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Comment by spike021 | Hacker News Reader

I don't know that they have a submarket cornered per se, but my university seems to be using them exclusively for the online class system (log in / download lecture files, etc).

On my own I've been using them for about 5 years, give or take. I use it over Dropbox a majority of the time. I personally like Box. I think it works well enough and it has a desktop syncing client for regular customers now. Used to be exclusive to business customers IIRC, so that was one of the things people didn't like.

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What features does Box have that Dropbox doesnt? I realize that as a nonpaying user, I'm definitely not in the target market, but are there killer apps besides the normal usecases of a synced folder on all of your devices and sharing links to those files?

I think they have mostly equal features, but I don't use Dropbox extensively so I can't say exactly. I actually am a nonpaying user for Box as well.

I have the ability to edit/create documents in Microsoft Office or Google Drive formats right in my Box account. I don't use any killer apps though. But it works well enough for nearly every use case I've had in the time I've used it, with the exception that file upload size limit is small. Might be around 100 megabytes max.

There's also versioning for files, if you need that kind of feature.

My university and hospital system recently rolled out Box across the whole institution. I think the major difference is that Box is willing to sign a Business Associate Agreement and ensure compliance with HIPAA standards. My understanding is that Dropbox has been unwilling to negotiate and sign BAAs, so the service can't be used for sensitive information without huge risk. At least at our institution, we can store deidentified research data on Box, and there are options available for storing Protected Health Information as well (though it requires going through our Information Security office)

What does Box do better than its competitors?

Their small file size limit and lack of a Linux client have prevented me from using their service.

I think it's mostly on par from what I've used of DropBox and Google Drive. I'm sure there are some significant differences, however.

Personally the only thing I've really had a problem with using Box is the small file size limit as well. But everything else has been smooth since starting to use it.

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