
Ask HN: Am I the only one who thinks Dropbox pricing is baffling? - hvass
Hi everyone,<p>Currently, the minimum plan for Dropbox is 
CA$10.75 &#x2F; mo (or $8.29 USD).<p>My usage is less than 5% of the space given, and I am considering switching to Apple iCloud since they  actually have pricing options for the space that I actually need.<p>So I am extremely baffled that I am switching to an Apple product <i>based on price.</i><p>Why wouldn&#x27;t Dropbox offer something closer to $4 or $5 a month? Why is the minimum 1 Terabyte?
======
blakdawg
I wouldn’t be shocked if lower-revenue customers turn out to be a
disproportionate demand on support/customer service. Not every potential
customer is a good fit from a vendors perspective.

My impression is that they’ve got the free plan for people with minimal usage
or who just want to kick the tires - beyond that, if their service isn’t worth
$100/yr to you, they don’t want to think about you or support you.

------
obscura
If you look at just the space you're using, then sure, Dropbox is expensive.
But if you look at the extra services on top the of the fundamental sync/store
service, perhaps it isn't. Determining the value is subjective - it depends on
what you want from the service, how many of its features you actually use,
etc.

If you've come to rely on the extra services and/or have an extensive network
of friends, colleagues, etc. who you interact with via Dropbox, you'll
probably view the service as being more valuable that just the amount of
storage space offered.

In addition, one of the things that Dropbox banks on is people under-utilising
the space on offer, which enhances the perception of it being good value,
especially if you're a long-time user - the amount of space available to you
has been increased over time (instead of the price being decreased). It also
lessens their costs, as they only have to cater for the amount of space
actually used, not what could be used.

Fundamentally, offering cheaper options would chew into their revenues, as
many people who are happy to pay for more than what they use would jump to
those options.

You might like to read the first and second responses here for more on this:
[https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Dropbox-move-to-a-single-
Pro-p...](https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Dropbox-move-to-a-single-Pro-plan-
with-1-terabyte-storage)

------
xstartup
People said, our plans were expensive. We increased it by 10x.

Result - Much higher revenue, sales team/customer service is happy as
customers are now less demanding. The engineering team is happy as they get
more budget to play with.

------
hitsurume
I don't see this as a Dropbox problem, you may not be the end user they have
in mind. You have the freedom to use any cloud provider you want, so you
should definitely switch if you find you get better value else where.

To backup dropbox, they are fairly easy to use, can be installed on multiple
OS's / devices, etc etc. But hey, if you have all Apple products, then you
save $$ by just sticking with them right?

------
askafriend
The Dropbox interface is worth the extra cost to me, even if the sync service
is effectively similar to other competitors.

I imagine, others feel the same. I've also never had an issue with Dropbox so
I appreciate the known reliability.

For people for whom the above things aren't worth the extra cost, I can easily
see why alternatives look far more attractive.

------
edimaudo
They may be aiming for enterprise clients.

~~~
hvass
It is the cheapest plan under 'Individuals.'

[https://www.dropbox.com/plans](https://www.dropbox.com/plans)

