under test, navigate to the home directory for the storage solution under test, and prepare the

stopwatch.

2. Create a shared link for the large random test file (25 MB):

a. In Dropbox, simultaneously start the timer and right-click the large random test file (25 MB). i. Select Share link from the dropdown menu.

ii. Click Get link. iii. When the copied link is displayed at the top of the browser, stop the stopwatch.

b. In Google Drive, simultaneously start the timer and highlight the large random test file (25 MB). i. Click the Show Link button.

ii. Simultaneously press CTRL+C, and stop the stopwatch. c. In Box, simultaneously start the timer and right-click the large random test file (25 MB).

i. Select Share from the menu. ii. Simultaneously press CTRL+C, and stop the stopwatch.

d. In OneDrive, simultaneously start the timer and right-click the large random test file (25 MB). i. Select Share from the menu.



ii. Click Get a link. iii. Click Create Link. iv. Highlight the link. v. Simultaneously press CTRL+C, and stop the stopwatch.

3. Record this result as the time to create a sharing link to a large random test file.

Previewing a 500KB Word document 1. In the browser under test, navigate to the home directory of the storage solution under test and prepare the

stopwatch.

2. Simultaneously click the Word document and start the stopwatch.

3. When the document has completely opened, stop the stopwatch.

4. Record this result as the time to preview a 500KB Word document.


Repeating the tests 1. Once you have completed all of the tasks above, reboot the system and complete the tasks two more times with

a new set of randomly generated files.



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