Dropbox vs Shade (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Dropbox grades higher than Shade: 2.8 against 2.0 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 5, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Dropbox grades higher on the free plan, ease of use and platforms. They get the same grade on value for money and features.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Dropbox
Cloud storage and file sync with transfer and signing tools
Shade
Cloud storage and review for video teams, with AI search
Which one is for you
Pick Dropbox if
- Fits if you want 2 TB that syncs across Windows, Mac and Linux
- Works for people who send big files to clients, with transfers of up to 50 GB on Plus
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you're staying free, because Basic stops at 2 GB
- Pricey if you only need a few hundred GB, as the smallest paid plan is 2 TB at $9.99 a month, the dear end of this category
- Skip it if you want end-to-end encryption for yourself, since it's on Advanced, which needs 3 people
- Watch out: monthly billing costs more, $11.99 for Plus and $18 a user for Standard
- Watch out: there's no trial of Plus, and reviewers say reaching a real person in support is hard
Pick Shade if
- Fits if you edit video and want review comments on the files themselves
- Works for creative teams that deliver files to clients
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you just want storage, at $29.75 a seat a month
- Not for you if you have over 15 seats or 150 guests, as that needs Enterprise at no published price
- Watch out: SSO, SCIM and audit logging are Enterprise only
- Watch out: the comparison claims against LucidLink, Frame.io and Dropbox are the vendor's own
How we grade them
| 2.8GPADropboxGood | 2.0GPAShadeFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | DPlus is $9.99 a month billed yearly, and $9.99 is exactly where the dearest tenth of this category begins, against a middle of $5. You do get 2 TB for it, but there's no smaller paid plan, so a person who wants 200 GB pays for 2 TB or stays on 2 GB. | D$29.75 a seat a month billed annually ($35 monthly), against $7 in the middle for file storage, though it is a different kind of product from plain storage. |
| Free plan and trial | CBasic is free for good and it's 2 GB, which one phone's camera roll will fill. There's no free trial of Plus either; the 30-day trial is on the Standard and Advanced team plans only. | DA free trial on Growth with no length stated on the pricing page, and no free plan. |
| Features | BSync across unlimited devices, old versions and deleted files back for 30 days on Plus and a year on Advanced, 50 GB transfers, PDF editing and signing, team folders and an admin console. It misses an A because end-to-end encryption is an Advanced feature needing 3 users. | BMounted drives, AI search, transcription, face recognition, time-stamped review comments and client delivery on the same files. |
| Ease of use | A4.8 from about 913,000 App Store ratings, and the thing is a folder: drop a file in, it turns up on your other machines. Reviewers do say reaching a real person in support is hard when something goes wrong. | CNo store rating on record, and workspaces and drives have to be set up. |
| Platforms and integrations | AEverywhere: web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone and Android, which is more than most of this category manages. It plugs into Google Workspace, Adobe, Canva and HubSpot, connects to ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, and has a public API. | BWeb, Mac, Windows and Linux with Slack. No phone app is listed. |
| Best for | one folder that's the same on every computer | video and creative teams sharing large files |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Dropbox and Shade. How we grade
Price against what you get
Dropbox starts at $9.99 a month and scores 3.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Shade starts at $29.75 a month for each person and scores 2.7.
Dropbox scores higher and starts $19.76 a month lower. Of the other file storage and sync services on the chart, none scores higher than Dropbox for less, and 13 score higher than Shade for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Dropbox also covers documents.
- Shade also covers transcription.
At a glance
| Dropbox | Shade | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $9.99 per month, billed yearly | $29.75 per seat / month, billed annually ($35 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | Basic plan: 2 GB to store and share files. | None |
| Free trial | 30-day free trial on the Standard and Advanced team plans | Free trial on the Growth plan; its length is not stated on the pricing page |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Linux | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Dropbox | Shade Inc. |
| Price read from | dropbox.com | shade.inc |
| Checked | Oct 5, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Dropbox
- The free Basic plan includes only 2 GB of storage.
- The cheapest paid plan is Plus at 2 TB for one person; the plans page lists no smaller paid tier.
- End-to-end encryption, single sign-on and audit logs are limited to Advanced, which requires at least 3 users.
- Monthly billing costs more: $11.99 for Plus and $18 per user for Standard, against $9.99 and $15 on yearly billing.
Shade
- Growth is capped at 15 seats, 150 guests and 1 workspace; larger teams need Enterprise, which has no published price.
- Storage is 500 GB of active storage per seat on Growth, and the page says storage add-ons are available.
- SSO/SAML, SCIM and audit logging are limited to Enterprise.
- The site markets Shade as a replacement for LucidLink, Frame.io and Dropbox; these claims are the vendor's own.
Key features
Dropbox
- Sync across devices
- Files stay in sync between the desktop apps, the mobile apps and the web, and every paid plan allows an unlimited number of connected devices.
- File recovery and version history
- Deleted files and earlier versions can be restored for 30 days on Plus, 180 days on Standard and 1 year on Advanced.
- Large file transfers
- Send a copy of files by link: up to 50 GB per transfer on Plus and up to 100 GB on Standard and Advanced, where transfers can also be password protected.
- PDF editing and signatures
- Edit, annotate and sign PDFs inside Dropbox. The paid plans list unlimited self-signing and 3 signature requests per month.
- Team folders and admin console
- Standard adds team-owned folders, groups and an admin console. Advanced adds tiered admin roles, audit logs with file event tracking and single sign-on.
- Connections to AI tools
- Dropbox content can be connected to AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini to find and summarize files and save work back to Dropbox.
Shade
- Mountable drives
- The homepage describes drives that mount on a computer like a local disk; the pricing page lists unlimited drives, with multi-mount on Enterprise.
- AI search and indexing
- Search by sentence, facial recognition and transcripts, with unlimited AI indexing on both plans.
- Review and approval
- Time-stamped comments, annotation and markup, and a Slack integration appear in the plan comparison.
- Client delivery
- Role-based access, download permissions and published links are listed for sharing work with clients.
- Video proxies and metadata
- Web playback and downloadable proxies, plus EXIF, IPTC, XMP and timecode metadata.
Plans
Dropbox
Basic$0
2 GB to store and share files.
Plus$9.99
per month, billed yearly ($11.99 billed monthly)
For 1 person: 2 TB of storage, 30 days to restore deleted files and transfers of up to 50 GB.
Standard$15
per user / month, billed yearly ($18 billed monthly)
For 1 person or more: storage starts at 3 TB for the team, 180-day restore, 100 GB transfers, team folders and admin controls.
Advanced$24
per user / month, billed yearly ($30 billed monthly)
For 3 people or more: storage starts at 15 TB, 1-year restore, end-to-end encryption, single sign-on and tiered admin roles.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom pricing with integrations for third-party security tools and live support from dedicated staff.
Shade
Growth$29.75
per seat / month, billed annually ($35 billed monthly)
1 workspace, unlimited drives and AI indexing, up to 15 seats and 150 guests, and 500 GB of active storage per seat.
EnterpriseCustom
Unlimited workspaces and seats, up to 250 guests, 1 TB of active storage per seat, SSO/SAML, SCIM, audit logging and a dedicated account manager. Sold through sales.
Ways to pay less
Dropbox
- Annual discount
About 17% to 20% lower with yearly billing
Billed yearly, Plus is $9.99 a month instead of $11.99, Standard is $15 per user instead of $18, and Advanced is $24 per user instead of $30.
Shade
- Annual discount
Annual billing: $29.75 against $35 monthly
The pricing page shows $29.75 per seat a month on annual billing against $35 per seat a month billed monthly for Growth.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Dropbox or Shade?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Dropbox starts at $9.99 per month, billed yearly, and Shade starts at $29.75 per seat / month, billed annually ($35 billed monthly). One is priced for each person and the other is not, so which costs less depends on how many of you use it.
Which has a free plan, Dropbox or Shade?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Dropbox has a free plan. Shade does not, though it has a free trial.
Which platforms do Dropbox and Shade run on?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Dropbox lists iOS and Android apps. Both list a web app and macOS, Windows and Linux apps. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.