Dropbox is doubling the capacity of its paid plans but keeping its prices the same, as the online storage market leader looks to keep ahead of rivals such as Apple’s iCloud, Google Drive and Amazon’s Cloud Drive.
Dropbox’s service plans begin with 2GB of free storage, which will stay the same.
Dropbox Pro now comes in 100GB and 200GB service plans, but at the price of the original 50GB and 100GB plans, the company stated in a blogpost. It will also offer a 500GB plan for the first time.
The new pricing will go live Tuesday evening.
The 100GB option costs $9.99 (about £6.40) per month or $99 (£64) per year, while the 200GB will run you $19.99 (£13) per month or $199 (£130) per year.
The company also announced existing Pro users can get a free, three-month Pro 100 trial that friends or family can use.
“Since time immemorial (2008), folks have been asking us for a bigger Dropbox. We’ve heard from architects with giant drafting files and photographers with huge portfolios, but mostly we hear from families who have more than 100GB of photos, docs and videos,” Dropbox stated in a blogpost. “And now that Dropbox can automatically upload your photos from just about any camera or phone, everyone’s adding tons of pictures and videos to Dropbox every day.”
Dropbox has been under increasing pressure from other traditional consumer online storage services, such as SugarSync, Carbonite and Mozy.
The greatest pressure, however, has come from non-traditional industry behemoths, such as Microsoft with Azure, Apple with iCloud and most recently, Google with its Drive offering.
Google Drive, which launched in April, undercut competitors’ prices, and shook the industry to its core.
Google Drive offers 5GB of free capacity and allows an upgrade to 25GB for $2.49 a month, 100GB for $4.99 a month or 1TB for $49.99 a month.
When a user upgrades to a paid account, the storage capacity for the user’s Gmail account also expands to 25GB. On an annual basis, Google Drive charges $60 for 100GB.
Read the official Dropbox blog here
