Ask HN: Is iCloud a viable alternative to Dropbox? Any other alternatives?

Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall Question: iCloud as a Dropbox Replacement

  • Goal: “just mirror a directory tree across devices.”
  • Many say iCloud is acceptable for light, personal use, especially if fully in the Apple ecosystem.
  • Several argue it is not a full 1:1 Dropbox replacement, especially for cross‑platform use, collaboration, or precise control over sync.

iCloud Reliability, Speed, and UX

  • Experiences diverge sharply: some report iCloud as “rock solid” for years; others warn to “stay away” due to random failures, hanging sync, and opaque behavior.
  • Complaints: very slow propagation (minutes) for shared edits, occasional stuck sync, limited feedback on progress, and no fine‑grained control over what’s cached locally (beyond “Optimize Mac Storage”).
  • iCloud is praised for seamless integration with Apple devices, shared photo albums, and good search (including inside documents and images), but criticized as too opaque and limited for heavier workflows.

Sync vs Backup

  • Strong reminder: iCloud (and Dropbox, Syncthing, etc.) are sync tools, not full backups.
  • iCloud eagerly propagates deletions and mistakes; Time Machine or other backup systems are recommended.
  • Dropbox’s version history is highlighted as a differentiator for accidental edits/deletes.

Platform, Collaboration, and APIs

  • Dropbox is seen as best for cross‑platform coverage (macOS, Windows, Linux, Android, iOS).
  • iCloud is viewed as Apple‑centric; Windows support is described as weak, and there is effectively no Linux story.
  • For real‑time collaboration, many favor Google Workspace/Drive; OneDrive/SharePoint’s collaboration experience is polarizing.

Other Hosted Alternatives

  • Mentioned positively or neutrally: Google Drive, OneDrive (especially when bundled with Office 365), Box, Tresorit, MEGA, pCloud (mixed), Proton Drive, Seafile, Zoho WorkDrive, Maestral as a Dropbox client.
  • Concerns raised about client reliability, speed caps, lost files, and provider lockouts across several services.

Self‑Hosted / P2P Options

  • Syncthing gets strong support for multi‑device sync, especially when paired with offsite backup (Backblaze, Hetzner, rclone).
  • Criticisms of Syncthing: confusing setup/UX, conflict risks if devices aren’t always online.
  • Nextcloud has both advocates and detractors; praised as powerful and FOSS, criticized as bloated and tricky to deploy.
  • NAS + Tailscale/VPN (Synology/QNAP/TrueNAS) is a popular “own your data” solution.