Time to drop Dropbox
You’ve probably been with Dropbox for a while now.
It was love at first sync. At first it was exciting, fresh and Dropbox had plenty to offer.
The thing is, you’ve always wondered how long Dropbox will stick around. You want a real long-term partner, but in the back of your mind you’ve always suspected something better would come along.
And then, every month Dropbox is always asking you for more money. If you don’t pay they say they’ll bin all your precious photos. Not cool.
Recently you’ve suspected Dropbox may not be so trustworthy. You’re not confident you can entrust them with your most valuable possessions. What does that say about your relationship? Trust is everything, after all.
But, despite the issues that have emerged, you just kinda stick with Dropbox. Because… well, who else would you choose?
It’s a relationship borne from familiarity. But you’ve outgrown, Dropbox. You just may not have realised it yet.
It’s time you felt confident you could trust your partner. Someone who will have your back. Someone you can share all those precious memories with. Someone who’ll get on with your friends. Someone you feel is prioritising you. Someone you can feel completely confident that they’ll be around next year, the next decade, the next generation, and even beyond. And, dare I say, someone who’ll actually contribute something financially instead of take, take, take.
I really want to introduce you to a good friend of mine, Akord. I think you guys will get along great. First off, let me give you the bullet-point breakdown on why they’re so different…
- Built on Arweave
When you use Dropbox your data is in the cloud. Clouds come and go, they’re temporary. Probably not the best place for valuable data.
In Akord, your data is secured pretty much until the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse ride into town. Our application isn’t deployed on Arweave, but we’ve built the Akord Explorer and that will be. With Akord Explorer, for as long as your encrypted data lives on Arweave you will have a means to access it, regardless of whether Akord the company or app exists.
More on Arweave in this video from Coin Bureau →
- Own the keys, own your data
Whatever Dropbox says about security, understand one simple fact: they own and control the keys that encrypt your data. If I sell you a car but I keep the keys, letting you access them on my terms, would you feel like you own that car? Would you feel comfortable that your car is secure?
The first thing you do in Akord is create your crypto wallet. Similar to owning and managing cryptocurrency, the keys that manage your assets are in your hands and we ask you to store a backup phrase as a means to recovering your account. It’s easy for Dropbox to change your password for you because they can access your data whenever they want. With Akord, you own the keys. Your data is so secure, even we can’t see it.
More on the Akord crypto wallet →
- Simplicity
You loved Dropbox in the beginning because it was simple. But countless redesigns and scaling to a global household name has come at a cost: feature overload and a cluttered UI has created a poor user experience.
Akord is not perfect. We’re still working on adding some new features. But everything we do is with simplicity in mind. We’d rather not cover every edge case and niche scenario, if it means compromising on building a product that’s usable by anyone regardless of their background. Don’t believe me? Here’s what others say about Akord:
"Permaweb for your grandaunt!"
~ Mike Lowther, Developer
"Anyone can use Akord, the user interface is easy to use. Even my Mum can use it."
~ Joshua Lane, Chaplain
"Like Dropbox, but better."
~ Nibel, Web Designer
- The social vault
While you can share folders and files in Dropbox, you’re missing one critical component in the context of sharing data – chat.
Not only does Akord have the level of end-to-end encryption of Signal, it also has the same ability to easily chat with friends and family in a completely private space. Invite the people you want to share with to your vault and send messages to each other. You can even drop an emoji reaction or two ❤️👍
In its design, Akord has realised the inherent reality that storing data will often result in sharing and conversation, and all conversations invariably result at some point in the sharing of data. We designed chat in Akord to look and feel like your favourite messenger apps, except for making it looking better 😎
- Pay once, store until the apocalypse
The thing with Dropbox is you’re just renting space. Maybe you’re OK with that. But it’s worth considering the bigger picture. How many years do you want to store those precious photos? 10, 20, 30, 40, 50… a hundred years? As long as possible? How many payments are you going to keep making for storing the same photos? Who’s going to make those payments if you’re not around?
If you want to store a 1 MB photo on Akord you will pay $0.003 (1 GB of storage is currently $3). You will never pay anything to ever store that photo again. Ever. If you never come back and use Akord in the future – no problem. Your photo is, and always will be, stored on the Arweave blockchain, accessible indefinitely on Akord Explorer for the rest of your lifetime, and for the future generations you want to pass that photo down to.
So who’s giving real value for money – Dropbox or Akord?
Check out our pricing discounts →
