Pros & Cons
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- Unlimited storage and e-signatures with all plans
- Includes the Canvas whiteboarding tool
- Strong security, including GDPR and HIPAA support
- Useful Hubs content portals
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- Occasionally slow navigation
- The entry-level plan makes you play extra for collaborators
- Data governance costs extra
- Adobe Acrobat subscription needed for PDF conversions or exports
Box (for Business) Specs
| Authenticated External Sharing | |
| Cloud Storage Without Local File System Sync | |
| File Conflict Management | |
| Group Permissions | |
| Local File System Sync | |
| Mobile Apps | |
| Partial / Differential Sync | |
| Public Sharing | |
| Remote Wipe | |
| Team Folders | |
| White Label Branding |
Box is an established player in the cloud storage and file-sharing arena, one that's recently, like so many other companies, pivoted into AI. The platform deftly supports small teams with its large storage capacity and low-cost e-signature tool, while scaling to meet the needs of mid-tier and enterprise-class businesses through strong compliance and regulatory support, workflow automation, and an AI-based assistant. However, I still rank Box behind our more mature, feature-rich Editors' Choice winners, Egnyte (for data governance and overall security) and Microsoft OneDrive for Business (for its bundled Office suite), due to its relatively high price, occasional navigation clunkiness, and ho-hum Box AI tool.
Plans and Prices: Unlimited Storage, E-Signatures, and More
Box's entry-level business tier is Business ($15 per user per month, or $20 per user per month with an annual plan). It includes the Box AI tool (more on that later), and unlimited cloud storage and e-signatures. This might seem like a relatively bare-bones package, but it's one of the most affordable options for document e-signature access. For example, if you want to use e-signatures with Google Drive, you must skip Google Workspace's entry-level Business Starter plan and sign up for the Business Standard plan, which costs $16.80 per user per month and offers more features, such as video conferencing. There's another limitation with this Box plan, though: You must pay extra for external collaborators (contact Box for details).
(Credit: Box/PCMag)Moving up the ladder are more robust, SMB-friendly tiers: Business Plus ($33 per user per month, or $25 per user per month with an annual plan), which adds unlimited extra collaborators; Enterprise ($47 per user per month, or $35 per user per month with an annual plan), a tier with the team-based Hubs content portals and 1,000 AI credits; Enterprise Plus ($50 per user per month, with no monthly option), which serves up more AI credits, plus threat protection, and 24/7 customer support; and Enterprise Advanced (AI-powered workflows that require a custom quote).
Those plans are pricier than Microsoft OneDrive for Business. For example, its entry-level Business plan ($5 per user per month) includes 1TB of cloud storage and Microsoft 365 tools. Like Egnyte, Box offers data governance tools, but they cost extra; you must contact Box for a quote.
Box has a two-week free trial, so you can try before you buy. Be aware that it requires your credit card information and will charge you on the day the trial ends. If all of this is too complex or costly, check out the consumer-end Box (though that Box version has far more restrictive file-size limits).
The software supports versioning, with the number of backup files varying by tier.
Setup, Admin Console, and File Editing
Signing up for Box is simple. I provided my contact details, entered my billing information, and confirmed my email address. After that initial login, I was greeted by a features walkthrough and a guided setup. You can work with Box in the cloud or locally via the Box Drive desktop client for macOS and Windows. Note: I did not experience the Google-related login issue that many have encountered with Box.
The Admin Console provides account managers with insights into all active users and the storage currently in use. This dashboard features a granular breakdown of your top file types and third-party applications, along with hourly activity charts. It also lets you explore Users & Groups, Reports, Governance, Account & Billing, and Enterprise Settings. It's where you activate offline file access, too.
(Credit: Box/PCMag)In addition to the Admin Console, the dashboard menu lets you view many areas, including files synced to Box Drive, messages, and collaborators. In my tests, I simply clicked a file or folder to view its various details, such as edit history, downloads, and comments. With Box, you can also create or upload Google or Microsoft 365 files, folders, and notes.
The Files section is where you'll spend most of your time. It has a conveniently located search bar and quick access to the folder structure, making it easy to find nested folders and files. The search bar is the quickest way to find files, thanks to its filters and metadata options that speed up queries.
In testing, I marked up and added comments to a PDF using the integrated Adobe Acrobat (part of the Box Tools suite) to edit the various fields. In a nice touch, you don't need an Adobe Acrobat subscription to do so (or download files). However, you'll need a subscription to export or convert files to PDFs. This is a disappointing oversight since Dropbox Business lets you edit documents, photos, and videos without an extra subscription.
You can create Box Notes and share them with other Box users, who can edit them and leave comments. You can also insert checklists and images into Box Notes, a feature that is unavailable to external users. Box Notes lacks offline support.
Despite the clean, intuitive interface, navigating between different Box sections feels sluggish. This is especially true when using the Canvas whiteboarding tool. This is a somewhat common issue with software-as-a-service (SaaS) apps, but I wish navigating Box were a bit snappier.
Document Sharing and Collaboration
Like Google Drive, Box lets you share folders and documents via a link. It goes the extra mile by letting you create a custom URL, set a password, add a link expiration date, and allow/block file downloading. You can also share via email, share directly from the document, or even get the code to embed the link into your website.
When you share documents or folders, the invitee must sign up for a Box account if they don't already have one. This is common practice for many cloud storage and file-sharing software. However, Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive don't require this.
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The Box Sync desktop app makes it easy to sync large file totals. Even so, the sync client occasionally stopped working during testing. Box recommends limiting transfers to about 100,000 files. This is an unlikely scenario for most businesses, but it could be problematic when migrating from another cloud storage platform.
When viewing a document or Box Note, you'll see a comment box. Previously, you had to toggle between commenting and adding a task; now, you view both options on the same screen, which is far more intuitive. To assign a task, simply tick a box, add a description, choose assignees, and input an optional due date. Tagging other collaborators in the description is an easy way for them to track the task.
Enterprise-class customers use the aforementioned Box Hubs to organize their files. It lets you create portals around specific subjects and strategies so people can find files and the context for those files. Say you have files regarding a marketing campaign—think a customer analytics spreadsheet or PowerPoint presentations. Creating a Hub presents all the related files in a playlist-style format for easy readability. On top of that, you can leverage Box AI to summarize documents and gain insights into the files in a specific Box Hub.
Box AI: An Assistant Included With Every Paid Account
Like every tech company, Box now has an AI agent. This "Box AI" is included with your paid subscription and is available to try during your free trial. It’s nice that this isn’t a pricey add-on. For example, Dropbox Business's AI companion, Dash, costs an additional $19 year on top of your subscription.
(Credit: Box/PCMag)Box AI is easy to access; its atom-like icon appears right next to your other tools when you hover over a file in your drive. I tested this on my resume. I asked Box AI to summarize it, but the bot just copied my resume, word-for-word. I then asked it how I could improve my resume, and it gave me a long list of general pointers, such as tailoring my blurbs to showcase my accomplishments and tweaking my resume to match a specific job listing. Those are things that a Google search or a friend could easily do.
I then asked Box AI to rewrite my resume to better fit a journalism job. It said it could do that and spit out a PDF version to add to my Box Drive. After it attempted to rewrite the resume, Box AI admitted that it could not produce a PDF. Instead, it suggested that I copy and paste the words into another program. Great advice. Once I did, I saw that it made my resume worse. Box AI formatted the resume, so it exceeded a single page, making it uglier, and didn't rewrite anything.
That wasn't the only time Box AI dropped the ball in my tests. After I added an image to my drive and asked Box AI to describe it, the bot wrote a page-long document. It would've been faster for me to simply open the image. Box AI didn't improve my efficiency, but luckily, it didn't cost me anything.
Integrations: Many Ways to Expand Box's Functionality
Box is deeply integrated with the cloud application ecosystem, including Adobe, MobileIron, Slack, Splunk, and Webex. In addition, an organization's internal developers can use a user-accessible application programming interface (API) to create custom apps that can access Box data securely and reliably—if they adhere to Box's best development practices.
Box features more than 1,500 integrations through its dedicated app store, the Box App Center. There, you can integrate Box into your workflows on Slack, Zoom, and other apps. I was able to install the Zoom integration without issue and share files from my Box account within a video call.
Mobile App Backups and OCR
Box has mobile apps for Android and iOS. The mobile version is easy to use and offers most of the functions you need for file sharing on the go. You can use Box on mobile to back up photos, videos, and other images from your phone to the cloud.
(Credit: Box/PCMag)The mobile app also includes useful document capture and optical character recognition (OCR) capabilities to convert files into searchable PDFs. The OCR functionality is critical when adding scanned files, from handwritten notes to printed out documents, and making sure the text is machine-readable. During testing, Box's OCR worked as intended, making keyword searches in scanned documents a breeze.
Strong Security: GDPR, HIPAA, Passkeys, and AI
Box uses SSL to safeguard data transmission. Data is encrypted at rest using 256-bit AES, ensuring it remains secure even when inactive. It also meets ISO 27001, ISO 27018, SOC1, PCI DSS, and FedRAMP requirements. Box is compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The former comes with the Box's data governance plan, which requires speaking with a sales rep; the latter comes with Box's Enterprise, Enterprise Plus, or Enterprise Advanced tiers.
Customer-managed encryption keys are an option, which is a huge bonus in the privacy arena. This enterprise key management (EKM) solution is impressive, but it does not guarantee privacy. It does, however, ensure that you have a full audit log of when and where your data is accessed and assurance that your data won't be accessed without your knowledge. Box also supports passkeys and Microsoft Active Directory (AD) through installable apps. There's a growing list of third-party options available, too.
However, the biggest change to Box is Box Shield, an AI-powered security suite that safeguards your files. It includes malware protection and ransomware protection. To procure it, you must contact a member of Box's sales team.
Final Thoughts
(Credit: Box)
Box (for Business)
Box offers business-centric cloud storage with strong security, whiteboarding, AI tools, and unlimited data backups and e-signatures, but could use a snappier interface and fewer add-ons.