| |
Box.net Review
Box.net is our favorite online storage service and gets our No. 1 Choice Award in this category! Read our review below to find out why... |
|
|
- Individual: $7.95 per month for:
- 5 Gb Storage
- 5 collaboration folders
- Business: $15 per month per user for:
- 15 Gb storage
- Unlimited Collaboration folders
- Version history, custom branding and admin console
- Customized plans are available
- Free 14 day trial
- Easy set up
- No software or hardware
- 99.9% uptime guarantee
- User permission controls
- 24x7 phone support
- Over 50,000 businesses use it
- Collaborate in an online workspace
- Access storage anywhere
- Access from mobile devices
- Up to 15Gb storage
- Organize multiple folder layers
- Leave comments attached to specific documents
- Automatic notification of file changes
- Version history to rollback if there is a problem
- Security controls to keep your files safe
- Custom branding
- Task scheduling to automatically perform maintenance
- Works with any operating system
- Group discussion forums
- Fax documents for free
- Open platform to allow custom development
- Preview documents in your browser
Box.net is an excellent online storage service aimed at small to medium businesses. It is loaded with features, very easy to use and offers competitive prices for an account. Read on to see why we think Box.net deserves the number 1 spot in our top ten list of online storage providers.
The main function of Box.net is to provide online storage that you can easily access through any web browser. However, while some of its competitors only do this, Box.net offers a lot more besides. Individual users will appreciate the ability to organize multiple layers of folders and different methods of sharing files with someone who doesn't have a box account while business users will find the online workspace and collaboration features very useful. There are too many features to go over in detail here but if you can imagine all the useful features of a document control system, social networking website and, of course, online storage service mixed into one, then you have some idea of what Box.net is about.
The one thing we think makes Box.net particularly stand out are the features to aid people in collaborating online to create and edit documents. The versioning control system allows you to see who made changes when and can be configured to provide automatic notifications when changes are made to a document. There is also a commenting feature which makes it easy to attach quick comments to any file - a bit like leaving a post-it note on someone's desk.
Most users will probably access Box.net's functionality through their web browser. Everything works directly through your web browser so there is no need to download any other software to use the service, which means you can access your files from any computer you happen to be using. It also means that you can use the service from pretty much any device that can run a web browser. That includes most mobile phones these days and Box.net provides a specially designed interface for Blackberries and iPhones.
The interface itself is absolutely the best we have seen in any of the services we have reviewed here. The design is clean and crisp and goes a long way towards making the service as easy to use as possible. All the most common features are easily accessible from your homepage and have nicely drawn icons to aid in finding your way around. As you use the service more you will begin to appreciate how quickly the pages load even though they use a lot of web 2.0 gadgets and features to help display your files. This is really important in a service like this when you will often be clicking through multiple levels of folders and files.
Security is always an issue in any online service and Box.net is no exception. The service prides itself on being extremely secure and impenetrable to hackers. All file uploads are transferred using a secure connection and, of course, your account is password protected. What's more Box.net allows you to manage user accounts (business subscription only) to allow different levels of access to different users. This means you can easily give others access to your Box.net account while still keeping your most important files private.
In terms of storage space Box.net does not offer the huge number of gigabytes that some services do, but still offers plenty enough for the types of tasks most people will be using it for. A personal account is allocated 5Gb and a business account is allocated 15Gb for each user. This is more than enough for most work related activities, but might not be enough if, for some reason, you wanted to store your whole Mp3 collection online.
Box.net is a paid for service, unlike some others in this category, and is aimed at small to medium business users. However, they also provide a slightly less fully featured individual account for $7.95 per month which lacks some of the workspace collaboration features provided with a business account. Business users get access to the full functionality of the service and are charged $15 per month per user. Box.net also encourages customers to call and discuss any customized plans which may be required.
To summarize, we think Box deserves the number 1 spot because:
- It has an astounding number of features which allow you to do anything you want with your files
- The web interface is incredibly easy to use
- The whole web site is designed extremely well and looks great
- The prices are the most reasonable we have seen
- The service has been around for a relatively long time so it knows what it's doing
In all we think Box.net provides an excellent service and is great value for money. The interface is amazingly simple to use and it provides all the features you could need for organizing your online file storage while the cost is low enough to justify personal or business use. At such good prices and with so many great features we recommend you sign up for a Box today!
>> Click here to visit Box.net
or
<< Back to the rest of our Online Storage Reviews
|
|
|
